Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!nsc!chuqui
From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: response to 2 queries on paladins
Message-ID: <2680@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-May-85 01:09:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: nsc.2680
Posted: Thu May  9 01:09:30 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 10-May-85 03:09:45 EDT
References: <241@tropix.UUCP> <5105@ukc.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Organization: The Courts of Chaos
Lines: 37
Summary: 

In article <5105@ukc.UUCP> ncg@ukc.UUCP (Nige Gale) writes:
>Should a paladin judge people by their alignments, or their actions?
>When our party, in which I am a Paladin, first produced a Charter
>dictating how party-members should behave, shortly afterwards a new
>player joined us. A chaotic evil dwarven fighter, Gladys.
>Gladys stayed with the party for some time, and never did anything
>even mildly naughty (the Charter was strictly enforced by the most
>powerful faction, by far, in the party). Our characters were never
>given cause to suspect, so we never did Know Alignment.
>But even if my paladin had known she was evil, on what grounds can
>he expell her from the party? .

In this case there doesn't seem to be cause to expell the character, but
unless there is an overriding reason for this unseemly behavior, I think
the DM ought to look very carefully whether or not the evil fighter ought
to be penalized for an alignment shift... This is one case where the evil
characters have a LOT more leeway than good characters, because they can
get away with being good if it is for evil purposes (think about that one,
folks...) whereas good people who do ANYTHING evil for any purpose can get
caught for alignment shifts.... 

>>commit crimes.  This does not mean that the paladin is required to go out of
>>his way to find out what the party thief does around town....
>
>Hmm. A paladin's conscience might prick if he suspected that a party-member
>was fleecing innocent merchants. Perhaps he might ask the thief:
>"Have you been out fleecing innocent merchants?"
>"Certainly not" says the thief.

It is possible to propose that there isn't such a thing as an innocent
merchant.... Depending upon the universe, it might even be true...

-- 
:From the offices of Pagans for Cthulhu:          Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui   nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

Who shall forgive the unrepentant?