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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 2726257" data-attributes="member: 2067">Any paladin should EXPECT to lose his powers at some point.It's not if, it's when. When the forces of evil and wickedness are arrayed against you specifically, it is nearly impossible to not have to atone for going overboard. Paladins are perfection, and if they fall short of that perfection, they should be FORCED (not just persuaded) to atone for it. Because the Paladin's path isn't for the expedient, easy and "well, you did your best!". It's for the wise and true. It's for those who have the forethought to second-guess their second-guesses. It's for those who know the value of divination and true seeing. It's for those who know to use their detect evil on the guy who was innocent until just a minute ago to find out if he drastically changed.The greatest paladins never stop pursuing the path of the Paladin, no matter how often the path rejects them. They Fall...every mortal does. But they get back up again. If they didn't, they wouldn't be worthy of the name Paladin. It is an ideal and a process, not an endpoint. You are never just a Paladin. You are always trying to be a better Paladin, a better person. Put simply, if you never expect to atone for your deeds, you aren't truly a very good person. A paladin who never lost his power should be VERY suspicious -- he's never been tested, never been tried, never had to say "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, and I humbly request your pity and forgiveness." The best and purest of us aren't universally great and pure, and everyone requires the atonement. With the Paladin, it's just more obvious and more potent on both ends.Not to make this TOO mod-dangerous, but I think that keeps them very true to their "Catholic" origins. One of the big concepts in Catholicism is the idea that everyone sins but that God forgives it all. In D&D, I think Paladins especially should be representative of this trope: every paladin falls from grace. But they all can make it better by atoning for what they have done. This means that there are thousands of paladin/fighters or paladin/clerics out there who have fallen from the path and who just haven't been able to get back on it. It also means that Blackguards are those who fell and decided not to stop, making them more extreme perversions of forgiveness and atonement.</blockquote>

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