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I was thinking of making a character using the "Freedom Paladin" Variant in Unearthed Arcana, and I was wondering which of the gods in the PHB a Chaotic Good paladin would be likely to follow.
Side note: I am not at home, so I do not have access to my PHB, and I am not that familiar with the gods as I have not ever made a paladin or cleric. I want to try to play something "out of my comfort zone" for mainly role-playing reasons
My hubby just made one of these! He ended up choosing Trithereon. As for what god, I would Wikipedia Greyhawk deities- it has an expanded list of GH gods to choose from. Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greyhawk_deities
Of all the paladin variants, the CG one is the one I have the hardest time wrapping my head around.
LG - Standard Paladin. Makes perfect sense.
LE - An evil knightly order, a reflection of good paladins. Blackguard works here, as would a LE base class.
CE - The 'anti-paladin', an individual, singularly powerful champion of chaos, evil, and death. Blackguard seems best here: you have to prove your worth to the gods of slaugher.
CG - Somehow, this one doesn't work for me. It's not a knightly order, since it's chaotic, and CG doesn't even tend to have crusades to impress gods with. CG is also the hardest alignment to really envision wearing heavy armor, which is sort of achetypal to the paladin.
I love me some symmetry, so please, people, help me figure out how a CG equivilent to the paladin works in the gameworld.
Trithereon is perfect I'd say. The god of retribution sends his knights out to ensure good is protected from both evil and lawful oppressors of freedom.
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I was thinking of more of a robin hood-esque type of character. The most I would probably wear would be a chain shirt, mythral if I can get my hands on it, amd do everything I can to help the people. The CG paladin rebels against tyranical governments in favor of the well being of the people. Where the LG paladin fights evil in the name of justice, the CG paladin fights evil in the name of freedom, using his own personal brand of "justice". They are perfectly fine with using deception so long as it furthers their cause, whereas the normal LG paladin does not have such a luxory. I like the idea mainly because I've always wanted to play a paladin, but I can never stay lawful for very long... It just goes against my nature
Hunter, you may want to look at the Holy Liberator prestige class. I think it was reprinted in Complete Divine.
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Hunter, you may want to look at the Holy Liberator prestige class. I think it was reprinted in Complete Divine.
I'll look into it when I get home, and I should be leaving now before I miss my bus (at college, class was canceled today but I didn't find out until I got here). If anyone else responds, I'll check it when I get home in an hour or so
A paladin of freedom who worships Kord is a pretty good fit.
An elf/half-elf paladin of freedom who worships Corellon Larethian also works.
If you want to go gonzo, a gnome paladin of freedom who worships Garl Glittergold could be a lot of fun.
Personally I like the Idea of the Freedom Paladin. I think they need to get rid of the idea that a Paladin needs to be LG. A Paladin should be required to follow the alignment of the deity that he/she follows. I dont think it makes any sense that a CG or a True Nuetral or a CN deity would have a LG Paladin.
not a bad idea... though I'll have to be ready for my DM to try and hit me when I tell him my character worships Optimus PrimeWorship Optimus Prime!
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."
Well if your DM is like me were I use a collection of rules all the way through 1st edition DND to present then it wont matter. If you read the 2ed edition Complete Priest handbook it talke about following Ideas of different philosophies instead of a god. If a cleric can do it theres no reason why a Paladin cant do it as well.
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Personally I like the Idea of the Freedom Paladin. I think they need to get rid of the idea that a Paladin needs to be LG. A Paladin should be required to follow the alignment of the deity that he/she follows. I dont think it makes any sense that a CG or a True Nuetral or a CN deity would have a LG Paladin.
I enjoy the idea of all of the variant paladins, although none of them are neutral in any way. It'd be kinda weird to have a true neutral Paladin, although he could be there to maintain balance in the world, making sure that neither good nor evil gain too much power, switching causes when need demands... Actually, that doesn't sound like that bad of an idea. I can use a character like that to be an NPC that is an ally and an enemy to the PC's.
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I enjoy the idea of all of the variant paladins, although none of them are neutral in any way. It'd be kinda weird to have a true neutral Paladin, although he could be there to maintain balance in the world, making sure that neither good nor evil gain too much power, switching causes when need demands... Actually, that doesn't sound like that bad of an idea. I can use a character like that to be an NPC that is an ally and an enemy to the PC's.
You just described the required alignment of the 2e druid. Militant neutrality is pretty much impossible to legitimately pull off, as it balances 'saving the orphanage' with 'burning down the poorhouse'. Militant neutrality is possible on extremely small scales, particularly if the character adamantly avoids going to large-scale extremes (Christopher Stasheff wrote The Witch Doctor with a main character of this type; he wound up helping good far more than evil, of course, but for somewhat selfish reasons.) because it would require him to betray his own beliefs.
I never liked the idea of a cleric without a god, personally. It just seems kind of bland to me to get divine power without worshiping a divine being.
A cleric with out a god would be more of a cult member than a member of an church.
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A cleric with out a god would be more of a cult member than a member of an church.
Hmm... I never thought about it that way. That answers my unasked question about clerical training since I can't wrap my head around a church devoted to an ideal, it seems a little unrealistic (I know the whole realistic issue, it's just my opinion on this particular subject). But that's another idea that could be interesting.
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I enjoy the idea of all of the variant paladins, although none of them are neutral in any way. It'd be kinda weird to have a true neutral Paladin, although he could be there to maintain balance in the world, making sure that neither good nor evil gain too much power, switching causes when need demands... Actually, that doesn't sound like that bad of an idea. I can use a character like that to be an NPC that is an ally and an enemy to the PC's.You just described the required alignment of the 2e druid. Militant neutrality is pretty much impossible to legitimately pull off, as it balances 'saving the orphanage' with 'burning down the poorhouse'. Militant neutrality is possible on extremely small scales, particularly if the character adamantly avoids going to large-scale extremes (Christopher Stasheff wrote The Witch Doctor with a main character of this type; he wound up helping good far more than evil, of course, but for somewhat selfish reasons.) because it would require him to betray his own beliefs.
It wouldn't be that hard to make an NPC be like that, at least not the way I think about it. Maybe it wouldn't work for a paladin, but it does seem like it would work only for selfish purposes, whether it be for amusement or personal gain. Still, it seems like an interesting idea for an adventure. Although he has given you perfect information about the fortress and has given you flawless maps, it seems that everyone in the place packed up all of their valuables and left. When you return and tell him of this he seems just as flustered as you were, since he asked for a portion of the loot in exchange. In reality, he's just looking to entertain himself, happy that he's outsmarted yet another group of adventurers.
Of all the paladin variants, the CG one is the one I have the hardest time wrapping my head around.
Think Iconic Hedge Knight. The guy shows up at the joust to defend the commoners and whom the Princess secretly falls in love with.
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I have to agree with Ross, I just don't understand a CG Paladin(the Paladin of Freedom). Paladins are supposed to be an order of Knightly warriors of the Gods. I just don't quite see CG falling into that.
You know, this does give me an idea though, a CG holy warrior with Divine magic, the Holy Barbarian. Instead of Smiting, they have the Rage ability. No Damage Reduction. Hmm... this is something for me to think over.
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I have to agree with Ross, I just don't understand a CG Paladin(the Paladin of Freedom). Paladins are supposed to be an order of Knightly warriors of the Gods. I just don't quite see CG falling into that.
You know, this does give me an idea though, a CG holy warrior with Divine magic, the Holy Barbarian. Instead of Smiting, they have the Rage ability. No Damage Reduction. Hmm... this is something for me to think over.
For this, you really want the Champion of Gwynharwyf from the BoED. It's a prestige class, but it's like being a paladin and a barbarian at the same time.
Remember all that CG is not goodlier than LG, it's more chaotic. Likewise CE is more chaotic than LE, not more evil. We tend to think of the chaos/law axis as being more of a compliment to the evil/good axis rather than its own entity.
Perhaps we just need to tweak what we think of the chaos/law axis. I like to think of it as a tendency to the random or to the ordered. I think we all agree that a fundamental aspect of paladins is that they follow some sort of code. A LE/LN/LG paladin could do all manner of acts that violate the legal codes of the land yet conform to the code they swore to uphold. Thus the evil paladin slaughter of a town, or the good paladin's murder of a suspected evil-dooer can still be seen as lawful acts.
The paladin holds him/herself to a higher law than that set by mere men.
edit: Thought of some example. Hexadecimal = Chaotic Evil. Megabyte = Lawful Evil. ordinary real-world priest = Lawful Good. medieval real world witch hunter = Chaotic Good.
I don't want to hijack your post, just suggesting that perhaps you can make your desired character by changing the way you think about law/chaos rather than changing a class.
I can totally see paladins of freedom. They're defenders of those who are suppressed - and there's a lot of those around.
I don't know why chaotic characters can't wear heavy armour. Aligments don't enforce ability scores or equipment. And neither do classes. I played paladins with leather armour and high dex.
As for deities for paladins of freedom:
Cayden Cailean - god of freedom and bravery (and wine). God of Freedom. Paladin of Freedom. I rest my case.
Desna - goddess of luck and travelers and dreams. Her Paladins would travel the world and seek new experiences. Wherever they go, they help the oppressed and vanquish Lamashtu's monsters that terrorise people.
Shelyn - Somewhat unconventional, they'd stand up for those who are forced into arranged marriages and all that.