Is there anything really wrong with the idea of an evil Paladin?

[Alchemist]

Okay, so don't call the new class Paladin, since the word Paladin has too much baggage attached to it.

Call it...Defender of the Faith!

Holy Warrior!
"God's name"'s chosen! I.e. Pelor's Chosen!

Or whatever. You don't even have to use the exclamation point if you think it's inappropriate.
I think the name "Paladin" irrelevant to the point I think MerakSpielman is trying to explore, but rather why only goodness has granted mortal devotees power, and only Lawful Goodness.

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

Is there anything really wrong with the idea of an evil Paladin?

Is there anything "wrong" with "evil"? ... um ... yes?

All kidding aside here's my $0.02:

PRO: Your campaign! Go for it! Shadow Knights ahoy! Have fun storming the castle and remember to pillage before you burn.

CON: Paladin's are good's special thing. As noted above, evil has lots of special things including assasins and blackgaurds. Why bother with the alignment-switcheroo?

IMHO of course.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Well, I think you can have good assassins, too. James Bond, for instance.

But that's a whole 'nother thread.

BTW, in my next campaign, Evil is going to have quite an edge over Good. The forces of Good will have been steadily diminishing for around 400 years. I might expect Shadow Knights (love that name) to be MORE common than traditional paladins.

 

[ced1106]

Pick up AEG's Evil. One interesting comment they have about Evil is that evil usually creates a scheme, Good usually foils it. So my issue with an Anti-Paladin isn't morality or playability as rules, it's whether or not the **player** is able to create these schemes, rather than wander from helpless town to helpless town (that would be more Chaotic Evil behavior, IMO).


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[F5]

If you subscribe to the idea that a paladin is a warrior driven by the strength of his convictions, there's nothing wrong with an evil paladin that isn't also wrong with, say, a Lawful Neutral Marxist paladin who fights to uphold the rights of the peasant proletariat. Which, come to think of it, is actually pretty Wrong. But, whatever.

As to the argument that paladin is a core class, while blackguard is a prestige class, I'm of the opinion that paladin should be a prestige class, too. You've got to prove the strength of your convictions before you get the powers to go along with it. I don't allow anti-paladins in my game, but I don't have any problem with the Champion Of Evil. The only problem I have with an Anti-Paladin that's nothing more than a mirror of the good paladin is that I find the idea boring. To me, a necromancer lich makes a better Champion of Evil than a paladin who can inflict wounds by laying on hands. Just more fun all around.

I would consider lettting a character to play a character who was devoted to "being bad" only if he had a long, black mustache that he twirled constantly. And wore a black top hat. It would help if the character was named "Baron Von-something".

 

[Outlaw]

#1. D&D is a game of heroes.

Maybe yours, but I've run the gammet on what kind of D&D games I've run. Heroic, evil and everything in between.

 

[Nikchick]

If you'll pardon the shameless plug, this is exactly why Green Ronin agreed to do this book:

The Unholy Warrior's Handbook

A Master Class Sourcebook
for the d20 System
Written by Robert J Schwalb
Cover by Kyle Anderson
80 pages, perfect bound
MSRP: $16.95
ISBN: 0-9726756-7-1
GRR1304
JUNE 2003

Last year Green Ronin's critically acclaimed Book of the Righteous introduced the holy warrior, a customizable core class that lets you build unique paladins for all the good gods of your campaign. But what of the gods of evil? Surely they are not without their devoted champions, their anti-paladins? Enter the Unholy Warrior, a towering figure of depravity and unspeakable evil. He wields fire and sword in the name of dark masters, spreading blood and terror in equal measure. The Unholy Warrior's Handbook gives you everything you need to introduce this core class to your campaign, including prestige classes and feats, magic items and spells, and mounts and minions. The perfect complement to the Book of the Righteous or the Book of Fiends, the Unholy Warrior's Handbook takes an unflinching look at evil's most dedicated servants.

 

[Drkfathr1]

I use a Dark Paladin in my campaign setting. Why not? And remember, most who follow the path of evil don't consider themselves "bad".

Think of the Sith.

Or the Knights of Takhisis.

 

[Jenale]

Cracked open my battered old Unearthed Arcana, just to refresh my memory. As far as I know, paladins were always restricted to lawful good, but in UA, they were considered a subclass of cavalier, which had to start out as "any good" but could change to a neutral or even evil alignment with no penalty for the alignment shift if 4th level or earlier.

Maybe splitting semantic hairs, but I guess I'd rather call the non-LG a cavalier of some stripe than a paladin. (Not that I'm likely to ever allow a paladin into my game again after I booted the one.)

 

[Larry Fitz]

This does exist in the core books, it is a PrC in the DMG called Blackguard.