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<blockquote data-quote="Ainamacar" data-source="post: 5798798" data-attributes="member: 70709">Most alignment restrictions seem doubly pointless to me.&nbsp; In games where the notion of Paladin as &quot;good-hearted defender of the weak, etc.&quot; is taken with grave seriousness, an alignment restriction is unnecessary.&nbsp; In games where it isn't, the alignment restriction is either ignored (explicitly or implicitly) or abused to the point where it may as well have been ignored.In both cases the alignment restriction can also throw up roadblocks in front of perfectly reasonable character ideas.&nbsp; For example, the evil infiltrator of a good deity's forces, who by the dark blessing of his god is given abilities essentially identical to the classic paladin in order to fool all his enemies.I also think the other basic mechanical attributes of the classic D&amp;D paladin (auras, lay on hands, high Charisma, etc.) have so many promising applications beyond the LG paladin that they should be explored.&nbsp; A Champion base class with different subclasses, one of which is &quot;Paladin&quot;, sounds great to me.Plus, having such a base class means that if a champion falls, there are always other abilities it can (eventually) fall to without major mechanical upheaval.&nbsp; The notion of lay on hands, for example, has so many possibilities.&nbsp;&nbsp; Classic healing ability, filling someone with hate (rage?), filling&nbsp; someone with desire (suggestion?), or filling someone with knowledge&nbsp; (visions of the past/future or even magical insight?).&nbsp; Corruption and redemption are classic themes for the paladin, and supporting multiple subclasses with basic paladin-like competencies makes supporting those archetypes easier for starting play, but also for keeping a robust continuity when changes occur.&nbsp; After all, the scariest thing about a paladin fallen to anti-paladin status isn't usually how different he is from his old self, but just how eerily similar he remains: virtue and its dark reflection are often a matter of the knife's edge.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ainamacar, post: 5798798, member: 70709"] Most alignment restrictions seem doubly pointless to me. In games where the notion of Paladin as "good-hearted defender of the weak, etc." is taken with grave seriousness, an alignment restriction is unnecessary. In games where it isn't, the alignment restriction is either ignored (explicitly or implicitly) or abused to the point where it may as well have been ignored. In both cases the alignment restriction can also throw up roadblocks in front of perfectly reasonable character ideas. For example, the evil infiltrator of a good deity's forces, who by the dark blessing of his god is given abilities essentially identical to the classic paladin in order to fool all his enemies. I also think the other basic mechanical attributes of the classic D&D paladin (auras, lay on hands, high Charisma, etc.) have so many promising applications beyond the LG paladin that they should be explored. A Champion base class with different subclasses, one of which is "Paladin", sounds great to me. Plus, having such a base class means that if a champion falls, there are always other abilities it can (eventually) fall to without major mechanical upheaval. The notion of lay on hands, for example, has so many possibilities. Classic healing ability, filling someone with hate (rage?), filling someone with desire (suggestion?), or filling someone with knowledge (visions of the past/future or even magical insight?). Corruption and redemption are classic themes for the paladin, and supporting multiple subclasses with basic paladin-like competencies makes supporting those archetypes easier for starting play, but also for keeping a robust continuity when changes occur. After all, the scariest thing about a paladin fallen to anti-paladin status isn't usually how different he is from his old self, but just how eerily similar he remains: virtue and its dark reflection are often a matter of the knife's edge. [/QUOTE]

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