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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 4941550" data-attributes="member: 22424">Speaking for my campaign, yes.Generally, it's a matter of stopping Evil actions and actively engaging in Good actions, allowing the scales to gradually tip from the one to the other. However, an extremely dramatic single act can make the change in one fell swoop, but only if it involves extreme sacrifice (cf. Darth Vader - taking out the Emperor does it, but only at the cost of his life). Needless to say, such dramatic switches are vanishingly rare.(It works in reverse, too - a character can slip away from being Good by accumulating 'small Evils', or through a single dramatic Evil act. But it's easier to move from Good to Evil - my campaign is cruel like that.)Incidentally, in my campaign both Good and Evil are active things. Not acting is always unaligned - regardless of the outcome of that inaction, what it would have cost to act, or any other factors.All this is up to the player.Yes.Since IMC alignment is an aggregate of actions, this is a non-issue. At the 'tipping points' it's hard to say what alignment a character is now - I generally don't have such a character show up on the applicable detect spells at all. (Of course, a character almost never shifts from Good direct to Evil, or vice versa - there's always Neutral in-between.)I don't. The PCs can use detect spells, they can use their Sense Motive skill, or the players can make a judgement based on my role-play. Ultimately, though, they have to make up their own minds.Yes, but actions are overwhelmingly more important. A character who really and genuinely wants to be good, but who somehow can't help himself from murdering, torturing and stealing, is Evil.Yes, and there are many. "I'm only doing what I must." "It's for the greater good." "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of these few." "My country, right or wrong." The list goes on. IMC, people are rarely absolutely honest with themselves about their every motivation, or about the true state of their souls.Such a character would be Good, or perhaps Neutral (Unaligned), depending on how they have acted towards the members of their tribe. However, if they then find themselves interacting with outsiders, and start mistreating those others, the character would very quickly tip towards Evil.Bear in mind that IMC a culture may declare that following a certain moral code makes one Good, but that doesn't make it so. A culture may well be wrong. (Indeed, IMC there are no cultures that have 100% understanding of Good and Evil.)IMC, such a Paladin would not remain so for very long. Not because of a lack of mercy (as you say, they're guilty), but rather due to a lack of justice. By slaying the truly repentant, but failing to slay the unrepentant, the Paladin is failing to be just.However, you've reminded me of another problem I have with alignment, particularly as it applies to Paladins: far too many Paladins are far too quick to deal out death and judgement (often in that order). It's almost as if they wander around town, use detect Evil on everyone they meet, and slay anyone who 'pings'. But justice is more nuanced than that - not every crime deserves the death penalty, and neither does everyone who shows up as Evil. (And, besides, even when they do deserve death, sometimes there is a greater need for mercy. The Paladin has to somehow balance both.)(Of course, the above applies to pre-4e Paladins. The requirements are rather less for 4e Paladins.)</blockquote>

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