| alex_pally |
I just come to this topic after a problem in yesterday D&D 3.5 game with my paladin trying to execute a defenseless evil creature. The GM said me it would be an evil act and didn't allow me to do that.
Guys, I think this discussion when a lot from an single act commited to a single individual to a possible genocide act and implications of that. I killing every individual of a species that have a higher probability of evil individuals is just about the threshold of probability. What's the threshold of probability that should legitimate it? 51% of evil x 49% of good? Of course not. 99.999% of evil? Probably yes, as you will be saving a lot more innocents (from being killed by the evil race) than you're activelly killing. It's the same discussion, on our society, about death sentence.
But, really, I don't want to enter that topic because it's not related to the game I play or even it's related to the 1st post of this topic. I don't think it's about a race, but about a single individual (or 2 individuals) that was, in fact, detected as being evil.
The definition of evil as in D&D PH, p.104:
“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. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some evil deity or master.
I think, as a Paladin, I have a divine gift given by a good god to IDENTIFY if a creature is REALLY evil or not. It's not me the judge of the creature. My god is doing that and just saying me his sentence. If I "smite evil" a good creature, the smite doesn't work, right? It's not about a race being evil and I think race doesn't matter. I can detect evil in a single creatue. If I find a good or neutral Orc, the detect evil will not detect him as being evil, right? So, I don't need to care about being wrong, because It's not my choice and my god is not wrong. So, if my good god is saying to me, by his divine grace, that the specific the orc IS evil, why it should be executed, as my class is, by the book, "Paladin: A champion of justice and >>destroyer of evil<<, protected and strengthened by an array of divine powers.? Note the word "DESTROYER". So, how setting free an evil creature is destroying it? Wouldn't setting an evil free an evil act?
So, should an evil creature, ie, a creature that WILL hurt, oppress and kill others, set free to do it?
And, please, do not compare it to our real world, as nobody have divine powers given by good gods to trully identify the evil ones.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
PS. Sorry about my poor english. I'm not a native english speaker. :)