Merciful Smite ...or Trial by Axe!

[Claus Böhm]

Having just picked up the mantle of a half-orc Paladin-redeemer I discovered what I think is kinda funny.

The redeemer is trying to not slay evil (characters) as much as make them see the wrongness of their ways and turn them into good happy citizens :)

To this end, the redeemer has a modified version of Smite Evil called Mercifull Smite - with this the redeer can choose to inflict non-leathel damage on a smite ... The FUN part comes when you then combine this with thefact that the redeemer does not have Detect Evil so:

...The redeemer sees what appears to be an evil doer - faces them and declares 'Merciful Smite' ... if the person is actually evil he takes non-lethal damage ...if he is NOT evil he takes lethal!

Or in the words from Black Adder where the Witch Sniffer tells of the method of deciding guilty or not guilty:

..."The accused head is placed on a choping block with an axe aimed at it. If the axe bounces off, the accused is guilty and is burnt at the stake."...

LOL

[Harrison]

And all I can think about is that Tree-House of Horrors episode of The Simpsons where Marge was a witch:

Wiggum: "We will throw you off this cliff to see if you are a witch. If you aren't a witch, you will fall to an honorable Christian death. If you are a witch, you will use the broom to fly to safety where you will immediately report back here for execution."

[Mikaze]

Playing a tiefling redeemer paladin in WotR, and our group has dealt with the issue like this:

Quote:

Merciful Smite deals non-lethal damage regardless of the target's alignment.

The smite only deals the extra non-lethal smite damage if the target is evil. The same applies to the other bonuses gained from smiting.

It was agreed by all at the table that that was more in line with the spirit of the archetype(and the alignment) than the 'spares evil, kills everyone else" interpretation. It also came into play pretty quickly as the very first person I had to use it on wasn't evil and was presenting an "act right now or someone will die" scenario.

I dearly love this archetype when it's being run this way. It's wonderful for playing an unapologetically idealistic and compassionate paladin. :)

[Claus Böhm]

Yeah I agree - that has also been my suggestion to our DM ;)