Pbartender said:
Let's review what Miko must do to become an Ex-Paladin...
Yes, let's.
Pbartender said:
SRD said:
Code of Conduct
A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all class abilities if she ever willingly commits an evil act.
Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.
Associates
While she may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, a paladin will never knowingly associate with evil characters, nor will she continue an association with someone who consistently offends her moral code. A paladin may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful good.
Ex-Paladins
A paladin who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all paladin spells and abilities (including the service of the paladin’s mount, but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any farther in levels as a paladin. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see the atonement spell description), as appropriate.
Technically, she's following the Paladin Code pretty strictly,
(underlined sections above marked by me)
No, technically she just broke it wide open and left its shattered chunks bleeding on the floor.
First, the Evil act part. One must keep in mind that Paladins are beholden to Divine laws above those of the mortal world, first and foremost. Thus, the important question to answer here is not whether Miko views what she's doing as an Evil act; it is whether the
gods would see it as an Evil act. Given that Shojo really was working in the best interests of the city, world, and even the gods themselves, even if it meant breaking the Oath- and further given that he's definitely not Evil-aligned- it's difficult to argue that the gods could see his murder as anything but an Evil act. It places the city in more danger than it was already in, since it creates a power vacuum at the top of the city hierarchy at precisely the worst possible time. Shojo was an unarmed man, old and feeble physically, clearly no threat to Miko in combat terms (or even, likely, in legal terms since he needed her for political purposes)- innocent or not, just up and killing him is either downright Evil, or close enough that when combined with the other circumstances it makes no difference.
As for the Paladin's Code, it seems clear that Shojo was the legitimate ruler of Azure City, and thus represents that pesky "legitimate authority" that Miko as a Paladin is supposed to respect. Killing him outright, even
after a fellow Paladin pleaded with her to stop, is a clear violation of the requirement to treat him respectfully. In fact, it could be argued that since Shojo was presumably to be put under arrest and on trial later, he was no longer the ruler of the city, which would mean
Hinjo was- which means Miko directly disobeyed an order from her superior in killing Shojo.
Finally, though the quoted Paladin's code says nothing about attacking unarmed people who are no physical threat, it's tough to argue that that could be considered "honorable" and I personally would tell a Paladin player that he'd been dishonorable in attacking Shojo in this case. Attacking unarmed old people with no magical powers just isn't my idea of the honorable knight in shining armor that the Paladin is supposed to represent.
