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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Malar's Cow" data-source="post: 1565049" data-attributes="member: 19561">A paladin must be a paragon of both goodness and lawfulness.  Did the rapist perform an evil deed?  Absolutely.  As a paragon of good, did the paladin have the obligation to stop the perpetration of an evil act?  Without doubt.  I don't feel that the good/evil axis is in question here (although the paladin could have subdued the perp instead of slaying him outright).I think what's more in question in this scenario is the law/chaos axis.  The question of context has to be addressed.  First, did the crime take place in a frontier town where there is no effective legal structure, a la American west in the 19th century?  What about a land torn by civil strife where the governing legal body has either disintegrated or is powerless to enforce its own laws?  Is the land governed by a morally ambivalent (neutral on the good/evil axis) or downright evil rulership?  What about if the government is chaotic in nature, and believes that justice is determined by individual moral compasses rather than by an unyielding legal structure?If any of the above circumstances were in effect in the town where the crime occurred, the paladin would not be able to rely on effective justice being doled out by the authorities.  If the crime occurred in Thay or Zhentil Keep, the authorities might have instead arrested the paladin for the murder of an "innocent commoner" who was not doing anything morally objectionable in the government's eyes.However, if the act were occurring in a lawful good society such as Damara or Cormyr, the paladin could have reasonable certainty that the law would mete out just punishment to the criminal, and have no compunctions about subduing him and turning him over to the proper authorities.As a paragon of good and law, the paladin must not allow his code to be relative to the moral compass of his surroundings.  To me it is one of the most difficult classes to play, because the paladin will almost always be in conflict with his surrounding environment, and most likely with his companions as well (unless they all are lawful good as well).Just my two cp to toss into the ante.</blockquote>

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