Looting tombs as a paladin

Frakas

Hello,
Do you loot tombs when roleplaying as a paladin ? Specifically do you loot the catacombs on candlekeep ?

scriver

Well you've got to go in there and check if there's any undead up and about that you need to cleanse. That's just Proper Paladin Procedure. Confiscating equipment that could possibly be used by the undead in a hypothetical zombie uprising is simply public safety maintenance. All for the greater good I say!

MERLANCE

The dead are already up and walking around, so it has gone from "desecrating a tomb" to "looting monsters treasure hoard"

tbone1

I give it to a worthwhile charity, like The Home for Unwed Fathers or Doctors Without Border Collies.

I try not to loot unless it is important for the plot. With things like liches and vampires, though, it’s easy to headcanon that they have ill-gotten booty.

scriver

tbone wants to tap dat booty

JumboWheat01

Hey, if you don't take those items, it's possible someone else with ill intent will do so and turn those items on innocents. I like to think of it as... preventive maintenance.

OrlonKronsteen

Presumably, your paladin follows the one, true religion. It's not really looting if the tomb is a monument to false, heathen gods. Should the tomb and those buried there happen to share the paladin's faith, just follow all the solid and philosophically sound reasoning above.

Elendar

The paladin doesn't loot the tombs. Imoen does.

Grum

It really depends. Use your best judgement. If the tomb is in the graveyard and is being tended to by someone, don't loot the place. The undead guardians? They probably have a permit for them. That's not cool.

Find yourself in a time-forgotten tomb that is overrun with monsters? Loot the heck out of it. Because some hobgoblin warband is going to wander past. Think it is annoying coming across a group of them under the copper cornet, casting hold person on you? That'll be much worse when they have +3 weapons to some innocent with as well.

Also, don't sell obviously evil pieces of equipment. Take it back to the Order's HQ and stash them away. The other paladins will keep them safe.

The same goes for paladin specific gear that you aren't going to use. Don't sell that awesome bastard sword just because you are using a better greatsword. Give it to some young paladin who can put it to good use. You know that if you sell it, it will just end up being sold back to the order for an exorbitant cost.

Frakas

I see... Thanks for your inputs. It makes sense.

Since the catacombs are invaded by undeads and others i will loot the tombs even though Tethoril said to not disturb them.

TheElf

Sometimes BG almost forces you to ignore these things. I mean, half the fun in the first game happens inside locked houses that no good character could really justify going into.

tbone1

scriver said:

tbone wants to tap dat booty

You know, the first five things i thought of would get me thrown off this forum so fast you'd think the mods were made of tachyons. But I will say:

If we're talking Branwen, I won't say you're wrong. Now I need to decide if I want iTunes to play Yank Rachel's "Tappin' That Thing" or maybe Pinetop Perkins' version of "Big Fat Mama".

scriver

Frakas said:

I see... Thanks for your inputs. It makes sense.

Since the catacombs are invaded by undeads and others i will loot the tombs even though Tethoril said to not disturb them.

I also don't think the massive corpse piles and such is an intended feature of the catacombs. Those are there either because that's where the doppelgangers are dumping their victims or because the ghouls and similar monsters have already breached the tombs and dragged the interred out there to feast (they sustain themselves by eating corpses, after all). Or both. The doppelgangers dumped a couple of bodies down there, which attracted the ghouls, which then started tearing the interred out of the walls because moar food is bettar.

Zaghoul

If you can take Kagan with you in BG1,( tryin to teach him about the pitfalls of greed n such, of course), he can maybe help ya to decide. After all, he says 'tis more blest to give than to receive', heh.

Chronicler

I mean, if you really get down to it looting in general isn't very paladin-like. A Noble Warrior shouldn't really be rifling through dead people's pockets looking for loose change.

It's such a videogame trope though. You can't not do it.

Mantis37

I didn't loot the Graveyard in my last playthrough as Paladin-esque character. It didn't feel appropriate.

semiticgoddess

I once did a roleplaying run where I never looted bodies because touching dead people is gross. It was also a no-reload run with no metaknowledge allowed.

Lavok killed the entire party with Dragon's Breath. That's what roleplaying does to a no-reload run.

Redrake

semiticgod said:

Lavok killed the entire party with Dragon's Breath. That's what roleplaying does to a no-reload run.

Rest assured (and in charred pieces). Your team got better rewards in the afterlife.

deltago

You are reading the tomes and placing them back where you found them.

It is a library after all.

"..but I remove them from the crypt to identify them first!" you say.

You are just checking them out of the library and an teleportation spell returns them after an a lotted time.