What is the dumbest way you've seen a paladin lose his paladinhood?

[Quasqueton]

I was at my local game store, picking up some minis. Another gamer was in the store and a conversation about playing D&D came up.

He told me about how a paladin of his, from a past campaign, lost his paladinhood by accidentally cutting the throat of an orc prisoner.

"How do you 'accidentally' cut a prisoner's throat?" I asked.

He explained:

He wanted to get info from this captive, and so proceeded to threaten the orc with death. He put a knife to the orc's neck and intimidated him into giving the info. (He rationalized this action with "good end justifies the means". But this is seperate from my story here. . . )

When the intimidation/interrogation was over, he said to the DM, "I pull the knife away from the orc's neck." Since he didn't detail that he was taking the knife "back" (laterally) from the orc's neck first, the DM ruled that the paladin just yanked back the blade. He rolled whatever percentage chance he determined appropriate, and it came up that the blade sliced the orc's artery. So the orc bled to death. The paladin's god was angered. And so on.

I commented on that being a dirty trick for a DM to pull. "Do you have a chance to cut yourself while cleaning your sword?" I asked.

But the player apparently thought the ruling was fine, because he "expained" the situation and process to me. He even demonstrated holding an invisible knife to my neck, then pulled it away without backing it away to the side first.

The player then added that the DM felt paladins should be held to a much higher standard than other classes, else they are too powerful.

<shakes head>

Quasqueton

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

In the ToEE computer game, my Paladin lost her paladinhood because she let someone else compete in a drinking game.

That happened to me too, but I think it was the paladin who did the drinking. Still, it was enough to piss me off and make me restart the game with an evil party. Maybe I'm missing the plot, but there's nothing more fun than wandering around slaughtering villagers.

 

[tetsujin28]

Amen to that, brother!

 

[Richards]

There was a paladin in my AD&D 2E game who lost his paladinhood due to a distinct lack of interest in helping others. The party's scout fell into a pit trap (she was walking over an invisible bridge that only went halfway across the pit; in her defense, the invisible bridge across the pit they had just traversed minutes before went all the way across) and lay there, unconscious and dying, impaled on some spikes. The paladin was the party's only source of magical healing at the time, and he was right behind the scout when she fell. However, despite being prompted about her wounds on several occasions, he wanted to figure out exactly where the invisible bridge ended and decided to mark it somehow before moving on to his next item on his "things to do" list, namely, go down and heal the scout. (It was only a 10-foot drop, he could have lowered himself from the bridge without even losing any hit points himself.) Needless to say, by the time he got down there, she was dead. Oops.

Actually, that wasn't an isolated case, merely the straw that finally broke the camel's back. (The paladin was pretty much played as "lawful greedy." I never saw a person hate the word "tithe" as much as he did!) I even gave the player's PC a second chance: after losing his paladinhood, I gave him a way to earn it back via a solo mission. The leader of the paladin's order gave him a sealed scroll case and told him to walk down a particular road for three days; at the end of the three days he was to give the scroll to the person it was intended for. (When asked how he'd know who it was intended for, he was told, "You will know when the time comes.") So he takes the scroll and heads down the road. At the end of the first day he comes across a farm having some bad times: the farmer had both arms broken by some monster and his wife was struggling to harvest their grain on her own (their hired help had been scared off recently) before it rotted, a process made more difficult by a giant rat infestation and (unbeknownst to them) a malevolent scarecrow. The ex-paladin slew a couple of giant rats for them in exchange for a place to sleep that night, but when the farmer asked him to stay on and help harvest their crops so they wouldn't starve, the ex-paladin told them he couldn't, he was on an important mission for his order. So he left them on their own and spent the next two days traveling down the road. At the end of the third day, he got the distinct feeling (sent by his god) that the message he'd been carrying was meant for him all along, so he opened it to read that "The path of the paladin is not yours." (I actually made up a scroll that said that, too, and put it, rolled up, in a paper towel roll, for him to open and read. Of course, I also had another one congratulating him on finally seeing the true path of the paladin, which I would have given him had he helped the farmer and his wife who were in desperate need.)

Walking back home, he found the farmer and his wife both dead (killed by the scarecrow) and their home burned to the ground. Oops.

He ended up as a fighter, and became the NPC leader of the men-at-arms at the PCs' forest stronghold.

Johnathan

 

[Particle_Man]

I lost a paladin for freeing a prisoner that was in a centuries old prison (so old we didn't know why the prisoner was there). The prisoner was an incoherent old man. When I freed him, this sort of iron golem animated and went to him and absorbed him. Apparently I accidentally freed a BBEG. Oops! (My Dm didn't rule it was evil, but held it was unlawful).

Since then I have preferred Holy Liberators.

 

[Silveras]

Back in the days of 1st edition....

On the first night of a new party's adventures with all new characters...

DM: "Ok, so you have arrived in town seeking adventure." <describes town in general> "Right ahead of you is a big stone building that looks well cared-for. An old man is hobbling along the street in front of it."

Paladin: "I charge him with my lance."

DM: "What ?"

Paladin: "I charge him with my lance."

DM: "Uh... roll"

Paladin: "16... THAC0 20 ... should hit AC 4" (back then, ACs went down. That was equivalent to AC 16 in current usage. )

DM: "He's dead."

ex-Paladin: "Good. What does he have ?"

DM: "2 coppers and a wooden stick."

ex-Paladin: "Oh"

DM: "And you're not a Paladin anymore."

ex-Paladin: "Huh ? Why ?"

DM:

 

[I'm A Banana]

Paladin was given a golden dragon companion by a deity of evil who was tempting her.

Golden dragon killed and devoured the wizard's familiar, and burned down towns (also blamed on the wizard, odly).

In fact, paladin seemed so oblivious, I sent her a sign: kill the dragon, or your god thinks yuo = teh suk.

Paladin killed the dragon...and then gave her god the proverbial finger, going to worship the dark god in exchange for another dragon.

 

[Kareyev]

I was playing in a Living Web Campaign as a LN cleric of Kelemvor, the god of death. We were all playing 1st level newbies and fighting a tough battle. Things had not been going well, but it looked like the battle had turned in our favor. The last bad guy got a good hit in on me sending me to -9 hit points and then backed off a few feet dropping his weapon while raising his hands. Being the only cleric I figured I was done for, but the player running a paladin showed up at the last minute! The generous DM gave him the lay of the land and let him make an action before I died. Salvation, right? Perhaps player would consider the enemies actions a surrender? Nope. He charged the bugbear and slaughtered him as I passed away on the floor a few steps back.

To be honest I am not sure if he lost his paladinhood at that moment due to the nature of the campaign (online, different players & DM each session, etc). Months later I found out that the player felt horrible about it and had retired the character. He had some sort of twisted logic about not worrying about a cleric of death, but realized in hindsight it was just a bad move.

 

[Altalazar]

I was playing in a Living Web Campaign as a LN cleric of Kelemvor, the god of death. We were all playing 1st level newbies and fighting a tough battle. Things had not been going well, but it looked like the battle had turned in our favor. The last bad guy got a good hit in on me sending me to -9 hit points and then backed off a few feet dropping his weapon while raising his hands. Being the only cleric I figured I was done for, but the player running a paladin showed up at the last minute! The generous DM gave him the lay of the land and let him make an action before I died. Salvation, right? Perhaps player would consider the enemies actions a surrender? Nope. He charged the bugbear and slaughtered him as I passed away on the floor a few steps back.

To be honest I am not sure if he lost his paladinhood at that moment due to the nature of the campaign (online, different players & DM each session, etc). Months later I found out that the player felt horrible about it and had retired the character. He had some sort of twisted logic about not worrying about a cleric of death, but realized in hindsight it was just a bad move.

LOL - Yet ANOTHER Paladin loses it for charging and killing a BUGBEAR without thinking about it. There has GOT to be something about Bugbears and Paladins losing their way...

(and hey, maybe he figured stopping a cleric of a god of death from meeting death would be violating his beliefs... he was about to meet his god...)

 

[Norfleet]

Paladin: "I charge him with my lance."

Okay, that one definitely takes the gold medal. While the drinking contests and some of the others would simply have been deemed a bad DM looking to make an ex-paladin, Mr. "I Charge Him With My Lance" asked for that. What the HELL kind of paladin charges a harmless old man with his lance?!? I can't imagine how anyone could justify such an act as being anything other than chaotic evil stupid.