Why not give paladins the ability to brand as clerics do? It seems to me that the clerics guild and the paladins guild would be closely tied, so why not let paladins brand and then the clerics could see it when/if the thief comes in for a ressurection? This wouldn't seem to be unbalancing since it causes no direct harm to the thief, and doesn't even guarantee that a cleric won't help them... and it would solve the problem of paladins being unable to appropriately respond to theft.

If not that, perhaps extend the time for accusing for paladins, since they also are supposed to have close ties with town guards.

Just some thoughts...

>Why not give paladins the ability to brand as clerics do? It seems to me that the clerics guild and the paladins guild would be closely tied, so why not let paladins brand and then the clerics could see it when/if the thief comes in for a ressurection? This wouldn't seem to be unbalancing since it causes no direct harm to the thief, and doesn't even guarantee that a cleric won't help them... and it would solve the problem of paladins being unable to appropriately respond to theft

Because brand should never have gotten into DR in the first place, it should never have gotten through QC in the first place. It was said time and time again it would be abused as much as it was and time and time again 'some' GM quoted that it would be closely monitored and never abused.. well guess what? I cant really recall any other ability that was abused so much in the history of the Game. Brand became nothing more than a tool for snerty folk to log in there clerics to brand folk they were havin arguments with etc. it got to the point you couldnt argue with a cleric without them getting all snooty and throwing a brand on you. This is not what brand was designed for. Paladins getting brand? errr no thanks....

Michael.

About abuse... it could simply be set up like HoJ to "go off" if someone tried to steal from you. That way it'd be handled by game mechanics and wouldn't be subject to abuse.

I got branded one time for halting a thief that constantly harassed me by stealing from me. The cleric was either the same player or a close friend of the thief. I later died and no one would raise me because of the brand... and most wouldn't even rejuv me. A very nice cleric ignored the brand and helped though, but he was too young to raise. Had to have a paladin come up from a completely different province to glyph me.

I tried to assist, but there were no GHs online. Later that day I assisted and they told me brand had been removed a couple hours after I was branded. Just my luck to get branded on the very day Brand was removed, huh?

The resoning was explained at a cleric guild meeting, the log of which can be found by following http://www.geocities.com/dr_skralthaen/Meeting--1-16-02.html

-Gheist

>> Pallies shouldn't get an ability similar to brand because it will be abused, heh.


So just make it something that is done automatically like HoJ, and there is no human factor involved, so there can't be any abuse.