Something about Paladins

[Easy_Tiger]

Just wondering if anybody can give soem advice or link or send me some infor on how to play a paladin. Most of my Gaming Life (15 plus years) i have rped Rangers Druids , tough indiviudualists who are a law onto them selves. i Have recently started a 3.5 d and d campaign and have been playing a paladin now at 3rd level. I am finding the LG alignment a challenge to play and he always seems to eb at odds with what he sees around him and the other players in the group they consist of
1. A female "rouge"- the char he has been assigned to protect, he recieved a vision about how she was destined for greatness but needed a protector- She causes him no end of grief as she is very much all in favour of bu8cking the system and arguing with anybody, on th eplus side she hides her rougish ways very well from me
2. Half-Elven Alchemist a highly inquisitive person who has no problem delving into crypts of long dead kings to go "exploring". The half elf also finds my char attractive and has attempted to kiss him, much to my paladins shock
3. Gnome Wizard- Stable memeber of the group and quite thoughtful and friendly , he and my paladin have become good friends
4. Dwarven fighter- good solid companion, though he can get quite obsesed with loot(i guess he is a dwarf after all
5. Dwarven Barbarian- Need i say more, constantly looking for a fight never listens to good advice cause my char no end of grief
6. Halfling Healer- Quiet unassuming easily stowed in cabin overways

My Paladin IS always tryign to keep the peace in the group with some sucess though he and the barbarian always seem to lock horns. Recently he has begun to question hsi own skills as he has run from more fights often than not most recently from a battle with 4 trolls (the chars being 2nd and 3rd level it seemed wise) all around him he sees evil, but when he requests his companiosn they go to investigate to help others he is out voted(they are on a specific quest right now and always tell him they will come back once the mission is complete). So as of this point he is tryign to find a balance in doing good, helping his friends and trying to battle evil any suggestions comments links would be apreciated.

ps forgive the spelling

 

[robberbaron]

Playing a Paladin is always tough, especially when the rest of the party have their own agendas (agendae?) that may not be fully compatible with yours.
Barbarians are ALWAYS difficult to deal with.

I think all you can do is what you are doing - helping your friends, battling evil, etc. - but, perhaps you could try some less overt pushing towards your goals. Find part of their quest that fits your Paladin's profile and push towards it. That way, you are seen to be actively supporting them while getting them to do some of the things you want to do.
Sounds sneaky (and it is) but, as long as you are not putting them in danger for the sake of your evil-bashing you should be OK.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

Barbarians are ALWAYS difficult to deal with.
"How dare you! I shall crush you with my sword!"
-random barbarian-

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

PS: good Ideas

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Paladins run the gamut from knights hospitalers who are more concerned with helping heal than slaying evil, to peaceful warriors who never strike first, to fierce guardians of truth and justice, to warriors who try to convert the world to their faith with sword and flame because they burn with divine energy.

Obviously, what kind of Paladin you play depends not only on your "inner paladin" and your party.

You're going to have to find a Paladin that fits your party's style, unless your group doesn't mind internal conflict.

 

[Sejs]

Wacky as it may sound, see if you can pick up a copy of the Ultima 9: Ascention computer game. It's kinda old so it should be pretty cheap, and the system specs are quite easy to meet.


The Avatar as presented therein is a pretty darn good example of a paladin (no matter what class you choose for him at the start of the game). The way they do things are: there are 8 virtues (compassion, humility, honesty, sacrifice, justice, honor, valor, and spirituality). The Avatar is the exemplar of all of these virtues, but as he is a human being, he is free to favor some more than others. Serves as a good guideline for paladins in D&D - a compassionate paladin may choose to work to try and redeem an evil critter. A just paladin may choose to strike it down as punishment for its misdeeds. An honorable and honest paladin may stand his ground guarding his commander's tent where he was assigned, even though he can plainly see his comrades that are in dire need of his assistance. A valorous and compassionate paladin may abandon his post in order to render his aid to those who despiratly need it. And so on.

The other thing it's got going for it is the Karma stat. Technically the game has 3 stats: Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence, with Karma being a hidden quality that you can't directly monitor and can change frequently depending on what you do. In essence, Karma measures how well you've been sticking to your cosmically assigned role of Good Guy. If you're kind, help those in need and generally act all properly heroic and such, your karma goes up. If you march about the place like everyone owes you one for you helping their sorry butts, being rude, leaving the needy to their fates and more or less acting like a dick - then your karma goes down. Your karma modifies how much life and mana you have - strength (hp) or intelligence (mana) determine the baseline, karma modifies it from there. So if you do the Right Thing alot, you'll be Billy Badass. If you're consistantly a jerk, you'll end up finding that you can't do magic at all and you're rather frail of constitution; the little perks you enjoy for being the Avatar such as.. oh, say being much harder to kill than a normal man... have just frittered away, bit by bit. But as it's a scale, you don't have to be perfect all the time - you can be a hardliner some of the time and a nice guy other times and you'll still be generally alright.


Anyway, it's worth picking up, if just for the insights on paladin play it can give. And it shouldn't cost more than like $5-10 these days if you can find it.

 

[Seravin]

I've had two players play paladins in my game over the years. They were both played differently (as alignment allowed) and the player's views on paladin-hood didn't always match mine.

As a suggestion, work out with your DM your Code of Conduct and what that might mean in various situations. The paladin of a war god is going to be more concerned with vigilantly pursuing and smiting evil, where-as a paladin of more protective god might be more concerned with saving innocents then smiting folk.

Things to work out which might help you:
*Most specific to your question - Rate the items in your Code of Conduct - most important to least so you know what action might have precedence. Say if you're pursuing a bad guy and you meet an injured person. Do you stop and help the injured person or pursue the bad guy? It sounds like you've done most of the work in your head already, but definitely talk it over with the dm also.

*Is it all right for you to buck the will of the party? Chances are that if you lead the rest will follow. What kind of incentive do you need to do this?

*If you can't pursue a lesser evil now, what can you do about it? Inform the church or local authority to handle it? Throw gold at the problem? Have a word with the evil-doers to let them know you'll be back if they don't shape up (fun adventure possibilities there - complications everywhere).

* Other things to consider are all the detect evil problems (is being evil illegal? If someone detects as evil, can you kill them?) and the legal status of paladins in the campaign world (can you act as judge/jury/executioner? when?)

In general though, working out your code of conduct and rating the most important bits of it will probably help you the most. If you follow a deity then that should also help make your decisions - pick a portfolio of the deity the paladin identifies most with and judge your actions against that.

hope this helps.