Not to mention the fact that unless you use megapowerful stuff, any poison use by the PCs will likely be of minor importance in solving the encounter, while if they themselves are poisoned, and they don't have access to the proper restorative magic, they will be weakened for days, which may be a real bother if they are in the middle of something and can't afford to take time to rest.

Quote from: CyclotronI think the inherent Evilness of Poison and Death Attacks originaly stems from their percieved honorlessness as a way of fighting...  It's normally a very cold-blooded and teacherous way to harm someone.

Surely "honour" is a matter of Law vs. Chaos, rather than Good vs. Evil (Ethics vs Morality if I've got that the right way round)

Death Attacks can be deeply moral - in the same way that using a scout-sniper to take out the commanding officer of the opposing force (thus destroying their moral and encouraging their surrender and saving life) can be a Just act

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonDeath Attacks can be deeply moral - in the same way that using a scout-sniper to take out the commanding officer of the opposing force (thus destroying their moral and encouraging their surrender and saving life) can be a Just act

But in the absolute black and white morality of D&D that is an unjust act because it is a murder, rather than during an act of combat.  Honor as D&D defines it is partially law, and partially goodness.

Quote from: DackeComplete Warrior says that if you cease to meet the prerequisites for a PrC, you lose the abilities other than BAB, hp, saves, and skills.

Me, I say that that's stupid, especially if you draw the rule to its ultimate conclusion (such as the 10th level dragon disciple, who becomes a half-dragon, which means he becomes the dragon type, which means he's uneligible for the PrC...). I think a good general rule would be that if you can't meet the prereqs for the class, you can't advance any further in it but don't lose any of its abilities unless those abilities are somehow tied in with the prereq (e.g. a Radiant Servant of Pelor who loses his access to the Sun domain somehow would lose most of the class' special benefits).

I agree with you. That situation never happened in a game so far so I don't know how we would handle it.

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonSurely "honour" is a matter of Law vs. Chaos, rather than Good vs. Evil (Ethics vs Morality if I've got that the right way round)

Yes, exactly.  Which is why it is not a surprising stance coming from EGG...  Remember that in the earliest versions of EGG's D&D alignment was a single Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic axis, with Law == Good and Chaos == Evil.

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonDeath Attacks can be deeply moral - in the same way that using a scout-sniper to take out the commanding officer of the opposing force (thus destroying their moral and encouraging their surrender and saving life) can be a Just act

Oh, I'm not necessarily arguing with you here...

In fact, I've long had a character concept for a Iajistu-style honorable knight, who studies his foe's fighting style intently for weaknesses, before drawing his sword and killing his enemy with a single well-placed blow.

He'd essentially be a very lawful, but non-evil version of an assassin.  Unfortunately, I can't yet create him the way I want to without a DM house-rule, due to the Evil prerequisite of the Assassin PrC.

If we were playing Iron Heroes, the concept would be perfect for an Executioner.

Quote from: CyclotronIn fact, I've long had a character concept for a Iajistu-style honorable knight, who studies his foe's fighting style intently for weaknesses, before drawing his sword and killing his enemy with a single well-placed blow.

Do you have Oriental Adventures? I think that there is a class like that in there.