D&D 5E Ok I have to ask..... what's with the Paladin hate on here?

[77IM]

So lowkey13 trained for years, physically and mentally, to become the ultimate paladin-fighter. Wearing a black cloak and cowl, he donned the mantle of an avenger!

Then, in 5th edition, the paladin class killed the avenger class and took its stuff.

When lowkey13 converted to 5e, he became a vengeance paladin, and only then realized: he had become the very thing that he hates!

 

[Satyrn]

Have any of you seen or designed or heard of Paladin Codes of Conduct or similar for alignments other than LG? For LG it's easy to base such a thing on the medieval Code of Chivalry, but for other alignments...???

Lanefan

Are you talking about 5e? Instead of the code being based on alignment, each oath has a brief outline.

3e's Unearthed Arcana had alternatively aligned paladins - CG, LE and CE varieties - each with a description of how they ought to act.

 

[Draegn]

Originally Posted by Lanefan
Have any of you seen or designed or heard of Paladin Codes of Conduct or similar for alignments other than LG? For LG it's easy to base such a thing on the medieval Code of Chivalry, but for other alignments...???

Lanefan



Are you talking about 5e? Instead of the code being based on alignment, each oath has a brief outline.

3e's Unearthed Arcana had alternatively aligned paladins - CG, LE and CE varieties - each with a description of how they ought to act.

There are several mentioned in The Dragon 106.

https://annarchive.com/files/Drmg106.pdf

 

[transtemporal]

Especially if you're playing in a Warcraft setting. These relationships are always doomed

Aren't paladins always doomed in Warcraft? I never played in the setting but I remember there was that dude who goes nuts and kills a bunch of people in a town for some reason?

 

[Zilong]

That'd be Arthas, the paladin/prince who would eventually become the Lich King.

 

[gyor]

Old-school baggage, I suspect.

In days of old when Paladins were notoriously fussy about the company they would keep (no evils, chaotics only on the very short term) someone sticking a Pally in a party had a lot to say about what anyone else could play; due to these restrictions. This - quite rightly - gave them a bad name.

They have yet to recover.

This, in editions prior to 4e Paladin's suffered from really bad, counter productive design, which began to change in 4e and 5e.

 

[Zardnaar]

A Paladin ran over my cat. To be fair cats are CE.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm working on a Nentir Vale setting book using only the Basic Rules only, with each classes having archetypes related to in-setting stuff and made Barbarian (Wrathbearer), Rangers and Paladins Fighters archetype, keeping their main features has archetype abilities.

I did a similar thing with my attempt to fix the classes. My fighter-equivalent class gains their sub-class through devotion to a higher cause: If you want to defend people, then you become a Paladin and get healing/defense spells; if you want to hurt people, then you become a... I forget the name, maybe Blackguard or Dark Knight... and you get destruction spells; if you just want to fight because you like fighting, then you become a Sword Saint and get extra fighting styles and maneuvers. Everyone gets four attacks and Action Surge, but I fixed Action Surge so that you can't take the same action twice - instead of eight attacks being the obviously correct choice, Paladins get to make four attacks and probably cast a healing/defense spell, wrath guys get to make four attacks and probably shoot a destruction wave or something, and Sword Saints will probably give themselves advantage on their four attacks.

 

[Lanefan]

Are you talking about 5e? Instead of the code being based on alignment, each oath has a brief outline.

3e's Unearthed Arcana had alternatively aligned paladins - CG, LE and CE varieties - each with a description of how they ought to act.

That's what I'm after...but I don't own 3e's UA. I'll see if I can borrow a copy...

There are several mentioned in The Dragon 106.

https://annarchive.com/files/Drmg106.pdf

Thanks!

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

Aren't paladins always doomed in Warcraft? I never played in the setting but I remember there was that dude who goes nuts and kills a bunch of people in a town for some reason?

That was Arthas, who eventually merged with the Lich King (the Lich King is actually Ner'zhul's spirit inhabiting the crown that Arthas wears while merged with him; it's complicated). He did it to stop a zombie plague, as everyone was already infested and in the process of turning.

There's also hints throughout that storyline that Arthas himself may have been infected with it at some point, and slowly turning into the undead himself. But I don't think those were carried over into WoW.

But in WoW, paladins do rather well and a lot of good despite their previous failures. So... I guess it's a draw?

Any case, the Arthas storyline is a great example of a paladin turning to extremism and falling to evil.