Ozymand's page

Saw mine again finally, so I made the cut. I'm hopeful that since I've only seen mine twice, whereas there are several I've seen many, many times, that is a sign that mine has a good ranking. I'm not sure that is statistically logical, but I'll hold on to that hope nevertheless. :)

Glad to see I am not the only one employing this sort of logic.

It very well looks like the DM made a small mistake about Detect Evil. It is easily done, I could see the mistake being made. Even so, a creature detecting as having evil intent does not allow you to murder it.

From the SRD, under alignments:

Good implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings.

Evil implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient.

From the Paladin class description:

Although their convictions might lead them into conflict with the very souls they would save, paladins weather endless challenges of faith and dark temptations, risking their lives to do right and fighting to bring about a brighter future.

Showing a lack of respect for life? Check

A vast majority of the Paladin class description deals with being a shining example of morality and discipline, walking the better path regardless of the difficulty, and, despite what others like Pendagast have implied, redemption is as much a part of a Paladin's goals as destroying evil, per the class description. Unredeemable evil should be destroyed, yes, but mindless destruction of one's enemies is NOT Paladin-like, regardless of your opponent's alignment.

If you want to be able to charge in and kill someone because your detect spell "pinged," you are playing the wrong alignment and class. Slaughtering a foe who has surrendered, with no evidence they have committed a crime, because they have "evil thoughts" is not something a good-aligned creature does. period.

In fact, by the vague wording of the detect evil spell, there are many scenarios where a non-evil creature, who happens to be considering an evil act, would come up as evil. For example, if the party was negotiating with a Neutral noble, who had decided to sell the party out to some evil syndicate because he believes it best for his city.

Would he detect as evil?
Is he evil?
What does that mean?
If a diplomacy check could change his mind, is he worthy of death?

What if the wererat was scared, and so was considering killing the PC's, or leading them into a trap? Did he commit a dirty thought crime?

The situation and the scenario matters, but in this circumstance, I struggle with seeing a good excuse for the Paladin's actions. He would lose his abilities for a short period (one gaming session or so) with a warning about thinking about his actions next time, something a Lawful character should be inclined to do anyway.