I have been playing since 1980 and I've seen all sorts of people playing paladins. Some good, some bad and some downright ugly. But I don't think it is the class, because I've probably seen the same types play other characters as well. It just seems more obvious with the paladin class.
My best & worst examples literally occured at the same time. He (the player) suffered from an extreeme case of male superiority complex. I swear his alignment was Lawful Macho and that's pretty much how he played his paladin. There's a reason why some paladins are called "bucket heads" you know. He was it.
She, on the other hand, was wonderfully normal in every way. She played her paladin in a way that people would say with pride, "she is a paladin." Strength and kindness, justice and mercy, all with a smile.
Needless to say he hated her guts - no not the characters - this went to the level of the players. So when he blew the equivalent of a sense motive roll (this was a 2E game) and started heading in the wrong direction for his quest, he, the player, literally exploded in argument with her when she tried to help him. The player's ego got in the way. As a result she quit the game. He left shortly thereafter.
The biggest problem with people who play paladins is that they assume that the paladin is some sort of divine fighter, a fighter for their diety. This has been common for ages, so common in fact that whole rule variations are based around the notion. (Paladins for other alignments are a prime example.) It's taken me a while for this to really sink in; that's not a paladin.
Paladin's are paragons of alignment, first of goodness, then of law. Yes they are often fiercely devoted to deity and a faith but that's because of the law thing. I would go so far as to say that a Paladin's code overrides that of the code of the deity. (As the code is the paragon of both law and good it is clearly superior in every way.) If a paladin isn't at times annoying either the neutral good deity with his dicipline, or the lawful neutral deity with his goodness he's not playing the class to it's fullest potential.
Side note about evil. I would never claim to be a paladin in real life, never had the lawful part of the requirement. (I'm clearly neutral with lawful tendecies.) But I did have a strange experience once. When I lived in Key West, Florida I once entered a recently opened new age shop. The person behind the counter was the typical youthful girl who was bored behind the counter but needed the money. I had the stangest feeling I was not welcome, not by her, she wasn't paying attention, but by the store. It was like I was a drop of oil in a jar of water and the store was trying to isolate me from itself. I left the store. Whether or not there was "evil" in the store I can't and won't say, only it was the strangest experience I've ever had.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
