I thought I'd throw this out for feedback and discussion so I can get a better sense of how PFS works, how I should RP one of my characters, etc.
Last night, I was running my 1/2 orc bloodrager, Candi, who is a devout Calistrian, a member of Liberty's Edge, and an Andoran Dame. She's recently moved from chaotic neutral to chaotic good alignment. In her backstory, she spent several years as a slave gladiator in Cheliax.
So, she really hates Chels and followers of Asmodeus, and takes the general attitude that the only good follower of Asmodeus is a dead follower of Asmodeus.
A couple members of the party who were either playing or had LN followers of Asmodeus as PCs thought Candi's attitude showed that she wasn't really chaotic good, and that since there are LN followers of Asmodeus in the PFS she should be more understanding/tolerant. I assured them that Candi's Society ties were stronger than her hate for Asmodeans, and she wasn't going to attach her follow Pathfinders.
However, Candi considers non-Pathfinder Asmodeans to be more-or-less fair game. From her point of view, even technically non-evil Asmodeans are still supporting an incredibly evil god, religion, and political system so she sees their death as "good" thing.
So, anyhows, I'd welcome any and all thoughts on this situation, and if you have any questions or need some more information for context, please don't hesitate to ask.
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My advice: alignment threads rarely end well. At best you get people agreeing to disagree, at worst a huge argument leads to a lock.
The issue is that alignments are vague enough to have no clear standards but also have enough detail for people to decide that standards are obvious.
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You're a Callistrian. Humiliating the hidebound idjit Chel is always in order. Do it with style. Killing them is so outre, lasting humiliation is so much more satisfying. Having a couple of stuffy Asmodeans as a ready made audience is all to the good.
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I think having "the general attitude that the only good follower of Asmodeus is a dead follower of Asmodeus" is, while not itself heroic, perfectly acceptable for a CG character.
Attacking such an NPC on sight is more questionable and depending on the exact context might be an evil act. (For example, did you have evidence that this individual had personally done evil things, or were they just in your way?) I'm not quite clear on PFS standards, but if it were my table I'd warn you that getting too hasty about violence would slide your alignment back to CN.
Generally I would be more concerned about how disruptive your actions were to the table. Are you making it difficult for the party to complete its mission? If so, scale it back. Are you making the other players at the table uncomfortable? If so, ask them about their out of character feelings and perhaps frame your character's extreme prejudice as a character flaw - Good doesn't mean perfect - which should reassure other players not just that your PC won't kill theirs but that you as a player don't think their characters deserve to die.
I also absolutely agree with Daw that you have other ways to express your dislike of Asmodeans.
Wierdo, so your idea that such a dogmatic approach on how to deal with Asmodeans fits in with a Chaotic Good (you know, anti-dogmatic) mindset? Antipathy is going to be there, predictability, (oh so dull) should never be.
The Horror of the Callistrian Outrage, where the Hellknights' Uniforms were all exchanged with darling pinafores, and all horses and hounds were changed to PINK, and could no longer be controlled unless they were properly adorned with ribbons.
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Yes, I think it's perfectly consistent with CG to hold the general belief that there's no such thing as a good follower of Asmodeus, in the same way it's consistent with CG to believe there's no such thing as a good slave trader.
Chaotic characters tend to see morality as more situational or context-sensitive than Lawful characters, but that doesn't mean that having absolute convictions is incompatible with the alignment, particularly when we're talking about something diametrically opposed on the alignment axis.
This character is also being reasonably flexible in how she acts on these beliefs, since she is willing to cooperate with Asmodeans in the Pathfinder Society.
Since this wasn't clear enough from my first post and the fact I favourited yours, I agree that humiliating Asmodeans is not just another option but a better way for the character to express her dislike. It's unlikely to be an evil act even if the target is LN and would be more interesting and probably more fun for everyone. However, that doesn't mean that killing the enemy Asmodean on sight is going to break the character's alignment, and it may be perfectly CG depending on why the Asmodean is "one of the party's opponents."
Keep in mind that this specific character is a Callistran Bloodrager, which implies she is more comfortable with violence than other forms of revenge.
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Thanks for the thoughts and comments. They're helpful as I think about how I RP this character.
She does her best to also mock Chels and Az-holes (as she sometimes refers to them). Her squire rides a gelded donkey named Az, and she claims to be a Calistrian Knight. If asked the difference between a Calistrian Knight and a Hellknight, she explains that she has more fun and people like her. Finally, when greeting Hellknights, she has a long, complicated salute which involves smacking herself randomly and making farting noises. With an intelligence of 8, there are limits to the sophistication of her humor (she's probably a big fan of the Golarion equivalent of Benny Hill).
I am now eager to find a bloodrager spell or an arcane scroll that allows for the creative coloring of hellknights and their steeds.
No need for magic when the Craft skill (painter) exists, plus, you can put insulting paintings of tin head Hell Knights and their "very close" personal steeds in nice ornate frames (which also deride the Chels and Ol' Lord Asmo...)
Donate your work to galleries, leave them on an easel outside the tin heads barracks, etc, etc.
No need for magic when the Craft skill (painter) exists, plus, you can put insulting paintings of tin head Hell Knights and their "very close" personal steeds in nice ornate frames (which also deride the Chels and Ol' Lord Asmo...)
Donate your work to galleries, leave them on an easel outside the tin heads barracks, etc, etc.
Of course! An art project and a new bloodrager archetype, Artist!
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Alignment questions, as someone said earlier, rarely end well, and generally leads to a shouting match of people who debate ethics who don't have degrees in philosophy.
(And shouts of 'Teh alignment system is teh worst evar!!!!1!!!1!1). And no, I don't have a degree in philosophy either, but I'll try not to shout.
That being said, my two cents is that the alignment measuring stick for good v evil boils down to a few things, and one is respect for life. Now this DOESN'T mean never kill anyone, but it does mean have a general respect for life. And, cold-blooded murder is never good in my book. Thus, my stance is 'kill all Asmodeans on sight' is pretty non-good to me. Remember, it is possible for LN Asmodeans to do good things. Healing people who need it (especially if they are part of 'the flock'), spreading stability and rule of law, fighting off monsters who threaten their flock. Just because they are evil doesn't mean they are constantly kicking puppies into rivers.
Now your alignment depends on how you play your character outside of their reactions to Asmodians. And, honestly, dailing it back a smudge could probably negate the entire issue. If you take it from 'kill on site' to 'just waiting for an excuse' it becomes much more palatable. You could justify it as 'I hate the church, but this guy hasn't done anything to me-yet. Murder in cold blood is what they do, not me. I'll be watching him though." Or, more concisely, your respect for the sanctity of life barely outweighs your hate for Asmodians.
Here's another part of my arguement: let's replace Asmodeus with something else and see if it becomes more clear cut. The elves of Kyonin are generally dicks, and the Winter council are the worst of the worst. If you played a character who was tortured by the winter council, would it be okay to kill all Elven Wizards on site? Would it be good?
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Here's another part of my arguement: let's replace Asmodeus with something else and see if it becomes more clear cut. The elves of Kyonin are generally dicks, and the Winter council are the worst of the worst. If you played a character who was tortured by the winter council, would it be okay to kill all Elven Wizards on site? Would it be good?
Are all elven wizards open servants of a god of pure evil? Because that's some very different context.
Maybe try the same idea, but with drow, and you might be on to something.
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That being said... I'd love to get a Pact Servant worshiper of Asmodeus into a PFS scenario, just to give characters like this an interesting moral quandary. ^_^
Good- acts in a generally selfless manner. Typically for the betterment of the masses. Also see oppseses evil
Chaotic- chooses their own path to accomplish things by. Typically unconventional and certainly not by a strict set of rules. Also see opposes law
Killing Asmodeans probably meets both requirements. Asmodeus is an evil god. Therefore worshiping him can be constituted as an evil act. Possibly one that doesn't merit a death sentence but then again good people react all kinds of ways. EX: terrorists are bad. Nobody bats an eye when terrorists are killed while doing terrorist things. Yet nobody stops to think, "What if this is one of those kids that they press gang into service then indoctrinated him". Unless you want to really turn your table into an alignment debate, we then just oversimplify morality. Attacking a member of an organization that is opposed on 2 alignments? Justified. I do approve of the idea that others before me have posted. Don't just kill them. Your CG. You literally have infinite potential to embarrass them
Final word- dm decides where alignments end at the table. When in doubt ask your dm on alignment issues.
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Here's another part of my arguement: let's replace Asmodeus with something else and see if it becomes more clear cut. The elves of Kyonin are generally dicks, and the Winter council are the worst of the worst. If you played a character who was tortured by the winter council, would it be okay to kill all Elven Wizards on site? Would it be good?
First of all, how dare you.
Half of us weren't even evil-aligned, after all.
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Here's another part of my arguement: let's replace Asmodeus with something else and see if it becomes more clear cut. The elves of Kyonin are generally dicks, and the Winter council are the worst of the worst. If you played a character who was tortured by the winter council, would it be okay to kill all Elven Wizards on site? Would it be good?Are all elven wizards open servants of a god of pure evil? Because that's some very different context.
Maybe try the same idea, but with drow, and you might be on to something.
I see what you are saying, I should have said Kyonin Elven Wizards. I think the analogy stands. Kyonin elven wizards are raised in the same environment that produced the winter council, and follow the same traditions as the winter council (as I believe most, if not all, of the winter council are wizards). They chose to be wizards, but it was likely greatly influenced by their upbringing.
But there are plenty of other examples that work. Those who follow Gorum are often battle-crazed and many are violent psychopaths. If your family was killed by a group of evil Gorum worshippers, would it be good to kill any Gorum follower you found? After all, he is the god of battle, violence, and rage. Is the mere fact that he's listed as CN instead of CE enough to justify not killing them. Should the alignment of your opponent even matter?
My general philosophy (and keep in mind, this is just me), is that the alignment of your target doesn't matter in this case. Your alignment is how you act, not how you act to others. In my opinion, killing anyone in cold blood is non-good. Now, they come after you, threaten you or innocent people, or anything like that, all bets are off. But outright murder of someone just because they were raised in a theocracy to venerate the savior of his civilization just because there were some (admittedly large, very problematic) strings attached? No, you will never convince me that cold-blooded murder is good.
Again, it is a nuance that the alignment system doesn't do well with. If their charater is a saint otherwise the subject becomes muddy. Like I said, just offering up my two cents.
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Most wizards (and other residents) of Kyonin are supposed to be good-aligned. The Winter Council are extreme outliers, and aren't even majority-evil as originally presented - their alignments are LN, N, CN, and NE.
Unfortunately, we haven't had a good look at Kyonin since Second Darkness, so the intended fixes haven't been fully propagated yet.
Many of you all have it backwards, the important part is not the target/enemy/potential victim. The important part is the Callistrian. That he will mess with the Asmodeans is nearly a forgone conclusion. That he will mess with them in a predictable way is foolish, without style, and anti-thematic for Callistrians. Now picking at them, embarrassing them in public, all the while rather hoping they will challenge you to a duel because they can't take a joke...
Callistrian violence is all about revenge, getting them to be the first to attack is thematic.
Asmodeans are so easy to provoke too, it probably comes from them all being so boring in the sack. Their wives are a lot more appreciative though...
"That's what your mama and your wife both said," doesn't take a lot of brains to come up with if you have a little Charisma to pull it off. If you are also tanking on Charisma, you really picked the wrong church.
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CG Can totally go full on john brown against cheliax, its not even a question. Those ln followers are fair game unless they have wayfinders
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@Kalindra: Except he isn't the personification of all evil. He is evil yes, but he's more the personification of everything bad about lawers. Is he vile? Yes. Is EVERY SINGLE ONE of his followers as vile as him? No. My two points still stand: 1) I believe it is not morale to kill anyone in cold blood just because of who they associate with. 2) I believe it is not morale to kill anyone in cold blood period. Part of what separates good from evil is the willingness to take a life when one isn't pressured to.
@Daw yeah, that's all fine in my book. That would be broadly CG behavior assuming you are relatively nice to people in general (sans Asmodeans). Again, all my opinion, and I am hardly an expert.
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Vamp, on points 1 & 2 (from a Callistrian)
You have a lot of rules about killing...
Big Norse Wolf (from a Callistrian)
Do you even understand the concept of Style? Oh, right, Norse, never mind....
For the Goddess Sake, do you think Callistria is a set abilities with no personality?
Do you think your character's choice of Diety isn't at least as influential as the very mutable concept of allignment?
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
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It might be even more true in an organized play environment than it is in a home game that you're part of a team—both your PC within the group as well as you as a person (perhaps a stranger) at the table. If your rendition of fun is at the cost of other people's fun or ability to tell the story collectively (as opposed to always cleaning up the messes left by your character's prejudice), it's not a fair social experience. It's a less extreme version of the "But killing the other PCs and taking their loot is what my character would do" excuse, albeit based on the same self-serving principles.
I've played a few prejudiced characters in both private and public games, and what I've found is most effective takes three steps:
It's a basic gameplay contract. You get to roleplay your character's emotions, and your companions get a say in controlling the pace of the game. It's all the nicer when the party later agrees that your character should attack.
Angry Joe: Imma gonna kill him!
Paladin Jane: Okay, that sounds like a good idea.
Angry Joe: *blinks in confusion* You're not going to stop me?
Paladin Jane: Not this time. I stopped you before because we were in a crowded market surrounded by innocent bystanders. Here in the privacy of this abandoned castle, though, I'm more than happy to indulge your tough childhood and its violent expression through weaponry. Anyway, slavers are jerks.
Angry Joe: *wipes away a tear and rolls initiative*
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@Daw: It is important here to note we are discussing good vs. non-good, not 'what would a Callistrian do.' Is it within CALLISTRIAN behavior to kill anyone associated with a group that wronged them terribly? Sure, totally. I'm just arguing that wouldn't be a CG Callistrian, that's all.
@John Thank you very much for summarizing what I was trying to say in a much more succinct way. Like I said before, if the OP dialed it back to 'waiting for an excuse' instead of 'kill on site' then I don't think anyone would have a problem (what you call 'warning signs' and 'limiting prejudice.')
Also, as a side note, in our PFS group we have a Dawnflower paladin who would be the Angry Joe you mentioned. While he doesn't stray from LG, (or the paladin code) it's usually the rest of the party that has to talk him out of killing. He's the very stereotypical 'lawful stupid' paladin (except the player knows it and works with other people, so he's actually fun to be around, instead of annoying.) The other day a brawler had to do a knockout blow on him to get the scenario done (The player was fine with this and voluntarily failed the saving throw because he thought it was hilarious.)
Like I said before, if the OP dialed it back to 'waiting for an excuse' instead of 'kill on site' then I don't think anyone would have a problem
As the OP, "kill on sight" has never been Candi's position in regards to Az-holes.
Candi's position is "the only good follower of Asmodeus is a dead follower of Asmodeus" which doesn't require that she kill every Az-hole she meet. However, if one gives her an excuse, then she'll cut him/her into little pieces
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The other day a brawler had to do a knockout blow on him to get the scenario done (The player was fine with this and voluntarily failed the saving throw because he thought it was hilarious.)
"Drink your milk BA"
@Kalindra: Except he isn't the personification of all evil. He is evil yes, but he's more the personification of everything bad about lawers. Is he vile? Yes. Is EVERY SINGLE ONE of his followers as vile as him? No. My two points still stand: 1) I believe it is not morale to kill anyone in cold blood just because of who they associate with. 2) I believe it is not morale to kill anyone in cold blood period. Part of what separates good from evil is the willingness to take a life when one isn't pressured to.
@Daw yeah, that's all fine in my book. That would be broadly CG behavior assuming you are relatively nice to people in general (sans Asmodeans). Again, all my opinion, and I am hardly an expert.
I must disagree with you on the no killing "in cold blood". They are worshipers of an entirely evil god. By definition there lives advance his cause. By killing him/her you are ending that threat. A good substation for your earlier comparison would be a nazi. Are all Nazis as bad as Hitler? No. Is it still justified to kill one in uniform? Probably. Would it be a better act to find another way to deal with them? Yes. Does that necessarily make killing them wrong? No. How different is it than killing orcs or goblins because somebody hired you to?
@jhon- many good points made. The character must fit within the 1 rule that all characters must. They need to be able to work with their team. Doesn't matter how. They just gotta do it.
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John - excellent advice on roleplaying prejudice while respecting your fellow players.
pjrogers - sounds reasonable to me. Still would be good to keep in mind John's advice and make sure you're not making other players uncomfortable.
Do you think your character's choice of Diety isn't at least as influential as the very mutable concept of allignment?
The other players at the table weren't complaining that Candi wasn't being Callistran, they were complaining that she wasn't being CG.
Callistrian violence is all about revenge, getting them to be the first to attack is thematic.
This raises a question that didn't come to me until late last night after my last post. Can a Calistrian seek vengeance against organizations, ie. the Chelish state and/or the church of Asmodeus, in addition to seeking vengeance against specific individuals? If the answer to this is "yes," then one can argue there is no need for a specific Chel or Az-hole to "be the first attack," as she/he is part an organization engaged in an ongoing "first attack" in terms of its slaving and covert border war against Andoran, to name just two examples.
Candi's backstory is that she was a slave in Cheliax before being rescued by Liberty's Edge and joining the PFS, so she certainly feels justified in seeking vengeance against that country and its official state religion.
Are all Nazis as bad as Hitler? No. Is it still justified to kill one in uniform? Probably.
To take the Nazi analogy further (which I think is a good one for Cheliax), you can view the church of Asmodeus as the SS and the Hellknights as the Wermacht, the later being an important supporter of the Nazi regime as well being guilty of numerous war crimes/crimes against humanity itself.
If one were to meet a Nazi in a non-combat situation, (say, a few years before the war began)
As I noted above, I think that for many inhabitants of Golarion, the war has already begun. More broadly, I think the war of Hell against the peoples of Golarion is certainly underway, and Asmodeus's social/political foothold in Cheliax is very similar to the more physical beachhead that the Abyss has established with the Worldwound.
One of the most powerful indictments against Cheliax, House Thrune, Asmodeans, and the Hellknights is the story of
And with that, my espresso-fueled rant draws to a close.
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I must disagree with you on the no killing "in cold blood". They are worshipers of an entirely evil god. By definition there lives advance his cause. By killing him/her you are ending that threat. A good substation for your earlier comparison would be a nazi. Are all Nazis as bad as Hitler? No. Is it still justified to kill one in uniform? Probably. Would it be a better act to find another way to deal with them? Yes. Does that necessarily make killing them wrong? No. How different is it than killing orcs or goblins because somebody hired you to?
As much as I am lothe to bring real-life politics into this, or engage in a Godwin arguement, I would like to point out that yes, killing people in cold blood is wrong. In WW2, we captured nazi prisoners of war. Did we just summarily execute them? No. Ever hear of the Nuremberg trials? We gave Nazi WAR CRIMINALS a fair shake to see if their horrendous actions were bad enough to warrant killing them. Some were sentenced to as little as 10 years and some were even acquitted.
Now listen, obviously in war things are different. But running around murdering people because of whom they associate with is non-good. As further proof I'd like to present that I have actually met a skinhead neo-nazi and I did not murder him. I intensely hated the man, and everything he stood for, but I still knew that killing him was wrong.
It should, of course, go without saying that I hate Nazis and anti-sematism in general and do not support that ideology.
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This raises a question that didn't come to me until late last night after my last post. Can a Calistrian seek vengeance against organizations, ie. the Chelish state and/or the church of Asmodeus, in addition to seeking vengeance against specific individuals?
Answered my own question with a little lunchtime research. Inner Sea Gods is pretty clear in the last paragraph on p. 34. Calistrians should "evaluate people as individuals rather than members of groups or followers of creeds." Something I need to put in Candi's RP notes then.
That being said... I'd love to get a Pact Servant worshiper of Asmodeus into a PFS scenario, just to give characters like this an interesting moral quandary. ^_^
That could be fun :)
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As much as I am lothe to bring real-life politics into this, or engage in a Godwin arguement, I would like to point out that yes, killing people in cold blood is wrong. In WW2, we captured nazi prisoners of war. Did we just summarily execute them? No. Ever hear of the Nuremberg trials? We gave Nazi WAR CRIMINALS a fair shake to see if their horrendous actions were bad enough to warrant killing them. Some were sentenced to as little as 10 years and some were even acquitted.
Which is a very good argument for the chaotic good point of view that a summary ganking would be true justice and law is in the way of that.
Lawful is not good. Lawful good is not more good than the other goods.
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I would like to point out that your constant relating our fine Hellknight organization with the Church of Asmodeous and Cheliax in general is just plain wrong. While our Order does originate in Cheliax and many of us do worship the Prince of Law, our organization predates the rise of House Thrune and the wide spread worship of said god. We happen to have many paladins in our ranks, and just look to the Order of the Godclaw for an example of alternate worship. Even the name Hellknight is more a reference to the tightly ordered methods of said plain, than the beings that call it home. By the hells, the name was first given to us by corrupt followers of Aroden, who were using their position in the church to cause both murders and suicides among that fallen faith's followers. Or to make it short, we owe no allegiance to any one nation or religion, so don't judge a book by it's cover. Or in this case, don't judge a knight by it's armor.
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"Hydra can't be nazi's, they're older than world war II right?
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Except Nazis were a party affiliation in the German government, Hellknights are not affiliated with the Chelaxian government at all. Some Orders are not even based out of Cheliax, and others often directly oppose the Thrunes. Not a good comparison. Some of Hydra were Nazis, but the leaders just used the Nazi Party to accomplish their secret goals.
Lawful good is not more good than the other goods.
It's not less good either though.
They are both sliding scales boys. Individuals are individuals, even in the Society. Giving alternative viewpoints is good, being right is just being silly.
Since we already skirting Godwin's law, how about another tangent: Does anyone have success stories of fun running rivalries between PFS characters?
Over at "10 questions that'll make your PFS roleplaying blossom" question 7 makes the mention of a rival. I like the idea to have a rivalry with another regular character, but the RP has never gone that way.
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Since we already skirting Godwin's law, how about another tangent: Does anyone have success stories of fun running rivalries between PFS characters?
Over at "10 questions that'll make your PFS roleplaying blossom" question 7 makes the mention of a rival. I like the idea to have a rivalry with another regular character, but the RP has never gone that way.
Don't know that it counts as a rivalry per se, but my Chelish Oracle and a friend's Taldane Cleric spent a fair amount of time on the few missions they ran together trading backhanded compliments about each other's homelands and generally trying to "out-snob" one another.
Similarly, on a particular high-level mission, we overheard our opponents plotting to ambush us in the next room and the same player's evocation Wizard turned it into an impromptu "fireball-off". Considering what was left after her turn was compared to atomic blast carbon shadows, it's safe to say she won.
So, generally friendly, good-natured, spur-of-the-moment "rivalries" on my end.
@Veltharis That sounds really cool, and is the type of inspiration I'm looking for. I have a character that has taken to bribing the local barbarian into good behavior with cookies (very excited to hit the level where I can give out alchemical buffs as 'cookies').
Had a archetypal nose in the air elf, think Haldir from the Lord of the Rings, that once got caught up in a skald's rage; he fought standing on a table with a hand axe in each hand. The skald wrote a song to commemorate the occasion mush to the ridged elf's shame.
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Over at "10 questions that'll make your PFS roleplaying blossom" question 7 makes the mention of a rival. I like the idea to have a rivalry with another regular character, but the RP has never gone that way.
Someone was running a new dhampire. We came across an undead adjacent NPC and were debating what to do with her. As she hadn't done anything wrong that we knew of, my Liberty's edge calden cayden inquisitor saw no reason to hold her, but did want to offer/strongly encourage her to come back to absolom for study for a possible cure.
Dhampire Necromancer "we really can't risk someone that might be dangerous running around?
Tengu "really? Because if i was going to start shooting at the first warning signs of evil...
Dhampire " okay, fair point. What does your god tell you?
Tengu: puts on the phylactery of faithfulness "ow, I'm not shooting the necromancer, ow, i'm not shooting the necromancer, ow..."
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No ongoing rivalries, but I've seen a few single session type things come up.
One that comes up fairly often for me is rivalries including my Chosen One paladin and her thrush familiar. The paladin is very friendly, but naive (typical wis dumped paladin), but the bird's a lot smarter than most people expect (low int, high wis). Whistles has spoken Common since level 1, can cast Guidance at will, can "Lay on Paws" to heal people, and is lawful good aligned, since the fluff on the Chosen One's familiar is that it's actually a LG outsider in disguise, and will reveal its "true form" with the Improved Familiar feat at level 7.
During character intros, Whistles acts like just a dumb bird, to see how the other party members react to him chirping in their faces. About half the time, someone will react with "Keep that dumb bird away from me!"
As the adventure progresses, Whistles will start casting Guidance on people throughout the whole thing, and we inevitably reach a moment of "Whistles will go around casting Guidance on everyone before we open the door... except that guy." It's usually a back and forth thing where we joke about it the whole game. I've even had other PC's animal companions eye Whistles hungrily.
So my aasimar paladin doesn't have any rivals, but her familiar has several.
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I don't think it rises to the level of rivalry, but Candi has run pretty frequently with a couple of swashbucklers. She likes to refer to them as "cute, like puppies, bouncing around and waving their little swords." She also been known to wolf whistle at paladins just to make them nervous.