Your best fight vs. an anti-Paladin

[DrunkonDuty]

Or Blackguard. Or Deathknight. Call them what you will, they're the guys (and gals) who revel in their own evil and wear black armour with too many skulls on it. They're suave and sophisticated. They're the ones who challenge you to honourable combat then stab you in the back. They loudly mock the paladin's values, while sometimes secretly yearning for them. They lead the armies of evil here in the material world (and sometimes beyond it!!) and are always (?) irredeemably evil.

So please share with everyone your best fight with an anti-paladin.

 

[rgard]

Or Blackguard. Or Deathknight. Call them what you will, they're the guys (and gals) who revel in their own evil and wear black armour with too many skulls on it. They're suave and sophisticated. They're the ones who challenge you to honourable combat then stab you in the back. They loudly mock the paladin's values, while sometimes secretly yearning for them. They lead the armies of evil here in the material world (and sometimes beyond it!!) and are always (?) irredeemably evil.

So please share with everyone your best fight with an anti-paladin.

I played an anti-paladin once back in 1e; his name was Pax. The class was from one of the Dragon mags. I decided to retire him after a potion miscibility mishap. He drank a potion of polymorph self and then drank a healing potion while the poly self potion was still in effect. The DM grinned (a more evil grin than my anti-paladin could ever hope to muster) and opened his DMG to the Potion Miscibility Table and told me to roll percentile dice. I don't have the 1e DMG in front of me, but I think I rolled '00' which resulted in one of the potions having a permanent effect. Most of the other rolls had dire consequences, but I lucked out. The DM rolled a die and decided the poly self was permanent. For him I guess that was better than having the anti-paladin being able to cure himself at will all day long.

The permanent poly self was great initially as the character became really good at assassinating npcs. The challenge was gone though and I later retired the character.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Satori]

The party paladin slowly approaches on his celestial warhorse. Nearly a hundred paces away, mounted on a steed with reptilian eyes and claws instead of hooves, sits the man responsible for all the party's pain, suffering, and loss. His armor seems to soak up the light, his helm fully obscures his face in a hellish display of fell origins. A twisted, gnarled lance of the purest black metal rests easily in his hand while a shield in the shape of a screaming skull adorns the other side.

Having ridden for days unknown, battled through horrors best unspoken, and rested in Helm knows how long, the knight takes a few breaths to steady his ragged nerves. Fear, that emotion thought long conquered, begins to clutch at his stomach. A tremble, barely seen but surely felt, courses through his gauntleted hand.

The hellish steed exhaling a puff of greenish vapor, the fiendish horseman lowers his weapon slowly...and for a split second, a horrid grin appears to spread across the abyssal helm.

Removing his gauntlet, the paladin reaches out and lovingly runs a hand across the blood matted mane of his friend, companion, and mount. "Just one more ride. That's all. Just one more ride." With gritted teeth and a muttered prayer, the knight spurs the tired, wounded warhorse into action.

With a reptilian shriek, the hellish steed of the black knight matches the paladin's mount hoof for claw.

Silence fills the air...only to be shattered by the deafening pound of feet on turf. Lances lowered, armor glinting, breathing ragged, the two armored combatants hurtle towards each other.

Time seems to slow once the combatants are nearly within striking range. Visions of the paladin's youth flash through his mind. Summers harvesting wheat, winters sitting by the fire, and evenings at supper with his family. His eyes moisten slightly as he recalls that day...that fateful day...that awful day. The fires...the screams...the blood...

...the black knight.

Inches away. Steel against steel. Will against will.

Faith against faith.

His breath is ragged, but his eyes are open. His stomach trembles, but his hands are steady. His mind is distraught, but his heart is focused.

His weapons are damaged...

...but his aim is sure.

Where once time seemed stopped, the world now exploded into a stream of shrieking steel, pounding feet, and clashing lances. Pain blurred the paladin's vision, and the chaos of the collision jarred his awareness.

He blinked away the pain, took a deep breath, and looked around.

His lance, the rusted piece of steel that served him well since he was a squire, lay neatly embedded in the black knights torso, having penetrated straight through the screaming skull's mouth. The force of impact ripped the lance from the paladin's grasp while sending the black knight sailing from his mount, only to land in a heap of lifelessness several yards away.

Yet, just as the paladin was about to let loose a roar of victory, he belatedly realized that he sat on the ground, and not on his mount.

Panic gripped his chest, and a quick glance behind him showed that the black knight's own weapon had aimed for his friend's heart, and not his own.

With a pain racked sob, the paladin laid over his friend's quickly declining heart beat.

The question that burned in his mind was...

..."Who had truly won?"

 

[Vegepygmy]

1st edition. Party's paladin reached 4th level, or whatever level it was that you got access to your warhorse. DM ruled that paladin had to complete a special quest to claim his warhorse. Paladin experienced dream-vision of warhorse in the keeping of a cruel and evil "black knight" not too far away. Paladin went off alone to battle the black knight and claim his horse, without telling anyone else in the party he was even going. (We just woke up and he was gone.)

Paladin lost. Paladin was never heard from again.

I don't remember the paladin's name. I don't even remember my character's name (or class, or anything else). But I remember that anti-paladin.

 

[sckeener]

Can I mention the silliest fight?

I typically play the anti-paladins and in this combat the classic example of DM not understanding the monster he is tossing at the player occured. My DM tossed 3 Solars at me.

I should have been toast. The DM didn't fudge the die rolls, but he really didn't grasp all the powers the Solar could command. He really didn't use any of their innate powers.

I got to lay the smack down on 3 Solars in 1st edition. The after glow of that was sweet....

...with all their innate powers...the last thing a Solar should do is enter melee....especially with a dual wielding hasted anti-paladin who would have gladly died to see his dark goddess.

 

[prospero63]

I observed this one.

Player was the super gung-ho, holy roller paladin type that is pious in everything except humility. He has his holy sword, is a walking bad ass and takes nothing from no one.

This was 2nd Edition.

The party was involved in a bit of a deal with the devil as it is. A messenger was sent to the Paladin. Paladin was in his chapel. Armour off, sword on the floor, praying. The messenger, a pit fiend, shows up. Paladin decides not to bother listening to a word, but starts attacking. Pit fiend gates in his buddies. Paladin swings and the devils disappear (the DM had their bodies "poof away" in his rules). Despite only striking the bad guys one or two times, the Paladin was convinced (oh vanity...) that he was cutting them down. The devils never once made an attack at the paladin. In reality they were teleporting to the back of the room... as they continued to gate more and more devils in. The original pit fiend sat in the back of the room... gating away. Eventually the paladin starts making saving throws. First a few, then a few more, then 10, then 20, then 30. Being a Paladin, old 2nd edition rules he could only fail on a 1 and eventually he did. Hold person.

Line of bad guys splits. Pit Fiend walks up, takes out the message and reads it. "Your presence is requested, blah, blah, blah". Pins it to the paladin with a knife, grabs the holy sword and gates home, as do all the rest of the bad guys.

It was all setup by an NPC anti-paladin.

When the Paladin showed for the meeting he was given his sword back... "I apologize, my messenger felt it necessary to 'teach you a lesson in humility'. I have already spoken with him about it not being his place to do so". Heh.

 

[Evilhalfling]

My best anti-paladin fight was not exactly in game....

Ben the Goodhearted.
A paladin with a 7-8 int who always thought he was right. He would never admit he was wrong nor change his view on any issue.

Played by a friend with a law degree, he got into constant alignment arguments with another player, who was also fond of LG characters. The fighting was partially due to out of game stress (as they were roommates.) The game ended, people moved away, but the world continued.

With a compleatly new group of players Ben was an NPC. Off stage he became a deathknight for what he thought were very good reasons. Something about his honor giving him no choice but to offer full his allegence to the powers of darkness. During the fight he continued to insist that he was right, had stayed true to his principles and beliefs.
Okay so it was a bit of revenge fantasy -

The fight itself took place in a tower with four levels connected by 2 staircases and a lift. It was running battle with the deathknight, vampires, vampire spawn, a 14yr old dread necromancer, and a mummy lord (DN's former stepdad). The deathknight got nearly trapped by a wall of stone, and despite having a staircase handy he decided to batter through the wall. He even got a bit of a monolog about his way being the only way for an honorable warrior to act. Although he gave a good account of himself before the wall, by the time he got through, the rest of the battle was over and he was slain quickly.

The teenaged dread Necro was great as well, ranting of his matchless "Horrible Undead Powers!" while standing behind minions and trying to figure out who had lost thier deathward. (btw Dread Necros are nearly helpess in the face of deathwards.)

It was supposed to be a horror game for halloween, it was actually a faced-paced comedy goldmine.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Thanks again to everyone.

ANd the winner is, oh the angst!!, Satori. Killing a paladin's horse, what a bastard act, that's a real Blackguard.

cheers till next time.