Should there be Repercussions for This? (opinions wanted)

Thanks for stopping in….


Short Story…
Prisoner manacled on knees
2 party members start acting weird, but no specific threat indicated
Paladin cuts down above prisoner

Is this evil?

Long story…. (IE more details)

I’m currently running RttToEE for my group, last night they finished off one of the temples and took one of the clerics prisoner. They manacled the prisoner and had them on their knees being guarded by the Paladin of the group.

The rest of the characters were exploring the area and 2 of them decided they wanted to burn some of the furniture & other items in the room and they ended up grabbing an item that had nasty effects on them. Right after touching the item both started running for the exit. One party member saw them touch the item and start running, so he called out for them to stop, which made everyone in the area aware something was going on, including the prisoner.

People started looking around to see what was going on, and then both characters stopped moving and started babbling incoherently. At this point the prisoner (knowing what’s going on, since its her “home”) gets a devious smile on her face. As a result of her smile the paladin pulls his sword and cuts the prisoner down, (knocking her well in to the negs) and moves toward the sound of the babbling party members.

Now I realize since they did not know what was going on, it was probably a good idea tacitly to kill the prisoner so they did not have to worry about her, but it seems it may be a bit on the evil side to me or at least no Paladin like.

So what do you all think?

I have left the exact details of the area and such vague on purpose as they are not needed for the question at hand and will then hopefully not result in any spoilers.

JDragon said:

So what do you all think?

I have left the exact details of the area and such vague on purpose as they are not needed for the question at hand and will then hopefully not result in any spoilers.

Click to expand...

Two trains of thought:

1) Punish him. Paladins don't whack bound prisoners whether they take joy in his/her comrades fall or not.

2) Which god? Does the god abide and condone retribution in his name? If so, *maybe* it was OK.

I lean toward #1.

Punish him, but not a lot. Give him a minor sign of disapproval from his deity - For example, the blood from that cut simply refuses to be washed from his sword until he realizes why what he did was wrong. If he's stubborn about it, all he has to deal with is explaining this blood on his sword all the time.

Prisoner is a known spellcaster in service to a known evil entity.
Party members suddenly acting bizarre.
Prisoner smiles.

I'm going to assume some sort of magical or psionic attack/manipulation on the part of the prisoner, possibly meaning the prisoner is a shapechanged Thing or has some magic we haven't taken from them.

Acting quickly might be the only way to allow my fellow abridgers of evil to continue.

If no other means exist to stop the attack at once, yeah, I'd see the need to kill him.

It's rash, perhaps. Maybe there should be some minor penance or meditation.

Did the paladin think that she had anything to do with his friends condition?

I. E. "She's casting spells while she's in chains!!"

If so then I'd say give him the benefit of the doubt and let him perform some minor penance.

If not then wack him with the big rolled up holy symbol shouting "Bad paladin! Bad!" Or just strip him of his paladin powers until he earns them back, whichever floats your boat.

To elaborate, I just think it was unnecessary to use lethal force - No way you'd miss even with a non-lethal attack.

I think just about the only way this would be evil is if the prisoner had surrendered to the party in exchange for sparing her life.

Otherwise, it might be chaotic, since you're doing the killing yourself instead of letting the proper authorities execute her, but it's not evil.

And it's definitely not evil if there's some reason to think that the cleric might be somehow involved in mentally manipulating two of the party members. But then, I don't believe in having Paladins read evil clerics their Miranda rights...

Like someone else said, if the Paladin did it from the belief that the prisoner had just been revealed as a threat, then it was rash at worst. If he did it for convenience, then it was a bad thing.

Well, the prisoner IS an evil cleric. What would the group have done with him had there not been a disaster? Take him back to the nearest city for a trial? I think that a paladin COULD hand out summary justice in or near battlefields when no viable alternatives exist. The prisoner probably should have some chance to speak in his own behalf, but overall I don't have a terribly hard time with execution as the penalty for serving an evil god.

The party members' odd behaviour and the prisoner's reaction could legitimately have let the paladin to believe that the foe was not as helpless as he might have seemed. IF the evil cleric were able to control what was happening, either with mental abilities of some kind of a command word, slaying him could have been the only way for the paladin to save his friends. I believe that a paladin's code of ethics should mean something, but it's not a suicide pact. I'd say let him go - maybe even reward him for his quick thinking.

Did the paladin think the cleric was supernaturally causing the problems and afflicting his comrades? If so not evil, no violation of code, it is his job to smack down evil active threats.

Did the paladin cut down the cleric "because she's evil" and he didn't want the distractions while dealing with the comrades' mess. If so then gross violation of the code's act with honor requirement and loss of paladin powers.

Did the paladin cut her down because she smiled and it pissed him off? Evil act, loss of paladin powers.