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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5860957" data-attributes="member: 58197">Suppose the paladin is in a realm ruled by an evil king, whose brutal minions tyrannize the populace and levy crushing taxes. What then? Seems to me like a traditional D&D paladin in such a setting would end up looking like a shinier, more heavily armored Robin Hood.But in any case, I think the idea that the paladin must slavishly imitate the source material is rather off. I mean, all the original examples are close companions of a king. So does your first-level paladin have to be a king's companion? (Bonus points if the king is of the aforementioned evil tyrant variety.) The originals were devout believers in a monotheistic faith that regarded all other gods as demons or delusions. Does the D&D paladin have to look on all followers of other gods as enemies? Obviously not.The source material should be respected, but variations on the core theme of "perfect knight" are fine... including, perhaps, different definitions of what constitutes "perfect." There's an excellent example in "Order of the Stick," where you have an order of paladins based on Japanese samurai rather than Frankish chevaliers. Likewise, there could well be a god whose vision of the perfect knight isn't rigorously law-abiding.</blockquote>