Is My Paladin Evil?

[Felix]

This is not a tough question.

To sum: "My DM is making up rules and forcing my character to do things. I play a class with alignment consequences. Can my DM make me evil by making me do evil things with his made-up rules?"

If the DM wants to have you lose your powers, you will lose your powers. I would have a hard time of it, but if you can trust your DM, who creates rules at his whim, to be consistent and fair in his adjudication then you are OK. Otherwise, you might be in the hands of a DM who wants to remind everyone who's in charge.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Generally, you shouldn't be punished for doing things outside of your control.

Rationally, that's true. But paladins are religious, and religion isn't rational.

This truism is something D&D players traditionally have a difficult time internalizing, and its one of the reasons alignment is so hard for people to grok. (The other major reason would be that too many people think alignment is prescriptive, rather than descriptive.) "But what's the difference between sleep poison and a sleep spell?" Religion. The paladin's religion, usually reflected in his code, says they're different. It's not only impossible to rationalize some of the things a paladin cannot do -- or must do -- it's a waste of time.

In a religious society -- especially a quasi-medieval one in which Good and Evil can actually be detected via magic -- "because God says so" is a perfectly acceptable -- indeed, inarguable -- reason for something.

Yes, cannibalism in your D&D world is probably evil. (It certainly was considered so in medieval Europe, upon which most D&D worlds are based.) Go roleplay your contrition, get your atonement, and move on.

Oh, and as someone else said: decide whether or not your DM is trust-worthy. If he is, look upon all of the events as an exercise in dramatic RP. If he's not, you don't want to be in that game.

 

[Dogbrain]

Now, I realize that my DM is running this ridiculous house rule, but isn't ingesting the flesh of your own species EVIL?[/B]

Is a rockslide that falls onto a school bus and kills all the children within evil? No. Only an idiot would consider the rockslide to be morally culpable for its acts. The rockslide has NO CHOICE in what it did. The same is true of human behavior.

However, while the Paladin might not be evil, the paladin could be considered "polluted" and in need of a good purification.

 

[Dogbrain]

No, eatting the flesh of your own species is no more evil then eatting the flesh of any other creature. It's culturally frowned upon in a contemporary western-style setting, but a different culture that has no problem with it

Of course, this argument also means that NOTHING AT ALL can EVER be deemed evil, since everything just comes down to culture. Therefore, Paladins are free to do anything that pops into their widdle minds with never the tiniest worry about doing evil. Some culture, SOMEWHERE, probably has no problem with it.

 

[sakkara]

Ummm...Immune to Disease

Assuming you are 3rd level or higher (which I would hope if you are off adventuring in the Abyss), you have Divine Health, which makes you immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical.

Mental Illness is a disease...your Paladin should not have been afflicted in the first place (guess your DM forgot about that).

Sounds to me like he/she just wants to overtly exert control (i.e. railroad) for either a storyline element, or their personal amusement.

-sakkara

 

[reanjr]

I know we've seen a million of these before, but I have a tough one here.

I've been playing this paladin and recently we've been touring one of the layers of the Abyss. I failed a saving throw after facing a glabrezu and my DM ruled that I had acquired a mental illness that has a random manifestation. He then came up with a table that he didn't show me. After every 5 encounters he rolls to see how the mental illness manifests. The first few were no major deal. The first few times I suffered with turetts syndrome, yelling obscenities at the demons. We were killing them anyway, so no big deal. After that he had me do a couple other minor things.

This turned into a problem during the last session. Upon emerging into the city of Nialdjthe, we were assaulted by guards - HUMAN GUARDS. Worse yet, once the combat was over, it was time for a roll on the random insanity table. The DM rolled that I was overtaken by a sudden and uncontrollable urge to eat the remains of the guards. I made a save, failed it, and then proceded to chow down on several servings of guard burgers.

Now, I realize that my DM is running this ridiculous house rule, but isn't ingesting the flesh of your own species EVIL?

Isuppose it would depend on the cultural background, but I'd say cannibalism is an evil act in D&D. But your paladin isn't evil. He's just commited an evil act out of a non-conscious compulsory effect. He should probably lose his abilities until he can get rid of the problem and atone.

But his alignment wouldn't change.

 

[reanjr]

To all the people who think cannibalism is a cultural thing, can anyone come up with an historical reference to cannibalism being performed outside of special ceremony (or by psychopaths or the starving)? All cannibalism I've ever heard of revolves around a ceremony of eating your fallen enemy, etc.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Isuppose it would depend on the cultural background, but I'd say cannibalism is an evil act in D&D. But your paladin isn't evil. He's just commited an evil act out of a non-conscious compulsory effect. He should probably lose his abilities until he can get rid of the problem and atone.

But his alignment wouldn't change.

Yep, except that morality in D&D is absolute, rather than relative. (I.e., D&D evil does not change with relation to culture, whether dominant or otherwise.)

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Not only is your paladin immune to diseases of all kinds, but the standard glabrezu doesn't pass on any sort of illness, sickness, or curse.

It all sounds a sketchy to me. If you're the only one with this random ailment, I think you should speak to the DM.

 

[Anduril]

"Unearthed Arcanna" has a section on Sanity and Insanity (pp. 194 to 210) that your GM may be using as the basis of this ruling. One of the random chart results could result in canibalistic behavior. It doesn't seem as if the GM informed the party that this rule would be used and that isn't a good policy at all.

After a cursory examination of the core books, I can find almost no mention of insanity other than a spell effect or two. The "Insanity" spell inflicts a permanent confusion effect on the victim with no mention of it being considered a disease. The glabrezu has a confusion spell-like ability that I suspect the GM has hopscotched into a cause insanity ability.

If your GM will not discuss how this has occured and what rulings he has used, you have cause for concern. You'll have to decide if you can trust him to give you a fair shot at getting cured of the insanity.