I tried not to kill neutral sentient mobs. I may have done it once or twice but I don't recall ever doing it, and I do recall having my entire set given to a neutral mob by scions whereupon I considered it lost, rather than kill the mob.

I'm glad Phaelim is making paladins act like paladins. I don't like the fact that any paladin ever gets virtues, let alone empowered, where they try to get gear like this.

Paladins don't need uber-gear. They are powerful using just the pieces they can get with request and or from evil mobs. I disagree that it is needed for playability. You don't need that gear. You should, however, act like a paladin. Your argument seems to center around the supposition that a paladin needs to be able to kill neutrals to make the game playable. I think a paladin is strong enough without this.

If the price of getting at those evils in the chessmaster is to kill a non-hostile man, I don't see why a paladin would do that. Would a paladin kill a guy who just wants to do his job as a butler? Hardly. He'd be protecting him in most cases.

The "request and kill" tactic was never better than just outright typing "k noble" or whatever, imho. Your character knows from past experience that request will precipitate an angry response so in requesting, he is knowingly provoking the response so that he can kill the mob and take the gear. He is murdering out of greed.

I realise it is a new approach by the imms because I don't agree that they can possibly have been blind to the fact that some cabal leaders and hero-imms were getting gear by using the request-from-neutral tactic. There have been so many posts about this in the past that I find it inconceivable that at least some imms were not aware. However, I think it is better that it is recognised now even if it wasn't in the past. I hope other imms follow suit and start slapping down paladin "slip-ups", personally.