Do paladin's require a god?

Do paladins require a god?

  • Yes, IMC all paladins are bound to a specific god.

    Votes: 103 31.1%
  • Yes, paladins are bound to a god or a pantheon.

    Votes: 75 22.7%
  • Paladins are bound to a divine force, not necesarily a god.

    Votes: 120 36.3%
  • No, paladin-hood is internal, yet strangely resistant to moral relativism.

    Votes: 59 17.8%
  • Paladins are not an option IMC.

    Votes: 10 3.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 17 5.1%

The way I see it, a paladin can worship a deity, but the paladin powers don't necessarily come from that deity. The paladin probably doesn't even know where the powers come from in many cases. A paladin who worships a CG deity might be more similar to a fighter than a cleric, for instance, the worship not being the cause of the powers but just something he does, like a rogue who worships a god of luck or a monk who worships a god of knowledge. I think piousness is an natural outgrowth of a paladin's nature, but I don't think its necessarily linked to their paladin status.
 

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In Planescape, planar paladins probably devote themselves to one of the three LG planes.

In Danton, Paladins are devoted to the One True God, whether they be of the Sol, Lun, or Celes.

In Cthulhu Comes To Town, Paladins mourn the dead gods of Faerun and commit suicide in droves over their loss of purpose.

In Dragonfeather, Paladins march through the jungles wearing ornate tatoos of Quetzalcoatl and doing random acts of kindness to those doomed to die to the Flayed Lord.

In Final Fantasy Zero, Paladins are called Crusaders and draw their power from life itself.

In An Eberron Apocalypse: A Christmas Special, Paladins of the Silver Flame ride through the streets of Khorvaire's major cities killing all the firstborn in anticipation of the Endtimes.

In most of my homebrews, Paladins gain power simply by believing they gain power, and their introspective self-judgement is the the harshest kind of all.

But it really varies with the setting. Paladins don't need a god, and clerics can quote Modest Mouse all they want. :)
 

Divine force (deity, ideal, etc)

IMC, paladin is simply an archetype of L/G Cleric (or Favored Soul)... available in the form of a PrC.
 


Gentlegamer said:
Paladins serve the cause of lawful good, and in this cause are joined by clerics, deities, and so on.
Quite so. This is exactly how Paladins operate, to my mind too. They are devoted to Good and to Law, absolutely, and without any specific need for a deity or anything else to assist - or otherwise affect - that devotion. If they coincidentally happen to follow a deity as well, fine. That shouldn't be a problem, generally speaking.
 



pawsplay said:
In The Deek of Paksenarrion, paladins don't even know who their god is.
They don't? I just finished the trilogy (for the 1st time), and I was under the impression that they knew who their patron was.
pawsplay said:
They have a relationship with at least two deities, who may or may not be the same deity.
I thought Paks was unique in that she had multiple patrons, while most only had one.
pawsplay said:
They also have a wellspring of magic within themselves, but they don't know if it's something they were born with or something they were blessed with, or if the distinction is meaningful.
I thought the powers they exhibited were from the blessings of their patron(s).
 

Part of the reason I think Paladin should be moved to prestige classes in the next edition. Does a fighter have aweapon? Does a wizard have as spellbook?

These are obvious answers, but with the Paladin, because of the flavor text and intepretation of that flavor, its difficult to answer such questions. What is a Paladin? Is he a knight of goodness or a soldier of god? Its such a campaign specific class it always surprises me that it remains in the core.
 

DonTadow said:
Part of the reason I think Paladin should be moved to prestige classes in the next edition.
Based on the overall structure and logic of the d20 class system, this is a reasonable suggestion. IMO, the core classes ought to be paired down in number and some of them made into prestige classes.

Additionally, IMO, I think that either classes should be paired down to their essentials and make multi-classing necessary to pick up non-core ability (ex: any class that wants to advance in "fighting skill" should have to multi-class in Fighter) or that every class should be treated as a prestige class when "taken" after 1st level (Fighter has prerequisites of military service/training, has defeated x enemies in hand-to-hand combat, etc).
 

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