Quote Originally Posted by Deepbluediver View Post
If a rogue breaks into a building, loots everything inside, and gets caught by a member of the city watch on the way out, he just bluffs/diplomances his way out of it.
Yeah, diplomacy needs fixing. (Bluff less so, as if you're not careful you'll rack up some pretty severe sense motive bonuses. I'd estimate your examples as +15, +10, and +60 (less if he actually didn't see the attack) or more respectively.)

Then we have the paladin and it's more like "Despite your unswerving dedication to the forces of good, the countless lives you've saved, and the hordes of demons you've sent back to the abyss, you slipped up so now you are no longer worthy to be the champion of righteousness thankyouandgoodbye."
Yeah, a minor slip-up shouldn't be the end of it. Major things should require atonement, though.

Just because you don't worship or derive power from a particular god or pantheon doesn't mean they don't take in active interest in you anyway. A goodly diety might consider it a favor to a Lawful Good character, even if they're not a paladin or cleric, that this is gonna show up as a black mark on your permenant record/eternal soul.
Oh, that particular diety is going to be unhappy. But unless it's a setting with an active overgod or the like, they can't really do much without provoking a reaction from the opposite-side gods (and probably neutrality as well.)

This is a FANTASY setting here, and I think just about every cosmic power would like to recruit as many people as it can into it's own side.
But not as much as it wants to keep the others from going overboard with the same. The result is a sort of cold war where they mostly keep out of mortal business. (Otherwise, why do you need clerics, rather than just the deities doing whatever on their own?)

To get a little off topic, think about Miko Miyazaki from the OotS (I assume you read the comic).
Naturally.

As a guide, not as a fence with an invisible, often moving line where they shoot you in the knees if you step one toe outside it.
I'd say that at least LG (and especially for a paladin) needs to be more than a guide. But some leeway is definitely needed. My rule for paladins, based on what the PHB actually says, would be that minor violations of the code will not cause you to lose your abilities, but major violations (e.g. the one that actually lost Miko her powers) would, as would a pattern of behavior that is not lawful good.