Orius
Legend
Forked from: Would you allow this paladin in your game? (new fiction added 1/21/08)
Ok, it's getting off topic, so I'm forking the reply.
To me it wouldn't matter much, especially given circumstance. I think it's a largely moot point to begin with, given the traditional nature of drow items to lose their effectiveness. A paladin would almost certainly not be granted permission from a drow matron to use sleep poison anyway, unless it's some rebel city of repentant drow worshipping Eilistraee or something.
But even then, it wouldn't bother me. Say the paladin has a a mission to apprehend someone so that person can be brought back to trial. The party recently beat a group of drow, and acquired some sleep poison. As a DM, I wouldn't be at all concerned if the paladin let the party use the poison to apprehend their target, his mission is to bring the person back alive, and using the sleep poison minimizes the chance the party accidentally kills the target. It would be no different than the party wizard casting sleep.
To me, it's just another matter of battling the stereotype of the stupid paladin. And the stupid paladin I think emerged as DM tried to reign in the class by making them basically fight stupid (you got to fight face to face, bows are for cowards, never surrender, never retreat), that sort of thing, or lose their paladin abilities.
BBQLord said:Ah, but now you're dodging around the issue that truly matters; if a matron found it, for whatever undiscernible reason, okay to allow paladins the use of drow poison, would these paladins be able to use this 'Good/Neutral' poison? As even the BoED states that the use of drow poison isn't inherently bad, I see no problem here.
Basically one has to make a choice: either agree with the RAW unthinkingly and without looking at the context or go with the RAI and think the paladin's code of conduct through, given whatever situation he finds himself in.
Ok, it's getting off topic, so I'm forking the reply.
To me it wouldn't matter much, especially given circumstance. I think it's a largely moot point to begin with, given the traditional nature of drow items to lose their effectiveness. A paladin would almost certainly not be granted permission from a drow matron to use sleep poison anyway, unless it's some rebel city of repentant drow worshipping Eilistraee or something.
But even then, it wouldn't bother me. Say the paladin has a a mission to apprehend someone so that person can be brought back to trial. The party recently beat a group of drow, and acquired some sleep poison. As a DM, I wouldn't be at all concerned if the paladin let the party use the poison to apprehend their target, his mission is to bring the person back alive, and using the sleep poison minimizes the chance the party accidentally kills the target. It would be no different than the party wizard casting sleep.
To me, it's just another matter of battling the stereotype of the stupid paladin. And the stupid paladin I think emerged as DM tried to reign in the class by making them basically fight stupid (you got to fight face to face, bows are for cowards, never surrender, never retreat), that sort of thing, or lose their paladin abilities.