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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7818617" data-attributes="member: 42582">[USER=16814]@Ovinomancer[/USER] - your post upthread about actualising the paladin trope in D&D, and especially 5e, is reasonable and thoughtful. And it sits very well with some of your ther posts over recent weeks/months about the play of various sorts of RPG.From my own experience, the obstacles to realising the trope in D&D play aren't as great as you suggest.The first paladin I GMed was in Rolemaster in 1990. For present purposes I think RM is no different from 5e D&D - a detailed combat system, a detailed magic system, a non-combat skill system that is workable but not as detailed as the previous two. My 4e D&D game has a (literal) paladin PC, a (function, mechanically a Fighter/Cleric) paladin PC, a deva invoker who approaches every action through the lens of divine service, a ranger/cleric, and a sorcerer who is sworn to the service of Corellan and Chan the Queen of Good Elemental Creatures. Again, for present purposes I don't see 4e as that different from 5e. D&D.I played a (functional) paladin (mechanically a slightly broken S&P cleric) in a 2nd ed game in the mid-to-late 70s. That game had some GMing issues not uncommon (in my experience) at D&D tables, but not because of the paladin.Your post begins from an assumption/premise about what the point of play is in D&D. If the point of play is (roughly speaking) to solve the puzzle posed by the GM/unravel the GM's plot, and if this puzzle/plot contains (the possibility of) OP-like situations, then you're correct that it's going to be hard to fully realise the paladin trope. But I think that D&D doesn't have to be played with that sort of goal; and, if it is, I don't think it has to be as hard as you suggest to avoid those sorts of situations: just use four-colouor narration (so no orc babies, no "Your life or the NPC's" from uber-powerfu foes, etc) of the sort found in many of the classic D&D adventures.I do agree with you about the significance of stripping PC abilities. But I haven't said anything about that aspect of things in this thread, except to point to a 2011 thread that I started and that I still stand by, explaining why I think GM-adjudicated alignment tends to make for bad RPGing.</blockquote>

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