[lonnarin]

If everybody above the line were hit with a -1 on the good/evil axis, then so should everybody below that line too. The act itself is good or evil if it has weight, or unweighted if it is a neutral act. Neutrals should shift down for the very same callous acts that good aligned characters commit, regardless of how close to their alignment that act is. An evil character who commits an evil act gets an evil point just as much as the good one who does.

And yes, the situation has totally changed. The old lady was not trying to MURDER you! The old lady is not going to start screaming out "SURFACER! SURFACER!" and get a posse of deadly assassains to MURDER you for helping her. The old lady is not a dark elf intent on ending your life. You have not been raised in a society where every single night your mother tucked you into bed and said "beware the old ladies, for they will rip out your heart, feast of your flesh, and sacrifice your soul on the onyx altar to their demon gods".