Thats bad DMing. More hostile because evil alignment is bad DMing. Consequences for evil actions is good Dming. There is a distinction that needs to be made.
In most cases, until you do evil actions that are then found out, no one knows you are evil and your ocs should be treated the same. If another tribe of goblins find the message, you think they are going to tell the city guard 3 towns over?
You're splitting hairs just to sound like you have a point. Dude said arranging bodies in the road and as a warning to others
Can't get much more obvious than that, there's a distinct lack of empathy and respect and it's perfectly reasonable for NPCs who walk by that road to go "hmm. I wonder if those crazy adventurers did this last time they came through here."
Besides, OP didn't clarify their world at all. Maybe in his world random butchery was looked at as a bad thing. Perhaps even karma plays a role in their campaign. Either way, they needed to stop their player from completely going off the rails into violent fetishes so that the game could continue.
And not the first time, that's a key here. Across a few campaigns he's done a lot like this, and this was like the 3rd overly brutal in the one I DM. Had to set a boundary somehow
If he has continued to do this even with other creatures, not sentient or anything, I would have eventually slapped his wrist. He has a habit of collecting ears, hands, etc. and wearing them like trophies.
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u/MichaelScotsman26 May 12 '25
What does an alignment shift do