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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reapersaurus" data-source="post: 1842829" data-attributes="member: 1194">I think this quote sums up my main problem with the approach that's been mentioned by many in this thread:In my eyes, a paladin is not common.Having a paladin as commonplace not only strains my believability from a human psychology point of view (e.g. there are DAMN few people that are willing to lay their lives down for the common Good), but it also completely skews the balance of normal vs spectacular beings (i.e. if paladins are common, than so are anti-paladins, therefore the extremes of personality are rendered too familiar).It is made quite plain in the conventions of the class that paladins are the rarest of breeds.If they were as common as other classes, than everything written about them is suspect. I know that us roleplayers may choose them just as often as, say, a Barbarian, but that doesn't change the fact that within the genre, they should be the rarest.Remember, in D&D we are playing (what should be) a very rare individual : an adventurer. To make them (or trolls for that matter) a common sight in everyday life is to skew the dynamics of the world to the breaking point (for me).It's similar to vampires in the World of Darkness  : IIRC, the ratio there is 1 vampire for every 10,000 common persons.I wish D&D had this kind of guideline, so that people don't (quite reasonably) begin to assume that adventurers are the norm. Hell, whenever we play D&D, we're always the hero. Sometimes even fighting other adventurers - it's logical that we begin to think of them as normal.But they're not - people who risk their lives regularly and weild great power and magical items are very rare. Otherwise it breaks the entire heroic fantasy genre. Who are all the people that listen to ballads of heroes, and revere great deeds, if everyone is related or friends with adventurers?When everyone and their brother has a first-hand account of a battle with rare powers/abilities/spells/creatures being demonstrated, it reduces the sense of wonder of the entire genre. It turns it into a contemporary obsessed-with-hero society. In such a world, I wouldn't be surprised to see a fanclub following the exploits of heroes ("Tonight - on E! News Daily"), detailing the new spells and monsters found, like an encyclopedia.There's a reason why magic is rare. There's a reason why even adventurers don't know many abilities of monsters. There's a reason why there's not an Adventurer Academy, that trains budding PC's in all the ins and outs of monster lore, magic item 101, and Bad Guy strategies.No offense, but you go right on ahead and game in a world that's like the real world. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I'll happily game in a world where monsters are the stuff of legends (not textbooks), and no normal person has had much dealings with them or magic.Good points as usual (you bastard! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ), but I'd wager that the majority of people do not play by that core rule, so I feel confident in saying it doesn't apply often enough to justify handcuffing paladins with that ridiculous restriction.Further, being a religious warrior with a code of conduct is hardly prima fascia evidence that you are a paladin. Many fighters and clerics would fit that description. MOST people would be religious in a world were the dieties are demonstrably real.And a Code of Conduct is hardly something that is worn on the sleeve. I doubt if it would ever be even guessed at by anybody unless the paladin walked around touting every tenet.Very insightful as usual, but I guess this is where difference in gaming style comes in.I simply don't game in worlds where there is an overwhelming (stifling) history of adventurers filling up the historical record with endless details of heroic exploits. That lessens the uniqueness of a hero/adventurer, and relegates him or her to (at best) an endnote in history.Here's a general question for everyone:How would Village X even know he was a paladin?Does the paladin actually stroll into town telling people he's a "paladin"?Hell, the word Paladin is a meta-gaming term. A paladin is simply someone who believes in something so much that he's willing to die to protect or further that cause (not for his personal gain). He's (admittedly IMO) not into it for the glory, and he's certainly not going to need public approbation (i.e. approval) to get his due credits with his diety. He's not an evangelist, spewing doctrine and dogma (that's the cleric's job). He leads by example, inviting anyone else to follow. Castellan - are you actually planning on playing a thief who will collect money in a church's (or DIETIES) name and keep it for himself? He's planning on trying to fake out individuals who should know better (i.e. people who have divination and Detect spells)?And it's funny you mention Gilderoy Lockhart of Harry Potter. I couldn't stand how ridiculously far-fetched it was for him to have fooled anyone. It was worse than Jack Black faking out people that he was a teacher in School of Rock. At least there he was a substitute teacher. In Harry Potter, it was the most prestigious wizard school of all, yet they didn't give him one test or interview on wizardly skills? It took KIDS to suss him out? Blech.As for your character as I understand it:While it may be fun to play a character who will get caught impersonating a paladin, it would be more realistic (and potentially less insulting) if it didn't use religion and dieties as the people being duped. With dieties and religious power being such a palpably real thing in D&D, it's a suicidal character who impersonates religious figures for personal gain. I doubt if the diety, or any number of avatars and champions would look well upon that type of behavior. While there's no IRS to track collected funds, usually in a fuedal, Dark Ages economy, people didn't give their religious contributions to just some guy travelling through saying he was collecting for Diety X. He'd have to convince them pretty damn well, and spend a long time generating goodwill. Not to mention that I've never thought of a paladin as someone who collects money for a church, unless it was part of normal payment for good deeds done (in which case he earned the cash).And I appreciate the compliments. This paladin thread brought me out of my long-going lurk mode here. It's been awhile since I talked Paladin, and the board being down for 3 hours made this post longer than it would have been. Sorry for the length.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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