Breaking out of the "paladin trap."

[Fauchard1520]

I write about "default storylines" over here, but the TLDR is this. If you’re playing any class with an inherent relationship to gods/fiends/eldritch-entities-from-beyond-time-and-space, then you’ve got a potential character arc laid out for you from Level 1. That's worth exploring, but I think it's wise to avoid relying on them. A character ought to be more than the relationships defined by its class features.

My question to the boards: What are some paladin/cleric/oracle character arcs you've seen that go beyond "I'm a servant of [insert entity here]?"

 

[kenada]

If we don’t limit ourselves just to RPGs, I’d consider the Surgebinders in the Stormlight Archive to be one of the best representations of paladins in fiction. They’re the template I’m using to fix champions (PF2) in my homebrew setting.

Reflecting on the clerics and paladins I’ve played and had in the games I’ve run, I can’t think of a time when that relationship was actually very important. It was part of the character color, and it informed how those characters interacted with the world, but it’s not like divine entities just showed up and had them start doing things. Admittedly, our games are more swords and sorcery than heroic fantasy, and we tend towards sandbox rather than story-driven play.

 

[Campbell]

I think it's important to define your character in terms of their crisis instead of their capabilities. What do they want and why can't they get it? A Champion can still have doubts. They know they are worthy in the eyes of their deity, but are they worthy in their own eyes? Do they struggle with any tenants of their faith? Maybe they believe everyone is worthy of redemption, but lost someone or something they value to say an orc raid. How do they square that circle?

 

[DWChancellor]

I've always seen Cleric and Paladins as being personally loyal to gods, but motivated by a sense of shared mission (the mission could be saving lives, revenge, etc.). The divine element is a source of power, but the power is granted to achieve an agenda.

 

[GaiusMarius]

Have the exact method of that bond be uncertain. A black and white moral code in a grey world for instance.

 

[Fauchard1520]

Have the exact method of that bond be uncertain. A black and white moral code in a grey world for instance.

Naw man. That's what I'm talking about. I'm asking for story hooks BEYOND the bond.

 

[GaiusMarius]

Naw man. That's what I'm talking about. I'm asking for story hooks BEYOND the bond.

Well, you could have the paladin discover that his church has engaged in some practice or event that he/she finds abominable yet doesn't break the bond to their god or otherwise have the paladin set at odds with his or her church.

Something like Martin Luther where the paladin disagrees with a corrupt but not fully evil practice of the main church.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I had a vengeance paladin who fled to the frontier after becoming a wanted man (this was all background). The paladin had been a lawman who'd murdered a man who had gotten away with murdering someone the paladin cared for.

After a few adventures, he encountered a former outlaw who knew about his past. Unfortunately, we never got to explore it as the paladin was killed shortly thereafter, holding off a pack of gnolls so that the rest of the party could escape.

 

[RangerWickett]

I ran a campaign with four paladin PCs.

The arcs of the characters were:

1. A worshiper of the goddess of love and beauty had lost his whole village to murderers, and he was the sole survivor. He needed to forgive himself and learn to heal from his grief so he could help others in the group, and eventually fell in love. When he had a chance to get revenge on the people responsible, he showed mercy.

2. An escaped slave who worshiped the god of righteous vengeance, well, initially wanted to stay far away from the people who kept him as a slave because he was traumatized. But then things escalated, he got too eager for violence, and ended up brutalizing a guy who'd tormented him. Afterward he felt hollow and broken, and kept 'chasing the high' by getting more and more aggressive and cruel, overstepping the bounds of what his god permitted. He fell, and was inches away from turning evil before the PC above pulled him back. After some reflection, he eventually forsook violence altogether.

3. A servant of the sun god who normally is all about fighting undead and healing made it his personal goal to show corrupt governments what proper leadership was.

4. A worshiper of the god of hearth and family started off by riding away to protect his home from looming danger, but eventually he saw that the group needed a calm hand to keep them together.

 

[GrahamWills]

Read THE DEED OF PAKSENARRION. It is literally the story of a paladin's arc in a D&D-style fantasy world that is both informative and fun to read