Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Queen_Dopplepopolis" data-source="post: 1551325" data-attributes="member: 14323">Allow me to share a story...In the woods, late at night, a low level group of adventurers is attacked.  The paladin (me) turns on her evil-dar and searches in the darkness for the pings... soon enough, she notes that, not more than 30 feet away, there is evil... walking over to it, she promptly smites it... smiles for a brief moment, thinking to herself "serves you right you evil, jerk!"However, the momentary feeling of happiness is overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of dispare and deep regret... she feels empty, alone, and lacking in the powers she once possessed... Yes, indeed, she had lost her paladin abilities.It was not until later that she learned that the evil she had killed happened to be a starving ninja that was just trying to get some food.  Being a young and inexperienced Paladin, she was unsure of how to handle the situation... and dealt with it the only way the somewhat overzealous girl could think--stomp it out.The Paladin is not at all obligated to kill kill kill evil.  The rules specify distinct auras for different types of evil--strong, weak, etc for a reason... a Paladin must learn to tell the difference and know when it is right to act on the impulse to kill kill kil... and THEN stop out the evil.Additionally, I would totally disagree that The Book of Exalted Deeds is the Paladin's handbook...  Granted that could be the fact that my DM holds very very strict rules for those that are/wish to become exalted.  In our game, it is not at all presented as a book specifically for characters with a divine calling... simply the best of the best... the goodest of the goodest, so to speak.  In many cases, it is almost harder for the paladin to become exalted because it is their duty to seek out evil and do with it as (s)he will.  If the character does not live up to the VERY strict standards set up by the DM, the character cannot access anything from the Book of Exalted Deeds... and cannot replace those abilities, feats, spells, or domains with anything else.  They must spend months and months attoning for the sins they committed.  It is a much stricter code than that of most Paladins that I have played/seen played/seen enforced... going above and beyond the responsibilities and obligations of the "good" character to an extreme... I've got the actual document around here somewhere that spells out the requirements for being "exalted" in the game... if anyone's interested, I'd be glad to share it... Just comes down to this, bloodlust is not exalted.  The Paladin has a tendency, possibly more than any other character class, to lust for the blood of their enemies and, as such, I have found it incredibly difficult to maintain any semblance of the "exalted" descriptor.Does anyone else use the "Good Book" in this fashion?  Or can your good characters simply utilize the spells and abilities in it freely?</blockquote>

Verification