Author Topic: Paladin alignment/good acts question..  (Read 1054 times)

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Goodlad

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Paladin alignment/good acts question..
« on: February 27, 2010, 08:21:57 AM »
Hey everyone,

Im just looking for some opionion on how this reads to you.
Im playing in a game starting later tonight and im playing a prestige paladin of tyranny. (DM approved using the prestige paladin with the paladin variant)

The discussion im having relates to an "evil act".
The paladin of tyranny reads like this:

"The paladin of tyranny must be lawful evil and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits a good act"

Thats pretty straight forward.

Now, the DM is using the following guidelines in the game for determining evil.

"An Evil person is generally one who completely ignores the ethical standard entirely. They have no real motivation to do good unless it personally profits them. Evil people are unlikely to do evil for its own sake, but certainly won't shy away from it if they think it'll benefit them or make them feel good, and generally find that it does. They'll rape if they can, donate to the orphanage if it benefits them, kill if they want to, and generally behave themselves in public. They'll usually have some sort of reason for doing good or evil, but will usually find it much easier to discover reasons to do evil. "


The point i make is that while a paladin of tyranny might commit a good act, the reason for doing that good act could be to benefit himself for an evil end.
To me that says the act overall is still an evil act so shouldnt go against the paladins restrictions of doing a good act loses all class abilities.


What would your opinions on this be?

Havok4

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Re: Paladin alignment/good acts question..
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2010, 01:48:10 PM »
I think your DM has a very reasonable definition of evil for running an evil game. The only issue I could see is if your DM would cause a regular paladin to fall for doing an morally ambiguous act for the greater good, which would mess up consistency.

ShadowViper

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Re: Paladin alignment/good acts question..
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2010, 06:41:15 PM »
The motivation behind the act is what is important, rather than the act itself.
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archangel.arcanis

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Re: Paladin alignment/good acts question..
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2010, 10:58:08 PM »
Unless your DM decides to be an ass or has a really bad day i think you are fine. To me his definition of evil seems reasonable for people playing (L/N/C) Evil rather than (L/N/C) Stupid. Worst case spend some money on on one of these so the DM has to warn you if it looks like you are about to screw up. 1000 gp to save your alignment and class in case your have concerns is probably worth it.
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