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="FireLance" data-source="post: 435990" data-attributes="member: 3424">Great thread, everyone!  Many excellent points.I would just like to bring up one thing, though.  I feel that when discussing paladins, you have to bring in one very important factor: faith.Faith is what distinguishes a paladin from any other LG fighter.  Faith that the teachings of his God or philosophy and the code of conduct that he has sworn to live by are correct.So, to use SHARK's example, does it make sense for a paladin to alert an encampment of gnolls before attacking?  Of course it doesn't.  In order to secure the maximum tactical advantage, the paladin should sweep down like the wrath of God to smite the infidel.  However, if the paladin's God teaches that it is wrong to attack in this manner, by faith, the paladin will alert the gnolls before attacking and trust that it will turn out right.Being a paladin, a cleric or a similar servant of a God means living by faith that all will be well if the God's teachings and instructions are followed.  Even if it means doing apparently illogical things like (my religious leanings are showing here) petitioning the ruler of the biggest empire of the time to free slaves that were a major contributing factor to the country's economy and leading said slaves on a journey through a barren wilderness with little food or water, leading a force of 300 men to battle thousands of enemies, and dousing an altar with water before asking your God to bring fire down from Heaven to consume your offering.So, who can know the consequences of his actions?  Who can tell whether a decision to subdue, rather than kill villagers dominated by a vampire will lead to good, or result in even greater evil?  A paladin does not know.  A paladin can only act according to the dictates of his God and have faith that it will turn out for the best.So what does this mean in the context of D&D?  Fundamentally, it boils down to the type of game that the DM is running.  A paladin of a pragmatic God would act very differently from one that follows a God who demands a strict moral code.  However, to be fair to the paladin, unless the DM is planning some story arc that deals with the reformation of that code (see Sepulchrave's story hours "Lady Despina's Virtue", "The Heretic of Wyre" and "The Rape of Morne"), there has to be an implied contract between the DM and the player of a paladin that the paladin should not be penalised for following that code, no matter how "illogical" his actions may be.Conversely, a paladin should be penalised for violations of his faith.  If a paladin "knows" he should do A, but does B for reasons of practicality, and it turns out badly, it should definitely be cause for atonement.  In the mind of the paladin he is being "punished" for his lack of faith.  Even if it turns out well, the paladin would view it as a dispensation of grace, and would resolve to "do better" next time round.Of course, all of the above has nothing to do with the question of "good" and "evil".  In a sense, without knowledge of ultimate consequences, it is not possible for anyone, even a paladin, to know for sure whether what he does will be "good" or "evil" in the end.  In the end, a paladin should do whatever his God or philosophy says will result in the most "good" in the long run.  I guess that is true for most of us; only the philosophies differ.</blockquote>

Verification