Paladins: Lawful Good only and other restrictions

[Elf Witch]

If a player brought you an excellent concept for a plain Good Paladin, a truly excellent concept, would you reject it for the alignment at the top?

I am going to answer this even if it was not addressed to me. Depending on the concept I would be willing to make an exception and help design the class to fit though I would most likely give it another name.

But then I have done the same with a player who wanted a lawful good rogue he wanted a loyal to the land spy who believed in the greater good.

Dragon had some excellent paladin classes for other alignments in it.

There is nothing stopping anyone from changing things to fit what they want DMs and players have been doing this as long as the game has been around.

 

[Sunseeker]

No. These are warriors. They are not paladins. At best they are holy (or unholy) warriors.

Maybe you oughta read up on the AntiPaladin, it is an exact inverted clone of the Paladin. And what's the difference anyway? Standing side-by-side could you really tell the difference between a "holy warrior" and a "paladin"? You'd probably just see two guys wearing way too much gold.

 

[satori01]

Yes, some people support horribly restrictive rules which will irritate a significant portion of the audience.
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I hate to break this to you, but Alignment Is Going To be In 5E. So either do not let the screen door hit you on your way out, or you are going to have to do what you did in every other edition of D&D and find a way to make your game fit how you want to play.

I write this with no mendacity or malice in intent, though I fully acknowledge the bluntness of the post.

 

[GreyICE]

Alignment and "alignment restricted classes" are two different things. Alignment has been in EVERY edition of D&D.

 

[Incenjucar]

Do you actually have any hard evidence other than what you have read on a forum or anecdotal evidence from your life to back this claim up? If you have links I would be interested in reading them.

You mean the history of the game over the decades and the use of the paladin in other games since then? Basic game design principles? Western AND Eastern cultural depictions of fantasy in recent decades?

People love divine knights in shining armor. They love them even more when they can be a little bit more badass and a little less rigid. They especially love when they can choose, and even have both in the same party.

 

[Incenjucar]

I hate to break this to you, but Alignment Is Going To be In 5E. So either do not let the screen door hit you on your way out, or you are going to have to do what you did in every other edition of D&D and find a way to make your game fit how you want to play.

I write this with no mendacity or malice in intent, though I fully acknowledge the bluntness of the post.

Alignment was in 4E, too. It just kept mostly out of the way.

Before 4E, they had paladins of non-LG alignment for people to use.

 

[Sunseeker]

I hate to break this to you, but Alignment Is Going To be In 5E. So either do not let the screen door hit you on your way out, or you are going to have to do what you did in every other edition of D&D and find a way to make your game fit how you want to play.

I write this with no mendacity or malice in intent, though I fully acknowledge the bluntness of the post.

So? As people have said, alignment and alignment restrictions are not the same thing, and they've differed from edition to edition.

 

[Drowbane]

Well, isn't 5e supposed to be rather modular? In my campaigns the Paladin will be a prestige thing (not necessarily a class, perhaps more of a title + some holy powerz). Nobody starts as a paladin, it is something that is earned by good RP and uber-good deeds.

So chalk me up for the L/G bit... but not so focused on the "Holy Knight" bit the word originally described.

In short, Paladin will mean "exalted champion", rather than any sort of mishmash of class abilities.

Thats what it is in my 3e homebrew stuff anyways. Whether or not I bother to "upgrade" to 5e remains to be seen.

 

[jonesy]

Well, isn't 5e supposed to be rather modular? In my campaigns the Paladin will be a prestige thing (not necessarily a class, perhaps more of a title + some holy powerz). Nobody starts as a paladin, it is something that is earned by good RP and uber-good deeds.

That sounds a lot like BECMI. Using Rules Cyclopedia you could only become a paladin after you had already been another class.

 

[Drowbane]

My reasons for doing it that way lie with the observation that most Paladins I have seen played are not remotely "paladin-like" in play. Usually the PCs are all vaguely N/E selfish jerks... and "paladins" are usually the biggest jerks in the party.

To be fair I have also had the pleasure of experiencing some truely awesomely RPed paladins, rare as they might be.