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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3668003" data-attributes="member: 13966">You do know I was advocating that the paladin should be fine, don't you?And yes, I know that part of the matter is that since it was a fiend, he was right to smite it, deal or no deal.  It's just that the circumstances kind of demand a bit of consideration for whether or not he did so honorably, in keeping with his paladin code.  Which I think he did, for the reasons I described earlier (the imp's deception was reason enough for him to have an honorable excuse for slaying it rather than fulfilling the deal; he did not make the agreement knowing his 'ally' to be a fiend so he could not be expected to honor the deal, as it was deliberately made under false pretenses).I already said as much that I didn't think his dealing with an invisible 'ally' would have any impact on his paladin status; he didn't know he was dealing with an evil creature to begin with, and the only reason to suspect it was that the individual was staying invisible.  But we don't know if he tried detecting its alignment or not (or if it had Undetectable Alignment or Misdirection active to prevent its true alignment from being discerned).  So we can't really be sure if he was as prudent as he should have been, but it is fairly obvious that the paladin did no wrong by accepting the deal initially since he had no knowledge that the 'ally' was an evil creature, let alone a fiend.Now if he did learn it was evil beforehand, he would definitely have to refuse working with it.  That is demanded by his paladin code (even if it were only an evil mortal, it would still be against his code to willingly associate with it).  But unknowingly working with an evil creature for a time is not an infringement of his code, so until he learns the truth, he's not at fault (just probably not doing his duty in being diligent about making sure that his allies are decent enough to work with).  And in this case, when he did see the creature's true form, he followed through by smiting it as was proper for a paladin, and thus should not be punished for unwittingly helping it (after all, he killed it before it could make any evil use of whatever it had gone to that place to acquire).I only suggested the possible 1-day revoking of his powers as a sign to the paladin that he made a minor mistake, and failed to live up to the expectations that come with the divine gifts provided to him.  A sign that he should exercise better judgment, caution, and prudence in the future (assuming, again, that he did not do his best beforehand to try and find out if the invisible ally was evil or not, or to find out if possible whether or not its intentions were evil).  As mentioned, Heironeous or the like didn't give him the power to sense evil or fight evil just so he could sit on his duff and accept every mysterious, charming, or suspiciously-helpful stranger at face value (and besides, an invisible fellow at face value would seem to be deceitful and potentially evil).</blockquote>

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