Paladin code of ethics (discussion)

Ahh, a discussion on morality. What should the code of a paladin be? Should he be like Superman and Spiderman and not kill ever? Should he be like The Punisher and kill evil freely.

Should he kill sleeping orcs? Should he kill Goblin babies? Should he kill unarmed enemies? I guess it comes to down to 'Honor' what is honor?

What law do they follow? Man's law or law of the Gods. What if they conflict? Man's law only applies to citizens of a society or the property and animals in a fiefdom.

What if his God's law is to eliminate all Goblins because they are the spawn of an opposing God. Does he wake them up, arm them, and then slay them?

I saw a quote from "The Unforgiven" one guy puts the dead body of Clint Eastwood's friend up for display in his bar. Clint then walks in and shoots him unarmed.
Little Bill Daggett: Well, sir, you are a cowardly son of a bitch! You just shot an unarmed man!
Will Munny: Well, he should have armed himself if he's going to decorate his saloon with my friend.

Part of war is catching the enemy in an unprepared state. Is that honorable? What about feinting in combat? What if you are completely better fighter than a lowly goblin and it is a totally unfair fight? What if you surprise an enemy you have an advantage?

I personally think Paladins have a duty to wipe evil from the face of the prime material plane by whatever means necessary. They can lie to evil to get info, kill them however they find them. They must meet honor with honor but not fall for tricks by dishonorable beings who try to gain favor by invoking it. They kill all evil and let God sort them out. Evil deserves no honor because they never give it. In the real world this can lead to dangerous practices because innocents could get hurt. But the paladin has one of the greatest tools: detect evil. They don't have to worry about being wrong they know they are right.

Rifts used to have an entire section, describing what morals and ethics certain alignments would/should follow. As well as how characters should have/had and how they are protrayed. It was a long time ago. It was a pretty good flavor text that helped people try to understand which alignment they wanted or should have when playing certain characters.

As for Paladins... it depends on the campaign. What if the example you gave above... you have a Paladin who is using Detect Evil (a uber-nerf'ed power in some games and settings), while standing by his King and protecting him. An ambassador from another nation comes to dicuss trade and such and that person is evil. The Paladin detects this and goes and slays the ambassador outright. The King yells and wants the Paladin arrested and killed, but the Paladin can claim he was "doing it for Good" and he "detected evil".

The Paladin is supposed to be some sort of Holy Warrior who serves a religious diety, but is more Martial in his focus (hence why he/she is a paladin and not a cleric).

The Knight is a Charismatic Warrior who serves a King or some such and is given power and authority by law.

Both have codes of honor and both use very similar abilities. However, as seen above, the Knight could've waited, then attacked the Ambassador with the full blessings of the King after the negotiations.

Paladins have been portrayed as "Lawful Stupid" tanks to paragons of parties and being everything from Party leader/face to prime warrior.

What makes the huge difference is the campaign setting. Eberron has a very fluid and perspective alignment heirarchy... so paladins can be very limited or very powerful, depending on who/what they serve. The Detect Evil ability isn't as powerful, as evil isn't such a bad thing in Eberron.

A funny and interesting perspective on alignment and Paladins can be found at Order of the Stick, with the entire Miko story line and how a paladin can be worse than the lich-enemy the party is fighting against.

Typically, people always forget at least one component of the Paladin. Those who say "slay everyone evil" forget the lawful part, and those who say "follow the law of the land regardless" forget the good part. The point of the paladin is precisely in the delicate balance that the player must maintain: do good, follow the law, - both of which can mean adhering to an "internal" as well as "external" or "locally acceptable" standards, - do each without annoying the party enough to get kicked out and still manage to behave like an adventurer without the DM taking away class abilities. While "the code of the paladin" is most certainly meant to be as rigid as possible, the behavior of the PLAYER running the paladin is not. The moral dilemmas are an integral part of the class, and resolving them is part of what makes playing paladins so exciting.

But, as I said, people typically forget that, and we instead end up with holy versions of raging barbarians (Divine Sacrifice + Spirited Charge in Rhino Hide Armor from the back of a Flyby-enabled pegasus, anyone?) In my opinion, that's a bad thing... but too many people have told me to stop telling them how to play their characters already, so I'll end here