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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 636840" data-attributes="member: 3146">So let me get this straight, you've got a paladin who, according to his code is not supposed to associate with evil. A paladin who knows that the followers of Hextor regularly do lots of things (in fact, are required by their faith to do lots of things) that he would be duty bound to prevent and aren't known for their reluctance to kill someone while they sleep if they anticipate a more difficult confrontation later. And this follower of Hextor, while claiming to be Lawful Neutral suddenly aquired such a "blessing" from his god as to be no longer recognizable as human--in fact to look positively fiendish.But there's more. The stated aim of said Hextorite is to stamp out chaos (Like at least 3 party members). In fact, that's why it's thought there's a chance he might be LN--because he's so into smiting chaos he doesn't have time to do evil things. And there are at least three chaotic members of his own party!!It sounds like the organizing principles of this group is: There must be no party slayings and the group must stick together.  That's about the only explanation I could come up with for the fact that such a party has stuck together up to this point let alone continuing now that there's (apparently) a bona fide fiend in the group.Any paladin with enough wisdom to cast spells ought to be able to figure out that, even in the event that his ideas of restoring the kingdom and the Hextorites ideas of restoring it coincide for the moment, their means are unlikely to be compatible. And, if consorting with Hextor weren't enough to make the character's means unacceptable his transformation ought to.The closest thing I can think of to a literary example of a paladin working with LN followers of a LE being is Prince Caspian's alliance with Nikabrik in _Prince Caspian_. That came to an end when Nikabrik and his allies decided to try summoning the White Witch in order to gain victory. If nothing has yet happened that would fill the role of summoning the white witch, the Hextorite's transformation certainly does.There's just the problem of how the kingdom will be rebuilt and what it will look like when it is rebuilt. Any paladin worth his salt would rather see the kingdom die stillborn than be rebuilt to follow Hextor. Or be rebuilt by enlisting the aid of devils. Which is exactly what the transformation indicates.And that's precisely the problem. There's a whole lot within the alignment of the Hextorite that the paladin would be honor bound to prevent. That's the reason the paladin's code forbids such associations--even when they share goals, they are unlikely to go about them in a way that will not obligate the paladin to fight his "ally" in order to prevent him from "acting within his alignment" in order to achieve the supposed common goal.Anybody who reads Sepulchrave II's story hour also knows that Eadric doesn't try to redeem Titivus or Grazz't. They know he doesn't have a chat with Rimmlin. When he had Rurunoth bound in the summoning circle for a day, he didn't attempt to redeem him. Readers of the story hour also know that he wants nothing to do with Shomei and wouldn't even talk to her up to this point. Even if he does eventually follow Mostin's suggestion and talk to her, I cannot imagine him taking an unrepentant Shomei as an adventuring companion. The big difference between Despina and the others demons and diabolists is that Despina was repentant and wanted to be reclaimed. The others gave no indication of interest in being reclaimed. Similarly, the Hextorite in question has apparently given no indication of repentance or of a desire to be reclaimed. (In fact, his actions indicate exactly the opposite). If I were DMing and such a situation came up, a paladin who continued adventuring with such as the Hextorite would get a stern warning from his deity and summarily lose his Paladinhood if he continued to adventure with the Hextorite.</blockquote>

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