Son of a God of Murder, Paladins, and Lawful Good

[Butterfingers]

Sorry to bring an old post up. I was reading though, saw this, and, decided to chime in.

Not all Paladins are the same, nor do all of them serve Torm.

Paladins serve all sorts of good and neutral Gods. Lathander, Helm, Torm, etc. A large part of a Paladin's actions would be determined by their faith.

A Paladin of Lathander for example, would become your classic undead hunter. In the case of Viccy, yes, he would bring her along, take her under his protection, and, try to get some sort of rebirth, bringing her into the light. Lathander demands the redemption of evil, not the slaughter. However, in game, this is hard to play out. Undead hunters hunt the dead, and, in general, do not like having to kill the living.

A Paladin of Torm on the other hand, would slay Viccy outright. She is Drow. Therefore, she is evil by default. He would also try to slay Drizzt should he ever find him. Torm is all about following the law to the letter. He is a cold unfeeling heartless bastard in my book. There is no redemption for evil, only punishment. This is what makes Keldorn so confusing for me in game. The moment he finds out the main character is a Bhaalspawn, Keldorn would spit him on his sword. If the main character was a Paladin of Torm, would he fall on his own sword to purge evil? This makes little sense.

A Paladin of Helm is a judge of sorts. He seeks the truth in all issues, then passes judgement. He would not allow Viccy to be burned. He would infact, start thumping the local peasants heads for taking the law into their own hands. He would then hold trial on the spot, and, make his judgement from there. If he deemed Viccy as evil, she would die. If instead, he gave her a chance to prove her self, he would allow her to live only under his personal arrest. She would have to stay with him constantly, under watch, till he was able to figure out her actions.

If you dig into it any deeper, it would only get more complicated.

[IronDragon]

helping out Xzar in the Harper's quest in BG2 is necessary to unlock some of Jah's later quests. Would a LG character have to skip on it because Xzar is evil?

There is no reason to skip this quest. Montaron may be evil, despicable and untrustworthy but he is, unlawfully being held prisoner by the Harpers. A Paladin would have no problem mounting a rescue attempt with the plan of turning Monty and Xzar over to the proper authorities once completed.

[Tancred]

Originally posted by Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs: before mating with any female, Bhaal assumed an avatar in the form of the species he wanted to mate with. Merely because you have some of the essence of Murder in you doesn't make you evil. You could strive against your nature, and try to overcome it. Paladins are awesome.

From a role-playing point of view, I always assumed Gorion arranged to have my character educated as a Paladin - an attempt by the venerable sage to counteract the inborn tendencies of one god by intilling duty to another. Hey, it worked. [img]smile.gif[/img]