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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9365710" data-attributes="member: 42582">In my view, thinking through this shows some of the ways that "paladin problems" and the structure of typical D&D play are related.For instance - suppose that the paladin refuses to lie, and then the children are taken away. Is there a subsequent chain of events whereby the children, being where they have been taken to, are able to play a part in some unanticipated way that brings about some previously unrealised, and better, good? (Bilbo doesn't kill Gollum; Gollum destroys the ring. Denethor sends Faramir needlessly against the Nazgul; Faramir, in his recovery, meets Eowyn and thus provides her with the possibility of realising herself and escaping her projective infatuation with Aragorn. Etc.)In typical D&D play, this sort of thing will depend very heavily on how the GM has structured things in their prep, and on the decisions about consequences that the GM makes during the process of action resolution. And so, I think, is less likely and even unlikely to come to pass. The very structure of play tends to push players to rely on what is internal than what is external to their PCs, and that is at odds with the providential orientation of the paladin.Different ways of establishing fiction, and the connections between action declarations and consequences, reduce this problem.</blockquote>