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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kareyev" data-source="post: 283788" data-attributes="member: 4823">Samothdm, what I would take from the replies from this board is that outside of calling on rule 0 the question is a matter of perception.  There have been posts in calling the act evil.  There have been others that have defended the act as something a LG character could make.  In most gaming worlds I have played in I would expect the same range of reactions from the citizens of the game world.I once played with an excellent DM whom taught me how to best use alignment in a game (IMO).  The party was miles from anywhere working our way to the Vault of the Drow.  We ended up with the typical prisoners dilemma with a bunch of drow and had a paladin in the party.  We couldn't leave them behind or we would have the entire Drow army upon us.  The party tried the old "Gee Mr. Paladin, could you go scout ahead" trick, but it didn't work.  The paladin asked the DM "Do I know if this would be an evil act?".  The DM looked right back at him with a straight face and said "I don't' know, do you?".  We begged, pleaded, and bribed the DM, but he just sat there.  After a conversation much like the one on this board the Paladin acted.  As he could not bear to let the others do the killing he personally slaughter each one of the bound Drow.  We all looked to the DM.  No blue bolts of lighting came raining down.  No earthquakes.  Just "OK".  As he was a good role player for the next month the paladin was terrified to use any of his divine powers fearing they would not work.  At a desperate moment he eventually tried and they worked.  We thought that was the end of it.  Later, when we returned to civilization is when it started.  Someone let it slip to a local about the Paladin's act.  The rumor spread like wildfire and grew in proportions.  "He killed prisoners.  Helpless prisoners of the Drow."  Townsfolk began giving him a wide birth.  Innkeepers turned us away.  Henchmen were had to find.  Honest shopkeepers stopped trading with us.  The church started to question him publicly.  And as people lost faith in him his divine powers started to falter.  Was this the divine wrath he though he had escaped?He begged his church for help.  We roleplayed many hours with priests of his church and others on the topic.  He looked far and wide for ways to repent, allowing himself to be Quested many times.  It took years of game time and many repentant acts before the locals ever believed in him again.  And even then they hesitated.  Bottom line for me, don't get caught up on defining a black and white answer to a question of alignment.  Let the character live with the consequences of there actions.  Find a way to turn the dilemma into a roleplaying opportunity.  As to the question of is the act bad enough for the deity to suspend spells, that is something that is a rule 0 situation in my book.</blockquote>

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