Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
So what? Are you suggesting that makes it better? Replace the gold dragon with a red dragon, and the adventurers still have no grounds for complaint when things go wrong.
Red Dragons are generally evil. Not a good model for a Paladin to follow. And yes, I would expect a Gold Dragon not to summarily vaporize people who annoyed it.

People are talking about "the villagers should have expected this" as if it affected the morality of the Paladin's actions. Why would it? If you leave your car unlocked in a bad part of town and it gets stolen, is the thief actually innocent of any crime because you were foolish? Doesn't matter how stupid the villagers were to attack the party; it doesn't change the morality of killing them.

Also, even IRL, where 'nonlethal' damage isn't guaranteed to be such, there's a legal difference between different levels of force. If someone punches you in a bar fight and you respond by killing them, you're probably not going to be in the clear for self defense.


I know that people hate the whole Paladin falling thing, but I think that "make it work 4E style, falling is not a thing" is a better solution than having them stay Good when they really aren't.