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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3234301" data-attributes="member: 30035">I've always thought that what seems to get people off on the wrong foot with paladins in the assumption that everyone is automatically a sinner or lawbreaker. Too many players seem to think that because paladins can detect evil, they should do it all the time, on everybody they meet. I can see this really being overdone with a paladin of Torm, since Torm's dogma is all about stopping evil and corruption. I'd suggest having your paladin think well of everyone. He doesn't have to be naive, but he automatically proceeds on the assumption that everyone is good and law-abiding at heart, and that those who are doing evil or breaking laws must have some extenuating circumstances. Use detect evil sparingly, when there seems to be a compelling reason to do so. Be willing to heal the injured without checking for an evil aura first. Assume that your kindness will help to turn them to the path of good. Then when he finds out that some people or creatures are evil lawbreakers just because they choose to be, he can get really righteously angry and punish them with the full might of Torm's divine wrath. I tend to think of a paladin as the most shining example of a follower of the deity's dogma. The description of Torm's tenets in Faiths and Pantheons has some good information about the Penance of Duty code that his clerics follow, which I'm sure you've seen. That looks like a great place to start. Otherwise I think your paladin should be able to do whatever seems right to him at the time, so long as that doesn't go against the tenets of his faith. Torm's dogma doesn't say anything about "never surrender" or "never flee from battle". I think Dragonblade has a good suggestion, though: make sure you know very clearly what the DM expects of a paladin in his campaign. The biggest stumbling blocks with playing a successful paladin seem to be differing expectations between player and DM.</blockquote>

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