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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Morrow" data-source="post: 1935569" data-attributes="member: 27012">I think he could actually be an awful role-model, unless he changes fairly quickly and noticably.  Why?  Because the message he could send is that you can be saved and keep on sinning with reckless abandon.  Part of what makes saved sinners a role model is that grace transforms their life.  And to be perfectly honest with you, if you look at an array of bad cult leaders and fallen televangelists, you'll see what happens when Grace becomes an excuse to keep sinning rather than an incentive to stop sinning.  And that's exactly what can happen when you get all of the benefits up front.  Of course that suggests another interesting path for the character--he's given all of the benefits of a paladin and squanders the opportunity to change, ultimately losing his abilities.  It might make more sense to me if he's given his paladin abilities on loan, with the expectation to live up to them.  If he does, it will change his life and transform him.  If it doesn't, he'll ultimately lose his abilities and become just another fighter.  What if Shirley Temple were a serial killer? To resolve "What if?" scenarios like that, you either need to change the person or change what they are to resolve the inherent contradiction.  In this case, you are changing what it means to be a paladin a lot and Fallstaff a little.I disagree.  In fact, the law disagrees, too, in criminal matters.  It's one thing to kill a person in a fit of rage and another thing to get angry at them and spend weeks planning their murder.  In general, the idea of acting out of passion (or weakness) is incompatable with the idea of long-term planning if you believe in any sort of free will.I should also point out that the relationship between Grace, free will, and Salvation are hardly settled within Christianity.  You might find these articles from the Catholic perspective, for example, interesting:<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06689a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06689a.htm</a>By the way, I'm not personally Catholic nor do I wholly agree with the views expressed in those articles but they do help illustrate many of the areas of disagreement in their discussion of various heresies, even if they are biased toward one perspective.  We probably shouldn't debate any of this because I can't see it ending well if more people get involved.Examples?It's eliminating a restriction without replacing it with something else.  Benefit without cost.Like I said earlier in this reply, if his faith transforms him from sinner to saint (or much closer to that idea), I can see that working.  But that should at least eliminate the casual and wanton sinning pretty much from the start.What's the inherent value of doing anything in the game as written?  Why not just let your imagination run wild?It could be.  The question is whether the paladin class from the beginning is the best way to achieve that objective.  And, ultimately, bear in mind that you are treading on ground that still divides Christianity.</blockquote>

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