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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrgh! Mark!" data-source="post: 1779617" data-attributes="member: 14559">As to the last statement, Do I ever know <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />I'd say it comes down to a potential problem in the paladins code. He's not allowed to associate with evil, even if the end is a morally good one? It means paladins are completely ineffective against anything other than mooks. It is impossible to associate with some mooks enough to find out the bad guy.Code of conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all special class abilities if she ever WILLINGLY commits an ACT of evil. Also, respect legitamite authority, act with honor, help those who need help, punish those who threaten or harm Innocents.Association - Paladin will not associate with someone who offends their moral code. What if he has a reason to?Now, theres this evil sword. Take the evil personality from the sword and it's just a sword. There are effectively two parts to the sword, as the sword does not control itself; there's the personality and the sword. The personality is just a voice, and a will. The personality does not control the sword, either. It is inanimate. Our paladin is using the sword, because I assume it's powerful, to rid the world of the evil personality. The fact they are tied together - if the personality was magically removed, everyone wouldn't care less if he used the sword. LP: You said in D+D Evil is a force. Untrue. There's Negative Energy, and various evil gods, and even some Evil descriptor spells, but there's no unified Evil plane, dedicated to evil for its own reason. Even demons are individually minded - evil for their own purpose, not Evils own purpose. So, evil must be described as unscrupulous dedication to an individuals own power. Back to topic.Our paladin is associating with evil to do his duty. He is not doing evil acts, hence he is not evil. If you look at the paladin code, they specifically state willing acts are what stops paladin abilities.They way others want it to be is a no risk-no reward technique. Make him lose his paladinship for using an 'evil' sword on an orc? What rubbish. I must admit, though - if Evil is described as unscrupulous lust for power, and the Paladin simply picked it up because it was a powerful item, and the fact it was evil was a secondary factor - I'd be frowning and muttering. If we take him to be altruistic - he picked up the sword to destroy it, and uses the sword on anything evil that seeks to distort that destruction - I wouldn't think twice. The sword is the most important thing in his world at the moment - and the faster he destroys it, the better for everyone. If he does no evil acts on the way, and prevents the sword from tempting others, how could he be chastened? I'd chasten him the moment he strayed from the path. Sidequest? lose that cure disease. Whorehouse? Lose that immunity to disease. The fact he used the sword could only get him there faster, if it is powerful. If there was a more powerful sword, use that instead. LP and Wilder: by preventing him from using the sword, your preventing quite an interesting roleplaying experience - he walks a much finer line with it trying to control him at the worst of moments than when he keeps it in a font of holy water all day long.</blockquote>

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