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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Torm" data-source="post: 1512731" data-attributes="member: 12706">As the god of Paladins, I felt maybe I should chime in, here.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> As a class, Paladins are foremost about DUTY. They should know the tenets of the god, or government, or organization, or whatever they are pledged as a Paladin to - inside and out. Out of character, this means that the player should have an extended conversation with the DM about how the DM views those tenets before they take the class. The DM has the final word on what those tenets are, regardless of whatever third-party sources the player may have read. So if they are going to pledge as a Paladin of Tyr, for example, they better make sure they understand who Tyr is in their DM's campaign.Which is not to say that the player should have no input - there are probably plenty of aspects of being a Paladin of the chosen type that the DM hasn't thought about - he is, after all, managing many other characters and NPCs. Within reason, and especially if it helps build story rather than being used as a munchkining tool, the player should be able to expand on his role.The reason "Paladins" become disliked is frequently because the player has his view of his role backwards - he wants to stick with the party, but since he has this duty, he tries to make it a priority for all, even though they aren't similarly bound. To keep the group together and fulfill his duty he becomes pushy and bossy and tries to make them subservient to his needs.Paladin players need to realize that their DUTY to their party - their pledge to be a loyal member of the group - is only slightly less important that their primary duty. Most of the time Paladins serve their primary duty passively (go forth and fight for good in general and talk up your cause while you're out there) as opposed to actively (Castle Suchnsuch is a direct threat to your cause. Destroy it.) and when this is true they should allow their duty to the party to take dominance. When they ARE actively pursuing their higher calling, they can ask the party to help but understand if they won't, and separate from the party for the time if necessary.Now, as a player, is where being a Paladin becomes funny and the line between fantasy and reality blurs just slightly. IF, a player playing a Paladin finds himself separated from his duty to his group by his higher calling often enough to be a problem for his gaming group and/or his DM, he should let the Paladin go NPC to deal with his duty and take up a new character to join the party, even if he has to sacrafice character levels or even start over at 1st, to do so. Its what a Paladin would do!So speaks Torm the True.</blockquote>

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