D&D 5E Paladin, How Are You Righteous?

Your paladin is a knight renowned for courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. You do what is right no matter the cost. But why? And how do you show your righteousness?

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

Why would a person put a moral code ahead of their own safety and comfort? You don’t have to be a paladin to do so. Here are some ideas to consider. Keep in mind a paladin is unlikely to feel they measure up to their own standards and constantly strive to improve.

• You serve a higher cause. You know you are flawed and can’t measure up to the standards of your cause but you believe in that cause and advancing it. The cause is bigger than you are and matters more. You pursue justice for the weak, honor toward the civilized, and courage in battle against the enemies of your cause and your higher power.
• Innocents matter more than you. Your beliefs lead you to put others, especially the weak and helpless, ahead of yourself. You live to serve and protect. You may work closely with a village or town to keep its residents safe from enemies outside and within the settlement itself.
• The weak need protecting. You are strong when it comes to fighting. Those who can’t easily protect themselves need you to stand in the gap. You prefer to take the fight to the enemy and serve on distant frontiers so those back home live in safety. A paladin in hell fits this description.
• You know evil and it must be defeated. Evil manifests as murder, lying, stealing, the taking of another’s freedom without just cause, breaking oaths, and showing disrespect for the higher power you serve. Some evil can be confronted with words, others with deeds, and in some cases steel is needed.

How does your paladin show her righteousness? This line must be carefully walked so as to not stray into self-righteousness (being right because you say you are). As a paladin, perhaps the best way to display righteousness is through action and not through talking.

• You never back down from evil. If you see soldiers abusing an innocent peasant, a rich man stealing from a poor man, or a knight murdering innocents you intervene. Those soldiers might outnumber you, that rich man may be your benefactor, and that knight might be your liege lord. It doesn’t matter. You stand against evil no matter what.
• You are kind and gentle with those weaker than you. The smaller and more humble the person, the more you show respect and offer aid. You will give them shelter, gold, your possessions, your protection, fight monsters preying on them, whatever they need.
• You give alms to the poor, protect widows and orphans, stand up for beggars and serfs, listen to those in need, and champion the cause of the downtrodden. Your needs always come last. You defend against bandits, those in power who are corrupt, and other oppressors which might include tyrannical dragons and other monsters.
• You heal the sick and diseased, provide food for the hungry, visit prisoners to offer comfort and food and hope in your higher power, protect the weak, and provide shelter for the homeless. While your adventures take you into the wilds, you always spend the gold you recover and the powers you acquire on the needy whenever you can.
• You believe that each individual person has equal value and is made in the image of a higher power. You work tirelessly to abolish slavery, to elevate persons in minority groups, and oppose laws and practices that take innocent life and freedom. You will fight any evil that takes life without just cause and treads on freedom.

Being a paladin is not easy, especially if your best friends like to kill and loot. You may find it works best to act on your beliefs more, talk less, and really listen to where those who oppose you are coming from. Only when innocent life and freedom is threatened do you take up the sword for your cause and in the name of your higher power and bring the fight to the enemy.

 

[Weiley31]

Well NOT being Lawful Stupid is a must in that regard.

 

[RSIxidor]

My view of the Paladin is that the Paladin's cause and code define what is righteous, what is good and what is evil. While there is the classical Paladin and what they are, as described here, I've always disliked how narrowly they are defined. One of the reasons I like that PF2 has the Champion in their place. Just a simple name change does so much to shed the baggage of the class, even though the class still fills the same archetype.

 

[jayoungr]

This thread from a while ago may also be relevant, looking at the flipside of the discussion (i.e., when does a paladin not work at the table?):

Musings on the "lawful jerk" paladin

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

To me, what makes a paladin is how they behave outside of battle. Even the most villainous of PCs can fight undead and fiends, but it's how paladins carry themselves in the day-to-day that makes the difference.

My last paladin was unflinchingly kind and upbeat. He was a lot of fun to play, though there were a few moments that challenged his faith in his adventuring career. But he survived those with his faith in the world intact.

 

[billd91]

How does your paladin show her righteousness? This line must be carefully walked so as to not stray into self-righteousness (being right because you say you are). As a paladin, perhaps the best way to display righteousness is through action and not through talking.

• You never back down from evil. If you see soldiers abusing an innocent peasant, a rich man stealing from a poor man, or a knight murdering innocents you intervene. Those soldiers might outnumber you, that rich man may be your benefactor, and that knight might be your liege lord. It doesn’t matter. You stand against evil no matter what.
• You are kind and gentle with those weaker than you. The smaller and more humble the person, the more you show respect and offer aid. You will give them shelter, gold, your possessions, your protection, fight monsters preying on them, whatever they need.
• You give alms to the poor, protect widows and orphans, stand up for beggars and serfs, listen to those in need, and champion the cause of the downtrodden. Your needs always come last. You defend against bandits, those in power who are corrupt, and other oppressors which might include tyrannical dragons and other monsters.
• You heal the sick and diseased, provide food for the hungry, visit prisoners to offer comfort and food and hope in your higher power, protect the weak, and provide shelter for the homeless. While your adventures take you into the wilds, you always spend the gold you recover and the powers you acquire on the needy whenever you can.
• You believe that each individual person has equal value and is made in the image of a higher power. You work tirelessly to abolish slavery, to elevate persons in minority groups, and oppose laws and practices that take innocent life and freedom. You will fight any evil that takes life without just cause and treads on freedom.

This is where the article becomes problematic. There's a lot of absolute terminology here. Never backing down from evil is where Lawful Good turns into Lawful Stupid and people start to find that perfect is the enemy of good. Nobody can fight every evil all the time. Sometimes you've got to fight this evil over here, even if there's evil going on over there. You've got to prioritize your fights. Doing so does not make the paladin less righteous. And too many DMs and players seem to think it does, making the paladin unplayable.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I find its hard for modern "moral relativists" to play a righteous holy warrior in a world of elemental evil and chaos. I have players who think a LG Paladin should be able to cut corners a lot and the ends justify the means, adventure with unsavory types, etc. They want the powers but not the ethos.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My code is to obey the Natural Law, and values as the respect of the human dignity, helping others, trying the right balance between justice and mercy because too much and then it becomes vice, not virtue (words by Spanish king Carlos I to his son Felipe II).

 

[tommybahama]

I have players who think a LG Paladin should be able to cut corners a lot and the ends justify the means, adventure with unsavory types, etc. They want the powers but not the ethos.

I agree with your main point, but it could be fun to role play a reluctant holy warrior that obeys the letter of his diety's commands but not the spirit because he disagrees with the goal. Kind of like Jonah, the prophet swallowed by the whale, who resisted warning the people of Ninevah to repent because he wanted to see them destroyed.

Never backing down from evil is where Lawful Good turns into Lawful Stupid and people start to find that perfect is the enemy of good.

There is also Biblical precident for only helping some people and ignoring others. And ignoring some evil may be required to defeat a greater evil or a different kind of evil.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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