Can a Lawful Good character be flexible and fun to play?

[Umbran]

What I try and remind my players is to adhere to the Jack O'Neill code of conduct. If he wouldn't be okay with it, neither would I. If he wouldn't do it. Don't.

Another really good example from fiction: Michael Carpenter*, Knight of the Cross, from Jim Butler's "Dresden Files" series.

Michael is every inch a paladin, and Lawful Good. But he hangs around with the main character who has decidedly Chaotic tendencies, and who dabbles with rather demonic stuff. And, if anything, Harry Dresden is a bigger jerk than Michael.


*Warning: spoilers at that link!!!

 

[EUBanana]

I've had great fun with my paladin. The basic concept was to be really angelic and 'too good for this world', so edging towards NG rather than LG. Gets sad when other characters are somewhat disreputable but attempts to strive to be an example to others, and not an overbearing boor like the stereotypical awful good paladin. I think personally if you do play an overbearing boor you're probably not doing justice to your stats, given how paladins generally have massive charisma. They should generally be likeable and well thought of, not a cross for the party to bear, IMHO.

"It was me that swore the oath, not you" is the usual comment when someone is talking about poison or something dishonourable. (The others arent evil but there are a couple of neutrals who are hardly paladinly). On the other hand she's really generous, selfless, brave, etcetera. It seems to work too, other party members help people out for free these days, she's considered the party leader even though she's humble and saying she's not worthy of such accolades, etcetera. Still lawful though, always nice to the city watch, was organising contracts and stuff when someone wanted to just steal someones house (she made them talk to the city watch and get a proper contract of ownership), and almost ridiculously, naively good.


I think a smite bot is a bit lame and one dimensional, not to mention stereotypical, but you can play a lot more than that. If you look at Arthurian knights there are all manner of personalities there, from Gawain the lout to Galahad the saintly.

 

[pawsplay]

I think many people play paladins as LAWFUL/good, meaning they feel compelled to stress adherence to rules and conventions over anything else. L/G is as much good as lawful (and maybe more so if you lawful/GOOD ). One way to break out of the mold would simply be to stress your goodness over your lawfulness.

That's actually what the rules state. A paladin must maintain a LG alignment, but loses their powers for any evil act. They could even perform acts which could be considered fairly Chaotic, as long as overall their behavior is consistent with a Lawful alignment.

 

[jefgorbach]

While it varies by DM, the LG alignment is as straight forward as any other ... namely, the character is:

* Lawful -
- they sincerely believe and follow their religion's stated dogma
- they follow the stated laws of the land (unless superseded by dogma)
- they expect others to do likewise, while recognizing not everyone can/will do so.

* Good -
- do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

 

[JRROGERS]

Look for Real World Examples

I think the best advice for playing a fun paladin is look for real world examples of folks who you think are "paladin-esque."

I played a paladin of Heironeous back in Living Greyhawk. He was very loosely based on St. Augustine. Sir Kelur had a sort of sad past--lots of wine, women, song...and regret. He fought for good because he himself had wandered over to the dark side in some ways in his early days, and he knew about temptation and all that. However, he also believed that no one (excepting supernatural creatures whose essence *is* evil) was beyond redemption.

A great lawful good paladin is a sign of hope for the people around him. I think the core of any paladin is the belief that good is, in fact, stronger than evil. Played that way, a paladin might be rather merciful at times, b/c he knows that killing an evil foe ends any chance he might have had in this life to redeem himself. So a paladin, I think, would offer redemption to any natural foe first. If the enemy doesn't accept this redemption, only then is it time to "bring down judgement," as it were.

John

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Has no one linked to Sir Cedric yet?

 

[tylermalan]

I haven't read all of the replies here, but I wanted to mention something that I usually remind myself of when considering the LG alignment:

Almost everyone that you have ever known (in real life) is LG. They generally obey the law and respect authority and tend towards moral goodness. Even still, there are a vast amount of different personality types that all fit within that framework.

Anyway, that usually helps me.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

My own opinion:

I
Almost everyone that you have ever known (in real life) is Lawful Good.

Almost everyone that you have ever known (in real life) is True Neutral.

So, not as helpful a point of view to take as re: the LG alignment.

 

[tylermalan]

You really think everybody acts as though they don't care about right/wrong and respect for authority? I mean, it definitely seems like most people try to do the right thing and have respect for authority.

 

[DragonLancer]

I think people are a lot closer to TN that most would believe.