Why Paladins Rock

[Mouseferatu]

Edit: Nah. Not worth it.

 

[Rystil Arden]

We had a paladin once in a game where I was a player who didn't have any armour, so he didn't clank around, but he did have a sock puppet both in character and out of character as a prop. He was pretty crazy, and should have lost his paladinhood, but the DM felt sorry for him I guess. At least he sometimes agreed to do good acts, when he wasn't talking to his sock puppet. My Neutral Good enchanter basically had to take over the moral authority spot, which wasn't easy with 4 Chaotic Neutral characters who committed acts that would make Chaotic Evil characters in the campaign I DM think twice. The party bard sang Inspire Courage...for the enemies. Then our fighter cut out his tongue and sliced off his fingers in vengeance. The druid threatened to murder the entire party in our sleep until I geased her to make her stop. The rogue began burning a caravan full of food we had waylaid from evil people that I was trying to distribute to the starved villagers. I talked to him in character, and rolled Diplomacy and he ignored me. Then I charmed him and he said it was agaisnt his nature not to burn the food and called for an opposed Charisma check. See what happens when your paladin goes bad! The world needs paladins, and that is something that a treacherous deity like Torm could simply never understand. Why, just today I saw you trying to min/max a murderous Chaotic Evil character. Now Cyric, there's an upstanding fellow.

By the way, the adventuring party I mentioned above was actually not made up, much to my chagrin...

 

[Crothian]

Edit: Nah. Not worth it.

its always worth it......

 

[shilsen]

I'm tired of paladins always ruining our game. Everyone else in our group will have compatible goals and good hide and move silently skills, and one player will want to play a paladin and wear field plate and go clanging through our planned stealth missions like a kitchen's worth of pots and pans. And they aren't even really roleplaying characters - the Lawful Good alignment, in general, is just an excuse for the DM to micromanage and railroad anyone playing a paladin, and in turn, the party at large.

I hope they remove paladins when they make 4E. I don't even want to see them as a PrC.

I disagree completely. If you do not understand the wonderful depth of roleplaying inherent in the paladin class and the absolute necessity for playing it as an evil-detecting and smiting robot in full plate, then obviously you and your group are just a bunch of munchkin power-gamers. So there!

 

[twofalls]

Gandalf? Gandalf is that you?

 

[kigmatzomat]

Personally, I like the look on players faces when the "assasins" they've been tracking down turn out to be paladins hunting cultists and trying not to let the whole cult know they've been made.

"But....you're wearing black!"
"Yeah, it makes it easer to set ambushes at night if you aren't seen."
"Ambushes? But...but...you're a paladin! Isn't that, I dunno, illegal?!?"
"If the target was just an elven warrior strong enough to lift a horse and with a few centuries of experience, I would consider an open confrontation. But when it's an undead fiend that can turn to mist and fly away at the first sign of danger, I'll go with an ambush.
Now do you mind shutting up? You're making a lot of noise."
"...!!!!"

 

[FireLance]

Kninja? Ninja AND Knight? That certainly is a Knundrum...

Shhh! I'm working on that PrC. Expect to see it in a year.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I'm tired of paladins always ruining our game. Everyone else in our group will have compatible goals and good hide and move silently skills, and one player will want to play a paladin and wear field plate and go clanging through our planned stealth missions like a kitchen's worth of pots and pans. And they aren't even really roleplaying characters - the Lawful Good alignment, in general, is just an excuse for the DM to micromanage and railroad anyone playing a paladin, and in turn, the party at large.

I hope they remove paladins when they make 4E. I don't even want to see them as a PrC.

Ok. I guess we can strke "paladins" from your portfolio now..... Who's gonna be the "god of paladins" now???

The rest of the group should approach the paladin player and see if he'll play something else for this campaign. I haven't had the prob of "railroading" since we had a "nice" chat with our DM about his perspective of paladins vs. ours. He thought they were closer to their gods than a cleric; we disagreed. After that, he hasn't done any railroading on that.... At least mine doesn't sound like "a kitchen's worth of pots and pans".... when she gets rid of that full plate we found one time; she prefers her chainmail--less hindering.

We're playing a rogue-heavy game and are probably glad noone's playing a paladin. Everyone understood that one would screw up the workings of that particular game.

 

[Viashimo]

Lawful Good doesn't just mean he's stupid - or that he can't do anything without shining armor and Heronius' valor...

Lawful - follows a set of orders/specific code on conduct
Good - the ideal of self-sacrifice to help others

Now those can be wiggled a bit as they are more on the spot - and don't get started about the ethics of good. I don't see armor, clank, pot, railroad in those definitions. If you think the way the paladin is set up now as a class, I saw a good paladin variant in the house rules (the Aura Paladin). Nowhere does it say a paladin can't take ranks in hide, move silently, etc. though they are cc. The problem with the paladin is a lot of people see only the stereotype paladin and not a character.

 

[sullivan]

WTFrack? Your Paladins aren't maxing out their Hide rank? Don't they know that skill is a requirement for the Blackguard PrC. The great Paladin to Blackguard conversion bonuses are the only real reason any sane player would put up with the crap they get from squawking, ninny, bleeding heart DMs that think things like slavery, drumhead trials, and liberal use of amputation and/or capital punishments aren't the meat and potatos of a proper Paladin.