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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 1544161" data-attributes="member: 5171">Adembroski: Why?Other people have already made the point I'm gonna try to make better than I will make it, but is it not acceptible to believe that "Bringing child back to her father" falls under the heading of "Keeping her safe"?  Let's play this the other way.  Paladin finds little girl in the woods.  Paladin says, "I swear to protect you and keep you safe."  Then he takes her back home.  The father comes out of his house, very grateful.  The paladin says, "I just wanted you to see her one more time before I take her away forever, because, y'know, I swore to protect her.  She has to stay with me now."The father, concerned that his daughter is being kidnapped by a lawful good knight-priest, calls for the guards.  The paladin says, "Hey, they might accidentally hit you in the scuffle.  Rather than surrender and risk having her be returned to her father, I'll kill all the guards."Or the other perspective.  Paladin finds child lost in woods and says, "I'll protect you, I promise."  Then takes her back home.  Father comes out.  Paladin says, "Hey, nice to see you again.  Where am I going to sleep?  For you see, I've promised to protect her, which means that I have to stay here for the rest of her life.  I'll be at her first spring dance, I'll be lurking beside her in the market while she makes purchases, and I'll be just outside the door on her wedding night.  Because all I really know is adventuring, I won't be bringing in any money, and also, I'll kind of stink, since according to the severity of the GM in this world, I won't be allowed to go find some bushes or an outhouse or anything because that might invalidate my promise."Please weigh these options against "Return girl to father who is not great but who is fundamentally and by all standards we know her legal guardian."  Maybe the paladin could've roleplayed it better (or maybe he did, and it isn't written here), making a very polite threat against the irresponsible father -- "I release her into your care, but my promise still binds me, and I shall return from time to time to verify that she is being taken care of properly and responsibly... and there shall be severe consequences if I am not satisfied as to her safety and happiness."  Maybe the paladin's player thought that was implicit.Dreams are good.  Using the promise as a roleplaying hook is good.  But penalizing the player for something that is not by any stretch a violation of the promise, because you want to twist it to something it never was, is not going to encourage paladins in your campaign.</blockquote>

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