NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="N'raac" data-source="post: 6686274" data-attributes="member: 6681948">You have not given us any background on the campaign's culture.  Would the law of the land have required the villainess be taken alive and stand trial for her crimes?  If convicted, would she face imprisonment or death?  If executing her as a helpless captive contravenes the laws of the land, which the Lawful Paladin should respect.  However, that's a very "20th century imposed on game world" culture.  A more "wild west frontier" setting would suggest the adventurers are justified in dealing out justice for the crimes of the villain.  A feudal Japan culture could even demand such execution, and his status could suffer if he breaches this requirement of Law and Tradition.  Part of his code (taken from the 3.5 rules) requires he "punish those who harm or threaten innocents".  Has he not done just that?I suspect the real question is not "does this behaviour count as a shift away from the Paladin's required LG alignment", but "has he committed that single evil act which  costs Paladinhood immediately".  Evil implies killing, but clearly any D&D game will see adventurers using lethal force against evil opponents, so merely killing an opponent (whether on the battlefield, letting them bleed out after combat or a Lawful execution) cannot be an "evil act" in and of itself.  His actions are motivated by justice for (past actions) and protection of (future actions) innocents, a very Good motivation.  I would not consider his actions a shining beacon of Good, but neither are they an act of Evil.Without knowing the tone of the specific game, and the laws of the land, I can't assess whether this action would count in favour of, against or irrelevant to his code of conduct or LG status.  If, due to those issues, this is an act contravening his code, then I expect the Paladin would know this, so the player may need to be provided with some character knowledge before making his decision.  "HAHA - Gotcha - no more Paladin" does not make for a good game, in my view.  This instance isn't black and white, so I don't see it as one that would merit such a warning.</blockquote>

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