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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6686873" data-attributes="member: 4937">That seems reasonable.&nbsp;&nbsp; I'm a big fan of dreams, omens, and outright sending angels to scold and warn.&nbsp; I don't think this is a 'paladin has strayed so far he can never come back' situation, or even, 'paladin has strayed so far deity is rethinking the relationship' situation.&nbsp; Following up on my prior post though, my point is that how this is judged depends on the specific beliefs of the deity that the paladin is attached to.&nbsp; He's not a paladin in abstract; he is concretely the servant and personally selected champion of a specific deity and his role and authority depend not on his class, but on his social standing.&nbsp; The paladin isn't being judged in isolation, but according to how he is following a concrete code that is written down somewhere (lawful, remember?), and how he relates to his group (lawful), and whether he is obeying his superiors (lawful).&nbsp; This is at least as important as the question, &quot;Was the paladin being good?&quot;, because as a lawful good character whether his actions are good are matter of law and custom.&nbsp;&nbsp; Is it customary in your campaign world for this to happen?&nbsp; Or is someone going to be saying, &quot;Bah.&nbsp; He wants everyone else to uphold the law, but when it comes to his actions, he makes his own law.&nbsp; Curse him and his god.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; Because that's not the sort of response his deity was going for when he made the paladin his champion among men.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6686873, member: 4937"] That seems reasonable. I'm a big fan of dreams, omens, and outright sending angels to scold and warn. I don't think this is a 'paladin has strayed so far he can never come back' situation, or even, 'paladin has strayed so far deity is rethinking the relationship' situation. Following up on my prior post though, my point is that how this is judged depends on the specific beliefs of the deity that the paladin is attached to. He's not a paladin in abstract; he is concretely the servant and personally selected champion of a specific deity and his role and authority depend not on his class, but on his social standing. The paladin isn't being judged in isolation, but according to how he is following a concrete code that is written down somewhere (lawful, remember?), and how he relates to his group (lawful), and whether he is obeying his superiors (lawful). This is at least as important as the question, "Was the paladin being good?", because as a lawful good character whether his actions are good are matter of law and custom. Is it customary in your campaign world for this to happen? Or is someone going to be saying, "Bah. He wants everyone else to uphold the law, but when it comes to his actions, he makes his own law. Curse him and his god." Because that's not the sort of response his deity was going for when he made the paladin his champion among men. [/QUOTE]

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