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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyLord" data-source="post: 7567818" data-attributes="member: 4348">Not Lowkey and not even certain what the debate really is about...BUT...From what I gather...The Cleric originally was supposed to give another spin.  By that, I mean that they had the Fighting Man and they had a Magic-User.  However, they wanted something that was both, but not as powerful.  Thus, they made the Cleric.  It had better fighting ability than a Magic-User but not quite as great as the Fighting Man.  It could cast spells, but they were not as much attack spells and were useful in other manners.Later, as other classes were added, the Cleric still remained, but became more of the Holy Man/Priest type idea, but the type that went to Battle.You could say the backgrounds were similar between the Cleric and the Paladin.  The Cleric would be more like the Bishops in history that went to battle.  Clergy men that were related to nobility actually did, at times kit up in full armor and horseback and went to battle.  They could be seen as those Clergy that went to battle alongside the Crusaders, providing holy ordinances to them, but at the same time also readily kitted to fight.Another way to look at it would be the legends of Charlemagne.  While Charlemagne had 12 Paladins, I think the Cleric would have been based more on the idea of the Bishop that fought alongside Charlemagne while the Paladin would be more akin to the generic Charlemagne Paladin.  This means that Paladins were a Knight and a Noble in every accounting for the idea, however they were also ordained or blessed by the Church to be defenders of the Faith and thus in legend supposedly also had the hand of the Divine to protect them and lead their arms in battle.Thus the Battle Clergy were direct conduits and could do all the holy ordinances or items for worship in the field, but also were doughty warriors.  On the otherhand, the Paladins were more like protectors of the church (even as they were also landed gentry in the case of Charlemagne) with Charlemagne being the prime example of a Paladin (who was blessed [some would say by force] as the Holy Roman Emperor and Defender of the Faith).  Others built on these ideas, but I think it was this understanding of myth and legend as taught in schools back in the day of Gygax and Arneson (and others) that probably inspired the backgrounds.  Of course, there were also the novels and books, but they also had a common denominator that the rest of those of that generation also understood in relation to where these ideas were coming from.</blockquote>

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