Hussar said:
See, now, let's look at the always be honest bit. People have given two separate examples of the paladin not being able to disguise himself to sneak into the Temple of Evil. There's two ways around that. One simple and the other more difficult.
The code says that a paladin doesn't lie. That doesn't mean that he has to volunteer the truth whenever possible. The short answer is for the paladin to promise to keep his mouth shut and not say anything. He's not lying. And, considering the greater good served, it probably wouldn't even register as a blip on his alignment.
Obviously, there are different legitimate ways to play a paladin. As long as your group is having fun, it's a legitimate way.
That said, the business about "considering the greater good served" sounds to me like an "ends justify the means" philosophy. That's a philosophy that can be very fun to play, and you can play a good character who operates according to that philosophy, but I would not play a paladin who operates according to it.
My current character, by way of an oblique example, is a druid who sometimes hangs out with the wrong crowd because he figures it's what he's gotta do in order to serve a greater good. However, the wrong crowd has recently come to include an undead priest who serves an (apparently) good God, and he's drawn the line at this point, telling the group and the priest that he wishes them well, but that if he stays with them, the cleric is eventually going to do something that the druid can't accept, and it's going to come to blood between them.
As a player, I think the druid is making a dumb decision. But as a character, it's what he needs to do in order to stick to his moral code.
I think paladins end up in similar situations more frequently.
Daniel
