A question about Paladins and killing.

[bissichan]

Here's the dilemma: I'm playing a PbP campaign and my character is a Pal/Cleric. Two kids were taken to an underwater cave by a river troll and my character and 3 more (ranger, druid/barb, fighter) took him down.

In the back of the cave, there are three more trolls. They register as evil on my paladin's senses, and, normally, they would be issued a challenge and then a fought to the death.

Thing is, the three trolls are babies.

The party is in favor of killing them ("when they grow, they will threaten our citizens like his father did" and "there's no one to care for them...they'll die of hunger"), but my Paladin is very uneasy about killing babies. Evil babies, sure, but babies. He's thinking about asking any higher ups in his church and government to see if something can be done, ala that order in Ptolus that redeems evil creatures.

What are your thoughts?

 

[GreatLemur]

Ha. Your DM is awesome for sticking you with this dilemma. Kind of weird that baby trolls couldbe evil, though. You'd think they'd have basically animal intelligence, and thus animal alignment: Neutral.

 

[FickleGM]

I have two thoughts on this one:

1) Precedent...is there a precedent for "evil" creatures being redeemable?

2) They detect as evil, which tells me that it isn't a choice thing...therefore, they are an abomination and a blight on the world.

I'm all for stories of redemption, but it would depend on what would be best for the game. If the rest of the party is adamant, I wouldn't draw a "line in the sand" over this. If the rest of the party can be persuaded, then it may be a chance for some good roleplaying.

 

[blargney the second]

Take 'em to the church, let them sort it out.

 

[DragonLancer]

Take 'em to the church, let them sort it out.

I agree with Blargney here. It's a tough decision and one that shouldn't be undertaken without council from your fellow priests.

 

[shilsen]

Ha. Your DM is awesome for sticking you with this dilemma. Kind of weird that baby trolls couldbe evil, though. You'd think they'd have basically animal intelligence, and thus animal alignment: Neutral.

All babies are chaotic evil. Such is life.

As for the dilemma, I'd just ask the DM, "From my knowledge of church doctrine, what would be the protocol here?"

 

[WayneLigon]

Fire and acid, fire and acid...

Seriously, ask the GM where he is on thw whole absolute morality thing. They are 'usually Chaotic Evil', so they might not be born that way. So, it could depend but most often you're going to be OK just killing them now.

There are also some variant rules in (I think) Book of Hallowed Might about converting creatures to another alignment.

 

[DaveyJones]

kill them and take their stuff.

baby trolls are far from defenseless.

 

[phindar]

Well, if you consider the chaotic evil people care nothing for the wellfare of others, are interested only in their own needs, and will do anything to sate their desires, then babies are probably chaotic evil. (The only thing they can really do is yell and cry, but they do this mercilessly.)

Dumping a bunch of evil babies who will grow up to be savage, regenerating monsters on the local church is probably not the sort of thing that would be all that appreciated. For some reason, it reminds me of the Treehouse of Horror where Flanders ended up adopting the gremlin. "Oh, isn't that cute, he's trying to claw my eyes out."

I think if you're going to spare their lives and raise them to be goodly (or at least neutral), its something your character should be involved with. I'm not saying give up adventuring, obviously, but you can't drop your moral dilemnas off on npcs and say, "Let me know how it goes."

 

[billd91]

If you're not comfortable with it (as a paladin), don't take part. Honestly, what sort of paladin engages in killing things that can't fight back?

Franky, I'd be tempted to call shenanigans on the DM. What are babies doing radiating evil? Even an adult troll will only radiate faintly.