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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ralts Bloodthorne" data-source="post: 433642" data-attributes="member: 6390">Paladins in ShtarGreetings all.  Paladins are a well developed force in my campaign world, and with the loss of the Anti-Paladin, replaced with the Evil Light (Tastes Great, Less Damnation) Blackguard, we had to drop the alignment restriction on Paladins.  But let's get into the meat and drink of the Paladins of Shtar.  There are 5 orders, per god.  The Fist of XXXXX-These are your crusaders, your "Go forth and burn the Heritic/Blashphemer and crush the enemies of our God" type guys.  The Arm of XXXXX-These are your holy questors, your "I search for the Holy Grail of Drax, why doest thou bar my way, corrupt spawn of a degenerate god?" type, the (in)justice bringers.  The Shield of XXXX-These guys guard temples, advise kings, protect shrines and monasteries, ect.  The Militant Order-These are the church's powerhouse  warriors, drawn from the other three branches.  Knight Trainers-These are the teachers, who teach the warrior tactics.  Each type of Paladin swears a different oath, and follows different commandments.  Yes, there are Fists and Arms of evil gods out there (In order to be a Paladin of a god, one must be the alignment of the god in question) who ride the land.  Now, in handling this, I was forced to remove the alignment restriction, changing it to: As God.  I was also forced to give the Fists, Arms and Shields access to domains in order to make them more than just some guy in armor with an attittude.  It has had a marked difference in my campaign.  Instead of worrying about a few clerics, a monster or two, possibly some undead, and then some fighters when the adventurer's take on an evil temple, now they have to worry about whether or not thier might be some Paladin's of the Shield in residence.  If so, it can get real messy, real quick.  Needless to say, the Blackguard PrC is more along the line of the Renegade Paladin, and had to be reworked.  As to how Paladin's fit in my campaign, well, considering that the Second Lich King war just ended, that means that while Paladins are fewer than they were (Picture a world-wide Crusades) they are also highly respected.  They are turned to for council, justice, tracking down renegades or monsters, and protection.  All Paladin's recieve training in Diplomacy, Knowlege (Nobility), Knowledge (Religion), Innuendo and Sense Motive.  Punishments can rate from beheading or burning at the stake, all the way to demanding penance or recomponsation.  Even evil paladins must be strict and impartial in judgement of the law (Part of the pact the gods made), but the sentences can vary wildly, depending on the paladins alignment.  For example, while a chaotic evil Paladin would find it amusing to order an adulterous pair to be flogged, and then stoned, thier bodies drug through the streets and deposited in a garbage pit, a lawful neutral paladin may decide that each of them must divorce thier current spouse and marry each other, and a lawful good paladin would demand that they take penance and refrain from meeting with one another.  That's an example, and each sentence would vary further with the individual paladin's personality.  Paladin is not the paraih core class in my campaign that it seems to be in so many other's campaigns, mainly because they are more than just a big, shiney, lawful good beacon for big monsters to come and kill.....</blockquote>

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