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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6116424" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Through the fictional positioning in play.  We have a paladin.  He is a fortress of his ethos, imbued with divine power and trained in martial arts to defend those virtues.  How do we know this?  Well, in 4th edition we know this because the thematic archetype that you don when you choose the class says that is what you are.And the mechanics match/support this archetype:- All armor and shields.- Prayers and Melee attacks tagged with Divine, Healing, Implement, Radiant, Weapon Keywords.  Suite of Features that expect you to sacrifice (give up your surges to heal others), Smite your enemies, be in the thick of melee and punish those foes with raw Divine power who would dare hurt your allies in your stead, Utility powers that provide fearlessness and allow you to extend it to your allies, and to speak with the tangible Divine backing of your God.- Skills that promote this archetype.The fiction and the mechanics match; the fictional positioning is coherent.Secondary to that is the balance question.  In AD&D the Paladin was a more powerful class and thus had to deal with the steeper gradients of XP gain for progression and being subjected to the DM's interpretation of your ethos and your actions with respect to it.  In current editions of D&D, there is no mechanical advantage to be invoked when you say the word "Paladin" when you choose your class.  As such, due to having no advantage, there is implicit trust that when you pick paladin as your class that you are accepting the thematic rigidness and coherency of the fictional positioning above...otherwise, just pick another class (such as your recommendation; a Fighter who does not possess the fictional positioning above but has the color and mechanics of a sellsword who believes in an ethos but is not divinely imbued/sponsored by the god of said ethos).  The same question could be asked of any player who wants to play a character that has incoherent fictional positioning (eg the thematics and mechanics are in discord); a Wizard with an Int of 20 and several knowledges played as a drooling, ignorant idiot...a Bard with a Charisma of 20 and all the social skills who has no understanding of the human condition and is utterly, socially inept.  We don't feel inclined to formulate a system to punish them for these incoherent renderings of the fictional positioning.  We don't because there is no need to.  It is implicit (in a balanced system) that they wouldn't be building a character with those loaded thematics backed by game mechanics if they weren't interesting in playing it as such.  And if they are or if they don't understand the dissonance, then you have "extra-game" issues in which the player is running afoul.</blockquote>

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