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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5799157" data-attributes="member: 42582">But, in practice, the &quot;restriction&quot; only &quot;works&quot; because it is a licence for the GM to interfere with the player's decision-making for his/her PC.Which, is, in turn, a recipe for balance-of-power issues and conflict at the table (witness the endless aligment threads, which culminate - or, if you prefer, reach their nadir - with debates about paladins).If players want to play a PC who is bound by a code, they can do so without themselves needing to be bound by the GM.Or are envisaging the &quot;restrictions&quot; as a buffer between the player and the other players, who otherwise won't put up with the paladin player's roleplaying? That strikes me as a sad and sorry table, but is it a real issue for some paladin players?This fits with my experience.The paladin in my 4e game is unaligned, because he is a paladin of the Raven Queen (an unaligned deity). The player's conception of his PC's role is of meting out death to those whose time it is, and protecting from death those whose time it isn't. He also sleeps standing up, on the principle that the time has not yet come for him to lie on his back.In AD&amp;D this PC could probably be LN, but in Basic or 4e (both of whose alignment systems I prefer, if the game is not going to dispense with alignment altogether) he is clearly N/unaligned.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5799157, member: 42582"] But, in practice, the "restriction" only "works" because it is a licence for the GM to interfere with the player's decision-making for his/her PC. Which, is, in turn, a recipe for balance-of-power issues and conflict at the table (witness the endless aligment threads, which culminate - or, if you prefer, reach their nadir - with debates about paladins). If players want to play a PC who is bound by a code, they can do so without [i]themselves[/I] needing to be bound by the GM. Or are envisaging the "restrictions" as a buffer between the player and the other players, who otherwise won't put up with the paladin player's roleplaying? That strikes me as a sad and sorry table, but is it a real issue for some paladin players? This fits with my experience. The paladin in my 4e game is unaligned, because he is a paladin of the Raven Queen (an unaligned deity). The player's conception of his PC's role is of meting out death to those whose time it is, and protecting from death those whose time it isn't. He also sleeps standing up, on the principle that the time has not yet come for him to lie on his back. In AD&D this PC could probably be LN, but in Basic or 4e (both of whose alignment systems I prefer, if the game is not going to dispense with alignment altogether) he is clearly N/unaligned. [/QUOTE]

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