Jefe Bergenstein
Legend
What does this actually have to do with the subject at hand? As you note, alignment is one of the game's most divisive subjects, and you yourself clearly have strong opinions on it, so might you just a little too quick in hauling out that old punching bag? I'm not seeing the real connection between alignment disagreements and jerk paladin player behavior. Classically, the problem takes the form of the paladin butting heads with somebody like the chaotic neutral rogue... and if the rogue is listed as "chaotic neutral", doesn't that kind of imply that her player agrees that what she gets up to is not good? If paladins were notorious for clashing with other "lawful good" characters, I'd be more convinced that conflicts in alignment definitions were to blame. But LG vs. CN? That's just players letting their characters' quite natural conflict spiral out of control and become personal.
It absolutely has bearing. Because the DM can, and is encouraged, to punish the paladin for not being Lawful Good. This means that you have to play YOUR character how the DM thinks he should be played. If there is disconnect between what Lawful or Good means for two parties (and I think this is an undeniable fact at this point) this causes more issues for paladins than the Lawful Good fighter, who just gets a grumbling DM. And because the paladin's companions could lead to his fall, this led to the DM effectively enforcing his view on the entire table, with the paladin being the stick in the mud on many plans. Add in that people don't like being told that their beliefs are evil, or not good, and its perfect storm of suck for something that should be escapist fun. Sorry, cant use a knockout poison, that would be wrong. Ready the burning oil to roast people alive violently!
Alignment won't be useless when you can get 4 out of 5 people to agree what the alignment of someone like Batman is. Cue the 9 alignment Batman meme, but it proves the point.
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