Quote Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
So if a paladin of the Sapphire Guard happens to find an egg in the woods which they know with absolute certainty is from an Always Evil species, and destroys it, even though that egg clearly wasn't tormenting anyone, they're not Lawful Good any more?
They'd still be LG; but they wouldn't be a paladin. Killing a defenseless person who has not done anything evil is an evil act, even if the defenseless person happens to be evil. But you don't have to leave the egg there and let it grow up into an evil dragon.

There are other options dealing with an egg like that. If I were playing that paladin (and weren't playing a character with the sort of personality flaws that WOULD lead them to destroy the egg), I would probably take the egg, and find an allied metallic dragon willing to mentor the young dragon. While it's difficult, it's entirely possible for someone with high Charisma and Diplomacy (which many metallic dragons have) to slowly change the alignment of even a dragon. The resulting hatchling would eventually become one of the few exceptions to the Always Evil rule.

Actually, that'd be a pretty cool concept for an NPC. Have a dragon who's grown up like that, and become non-Evil... have the PCs meet it, see what they do. It'll probably be using disguises, of course... *goes to scribble down some ideas*