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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4233554" data-attributes="member: 19675">I do mean the old, tried and true 9 point Alignment system.  It has enough shades of morality and ethics to handle a wide variety of worldviews- more than 5, anyway.  The 4Ed take doesn't seem to recognize that good can arise from chaos, or that evil can be spawned from law...and that definitely doesn't conform to reality, much less fiction.And Paladins?Paladin threads are merely an example of people struggling with a distinction that has plagued RW humanity since the dawn of philosophy & religion- the nature of good- coupled with a class with some clunky mechanics.  After all, Paladins detect evil as per the spell, meaning it takes time to use.  How often do you see Paladins actually standing up in battle distinguishing between those who truly believe in the evil they serve, those who are just in it for the money, and those who are serving evil out of duress?Generally speaking, you have people who assert that Paladins follow "Good, not Gods" whereas others let their Paladins follow "Good through Gods"- IOW, the Paladin follows the dictates of Law and Good through the prism of a particular divine entity or ethos.  Furthermore, some assert that a Paladin need not show mercy to evil, while others counter that mercy is the Paladin's paramount virtue.The problem with the first position is that in all of human history, no philosophy or religion has been able to define "Good" in such a way as to exclude all acts that we would find distasteful when put into RW action.The problem with the second is that Gods have agendas and can be just as judgemental as the beings that worship them.True, mercy is one of the highest virtues there is- it is at its foundation a recognition that anyone may change from the path of evil, given time and the right circumstances.  But in a game where there are probable corporeal interactions between mortals and beings for whom their alignment is integral to their nature- demons, devils, angels, etc.- the question of mercy is far more complex than in the RW.  Even absent consideration of supernatural beings, the ability for even mortals to change alignment- specifically in the case of humanoid opponents like Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, etc.- is a campaign-specific question.  IOW, the need for Paladins to show mercy is 1) highly situational and 2) campaign dependent.</blockquote>

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