I'm not loving all the mount/lance stuff. I mean, it's "cool stuff" (as she just said) but to me that says "knight" more than "oath-bound paragon".
I ran a Pathfinder campaign where the whole party was paladins. It was really great, with wonderful clashes of ideology of what it means to be 'good.'
And yeah, necessarily, everyone had a different vibe.
There was the artist who wielded a glaive like an oversized paintbrush, but whose focus was on protecting allies, intercepting attacks, and healing. He kept trying to appeal to the better side of everyone, even unrepentant villains.
There was the traumatized escaped prisoner who fought with a bastard sword so he could fling fire with his free hand at enemies. He kept edging at the line of being too vengeful.
There was a shining paragon half-angel who eventually sprouted wings and smited with sunbeams or diving lance charges, who was deft with politicking, able to tolerate working with the selfish in order to defeat the truly wicked.
And there was the mounted archer with a trained eagle that would drop tanglefoot bags or deliver healing potions around the field, whose main goal was to stop an army that was threatening his family and his home town.
Then along the way they met NPC paladins:
The doorkeeper of the capital city whose duty was tied to one spot.
The peasant folk hero who saved shepherds by wrestling monsters with no arms or armor, smiting with her fists.
The worshiper of a war god, in charge of an army but unwilling to cede authority to the PCs or trust their claims that some of the enemy forces were willing to defect.
The runaway who served a god of freedom and fought in a hit and run fashion suited for distracting enemy forces to create openings to free their slaves, who had no mount but instead could teleport.
A shapeshifting paladin of a river goddess who had a crocodile companion instead of a steed.
A literal fire elemental paladin who guarded the ascent to a cursed volcano.
But hey, if you're trying to publish a book with a certain vibe, I can understand playing to tropes. At this point, I've done anti-trope stuff so often, maybe playing a traditional Arthurian knight would feel fresh.
