D&D 5E The Paladin excerpt

[Thaumaturge]

It might be neat to roll a fighter with the Acolyte background and make him a guy who washed out of paladin basic training. He's trying to do the right thing, but keeps messing up. Have his abilities set up so that he can multi-class paladin later, if he rights his ways.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Sacrosanct]

So you think that Paladins should be LG and that elves should be Paladins while dwarves shouldn't? Yet elves are by nature more chaotic and dwarves more lawful, and your reasoning is you don't see the "stunty-race" Paladin thing? Wow, I hope that isn't the logic you use with you players. Why can't they play a "stunty-race" Paladin or half-orc Paladin? Because it doesn't fit your view of a Paladin? Why can't a half-orc be a LG Paladin or a dwarf be a LG Paladin?

Who says elves are more chaotic than dwarves? And besides. It's his game. He can do whatever he wants. Maybe it fits his game world narrative. These implications of bad wrong fun can go die in fire.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It might be neat to roll a fighter with the Acolyte background and make him a guy who washed out of paladin basic training. He's trying to do the right thing, but keeps messing up. Have his abilities set up so that he can multi-class paladin later, if he rights his ways.

Thaumaturge.

One of my first, and favorite characters of all time was Merdock, a LG fighter in AD&D 1e. I didn't have the CHA score to be a paladin, but it didn't stop me from running him like one for his entire career. If I were to port him to 5e, this is exactly what I'd do. Fighter with acolyte background.

 

[pkt77242]

Who says elves are more chaotic than dwarves? And besides. It's his game. He can do whatever he wants. Maybe it fits his game world narrative. These implications of bad wrong fun can go die in fire.

Historically throughout D&D it has been that way not that there aren't some LG elves and some chaotic dwarves but it has generally been that way as a loose guide.

I agree that he can do what he wants, but he gives no reason besides I said so, and as a player that is a rough pill to swallow when the DM's reason is because I said so. Ugh. It is one thing to say that in my world Dwarves are evil and thus couldn't be it but because they are a "stunty-race" is pretty rough.

 

[Thaumaturge]

One of my first, and favorite characters of all time was Merdock, a LG fighter in AD&D 1e. I didn't have the CHA score to be a paladin, but it didn't stop me from running him like one for his entire career. If I were to port him to 5e, this is exactly what I'd do. Fighter with acolyte background.

Ok. Let the record show you brought up old characters first.

One of my first and favorite characters was Pertinax, a Dragonlance (on the other continent) minotaur. He didn't have the stats or ability to multiclass paladin. But...story things happened...and the DM eventually let me take levels in paladin regardless of his stats.

Which doesn't have much to do with this thread, perhaps. But you started it.

And I think this will go on my stack of characters I'd like to play but probably never will.

Thaumaturge.

 

[pkt77242]

It might be neat to roll a fighter with the Acolyte background and make him a guy who washed out of paladin basic training. He's trying to do the right thing, but keeps messing up. Have his abilities set up so that he can multi-class paladin later, if he rights his ways.

Thaumaturge.

Or a Cleric who was never quite good enough as a fighter to be a Paladin.

 

[Mouseferatu]

It might be neat to roll a fighter with the Acolyte background and make him a guy who washed out of paladin basic training. He's trying to do the right thing, but keeps messing up.

Could take that a step further and make him an eldritch knight who tries to use his spells to appear more paladin-y, mimic what paladin abilities he can, etc.--not because he's evil, but because he's ashamed he wasn't good enough.

Damn, now I want to play this.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

It might be neat to roll a fighter with the Acolyte background and make him a guy who washed out of paladin basic training. He's trying to do the right thing, but keeps messing up. Have his abilities set up so that he can multi-class paladin later, if he rights his ways.

Thaumaturge.

The alpha mentions one particularly cool tidbit that's kind of the inverse of this: an "Oathbreaker" subclass in the DMG for paladins who've abandoned their oaths.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Could take that a step further and make him an eldritch knight who tries to use his spells to appear more paladin-y, mimic what paladin abilities he can, etc.--not because he's evil, but because he's ashamed he wasn't good enough.

Damn, now I want to play this.

I'm planning on making an eldritch knight. Now, I'm doing this with him.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Thaumaturge]

The alpha mentions one particularly cool tidbit that's kind of the inverse of this: an "Oathbreaker" subclass in the DMG for paladins who've abandoned their oaths.

Yeah. But the only time I get to play, as opposed to DM, is in organized play settings, so DMG options are out.

Thaumaturge.