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Message: <blockquote data-quote="moritheil" data-source="post: 2593277" data-attributes="member: 30610">I agree with most of what you posted, but I wonder about the bizarre idea that everyone has that paladins are exemplars of kindness and mercy.  In DnD, many LG patrons of paladins have precepts that are not identical to those of real-life religions.  As such, the idea of tempering justice with mercy is absolutely foreign to the bulk of paladins.  While the paladin archetype was predicated on the ideal of the noble, chivalrous knight, it's a very good idea to lay out exactly how much of that nobility and chivalry you as a DM expect, or the player might be in for a rude awakening.As I read the paladin class, a paladin who slays evil all day long is no less a shining example of LG than a paladin who seeks to defeat evil by turning it to good.  As such, the answer to the often-raised "orc baby dilemma" is that if they detect as evil, and the paladin slays them, he is fulfilling his duty to destroy evil.  For that matter, if a human child detected as evil, and the paladin slew it, he would not be in any trouble with his patron (local officials would strenuously object.)  I do not pretend that this is the only stance to take, but I include it here to show how the expected conduct and resolution of dilemmas comes directly from a specific fundamental understanding of what a paladin is.  If you say "the fundamental purpose of a paladin is to expunge evil from existence," then many of the classical dilemmas, which result from an imprecise concept of what "good" is, are easily resolved.Of course, if you get into exalted paladins with vows of nonviolence and the kind, things change.  If you play FR and your patron is Ilmater, who does not advocate dealing out swift violence, or Lathander, who advocates new beginnings for all things, and only really likes his followers to smite undead, things change.  You have a slightly different fundamental purpose, and your resolution of dilemmas could shift accordingly.</blockquote>

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