It works for rulers who don ' t mind having to do it periodically or don ' t care about what happens in the power vacuum that ensues after their death . <| sep |> Don ' t read the lines to the actors , if it ' s not right use either actioning or viewpoints . Don ' t care about being likedBring optimism to the set but stay professionalHave a strong idea of what you want but experiment and work collaboratively with the actors <| sep |> I just used those examples to show that there ' s nothing stopping the DM from changing how other classes work , could just as easily replace cripple with a curse of some kind , maybe a druid who destroyed several forests is punished by a nature god so that they no longer have access to the same spells but now have access to necromancy spells . I would actually say that in this regard the paladins have a bonus because they know what will happen if they move away from their characters beliefs , any other class is going to be entirely at the DM ' s mercy for whatever punishment he thinks fits . Like all these things including the paladins fall the DM can just as easily be sent on a quest of atonement if he wanted , the druid could have to spend time cultivating a sacred grove , the wizard could have to complete a mission for a king ruler , the thief could be healed if he does a task etc . The bottom line , like I said before , is that this is part of the paladin class , if you suddenly decide halfway through the campaign that you don ' t want to play your character the way you made him regardless of your class then the DM should do something , even if that something is offering you the opportunity to kill your character off to make another , otherwise it ' s poor rp ' ing to just give up and change your character for no reason .