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human
[D&D/General Fantasy] Do Paladins need to be genuine in their faith?

Can a Paladin (or a person powered by some otherworldly being) just do things their god likes because it gives them power, or do they have to actually believe in/want to do the action? 

Like, could I not give a rat's ass about the poor and hungry, but take care of them because a benevolent god grants me power to kill bandits better if I do?
gpt
Depends on the world of course.  Generally speaking they have to be genuine in their faith, their patron Diety can tell the difference.


Take Dragonlance for example.  In Krynn's history there was a time where the Gods got pretty pissed off at this one very powerfull Cleric who thought himself Godlike himself.  He called upon the gods to destroy all evil essentially.  Now during this time all the true clerics of faith were raptured essentially and removed from Krynn and all the "clerics" who were not pure of faith remained and continued to not have any real powers.  Instead of destrying all evil the Gods threw a mountain at the land, and fucked its capitol in particular.  What followed was a period of time where no true clerics existed, but many false ones were around.  They had no powers because they did not genuinely believe in the true Gods (or even acknowledge they existed).