I'm currently at the beginning of the "Racing to Ruin" module with my group, and the party just suffered some serious setback after getting their butts royally handed to them.
The party paladin, a follower of Sarenrae, called for a full retreat after being "forcibly helped" out of the encounter area. He then decided to kill the villains by setting the entire enclosed area on fire, and posting guards outside the known exits so they couldn't get out.
Instead of having guards show up at the inn (like he expected would happen), I had the owner of the building show up and demand restitution for the destruction he caused. The paladin refused him, suggested he get working on rebuilding it himself, and suggested he try dieting (I described the owner has built but had let himself go a little over the years) and called that "free medical advice".
Since this is not this character's first questionable action, I figured I would strip him of some/all of his paladin powers and redeem himself by sending him back to the "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv" module to finish the last area of that book (since the party couldn't figure out how to get in twice, since one of the players was not giving away information).
I'm looking for any suggestions on what might be a better solution to this situation, or if anybody has any better ideas I may have overlooked.
Please keep spoilers in the spoiler tag for me please, as one of my players is also a poster to the forum.
Thanks.
I don't think the godess of redemption(!) would look too kindly on one of her chosen ones who massacres a bunch of adolescent rebels without giving them the chance to redeem themselves. In addition to that, their cause might even be considered just in the eyes Sarenrae though their means certainly are not.
I would definitely and immediately strip that PC of all his powers and cut his divine connection completey. Have him find out what happened to him and why. I wouldn't even care too much about designing a particular redemption quest. Let him do the work and figure out what he could do to atone in the course of the usual adventure.
If your group still hasn't done the last part of book 1 there is not much else to go anyways but back on the island and there should be plenty of opportunity for him.
I agree with Nullpunkt.
The one thing I might add is you could give the character a vision from Sarenrae telling him that she is not happy with his action. She could also remind him that her Paladins redeem the ignorant with words and actions and only redeem by the sword and fire as a last resort.
If you have Faiths of Purity it has a good section on Paladin Code for the good gods. You might have the player read the Sarenrae codes.
To be honest mate I don't think your player understands what it is to be a paladin. I'd sit him down and run him through what it is to be a paladin and specifically tie in his character's deity. If that doesn't get a change then I'd start having abilities depowered and fade away. If the player doesn't like then give him the option to convert his paladin into a fighter, barbarian or some other martial class.
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When I first read the thread topic I thought it said, "Sarah Palin running amok..." LOL
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Geez, I consider myself pretty liberal with the paladin code but this guy isn't even vaguely LG.
I'd say sealing off a building and lighting it on fire, specifically taking care that no one can escape, is probably around LE-NE.
Commiting arson then taking no responsibility for his actions is pretty chaotic as well.
So, per your description, he has already committed both an evil and a chaotic act.
Now I have some questions about the out of game situation. Is this normally a good, mature player? If so, he may be trying to play the "so LG that it slips to CE" angle with the understanding that this will cause his paladin to fall. That can be a fun story to tell of the fallen hero seeking redemption sort. If he's normally not like this you may want to sit down with him and see if that's where he's going.
However, I get the impression that the player has no idea he's crossed the line here. I'd make sure the player knows how you view the paladin's code and why you consider his actions violations. Unless you've warned the player, I wouldn't just strip all his abilities away without warning - the type of player who plays a paladin like this will probably think that's the height of unfairness. So I'd say a stern out of game warning that one more even minor thing will tip him past the point of losing his abilities is in order.
If he's really having trouble roleplaying the code, you might try giving him a free phylactery of faithfulness and giving him warnings in game about things he plans on doing.
Geez, I consider myself pretty liberal with the paladin code but this guy isn't even vaguely LG.
I'd say sealing off a building and lighting it on fire, specifically taking care that no one can escape, is probably around LE-NE.
Commiting arson then taking no responsibility for his actions is pretty chaotic as well.
So, per your description, he has already committed both an evil and a chaotic act.
Now I have some questions about the out of game situation. Is this normally a good, mature player? If so, he may be trying to play the "so LG that it slips to CE" angle with the understanding that this will cause his paladin to fall. That can be a fun story to tell of the fallen hero seeking redemption sort. If he's normally not like this you may want to sit down with him and see if that's where he's going.
However, I get the impression that the player has no idea he's crossed the line here. I'd make sure the player knows how you view the paladin's code and why you consider his actions violations. Unless you've warned the player, I wouldn't just strip all his abilities away without warning - the type of player who plays a paladin like this will probably think that's the height of unfairness. So I'd say a stern out of game warning that one more even minor thing will tip him past the point of losing his abilities is in order.
If he's really having trouble roleplaying the code, you might try giving him a free phylactery of faithfulness and giving him warnings in game about things he plans on doing.
Basically seconding everything ryric says here. He pretty much wrote exactly what I would have, too!
Thank you all for the good feedback.
This is not what I would consider his first offense as a paladin, though I have yet to give him more than a brief warning on what I believed was questionable behavior on his part. He normally doesn't play paladins, so I think I'll be going with a more lenient approach and more communication, before power stripping permanently.
I appreciate the responses the community has given, and may yet give.
So the paladin ended up getting himself killed by a giant bird, before I could enact anything appropriate. Thank you all for the advice and suggestions. I hope that somebody will come down the line and glean something useful from the contributions.