Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 4640608" data-attributes="member: 32740">I don't have a problem with individualized religious champions devoted to a particular deity, or ideal, or even alignment.&nbsp; I personally am HIGHLY unlikely to use them but I can see where others might find them interesting and useful.&nbsp; But they are NOT paladins as I have EVER understood the concept.&nbsp; The paladin came into being as a unique character class, not as a template for holy warriors of ANY alignment.&nbsp; Paladins are the extreme, polarized representation of a set of idealized, real-world associated behavioral principles.&nbsp;The Paladin is clearly not meant to be associated with one particular deity either since the AD&amp;D PH included no information on specific deities to be represented by a Paladin (not even Greyhawk deities).&nbsp; But their absence did not mean that the Paladin was intended to be seen as a sample champion of his alignment either.&nbsp;The class came about because the alignment of LG represented the end of the LINE - not just one point on a circle.&nbsp; It's an extreme that other alignments simply do not suggest much less lend themselves to.&nbsp; Lawful Good alignment simply has far greater impact, resonance, and importance to the general scheme of things than, say, Lawful Neutral ever could even dream.&nbsp; The one possible exception might be the Anti-Paladin simply as the yin to a paladins representation of yang.&nbsp; But that makes the two opposites yin and yang - not yin, yang, wan, wong, chun, chong, lin, ling, and yoi (which in any case sounds like a large law firm in Hong Kong.)&nbsp; And then I've seen arguments positing anti-paladins as either/both Chaotic Evil and Lawful Evil.&nbsp; I never saw that it made all that much difference in the end - the importance of the anti-paladin was as the even rarer opposite to the already rare paladin.&nbsp;Attempting to make the Paladin into just one of 9 alignment champions dilutes the impact that the class had.&nbsp; I also personally think it shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of alignment in general, but that's a slightly different debate that's been beaten to death.&nbsp; So, make a holy warrior devoted to the principles of Lawful Neutrality if you like (if it's even possible) but don't call it a version of a Paladin.&nbsp; Even if you give it a different name don't suggest that it's related to the paladin in some way.&nbsp; The paladin was, (IMO still is, and should remain unique.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 4640608, member: 32740"] I don't have a problem with individualized religious champions devoted to a particular deity, or ideal, or even alignment. I personally am HIGHLY unlikely to use them but I can see where others might find them interesting and useful. But they are NOT paladins as I have EVER understood the concept. The paladin came into being as a [I]unique[/I] character class, not as a template for holy warriors of ANY alignment. Paladins are the extreme, polarized representation of a set of idealized, real-world associated behavioral principles. The Paladin is clearly not meant to be associated with one particular deity either since the AD&D PH included no information on specific deities to be represented by a Paladin (not even Greyhawk deities). But their absence did not mean that the Paladin was intended to be seen as a [I]sample[/I] champion of his alignment either. The class came about because the alignment of LG represented the end of the LINE - not just one point on a circle. It's an extreme that other alignments simply do not suggest much less lend themselves to. Lawful Good alignment simply has far greater impact, resonance, and importance to the general scheme of things than, say, Lawful Neutral ever could even dream. The one possible exception might be the Anti-Paladin simply as the yin to a paladins representation of yang. But that makes the two opposites yin and yang - not yin, yang, wan, wong, chun, chong, lin, ling, and yoi (which in any case sounds like a large law firm in Hong Kong.) And then I've seen arguments positing anti-paladins as either/both Chaotic Evil and Lawful Evil. I never saw that it made all that much difference in the end - the importance of the anti-paladin was as the even rarer opposite to the already rare paladin. Attempting to make the Paladin into just one of 9 alignment champions dilutes the impact that the class had. I also personally think it shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of alignment in general, but that's a slightly different debate that's been beaten to death. So, make a holy warrior devoted to the principles of Lawful Neutrality if you like (if it's even possible) but don't call it a version of a Paladin. Even if you give it a different name don't suggest that it's related to the paladin in some way. The paladin was, (IMO still is, and should remain [I]unique[/I]. [/QUOTE]

Verification