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My Paladin killed a child molester (and now my DM wants to take away my powers!)
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<blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 1582133" data-attributes="member: 96"><p>Perhaps unwise, weighing in to a 30 page thread without reading all of it, but...</p><p></p><p>I find it interesting that paladins are expected by so many people to be perfect. Not merely adhere to the tenets of their alignment or religion, but to be absolutely perfect - something that is generally regarded as impossible, even for the children of deities. Being human means being flawed.</p><p></p><p>No other class has this restriction. Even a cleric, who is arguably even more blessed by his deity than a paladin is, is not held to such strict moral grounds. Paladins apparently never make mistakes without getting kicked to the curb.</p><p></p><p>With that attitude, it's a wonder there are any paladins around to train new ones.</p><p></p><p>The paladin's solution may not have been the <em>best</em> solution. But then, who ever always makes the best decisions? Nobody. It's impossible. Paladins are human, like everyone else. A paladin who comes across a man trying to molest a child is going to feel revulsion and righteous wrath, and that may lead him to act hastily.</p><p></p><p>He doesn't have to be a Vulcan and dispassionately regard the situation - that's nowhere in the code or the description of the class, and I think the people that argue for that are being unrealistic in their expectations.</p><p></p><p>Aside from the unreasonableness of these expectations, they also hamstring paladin players. If every paladin is expected to behave perfectly at all times, then there is no variation. Every paladin is exactly the same - <em>must</em> be exactly the same, because any flaw, anything less than perfection, results int he DM jumping on them with a gleeful "A-HA! I've got you now!" and a concomittant loss of powers. Add to this that it's a character's flaws that make them truly memorable and interesting and you can see that playing a paladin under those expectations is not going to be enjoyable for the player. (The GM who relishes the aforementioned 'A-HA!' will undoubtedly get his jollies, at least until the paladin's player wises up.)</p><p></p><p>To sum up: it takes a lot to make a paladin fall, IMO - one incident, one mistake is not enough. The paladin may have acted in haste, but he acted in accordance with what he saw, to protect an innocent. He should strive to be better in the future - but so should all paladins strive for the ideal, even though they will never reach it.</p><p></p><p>J</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="drnuncheon, post: 1582133, member: 96"] Perhaps unwise, weighing in to a 30 page thread without reading all of it, but... I find it interesting that paladins are expected by so many people to be perfect. Not merely adhere to the tenets of their alignment or religion, but to be absolutely perfect - something that is generally regarded as impossible, even for the children of deities. Being human means being flawed. No other class has this restriction. Even a cleric, who is arguably even more blessed by his deity than a paladin is, is not held to such strict moral grounds. Paladins apparently never make mistakes without getting kicked to the curb. With that attitude, it's a wonder there are any paladins around to train new ones. The paladin's solution may not have been the [i]best[/i] solution. But then, who ever always makes the best decisions? Nobody. It's impossible. Paladins are human, like everyone else. A paladin who comes across a man trying to molest a child is going to feel revulsion and righteous wrath, and that may lead him to act hastily. He doesn't have to be a Vulcan and dispassionately regard the situation - that's nowhere in the code or the description of the class, and I think the people that argue for that are being unrealistic in their expectations. Aside from the unreasonableness of these expectations, they also hamstring paladin players. If every paladin is expected to behave perfectly at all times, then there is no variation. Every paladin is exactly the same - [i]must[/i] be exactly the same, because any flaw, anything less than perfection, results int he DM jumping on them with a gleeful "A-HA! I've got you now!" and a concomittant loss of powers. Add to this that it's a character's flaws that make them truly memorable and interesting and you can see that playing a paladin under those expectations is not going to be enjoyable for the player. (The GM who relishes the aforementioned 'A-HA!' will undoubtedly get his jollies, at least until the paladin's player wises up.) To sum up: it takes a lot to make a paladin fall, IMO - one incident, one mistake is not enough. The paladin may have acted in haste, but he acted in accordance with what he saw, to protect an innocent. He should strive to be better in the future - but so should all paladins strive for the ideal, even though they will never reach it. J [/QUOTE]
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My Paladin killed a child molester (and now my DM wants to take away my powers!)
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