Paladin breaks word - appropriate atonement

[FreeTheSlaves]

Thanks for the replies to date all. Yep, as I see it my character's morals have slid pretty bad.

Side comment - the alliance was pretty frosty from go with both sides seeing an opportunity but not trusting the other. Not giving some reason to stay the original sacrifice would have condemned an innocent. My guy's real good, but +1 initiative may not be enough to beat the deathknell spell. Also 3 out of the 4 cults have been crushed, the heroes are really mighty - but now a more sinister greater cult has been revealed.

Anyhoo, violations aplenty and all summed up equal a gross violation = atonement. So a list of suggested atonements are:

1) Adhering to a voluntary oath
2) Putting himself at the mercy of perhaps the rescued but traumatized prisoner?
3) Atonement spell & prayers
4) Perform some mundane service for X days
5) Vow to give up something that the paladin likes for X months
6) Renounce to use one device or feature during the next X weeks
7) Something (?) more serious than atonement
8) Something along the lines of demonstrating a will to confront evil and/or prevent sacrifice
9) A major quest or sacrifice to atone for the whole mess, maybe withholding spells etc until its done, and making you devote your life to taking down both evil cults.
and...
10) no problem in a paladin manipulating evil against evil

We're pretty certain to have our character have a year of downtime so much is possible.

I'm thinking something like his powers begin to fade, stuff like "he feels fearful like a lost child". So he seeks out a priest and details his actions & thoughts. Okay then they say something like his trustworthiness is too weak for an immediate atonement - he needs to undertake a Quest to prove he's genuine. (All these spells are being charged at full cost btw.) So he goes and does do some arduous Quest and at the end of it comes back and gets atoned. And to cap it off his replacement 'cohort' is a priest of Law and Good whom he has to serve - hey I just thought of that one then!

 

[Sigurd]

I'm thinking a sect of powerful undead are told of his lack of clear moral ground by the evil cults he has helped. The ghost(s) of the people he has caused to be slain might visit him in his sleep.

If he is of high enough level he might be recognized by a priest of his deity who has seen him in his dreams and suffers at his sins. He is to promote freedom by providing for and defending others. His freedom is not guaranteed.

Give him a 'divine ability failure' percentage based on his departure from the order. Perhaps have a heart struck, even loving, religious figure ask him if he would like release from his vows and the freedom of being just a fighter.

sigurd

Perhaps their are two groups with knowledge of his deeds. The priests are thinking to side with the greater of the two groups (who incidentally want him cast out). The priest will ask him if they should stick to principles or work for the tactical betterment of the church. The smaller group will be a smaller fraction to dissapoint.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

It sounds like you have a hard row to hoe.. a Paladin taking on the RttToEE with a party that includes an assasin? Ouch. Not saying it can't be done...

IMC, atonement is always tied to the advancement of the plot line..never done 'off-camera'. Generally speaking the atonement requires a quest to destroy some evil or restore peace, usually in the presence of mildly unsavory people {namely the other PC's } Part of the quest requires the sacrifice of a large portion of the loot, if not all of it. I know this makes it harder on the rest of the group as they are denied thier goodies... but thats part of the atonement.. the Paladin has to be able to convince them that the good graces of his diety is a better long term goal.
The end of the quest would lead to a major temple at which the Paladin would receive the 'atonement' spell and have all abilities restored.

I institute a gradual slide towards being a fighter with the various abilities no longer working. My initial version of this HR was an effective negative level to paladin abilities per minor violation and -5 effective levels for a mjor violation.
Reading over your summary, I see 1 major and 3 minor violations {alliance with the evil cult being the major one}. Using the gradual slide this would be a total of -8 effective paladin levels..meaning he would lose those class abilities {maintain BAB, etc.. just losing spells, divine healing, etc..}

This would have been a gradual slide as the events occur instead of all at once at the end, and would have been preceeded by a WIL save to see if the character could see the error in his ways before hand.

The other plot lines, like having evil parties attempt to exploit his weakness, should happen but are not part of the atonement.

I do not like the idea of changing the Cohort, that pegs me too much as reliance on another instead of reliance on the diety.


Side note: Alt Paladins.
I am a fan of player created Codes that list 10 key elements in order of precedence. This makes it easier to have a Paladin in the game. With this priority set you can have characters who value the greater good over the immediate good...allowing for paladins who infiltrate and watch evil practices while waiting for the optimum moment to strike...of course, the Aura of Good would make this habit a bit difficult

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

What's the penalty for lying to a corrupt fire marshall to get him to put out a burning orphanage?

 

[Tiberius]

The Atonement spell exists for a reason. Nothing more is required.

 

[Nightfall]

Tiberus,

You should read the spell more carefully. It's more than just a simple "fire and forget" spell. It's a way of playing up a character's religious side, especially for paladins that do wrong.

Free,

An assassin!? Dude...you so should have rethought doing a paladin. That or having someone else do in the assassin or break up the party.

In any case I think a proper atonement should be something the requires you to keep an oath for a year, and that breaking it might cause you some major problems.

 

[Janx]

What's the penalty for lying to a corrupt fire marshall to get him to put out a burning orphanage?

Had the paladin lied to the first cult in agreeing to get them a replacement sacrifice (having not intention of doing so), I would have been OK with it as a minor infraction. He's doing what it takes to rescue an innocent, assuming a more forthright and direct approach would not have worked.

However, in this case, it sounds like the paladin was actually going to honor his agreement in some fashion. That's nuts! It's one thing, honoring an agreement where you agree not to hurt them, or to stay out of a fight. It's another, to actually run errands for the bad guy, especially when those errands are of naughty nature.

Janx

 

[Nightfall]

Jan,

It seems if he couldn't do it via a frontal assault, I had hoped he try something like lure out the cultists, and let them get picked off one by one somewhere else, while the others rescued the sacrifice. That would have been my choice, but eh.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Thanks all.

Ah yes, um I'm afraid Sigurd that most of the known evil cultists at this point have been despatched forcefully to the netherworld. All innocents that could be saved have been saved, although there was about 150 that died indirectly from the heroes actions. Essentially they were poisoned by a cultist and required more poison to stay alive - and the heroes destroyed the foul lab without this knowing this fact.

The assassin is a genuinely unique Neutral aligned assassin. He is the proxy of a hidden ally within the greater cult. The player intends for his assassin to reform so far as to become a desciple of St Cuthbert.

Hmm, yeah, we though making the assassin non-evil and a servant of a reformed cultist would have been enough to ensure a workable relationship between them. The Knight is the core member.

Problem with on-screen atonement is that it is about one character. We usually handwave solo stuff bacause of what it is. Certainly the after effects will continue but the non-glamerous Quest probably won't be fun to play out.

Yeah, we've talked and agree that following the cohort is not such a good idea. The existing cohort needs to be replaced however because she has to return to her freed noble husband. It was just an idea... Still, a replacement cleric cohort could be pretty cool.

An oath for a year is going to become backstory, our characters will split up in different directions for this period. The in character reason for the 1 year hiatus from assaulting the greater cultist lair is that the two nearby Kingdoms will wage war on each other.

(Oh yeah, my Knight also has to choose which side: the land of his family or the land of his liege.)

So... currently I'm thinking something like:
- cohort leaves him to be with her newly ransomed husband
- confess sins to high priest for atonement
- high priest send him to grand priest to earn trust through undertaking a quest
- seek permission from liege to undertake quest
- quest is to safeguard holy sites and protect pilgrims for a year
- do quest while war rages
- while war rages, refugees from both sides take refuge and he can distinguish himself
- makes friends with an atoning cleric
- after quest receive atonement
- back into it!

 

[Nightfall]

Free,

Sounds fine with me. I might RP it a little deeper but certainly it sounds like pretty decent atonement.

Ah so it's a GR Assassin. Yeah those suckers aren't too bad. Still, it's hardly an honorable living.