party Paladin and his army

[IcyCool]

I don't want to spoil his fun. I know he just loves this character of his. But the situation is starting to spoil my fun. There has to be some way to balence everybody's fun.

Talk to the DM. Talk to the DM. Talk to the DM.

Also, what do you want to use the army for? Perhaps if your character made that same, passioned plea to the Paladin, you might be able to suggest a course of action to him?

 

[Elf Witch]

If he has a good in-game reason to be a bit suspicious of the party's motives, I don't see why he wouldn't give such orders. Also, unless it's plot critical, why is it that you are upset that the Paladin won't let you play with his army? You could always pick up the leadership feat and get your own.

Well, my character is a little upset after all they belong to the same group. A group called the Defenders of the Faith made up of the good alinged churches in Kalamar. My orders are to keep the paladin safe and help him accomplish his mission. My character is a trained soldier who before joining the defenders commanded some of Kalamar legions. The paladin has no training at all when it comes to commanding an army. He wants my help training them and my advice on things military. My character has given him no reason to distrust her she is lawful good a foolower of the Valiant who is all about honor and loyalty and chivalry.

It made no sense that he would make this order. And it kind of dumb it tells the army that he does not trust the party. So what happens if something happens to the paladin and we are faced with dealing with his 250 followers in the middle of a crisis. The chaos could cost us all to die or fail at what we are trying to do. That is the main reason this is such a problem to me.

 

[Ukyo the undead]

If I had a army and a undead hunting mission, I would split the army in a few divisions and send them to places of strategic importance in the undead war. Then I would use my special division( the party) and attack the focus of the problem. The food problem would be solved or at least mitigated, since the "war effort" would be divided to different places. i would ask my Church to do the buroucratic(sp?) work and communicate with the local churchs where the divisions will be stationed, so to prepare the place to the small groups arrival.

 

[Tonguez]

Talk to the DM and make a few suggestions to advance the plot

1. The Party of Heroes

when the party saved them from being slaughtered by a group of warmages.

The party killed an undead kracken and the area is loaded with sunken ships some ancient. With our party mages and druid they have come up with a plan

it is the party who has attracted the following and the Paladin has just assumed defacto leadership. At least some of those 250 soldiers ought to become interested in the other party members eg there may be a few lads from farming background who like to hang around the Druid, a few may even have family members with the plague and who want to find the cure too. If the Druid interacts (RP!) with the soldiers positively he may get his own following - they are still loyal to the Paladin as War Leader but will also go out of their way to assist the Druid and even follow a 'suggestion' from him even though it contradicts the Paladins command! (oh and if your the trained soldier in the group - its likely a few of the lads are going to flock around you too.

I was reading Pratchetts Monstrous Company just before Xmas and the point was made therein that often the Officers were relatively incompetent and it was the Sergeant who was really in Command - this army should be working the same way - sure the Paladin Leads, but it is you who ought to be controlling them (subtlely of course))

2. The fun of Prioritising

We both are commited to finding a cure for the plague. Now her character has a lot of intrest in helping build this stronghold mine has none. As a matter of fact my character's family is in danger and in need of rescue and she has had to put that on hold because of the plague.

If the Paladin wont go to the plague then bring the plague to you! It only takes one of the 250 soldiers to get infected for the plague to start spreading amongst the troops - then the Paladin will be forced to simultaneously find a cure AND accomodate the soldiers AND quarantine the sick AND - you get the idea

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

He wants my help training them and my advice on things military.

Well this is an opportunity for you to explain the terms: "chain of command" and "officers".

250 men is too large a body without a hierarchy, he simply needs officers. Given your senior position, greater powers and proven loyalty you are natural choices. This isn't even metagaming, it is logical.

You'll probably need to point out that although he is the overall commander, undermining his officers will breed ill discipline and bad morale. He will need to learn to delegate responsibilty to the right officer.

If he does not take this to heart he should suffer accordingly.

Otoh, if he rides over you roughshod, you can always threaten to NPC him, i.e. the party leaves him to his own devices and moves on.

 

[Imperialus]

it seems kind of strange to me as well that the party saved the soldiers, the party is supporting them, and a different party member has more skills pertaining to military command and leadership what caused the fanatical loyalty to the paladin?

Honestly no matter what those 250 soldiers are going to look at the party as an elite sort of officer class even if they don't look for orders from them. The Paladin just shot himself in the foot admiting that there was dissention in the command structure. The last thing a soldier want's are commanders who are fracticious. It leads to confused orders, disorganized battles and a generally lousy life for the grunts in the field.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

If the paladin has given those orders then that is certainly bad role-playing on his part. I can understand him wanting to protect the soldiers (body physically and spiritually) but he has taken a step into the metagame realm. Heck, the party seems to be a pretty good type to still be helping along after what he's done. I know I would have yanked any of my support for the army if he did that (at least I would have if I was a PC).

Also, a lot of what has been said here concerning people in general and fair-sized armies is true. They cannot all be around the paladin at once. They'll find interests in the other PCs (what boy doesn't dream about being a mage while growing up or an army officer). They would come to you all and ask you to tell some stories of old adventures and pester you with questions. That is how people act. Also, some of them are going to get rambunctious and now follow a lawful code or even a good code. He needs you as officers to help keep control.

Talk to the DM. Let him know your view and your character's view. You don't seem too upset about this or to have taken this personally which is certainly good. Another option might be to approach the paladin's player OOC and away from the other players and have a friendly chat. Point out these inconsistencies.

Hope things work out well for you.

 

[BlackMoria]

If discussion doesn't come up with a resolution, its time to leave paladin-boy to play with his toy soldiers and build his sand castle. Take the party and quest for the cure to the plague without him.

The paladin has taken his eye off the ball on this one. Building a stronghold and training a small army while innocent people are being turned into undead by a spreading plague suggests to me that the paladin has lost perspective and he needs to be reminded in no uncertain terms that playing with his toy soldiers and building his sand castle is NOT the priority right now.

If he doesn't get it, leave his worthless arse behind.

 

[Sir ThornCrest]

Basically the Palidin is $^#@#@*!! = a lless than fortunate position.

He told his men not to take orders from you, then asks you to train them??? he is dependant on your soldering experience because he has none....I would expect the men to be laughing at him maybe even mocking him behind his back.
Basically he has just made himself a mouth piece, destroyed morale and caused disention in the ranks all in one sentence....He should be congradualated! Diplomacy is a big part of being a leader and he just fumbled his diplomacy check, he had better make up for it quickly before what he said sinks in and is to late.

If whole villages are getting killed and worse yet turning into the undead, and the Paladin is interested in building a keep or under goes any other action other than working to save saving the innocents and destroying the undead, I as a DM would yank his Paladin abilities out from under him, almost immediately!

My reasoning is he is supposed to be an example of valor and bravery to all. He is dedicated to his Palidin code, a LG god and tbound by oath to a order of knights. His current actions seem chaotic and neutral....and the last time I checked out Paladin, they were neither neutral nor chaotic. Neutral because he is not dealing with the evil threat in neighboring areas, something he was hired (?) to do; maybe he’s waiting for it to happen to him more locally. Sounds like he is forgoing his Palidinhood for politics. And chaotic because he seems more interested in money and position in the ranks; power. And he was willing to lesson those around him to raise his own position subsequently betraying the very friend’s/companions that are at least partly responsible for any success he has enjoyed. Belittling you in front of the 250 men and then turning to you to have you train them???? Sounds like somebody is on a power trip!!! Again back to my chaotic and neutral behavior deduction.

IN SHORT THIS PLAYER IF IN MY CAMPAIGN WOULD BE WARNED BY THE DM AND IF HIS RATHER BIZZARRE BEHAVIOR CONTINUED. HE WOULD BE DISCIPLINED BY THE KNIGHTLY ORDER PERHAPS HAVE HIS MEN TAKEN AWAY? FOLLOWED BY A WARNING OR A GOOD "TALKING TO" BY HIS CHURCH? PERHAPS BE QUESTED? AND ULTIMATELY HIS GOD IE. LOSE SOME OF HIS PALIDIN ABILITIES AND IF HE CONTINUED HE WOULD LOSE ALL PALIDIN ABILITIES UNTIL HE COMPLETED A LENGTHY LAWFUL GOOD DEED.

Thorncrest

 

[R-Hero]

In our weekly Kalamar campaign the paladin has managed to attracted 250 loyal trained soldiers.
So far the party has helped feed this huge group because the pladin lacks funds to do so.

You said the goal of the game is to stop a plague attacking different cities. Its time to place some of the soldiers in a milita or reserve guard on the cities that have been saved. This allows those that feel obligated to the paladin to pay back and support the ongoing efforts of all involved. They can/should gain employment with the city they are currently guarding. Even if its only room and board for guard duties rendered.

The paladin does not seem to trust some of the party members so he has given an order that this armed group of men are to take orders only from him he made it quite plain that they were never to take any orders from any member of the party.

This is odd since the soldiers depend on the party for support. In a real world command structure, the paladin would commit suicied after a week if he had to answer every question and solve every minor detail that a chain of command should be doing. Someone has to lead, but someone also has to keep up with the 'beans and bullets'.

So now it almost feels as the rest of us are nothing but glorified NPCs because we have no say in what this army does.

Has anyone else had a paladin in a game with this big a following and if you did how did it work out?

My favorite character is the paladin, but I would never intentionally gain a following that large. If there were many people that felt obligated to my paladin character and felt indentured to service, I would have my character remind them to serve the god/godess that blessed the paladin and allowed him to perform on his/her behalf.

Paladin abilities are a gift to be used in service of mankind in the name of god or goddes X.
It sounds to me like the character is saying, "Wow, I'm great!" instead of "Wow, I'm blessed!"