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Roasting the Paladin
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8166153" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>The Paladin <em>aspires to be</em> "a paragon of virtue, justice, and truth." This is what makes them great: both great heroes and great pains in the keister.</p><p></p><p>I realized a long time ago what one of the fundamental problems with the Paladin, as a class, is. Believe it or not, it <em>isn't</em> the fact that they have to be Lawful Good, and thus invite alignment-bait arguments. (That still isn't great, mind, but it's not the real reason.) There's a key component that kept being left totally implicit at least up through 3e. (I can't recall if 4e addressed it directly in the PHB; 5e didn't.) A component that, because it wasn't understood, directly led to all the problems of Moral Policemen, Smite-the-jaywalkers types, and nearly all the "I'm a Paladin so you must listen to me or you're EVIL" stuff.</p><p></p><p>The writeup never tells you that respect must be <em>earned</em>.</p><p></p><p>And that shapes everything else. When you think you simply <em>deserve</em> respect because you Already Are A Paladin, you treat your judgments as sacrosanct. If you were some <em>lesser</em> class, perhaps you might be questionable--but you are a PALADIN, you are by definition righteous! When you think you're <em>entitled</em> to respect from your party members, a lack of respect is an insult and an outright refutation of respect is a threat. When the game tells you, "you are a champion of all that is good," and you think you already <em>have</em> the moral high ground as a result, you aren't just giving advice or helping with decisions, you're preaching the Pure Truth and making the Only Right Choice.</p><p></p><p>All those stuffy, pig-headed, idiotic, frustrating, dogmatic, irrational, sanctimonious <em>gluteal chapeaus</em> are rooted in that fundamental error. When a Paladin instead approaches each and every person as a new opportunity to <em>earn</em> the respect of others, rather than a new opportunity to <em>capitalize on</em> that respect, the entire situation changes.</p><p></p><p>A big part of what led me to this revelation was the actually quite decent <em><a href="http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20050224a" target="_blank"><em>Paladins with Class</em></a></em> article from WotC. Some of the <em>build</em> advice is shaky, but the roleplay advice is solid. These lines in particular stood out to me, with the bold part especially impactful:</p><p></p><p>I've gotten the chance to play that paladin before. The one who inspires his hard-hearted CN fighter friend to try to make the world a better place--because my paladin <em>showed</em> that that is what true strength is. The one who earns the mutual trust and respect of his grabby-hands thief friend, such that he's comfortable with her doing some rules-bending because he trusts her judgment, and she in turn knows that if he DOES raise a concern, she needs to take it seriously. The one whose passing leaves the world a better, brighter, nobler place than it had been before.</p><p></p><p>And that stuff is gorram <em>addictive</em>, I swear, once you get some of that sweet Paladin juice you never want to stop. Because it feels <em>good</em> to be good, it feels <em>good</em> to know others trust you implicitly, that your word carries weight.</p><p></p><p>As with a great many things, the Paladin goes wrong when it <em>presumes</em> what it needed to <em>prove</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8166153, member: 6790260"] The Paladin [I]aspires to be[/I] "a paragon of virtue, justice, and truth." This is what makes them great: both great heroes and great pains in the keister. I realized a long time ago what one of the fundamental problems with the Paladin, as a class, is. Believe it or not, it [I]isn't[/I] the fact that they have to be Lawful Good, and thus invite alignment-bait arguments. (That still isn't great, mind, but it's not the real reason.) There's a key component that kept being left totally implicit at least up through 3e. (I can't recall if 4e addressed it directly in the PHB; 5e didn't.) A component that, because it wasn't understood, directly led to all the problems of Moral Policemen, Smite-the-jaywalkers types, and nearly all the "I'm a Paladin so you must listen to me or you're EVIL" stuff. The writeup never tells you that respect must be [I]earned[/I]. And that shapes everything else. When you think you simply [I]deserve[/I] respect because you Already Are A Paladin, you treat your judgments as sacrosanct. If you were some [I]lesser[/I] class, perhaps you might be questionable--but you are a PALADIN, you are by definition righteous! When you think you're [I]entitled[/I] to respect from your party members, a lack of respect is an insult and an outright refutation of respect is a threat. When the game tells you, "you are a champion of all that is good," and you think you already [I]have[/I] the moral high ground as a result, you aren't just giving advice or helping with decisions, you're preaching the Pure Truth and making the Only Right Choice. All those stuffy, pig-headed, idiotic, frustrating, dogmatic, irrational, sanctimonious [I]gluteal chapeaus[/I] are rooted in that fundamental error. When a Paladin instead approaches each and every person as a new opportunity to [I]earn[/I] the respect of others, rather than a new opportunity to [I]capitalize on[/I] that respect, the entire situation changes. A big part of what led me to this revelation was the actually quite decent [I][URL='http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20050224a'][I]Paladins with Class[/I][/URL][/I] article from WotC. Some of the [I]build[/I] advice is shaky, but the roleplay advice is solid. These lines in particular stood out to me, with the bold part especially impactful: I've gotten the chance to play that paladin before. The one who inspires his hard-hearted CN fighter friend to try to make the world a better place--because my paladin [I]showed[/I] that that is what true strength is. The one who earns the mutual trust and respect of his grabby-hands thief friend, such that he's comfortable with her doing some rules-bending because he trusts her judgment, and she in turn knows that if he DOES raise a concern, she needs to take it seriously. The one whose passing leaves the world a better, brighter, nobler place than it had been before. And that stuff is gorram [I]addictive[/I], I swear, once you get some of that sweet Paladin juice you never want to stop. Because it feels [I]good[/I] to be good, it feels [I]good[/I] to know others trust you implicitly, that your word carries weight. As with a great many things, the Paladin goes wrong when it [I]presumes[/I] what it needed to [I]prove[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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