Reasons for a paladin to fall . . . with a twist

[WayneLigon]

The paladin could beleive an action was dishonorable or otherwise against the Code because he doesn't know the whole story, though the god certainly does. Or, instead of fallen, maybe he's 'tripped' (thank you, In Nomine). Whatever he did was an absolute grey area even to the god, so the god is not disabusing him of the notion he's fallen, and letting his self-discovery be the 'pennace'.

Hmm. How is the character going to continue beleiving he's fallen when his paladin special abilities still work? I guess he'll be so distraught that he won't use most of them, beleiving they've fled him, but it might be a bit hard to ignore that he's not missing 4-6 points off all his saves. (Hmm, I should have been roasted by that flame unless.. unless the god's graces are still with me...). Or that he's still immune to fear and disease; the later is not all that likely to come up a lot but the first sure should.

 

[Seonaid]

"Man, that guy [the fallen paladin] sure is lucky."
"Yeah, I wish I could move/dodge like that!"
Sometimes, when you're on the inside of "good luck," you don't notice.

Thanks for the ideas, all. I'm putting on my thinking cap and tossing those around in there. Kind of like a cranial salad bowl.

 

[Nifft]

Maybe there's a Quasit Bard who's following him around and trying to confuse him with false religious visions & booming voices, hoping to convince him he's Fallen.

-- N

 

[Steel_Wind]

Altenatively, you can go one step further.

The Paladin fell in truth. But he departed for a damned good reason. However good the reason, it was against the code of the god.

The PC is steadfast in his/her belief - and it is ultimately the god who forgives the PC and allows him or her back into the fold - notwithstanding their past choice. The PC is made of the true steel and does not bend; it is the god who bends to the PC.

The thread on the Paladin who killed the child molester in flagrante delicto come to mind.

 

[Luthien Greyspear]

Differences in opinion

A great way to portray this sort of (un)fallen paladin is with a religious schism. Since paladins are by definition Lawful, they are very responsive to the decisions of religious councils, synods, etc. If a schism exists in the church, and the religious council becomes corrupt or secularly-oriented, they could turn their ire to 'troublemakers in their midst'; i.e. those in the church who could oppose their personal quests for power.

In the FR campaign I'm running, I have a mentor-type NPC who is a (un)fallen paladin of Helm. He became disillusioned with the church over the land-snatching of the Maztican colony (priests of Helm led the slaughter of native tribesman), and walked away from the church. They accused him of abandoning his duties and declared him a heretic and oathbreaker. HELM, on the other hand, thinks the character has remained absolutely true to his oaths to uphold the defense of the weak, and has not abandoned him.

 

[Alzrius]

I always liked the idea of an ex-paladin who fell because they decided goodness was more important than order, and lost their paladinhood when they went from being LG to NG.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

A few ideas:

The paladin character refused/failed to completely answer a critical question that he/she perceived (wrongly or not) that affected many. The paladin has taken to think that he has lied (by ommission of fact) and thus has fallen.

The paladin has apparently commited a great misdeed in dealing with a villain. Either the paladin smited villain that could have been redeemed or showed mercy and trust to a totally irredeemable being. Either way, the paladin thinks he/she has shown a great lapse in judgement, but perhaps things are more than they seem.

Alternatively, the paladin's memories and mind might have been affected by some sort of mind-influencing ability. Perhaps the character has had false memories of evil acts put into his mind by something like Modify Memory. Or perhaps the character feels guilty for doing evil under the influence of mind control (domination or lycanthropy, for example) and has already atoned for it. But the paladin still assumes the patron deity does not forgive the character.

 

[Alzrius]

The novel Tomb of Horrors has a good example of this sort of situation.

A paladin of Heironeous is captured by Iuz. After being tortured for days, he's taken to a room with fiends cavorting around a child, chained to an altar of Iuz. He's given a choice, that he can either volunteer to take the child's place, or let the child be sacrificed. He pauses...and then declines to take the child's place.

Later, several years after he got out of there, he's consumed by guilt, and quite obviously can't continue being a paladin. Only later does he find out

Spoiler

that, in fact the child back there was, in fact, a fiend in disguise. The entire scenario was a way of trying to trick him into letting himself be sacrificed. The reason he declined wasn't cowardice or selfishness, but rather that his paladin's senses were telling him something was wrong with the situation...after days of torture, he just didn't realize that was why he refused.

With that, he realized that his god had never lost faith in him, and he forgave himself, becoming a paladin again...as he always had been.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

A paladin of Heironeous is captured by Iuz. After being tortured for days, he's taken to a room with fiends cavorting around a child, chained to an altar of Iuz. He's given a choice, that he can either volunteer to take the child's place, or let the child be sacrificed. He pauses...and then declines to take the child's place.

As a DM, my God would cast out this paladin. Some religions draw no line between intent and action, and it's an idea I agree with. The fact that the scenario was false means nothing to me, or the gods in my campaign. The paladin intended to sacrifice a child to spare himself more torment. The fact that there wasn't actually a child makes no difference. The paladin chose to sacrifice a child for himself. And the soul is all about choices.

It's the same with the other scenarios presented above where the paladin is tricked into making a sinful choice that turns out to have been a false choice. Meaningless. If you pick up a gun that you believe to be loaded, point it at a human being and pull the trigger, you're guilty of murder. If the gun jams and doesn't fire, you're still guilty of murder. That was your intent, and you acted on that intent. The paladin falls.

How would I have a paladin think he'd fallen without actually having him fall? Simple, I'd make him harder on himself than is warranted. Perhaps he fails to sense the deceit in a father, and learns the man was molesting his daughter...only after the daughter has taken her own life. Perhaps he has a dear friend who is falling into a dangerous depression, and eventually joins an evil cult. The paladin feels that he failed his friend at his greatest time of need, not guiding him to the true faith. Etc. etc. Basically, I'd create a paladin who believes he should be fallen, no matter what the clerics say. He feels so terrible about some event that he feels someone must be punished, and the only one he can hold accountable is himself.

In order to regain his paladin powers, he'd have to learn to forgive himself for his crime, even if all the creatures in heaven and earth never saw a crime to begin with.

 

[shilsen]

Why not have the paladin know that he hasn't fallen? Assume (since this will be background for the character, according to the original post) that he encountered a situation and made a choice which, by all the tenets of his religion and everything he knows of his deity, should have made him fall. He's absolutely sure about that and fully expects to have fallen and need severe repentance and atonement. Except all his paladin abilities still work.

So now you could play the paladin as incredibly confused and with a major personal quest - to find out what his "non-fall" means. Is his religion wrong about what would lead to a fall? Has he misunderstood his deity all this time? Even worse, are his powers coming from something other than his deity? How does he find out what the truth is? After all, if he shows up to his local temple and says, "I should be a fallen paladin but I'm doing just fine, thank you. What do you think that means?", he'll probably get some confused looks at best.

Lots of options for roleplaying, and frankly, a red letter invitation for your DM to do some interesting stuff with the individual paladin and his faith in general.