This doesn't directly relate to the UA Paladins, but it's food for thought, and I thought it would get lost in the General Discussion thread.
Moonstone Spider said:I had a thought on the PoS question. What if, instead of adding in three new Paladins, the Paladin was just given so leeway to define her own code, and all four extreme alignments are allowed? Something like this:
Paladin's Code: A Paladin gains her strength and powers from rigid adherence to a Moral Code. At character generation a Paladin chooses 5 or more rules that govern her behavior. These rules must be in accordance with the Paladin's god and Alignment. The rules also must be absolute, based on words like "Always" or "Never." A Paladin has no room for wishy-washy rules with exceptions. A sample Paladin's Code for a Lawful Good Paladin of Hyrag may be:
1. Respect any Legitimate Authority.
2. Aid all who ask for it in the name of Hyrag.
3. Never leave a comrade behind.
4. Protect the Innocent at any cost.
5. Never show Mercy to Evil Creatures.
Should a Paladin accidentally or unwillingly violate her code, she falls into a state of depression for 2d6 days during which the she spends most of her time praying and meditating on her mistake. At the end of this time the Paladin reconciles herself to the fact that she is not perfect, and is forgiven by her god. While depressed a Paladin has a -4 penalty to all rolls and saves.
A Paladin who willfully violates her code or changes gods and/or alignment loses all Paladin abilities until such time as she has atoned for her errors.
Should two of a Paladin's rules come into conflict, the Paladin is treated as unwillingly violating her code when she chooses which rule she should break. GMs should not create this situation often as it could easily cause a Paladin to be depressed at all times.
Lastly a Paladin's code may not include laws which should be a natural to the character's alignment, for instance "Never use torture" is not appropriate to a Good Paladin as she would never use Torture anyway, but would be appropriate to a Lawful Evil Paladin who might want to use Torture at times otherwise.
Paladins of the same god may have quite different codes, the gods do not choose every Paladin for the same job and give them codes that will encourage them along the god's chosen path.