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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6316976" data-attributes="member: 42582">The default approach at my table is roughly the opposite of what you describe here - the other players (and me as GM) tend to take the paladin (or cleric) player's behaviour and professed convictions as indicators of the tenets of the deity in question. (That said, there are features of the ingame situation you're describing that I'm not following - like [MENTION=5143]Majoru Oakheart[/MENTION], I don't really see how the paladin was better able to protect his friends by engaging the dragon in melee rather than trying to turn it.)In the fiction they might, though - for instance, part of a player's backstory for his PC might be a mysterious blessing from a god, or benefaction from a religious order.And hit points and saving throws (at least in most editions - 3E may be an exception) are seen as reflecting divine blessings among other factors (eg Gygax, DMG p 111-12: "the accumulation of hit points and the ever-greater abilities and better saving throws of characters represents the aid supplied by supernatural forces").That seems to be begging the question somewhat - it's a statement of the proposition that the GM should have the power, but not really a statement of a reason as to why. And tradition is not a reason in an of itself, because there is no single tradition here. Not all versions of the game give the GM the power to strip PCs of mechanical abilities for code/alignment violations (eg 4e doesn't, B/X doesn't).I'm sure something could be worked out. Rebuild the PC. Apply a curse. Forfeit some ability for some period of time. It's not as if D&D has ever lacked for mechanical devices useable to give effect to metaphysical punishment and suffering. (Even in AD&D, as far as clerics were concerned Gygax didn't feel the need to be precise (DMG p 38): "If they have not been faithful . . . it becomes unlikely that they will receive intermediary aid unless they make proper atonement and sacrifice. . . making whatever sacrifices and atonement are necessary . . . before [receiving] those powers once again.")</blockquote>

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