billd91 said:
Paladins would most certain fit advanced stages of a campaign that focused on that element of Dark Sun, as character began to specialize in combating evil.
Just a slightly different spin on the destruction/preservation theme.
And a suitable reason to include a Paladin-ish Prestige Class or three (possibly using UA's Honor mechanics to determine one of the Prereqs). Of course, that's only in "my book", as the saying goes. In other words, I could easily houserule them in on that basis, but I would't expect another GM to (indeed, I know I'd be deviating from the setting material, which doesn't include Paladins because they aren't a common archtype of the campaign world and thus the problem with Paizo including them as a Base Class).
And I think defilers as sorcerers would make an excellent contrast with preserver wizards. Talk about a group of people being able to easily tap into and violate the life energy of the world.
Actually, when 3E came out, this is indeed what I had done (as I used Def/Prs from
Spells & Magic during 2E). In the end, though, I made Sorcerers Elementalists (per
Al'Qadim only with more emphasis on the elements) and converted S&M's Channelers (like Wizards but physically drained by casting spells), using Mystic Eye's Blight and Blood Magic (From
The Hunt: RoE and
Blight Magic) to "bypass" the Fatigue caused by Spellcasting. I've found this combination has worked quite well (of course, I run a campaign where magic is rare but doesn't have the same stigma that it carries in
Dark Sun, but it's still worked none-the-less).
KM: Alright, I probably was a little "short" in my last post, but this debate has swung
heavily into issues that are entirely based on subjective opinion. Consider for a moment your example of a Paladin in a Mesoamerican setting. While to
you, the flavor-change was enough to justify its inclusion, to
me it's lazy campaign design. If put in the same position (and having a thus-far unvisited Mesoamerican continent in my own world, so I could very well end up in it), I wouldn't have just used the Paladin Class but rather would have dug into Mesoamerican myth and lore, determined the kinds of abilities "holy" champions of those cultures were said to be endowed with, and written a whole-new Class based on that.
In my eyes, all you've done is take the mechanics that are designed to support a Charlamagne-esque Paladin Class-role and placed it into a completely foreign environment where the specific powers of the class may or may not even be culturally relevant. Which is why this debate has become one of subjective opinion: To you, the flavor change was good enough, while to me it is just an excuse for taking the "easy road" of campaign building.
Another point: That Homebrews have more to "prove" than a published setting. You give reasons that make entirely plausible sense to you, while I find the entire stance to be hogwash.
And Belen's right; the "lines of debate" are being held by the same people that hold the same line in other threads on similar issues. So we might as well question the viability of further discussion since we're at the point where the only thing any of us are gaining from it is repetition and frustration.
So perhaps indeed the time has come to "agree to disagree" and put it to rest.
I know that KM had my back in other conversations.
