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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3668625" data-attributes="member: 13966">Yeah, he had to destroy the fiend afterward.  He cannot willingly associate with evil beings; and the fact that the imp had deceived him and hidden its fiendish nature meant that he was not honor-bound to fulfill the deal or let the imp go, but instead his honor demanded he make amends for the slight to his honor caused by the imp's deception; and as a fiend, surely anything it needed the McGuffin for would be evil, so he had to stop it from causing evil through the use of the paladin as a pawn to help it get the McGuffin for its evil plan.As for the party, the paladin's honor demanded retribution more than it demanded staying true to his comrades' agreement with the fiend.  They didn't know its nature beforehand, so indeed, he would have seen it as being the honor of his entire party that had been slighted by the fiend's deception, given that fiends only ever do things for the sake of evil.  The party may've been upset afterward, but he was just avenging their honor and especially his own, and making sure that the fiend didn't use their unwitting help to get an item that would help it cause further evil.Paladins are not lawful neutral or lawful evil; they do not see fulfillment of oaths/agreements as a permanently binding, unyielding duty that must absolutely be fulfilled, no matter the consequences, no matter what happens or changes afterward, and no matter the circumstances the oath/agreement was made under.  As lawful good individuals, they are to believe in the spirit of the law moreso than the letter of the law, and that any agreement was made in good faith, and becomes null and void if one party or another dishonors the agreement and those who agreed to it.The drastic deception of the imp was too dishonorable to consider that the agreement was made in good faith; the party (the paladin especially) surely did not agree to the cooperative effort believing that they were aiding a fiend in its evil plots.  The paladin would never have agreed to it then.  There are other individuals who might try to make a deal while invisible; pixies, illusionists, cowardly wizards, disfigured individuals, the rare good drow who just doesn't want any trouble, and tricksters (like some dragons and fey) who just want to surprise people later or would like to keep them guessing even after the deal is completed.  So the party did not have to believe at first that the 'ally' was a fiend; most likely by that point in their careers they had encountered other spellcasters or creatures who could turn themselves invisible, and probably had not yet met a fiend who could do so.</blockquote>

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