Paladin and rogue in the same group - what's allowed and what's not?

[The Random NPC]

Last session my paladin and rogue foot into a long heated argument about whether the paladin could attack the rogue for stealing party members' things. And if the paladin would fall if he did. Our rogue has a long history of trying to steal other player's things, to the point of leading to long yelling matches.

Last session is particularly memorable because the rouge tried to steal a new player's ancestral axe and was caught by the paladin. Tempers that were built over a number of sessions finally exploded between the paladin and rogue. Leading into the case above, can the paladin fall if he attacks the kleptomaniac rogue?

How did I resolve this? Not well I'm afraid. I just threw a random encounter at the group while the paladin and rogue were yelling and ruled that the rogue dropped the axe in surprise.


Wow... It felt really good to get that off my chest.

Going straight to lethal damage might be a bit much, but the paladin has every right to stop a crime from happening. The rogue should be punished for stealing if he gets caught, and stealing a unique item like that is just asking to get caught. Now OCC, the rogue should probably be reprimanded, because stealing from party members mostly just causes problems, but if the party is ok with that then keep the reactions in game.