D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 paladins and wealth?

[Lord Pendragon]

Anyway a LG paladin should give some of his wealth to his temple and community even if this not writted in the PHB.

This just doesn't make sense if a paladin don't give some ressource to help the people on the temple where he was trained.

Oddly, even though my paladin does give some portion of his gold to his church, I disagree with the idea that every paladin should give away his money, any more than a LG cleric should, or even a LG fighter.

Certainly charity is a fine and good quality that any Good character should consider indulging in as he can. But a paladin focused on retribution, on defending the weak, or smiting evil, is going to find it far more useful for him to put his money towards equipment that can help him stay alive and accomplish his god-given goal, rather than add a new wing onto the Church. Or even feed hungry children. What good is it to feed the children, when the paladin then gets killed and the orcs kill all the children anyway?

Should a paladin be greedy or avaricious? Certainly not. But there's no reason a paladin should be required to place Charity above his own survival.

 

[domino]

If you have someone running a paladin who doesn't care to amass wealth, show them Vow of Poverty.

That strikes me as a VERY bad idea for the vast majority of builds. That means that the paladin can't wear any armor, use most of the typical paladin weapons, and cannot have nor use any magic items at all. For a fighter type, which is heavily dependant on his gear, it's a horrible weakening of the character.

 

[Gez]

To digress in house-rulish territory, my paladin rules use a mixture of D&D 3e's paladin, D&D 3.5's paladin, and BoHM's paladin. That is to say, they don't only get a special mount, they also get a special sword and a special shield. These pieces of equipment are gifts (that they must do a bit of questing first to get) from their patron deity, and as such are not covered by a Vow of Poverty. (On the other hand, they'll be inferior to what another paladin of the same level could, by the rules, afford.)

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Anyway a LG paladin should give some of his wealth to his temple and community even if this not writted in the PHB.

This just doesn't make sense if a paladin don't give some ressource to help the people on the temple where he was trained.

Right off the bat you are presuming the Paladin is trained at some temple. That is one reasonable way to play it. There are many others.

Other than what is spelled out in the Paladin's oath, there is no logical reason to assume that a Paladin faces more behavioral obligations than any cleric, and one can easily make the case for fewer obligations. And I am not just talking about LG clerics. Yes, even CN and CE clerics should be tithing more than the paladin.

 

[moritheil]

If he's not amassing any money anyhow, he's already suffering most of the penalties of not having adequate gear. You may as well tell him to consider VoP to make him not suck as much. YMMV. I'm pretty sure a 15 pal with full VoP bonuses beats a 15 pal with no VoP and 1st-level starter gear.

And incidentally, our VoP paladin is the best tank so far IMC. Much of VoP is Cha-based, largely in part to make it mesh well with paladins.

Of course, I see from these boards that most campaigns do not include people who, as a point of character concept, do not want to be remotely near rich.

That strikes me as a VERY bad idea for the vast majority of builds. That means that the paladin can't wear any armor, use most of the typical paladin weapons, and cannot have nor use any magic items at all. For a fighter type, which is heavily dependant on his gear, it's a horrible weakening of the character.

 

[Rudar Dimble]

Actually, while many people include such rules in their campaigns, it's a campaign/Church-specific thing. It's no longer part of the class as written, the way it used to be in older editions.

Yep, in their class description of the 2nd edition PHB it stated clearly that could only keep a certain % of their treasure and all the remaining money had to be donated to the church.
In my campaigns I just keep an eye on the paladin's wealth and when I think has keeps to much money in his pouch I give him a 'divine warning'. If he still keeps the money, he's in big trouble

 

[Shin Okada]

It is specific to each campaign setting and each DM. But if you as a DM force a PC Paladin to abandon some amount of his wealth/gears, you must realize that you are penalizing that PC (and his/her player) beyond the basic rule is suggesting. In 3e/3.5e, the total amount of gear is a part of PC's power. And the core rule is assuming that all the PCs (of the same level) have roughly the same amount of wealth. So, if you force a Paladin PC (only) to give up some of his wealth, you would better compensate it in some way. Say, let the church provide holy armaments to him (those armaments are not his personal wealth and must be returned to the church if he dies ore retires), let church clerics cast spell for free, provide him shelter and indispensables at any church facilities, and so on. Don't just rob his money. It must be rewarded in some way.

 

[Rudar Dimble]

It is specific to each campaign setting and each DM. But if you as a DM force a PC Paladin to abandon some amount of his wealth/gears, you must realize that you are penalizing that PC (and his/her player) beyond the basic rule is suggesting. In 3e/3.5e, the total amount of gear is a part of PC's power. And the core rule is assuming that all the PCs (of the same level) have roughly the same amount of wealth. So, if you force a Paladin PC (only) to give up some of his wealth, you would better compensate it in some way. Say, let the church provide holy armaments to him (those armaments are not his personal wealth and must be returned to the church if he dies ore retires), let church clerics cast spell for free, provide him shelter and indispensables at any church facilities, and so on. Don't just rob his money. It must be rewarded in some way.

I do reward them in other ways. A paladin is MUCH more likely to get help from citizens and townrulers, etc. And most churches give paladins free potions of healing, holy water, etc. It's just a role-playing thing, that I make them abandon some of their wealth....my players know I would never take the game-balance away.

 

[moritheil]

Just wanted to add that I checked BoED this morning and it's never too late to go VoP, although you of course don't get as many free exalted feats if you VoP later. You still get full bonuses from previous levels.