Epametheus
First Post
If a goblin knows how to say "I surrender, don't hurt me," in common, it probably learned that from a victim that it then killed and ate (or killed by eating).
My group handles this sort of thing as "a Paladin can refuse to accept a creature's surrender."
While goblins are free-willed, a normal goblin is raised to view nearly anything that isn't a goblin as prey.
In other words, if you facing something that views babies of your species as food, your paladin almost certainly has active authority to put it down. Co-existence is so remote an option that it might as well not exist.
Actually killing helpless goblin babies is more complicated. They can be functional if they're brought up in a sane society that spare the resources to raise a bunch of midget pyromaniacs. But putting them down probably isn't any worse an act then putting down a litter of skunks born under your house. It's a distasteful task, but sometimes that just how it pans out.
Now, actual evil outsiders are, in essence, malicious spirits given flesh and form. Accepting surrender from a demon has about as much meaning as accepting surrender from a rabid dog. The best thing to do is to take them down fast and hard, before they can pull something their innate magical powers. Another way to put it - you really shouldn't accept the surrender of a creature that could mind control all the guards in any prison you kept it in.
My group handles this sort of thing as "a Paladin can refuse to accept a creature's surrender."
While goblins are free-willed, a normal goblin is raised to view nearly anything that isn't a goblin as prey.
In other words, if you facing something that views babies of your species as food, your paladin almost certainly has active authority to put it down. Co-existence is so remote an option that it might as well not exist.
Actually killing helpless goblin babies is more complicated. They can be functional if they're brought up in a sane society that spare the resources to raise a bunch of midget pyromaniacs. But putting them down probably isn't any worse an act then putting down a litter of skunks born under your house. It's a distasteful task, but sometimes that just how it pans out.
Now, actual evil outsiders are, in essence, malicious spirits given flesh and form. Accepting surrender from a demon has about as much meaning as accepting surrender from a rabid dog. The best thing to do is to take them down fast and hard, before they can pull something their innate magical powers. Another way to put it - you really shouldn't accept the surrender of a creature that could mind control all the guards in any prison you kept it in.