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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7569311" data-attributes="member: 82106">OK, not to get into a rules p***ing contest or anything, but when I comment on the rules of OD&D or AD&D it is because I can pretty much quote them chapter and verse. I'm sure you are well acquainted as well, but my point is I'm not misunderstanding or showing some lack of knowledge about any of the rules. I am speaking my opinion and idea about how those rules work and what they represent, from a well-informed position. It is actually pretty hard, from a general description to distinguish a paladin from a cleric, they are both armored guys who are likely to bolster themselves or other party members with healing, wear the heaviest grades of armor, and often engage in melee combat. Both also refrain from the use of missile weapons (though technically clerics can use the sling and the logic for why they don't use bows is somewhat differently explained than for paladins). While it is true that clerics have wider alignment choices, at first level anyway, in AD&D changing alignment is a very punishing experience, especially for a cleric or paladin. Neither one would do so and retain their powers intact, though a cleric will suffer a bit less and can regain his. Still, thematically and in terms of general play they are both pretty tightly constrained, it is just that clerics can take the evil path, whereas this is generally a house-rule for paladins.Nobody argues that the two classes have the same mechanical implementation or that they were designed by the same process. What we argue is that they are largely aimed at the same general thematic territory, a godly warrior. I'd argue that the cleric is very essentially misnamed anyway in that he does NOTHING in the way of promulgating his religion, caring for its adherents, etc. He's really very much thematically like the paladin, he goes where evil resides and he smites it! Of course there are specific characters you would make as a cleric and others as a paladin, the mechanics are not identical, but they are still very close relatives.</blockquote>

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