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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 3328220" data-attributes="member: 15538">Whether or not a creature is innately evil or chooses it, it is not your choice how it behaves. Even though the human assassin may be the result of moral failure, and the red dragon of inclination, you still know the human assassin is just as dangerous. And you cannot smite either one without some pretext. As I've noted before, preemptive smiting, that is, a firm amount of prudence, is ultimately a neutral perspective.Killing evil creatures at birth is certainly prudent, it's just not Good.  A truly good creature sacrifices some prudence in order to practice a higher principle. If the paladin has no better recourse, slaying orc babies is certainly an option. But it's not the first option. If slaying 39 orcs is enough to force their retreat, the paladin should not slay 40, and if the orc babies can be left in the care of another, they should be. I've heard it asserted that some creatures in D&D are essentially, irredeemably evil. That is not true. Creatures like red dragons have an inlination toward CE, but they are capable of choosing another enlightenment; doing so means overcoming their born nature, but they are intelligent and could be so persuaded. Even angels can fall and demons be redeemed; though they retain their alignment subtypes, their actual alignments can change if they are persuaded to change them. Again, they are fighting inclination, but moreso, they are fighting their nature. An angel trying to be evil would feel the temptation to do good; angels,  by nature, are never tempted to evil, and if they fall to evil, they do so by deliberate choice.</blockquote>

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