Pretending to be a Paladin

[Grayhawk]

You can justify your light armour as a requirement of the poverty vow you toke as a member of your order

Great idea!

Possible character development:

If this character is in it for the long haul, he might start out with any kind of neutral alignment, cynically pretending to be a Paladin. Over the course of many levels, he'll have to act very Good to keep up appearances. Now, what if he actually starts liking to be Good? Seeing the results of the good he does may start to influence his thinking, and he may start to do good just for the sake of it. And so, he may let his cynicism give way, as he drifts towards a Good alignment, maybe even Lawful Good! In the end, he may even think he's 'seen the light' so much, that he wants to become a real Paladin, though that will propably take a great act of self sacrifice or atonement.

If he ends up this way, you'll surely have a Paladin with a unique backstory!

 

[Piratecat]

The first time you get a cold, you're screwed.

 

[CRGreathouse]

The first time you get a cold, you're screwed.

So what are you suggesting, Great Fortitude?

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's a great idea, but without lay on hands you'll never be able to fool the players. If you're ever affected by magical fear that will also give the game away.

 

[tensen]

I actually suggest a bard instead of a straight rogue... due to the posisbility of healing spells later on. It was actually something I was intending to do as a character at one point.

 

[Terwox]

Yeah, I'd go with a fighter/bard... could even take ranks in ride and talk to your horse.
(If you took the spell speak with animals, you could even not be faking it, and if the DM was nice you could have a smart horse who was in on it with you.)
(If you had an incredibly nice DM, the horse could even take up your slack in abilities, and lay on hooves for you.)
If you don't mind too much, you could also go fighter/bard/rogue, and just run the gamut. You'd have a high use magic device, which might be useful.
And touching someone with a cure spell is kinda close to laying on hands, anyway.
Oh well. Make sure you ask for fractional BAB progression if you do lots of multiclassing and everyone else isn't. Not a big deal, but it would help, especially as paladins are sposed to be buttkickers.
And if people are opposed to paladins sneak attacking, you might some trouble there, chuckle... I'm certainly not, but I'm just a vocal minority in that regard. Yepyep. anyway, done.

 

[Woas]

I think there could be made a case for both Bard or Rogue for this character. Straight bard works pretty good. Rogue seems to needs some help from multiclassing into cleric, but if done, could work really well.

Pros for Bard: The bard gets some healing magic and buff spells, like a paladin, which could help out on the con. Also, bardic knowledge would really advance the character as you would be able to 'know' a lot of things only a Paladin might know.

Cons for Bard: You can't really use your main bardic ability to inspire the party members with your bard song. I guess maybe you could pass this off as that you are mechanical wise, a bard/paladin. But the ploy will be greatly hindered, I think.

Pros for Rogue: With a lot of skill points, you could easily take some cross class Knowledge Religion, or if need be, take a level of cleric to Un-Cross Class it. Your sneak attack could look like a Smite Evil attack.

Cons for Rogue: You can't cast any spells naturally, they must all be from scrolls or wands. You'll need to spend your feats on weapon and armor proficiencies to wear stuff 'normal' paladins wear. Your sneak attack could look like a Smite Evil attack on the wrong target and give it away.

I dunno, it's a hard choice. A level or two of cleric with rogue could really help out. You could cast some spells, wear heavier armor, Know (Religion) as class skill, AND you would have a little bit of Turn Undead, which a paladin also has.

Overall though, I think its a real cool character idea.

 

[Castellan]

The first time you get a cold, you're screwed.

Nahh... I'll just make sure he has lots of zinc! Oh, and Nyquil.

 

[reapersaurus]

I hate the concept.

It perpetuates the steroetype that all paladins must be Dudley Do-Rights, and go around waving their Paladin-ness in so many people's faces, that the world actually views them as a Class, and not as just individuals.

I've seen this character concept in action before, and the person who played it distinctly believed that Paladins were a cliche, and played it to the hilt.

 

[drothgery]

Cons for Bard: You can't really use your main bardic ability to inspire the party members with your bard song. I guess maybe you could pass this off as that you are mechanical wise, a bard/paladin. But the ploy will be greatly hindered, I think.

Or you could just use oratory as a your perform style. Giving speaches to rally the troops seems perfectly in-character for a paladin, after all.