Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 313872" data-attributes="member: 2804">Where is SHARK when you need him.I can't believe some of the replies here.  I don't know the particulars of this campaign world or this deities outlook on things but the paladin was perfectly within his rights.The paladin has been ordained by his god to bring forth justice to the land according to the tenets of his faith.To destroy evil without mercy.  To bring fire and death to the enemies of the light and all that is good and holy.These bandits killed good and honorable men for gold.  And in service to an evil church.  They are filth and scum, deserving of neither an honorable death or burial.The paladin is within his rights to see that they die in any way he sees fit.  This notion that there should be surrender or that they should be tried in some way is ridiculous.  If their punishment is death then surrender is pointless, either way they are going down.  And trial by who?  Before who?It is the paladin, who as a church leader and champion of the faith who shall pass judgement on these men for their crimes.  And if that punishment is death, then so shall the paladin carry out that punishment as he sees fit.  For the paladin answers only to his god or to any church elders that may outrank him.  He answers to no other mortal authority.He is judge, jury, and executioner by divine right.  Modern tenets of jurisprudence are ridiculous when imposed on a world where the decrees of the gods establish the law of the land.  When morality is a tangible force.  When dark cults, monsters and demons stalk the land.  There needs to be no preponderance of evidence and no jury of their peers.The law as set forth by the church is absolute, and if by magic these men are guilty of their foul deed then shall the paladin smite them down with all the righteous wrath of his deity behind him.The code of the paladin is not a strait jacket that hamstrings him in his battle with evil.  Rather it is a set of defining virtues that set him above the common man.  It is the paladin who is a holy warrior, a champion of good dedicated to the merciless destruction of evil.  This is not some gentleman's duel whereby evil may gain some advantage over good because good is subject to silly little rules.  The principles that often define good are honesty, justice, compassion, valor, etc.  However, it is not the principle which is in and of itself inherently good.  It is the application of that principle that is good or evil.  If a merciful act allows a villain to escape and commit more crimes, than that act of mercy was evil even though the application of mercy is generally considered good.  If a lie will save innocents, then the lie would be a good act even though truth is normally considered good.Thus when viewing the actions of a paladin it is always important to keep the big picture in mind.  The end doesn't always justify the means.  But sometimes the means are justifiable in light of the big picture and the struggle between good and evil.</blockquote>

Verification