What makes a paladin fall?

[smilinggm]

A guide that I use is the Traditional 7 Deadly Sins/Virtues


Pride vs Humility
Seeing ourselves as we are and not comparing ourselves to others is humility. Pride and vanity are competitive. If someone else's pride really bothers you, you have a lot of pride.

Envy vs Love
"Love is patient, love is kind…" Love actively seeks the good of others for their sake. Envy resents the good others receive or even might receive. Envy is almost indistinguishable from pride at times.

Wrath/Anger vs Kindness
Kindness means taking the tender approach, with patience and compassion. Anger is often our first reaction to the problems of others. Impatience with the faults of others is related to this.

Sloth vs Zeal
Zeal is the energetic response of the heart to God's commands. The other sins work together to deaden the spiritual senses so we first become slow to respond to God and then drift completely into the sleep of complacency.

Avarice/Greed vs Generosity
This is about more than money. Generosity means letting others get the credit or praise. It is giving without having expectations of the other person. Greed wants to get its "fair share" or a bit more.

Gluttony vs Faith and Temperance
Temperance accepts the natural limits of pleasures and preserves this natural balance. This does not pertain only to food, but to entertainment and other legitimate goods, and even the company of others.

Lust vs Self control
Self control and self mastery prevent pleasure from killing the soul by suffocation. Legitimate pleasures are controlled in the same way an athlete's muscles are: for maximum efficiency without damage. Lust is the self-destructive drive for pleasure out of proportion to its worth. Sex, power, or image can be used well, but they tend to go out of control.

As a guideline in my game any time a palidin sucombs to one or more of the above then the palidin becomes an ex-palidin and must atone to regain his previous status. If the ex-palidin continues with his vices then he has a chance to become a Blackguard!

 

[reapersaurus]

This is the intro to the Agent of Bitter Tears prestige class for paladins-no-more, by Sheb Tillytank:

"A stroke of lightning pierced the night sky, throwing flashes along the walls of the room at the top of the main tower of Lord Brammer's keep. Brammer's anguished cries drowned out the peals of thunder that followed. He doubled over in pain, his knees sinking deeper into the thick, blue velvet carpets.
"Why, Sennicor?...Why do you...torture me so? You were once one of the greatest champions of Heironeous. You..."
Brammer's words were choked off in a strangled gasp as another torrent of pain ripped through him. Flashes of self-doubt tore at his mind as he writhed on the floor.

"Because, Brammer, I've realized how wrong I was. How naive."

Sennicor stood above the aging noble, his loose blond curls hanging limply down his forehead. Tears streamed down his hollow cheeks, hanging for a moment on his unshaven chin before falling to the carpets under his mud caked boots. He hardly looked the same as the vital young man Brammer had seen marry just five years gone. He looked tired and worn. His face had a permanent set and his eyes burned with a cold, heartless fire.

"I was a warrior of Heironeous, a devout follower. But they took her from me, Brammer. They took Ellica. I was off on some pointless quest for Heironeous and bandits killed my wife. I came back from the field to find her beaten and raped. She was still warm, Brammer. Still warm as I held her in my arms and cried, lamenting to Heironeous to save her, not to take her from me. He never heard.

"I searched for two years for her attackers, praying day and night to Heironeous to help me find the men responsible so I could avenge Ellica. He ignored me, Brammer. I finally realized the truth: Heironeous doesn't care. No more than any of the other gods do. It's all a bunch of lies. Their teachings, their doctrines- lies. The only real truth is balance. For every good there is an evil; for every law a crime. Trying to uphold one above another is foolhardy.

"I know that now, Brammer, and I've come to teach you too. To save you from the same mistake I made. To save you from yourself."

An Agent of Bitter Tears has, at some point, gone through a major life event that has caused him to reevaluate his philosophy in favor of balance. He is often bitter about his former foolishness, which serves to further affirm his current outlook in his eyes. An Agent of Bitter Tears uses his abilities as a way to prove his as the true path.

Agents are often seen crying silently as they force themselves to remember the past in an effort to harden themselves. Consequently, they are often refered to as Weepers. A disproportionate number of Weepers seem to be fallen Paladins. However, due to the drastic events revolving around one becoming a Weeper, no class, race or former alignments are barred save for those who are already neutral. An agent prefers the company of those who are also true neutral, but occasionally works with those who are one step removed (lawful neutral, chaotic neutral, neutral good, and neutral evil.) Due to the major conflict of character that occurs, no Agent has ever been know to stay in the company of those who are more than once removed from neutral (lawful good, chaotic good, lawful evil, and chaotic evil.)

 

[Ishamael]

AH!

Gravity.

Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week.

BASTARD! You beat me too!

 

[Fidget]

An assisted trip check?

In one game I was playing we were going a little overboard on assisting with strength checks - opening doors, lifting boulders, pushing debris out of the way. Later in combat someone's to hit bonus on one particular troglodyte wasn't close enough to possibly hit except on a 20. He said his character was going to attempt to trip. Another player chimed in, "Ill assist."

Then I said "So... you get down on your hands and knees behind the trog while he pushes from the front." I was very nearly sprayed with cream soda our cleric's player was drinking.

 

[LostSoul]

What might turn a genuinely happy, friendly, optimistic person into an anti-social, mean-spirited cynic?

Emotional trauma that someone can't work through/get over.

 

[Bob Aberton]

I can think of several reasons. Look at the Knights Templar.
One boasted that after the sack of Jerusalme, his horse was stained to the knees with infidel blood. Another boasted that because he had killed three hundred Saracens, he was saved. I skilling someone different than yourself for no other reason than that evil? Yes. But the Templars thought they were doing the world a service.

Disillusionment. A good reason. A knight spends his whole life fighting against evil, and accomplishes seemingly nothing. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, after all. Nietsche states this very well.

What about an Inquisition? Evil? Sure. And yet, it was perpetrated by "holy" men. Example:

Heresy, the priest announced, was at an all time high. He had decided to call an Inquisition. It was a great opportunity for a young knight to distinguish himself.
Later, the knight was helping ferret out and capture heretics. He saw an old woman being dragged from her house.
"Oh please, have mercy, have mercy," she cried. Then, seeing the knight among the crowd, she called to him, "Oh, be merciful good knight!! I have earned no torture!! Please, for the love of God, don't let me take them away!!"
The knight hardened his heart, and turned away.
At that moment, he fell.

Crusades, too.