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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5778801" data-attributes="member: 42582">From my point of view, though, a world with magical priests can also contain heroic warlords - heroic figures whose mere presence on the battlefield inspires their fellows to otherwise impossible effort.In literary terms, I'm thinking of the significance of Aragorn on the battlefields of LotR - it's  not just that he is a skilled fighter (he is) but that he lifts the hearts of men. There is also the scene in the 1981 Excalibur movie when Lancelot returns in the final battle, and Arthur's soldiers are inspired to redouble their efforts.Now because these are fictions, and not games, there is naturally a blurring between what, in D&D, might be paladin class features or warlord class features. Because in these essentially Christian romances, there is no real distinction between a heroic presence and a divinely-inspired heroic presence.But the game rules of D&D do draw that distinction. And if the game forces us to make all these sorts of inspiring figures paladins, while still permitting the option of non-paladin fighters, then it is ruling out a certain sort of fictional possibility. All non-paladin warriors become, essentially, modernist pulp-style warriors. More romantic warriors are excluded.</blockquote>