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My Paladin killed a child molester (and now my DM wants to take away my powers!)
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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 1573316" data-attributes="member: 3424"><p>You know, after thinking over the issues for a long while, I've come to the conclusion that this thread isn't about paladins, or honor, or justice, or laws. It is about a fundamental difference of opinion that will probably never be resolved.</p><p></p><p>Under conditions of uncertainty, any system to determine whether something is one thing or not suffers from two types of errors: the false positive (the thing is found to be something it actually is not) and the false negative (the thing is not found to be something it actually is). In the case of a judicial system, or a paladin acting on behalf of such a system, the two types of errors are: an innocent is found guilty and punished, or a guilty party is found innocent and released. As mentioned, under conditions of uncertainty, there is no way to avoid either type of error. You can only choose which you would rather be wrong about, by either requiring more or less extensive proofs of guilt or innocence.</p><p></p><p>In the scenario mentioned by Vindicator, the evidence that the man was guilty was very strong, and the chance that he was actually innocent was very small. As such, it is understandable why the overwhelming concern of those who cannot stand to let a guilty party go free is to punish the evildoer with as much certainty as possible. On the other hand, to those who would rather allow a guilty party to go free than see an innocent man punished, even the very small chance that the man was innocent makes it too risky to kill him without finding out more.</p><p></p><p>If this is indeed the fundamental disagreement, no amount of discussion about codes of conduct, or honorable behavior, or the lawlessness of the society will ever get us anywhere.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 1573316, member: 3424"] You know, after thinking over the issues for a long while, I've come to the conclusion that this thread isn't about paladins, or honor, or justice, or laws. It is about a fundamental difference of opinion that will probably never be resolved. Under conditions of uncertainty, any system to determine whether something is one thing or not suffers from two types of errors: the false positive (the thing is found to be something it actually is not) and the false negative (the thing is not found to be something it actually is). In the case of a judicial system, or a paladin acting on behalf of such a system, the two types of errors are: an innocent is found guilty and punished, or a guilty party is found innocent and released. As mentioned, under conditions of uncertainty, there is no way to avoid either type of error. You can only choose which you would rather be wrong about, by either requiring more or less extensive proofs of guilt or innocence. In the scenario mentioned by Vindicator, the evidence that the man was guilty was very strong, and the chance that he was actually innocent was very small. As such, it is understandable why the overwhelming concern of those who cannot stand to let a guilty party go free is to punish the evildoer with as much certainty as possible. On the other hand, to those who would rather allow a guilty party to go free than see an innocent man punished, even the very small chance that the man was innocent makes it too risky to kill him without finding out more. If this is indeed the fundamental disagreement, no amount of discussion about codes of conduct, or honorable behavior, or the lawlessness of the society will ever get us anywhere. [/QUOTE]
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