Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 1978634" data-attributes="member: 14159">Or, instead you could try and deal with it realistically.Paladin: I draw my sword and attackInn Patrons: *screaming and taking cover**Paladin slays the guy sitting at the table in the corner who detected as faintly evil, a minor local noble who's unscrupulous and selfish in his business dealings and fairly uncaring about those under him, but no worse than many modern executives or politicians*City guard shows up after someone ran for help after a sword-wielding madman cut down  . . .Guard: You're under arrest for murdering the Mayor's Son!  Put down your weapons and surrender or die!Paladin (about to lose his Paladinhood): "But he was Evil!  I was just doing my god's work!"Guard: Get him, boys!(If the Paladin is taken alive, the Raised victim will be glad to testify at the Paladin's trial about how he was just sitting there eating his dinner when this fanatical zealot stormed over and attacked him.  If the Paladin isn't lucky, he might be facing a hangman's noose or an executioner's axe in the near future.)Remember, detecting as "Evil" isn't a crime in the vast majority of Fantasy civilizations, certainly not a capitol crime.  Killing a civilized person in a civilized place (like a tavern) with no warning and no cause other than you had a feeling that they were evil is a crime, Murder.  Summary execution of someone just sitting there by a wandering Paladin is pretty outrageous, and would probably cost a Paladin his paladinhood (hardly a lawful act to slay a nonoffensive person in a civilized place, where presumably there is some justice system).  At most let him get an Atonement the first time and warn him that playing a vigilante in a place with a working legal system and attacking nonaggressive people who just happen to be evil isn't lawful at all.  Would a LE Blackguard walk into a tavern, go "Detect Good" then charge the PC's recklessly during dinner?  Not if the Blackguard was smart in the least (which he would probably have to survive to Blackguard status).I've seen the "detect and smite" type too in one of my games.  He walked around and Detects Evil on every NPC, and started a fight with everyone who Detected, until he was beaten down soundly by a powerful NPC who was an informant/merchant who dealt with the PC's and just happened to have an NE alignment (meaning he wasn't above cheating the PC's on occasion and was working only in his best interest).  The PC's didn't even bother to heal him, figuring he was a total fool for attacking the renowned archmage necromancer, they left hiim at deep negatives and stable on the floor of a cellar somewhere and went about their adventures.  The player quit the game after that (and frankly, everyone, DM included, was glad to see him go), but not before a rant to us about "unrealistic" NPC's which amounted to:  "They're Evil, they don't help Good Guys, they're there for us to kill, you were Evil just for dealing with him!".I am thankful for my current group of players, so I don't have to deal with the likes of that.  I've got a player joining my game playing a Paladin who has sworn never to kill a "person" (i.e. humanoid, monstrous humanoid or giant), and is going to carry a Merciful weapon and have the Subdual Strike feat from BoED.  Given that his model of Paladinhood is admittedly Captain America, I don't expect many problems out of him.</blockquote>

Verification