This variant is supposed to represent a paladin order in the pathfinder campaign I am running. A greater devil is trying to establish itself as a legitimate religion as a mean of escaping Hell and is very big on the idea of paladins so it appears to be good and just deity. Ideologically these paladins are more concerned about law versus chaos (lawful and good) than good versus evil (good and lawful) like a vanilla paladin.
Grey Knight of Karina (Paladin Variant)
Justicar (Ex): At 1st level a grey knight replaces aura of good with aura of law, detect evil with detect law, and smite evil with smite chaos. A grey knight gains proficiency with tower shields.
Obedience (Ex): At 4th level the grey knight dedicates their mind and body to the pursuit of justice as a sacrifice to their deity. A grey knight automatically fails any saving throw against a mind-affecting spell casted by a cleric of Karina and a grey knight receives a morale bonus equal to ½ of their paladin level to attack and damage rolls against any creature that attacks, or seen previously attack a cleric of Karina. This ability replaces channel positive energy.
Order’s Shield (Ex): At 6th level a grey knight gains missile shield as a bonus feat when using a tower shield, and the attack penalty for using a tower shield is reduced by one. At 9th level a grey knight gains ray shield and the attack penalty for using a tower shield is reduced another one, effectively canceling the penalty. This replaces the mercy gained at 6th and 9th level.
The flavor seems hardcore Lawful Neutral to me. Maybe I'm interpreting it wrong though.
Are they intended to be enforcers of the word of law (Neutral) or of the intent of law (Good)?
They inclined more toward law where a paladin leans more towards good. A grey knight is still bound to be LG following the same code of conduct as a paladin. Where a paladin sometimes leans more towards NG seeing that some laws may harm good people, a grey knight sees the law is what shields people not good intentions. Hence the focus more on discipline and the use of a tower shield.
Am I reading this right? Law as a means of stability and safety? The Grey Knights are a *good* order representing a *false* presentation of the Devil that would be a Deity? They adhere to Law over Good, but do not forsake or ignore Good. For example, the order takes the required tithes and gives them to the poor. But, the poor are now required to work (in a positive way) to pay back the Order, and their community. The debtor would not be punished, but would have to perform some civil service (laundry, streetcleaning, etc...).
So, Law in the aspect of control leads to prosperity. Law gives order and prevents the violence inherent in Anarchy? I can see this a borderline fascist crew: Yes, we make the trains run on time, but the conudctor that's late is in deep doo-doo! Of course, the trains *need* to run on time, or someone's livelihood is in jeopardy and we can't have that!
Sounds interesting. Is this going to be a PC oriented Order, or an Order for NPC/Villains?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." CS Lewis
GNOME
Lawful good has the most difficult balancing act to play of any alignment they have to respect laws, even unjust ones that may be cruel or unjust. They have to work within the system to bring change they cannot directly challenge it unless they themselves have the authority to do so (lawmaker, ruler, or what have you). Part of the problem is the interjection of morality into laws trying to attach labels to things that are cruel or unfair. These games take place in a very un-egalitarian culture, most farmers work themselves to death by the time they are thirty, and there are lots of very unpleasant things in the woods next to every small hamlet. In a place like the River Kingdoms peasants live in near anarchy as pawns and playthings for the despot of the week, all this in the name of freedom or chaos as it were.
So the religion reaches out asking what has your prayers to Cayden done to bring food to your table? Has worship of Calistria truly made your life any better or just continue cycles of petty vengeance? Does Gorum’s drive for destruction bring your husband or father back from another pointless war? The merciful goddess Karina wants to bring you and your family out of such a pitiful way of life to do so you must agree on a simple set of tenants to live by that will help build a better community for you and your neighbors.
To help spread this message Paladins are the best tool, they are selfless and willing to help those in need. A Grey Knight is still bound by the same paladin code rather than preach the good word about virtue they talk about community instead. You of course what a better society filled with good people but the normal paladin flavor of justice is not working. So the Karina religion suggests that trying to remove evil is not the problem it is letting chaos fester that undoes the work of good people.
The devil Karina basically had this idea, she could make an evil cult like the other countless greater devils and dukes but that would not really go anywhere. These cults are small in size and often are destroyed by adventures. Now if Karina could present herself as a good god, something that is more widely accepted and could be worshiped in the open, it has a better chance into growing into something bigger than a devil cult in Chelix. So Karina tells the downtrodden what they want to hear and allow idealistic paladins to accomplish. If the “religion” works Karina can escape from the misogyny of Hell and Asmodeus.
“Villainy wears many masks, none of which so dangerous as virtue” – Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow
Anyway, the variant class is intended for both pc and npc use. The Paladins in the party belong to a crusading order of Karina paladins, the grey knight is intended for everyday paladins.
That does sound pretty cool. A very good campaign seed at the least! Do the PCs know of the Karina's real motives? Do the players know of Karina's real motives?
GNOME
:D
I like it!
Thanks =)
One of the player’s is her high priestess (started as a cleric of Gozreh) who knows part of the truth but she has long since been corrupted and taken into the fold. The players all know but Karina loves doing mind rape (3.5 book of vile darkness) and modify memory to get her way. When their PC gets close to the truth it gets misdirected. Devils are all about domination and trickery. The plot has advanced enough where Karina is a minor deity now but she was a very advanced pleasure devil (3.5 Fiendish Codex II) fiend of corruption (3.0 fiend folio). A pleasure devil was the advance form of an Erinyes in 3.5, sort of like the LE version of a succubus. The cleric is slowly being corrupted into being a pleasure devil herself.
Karina’s big goal is actually to raise a large paladin army supplemented by her legion of warmonger devils (booked of the damned 1) to join in at the world wound so she can change the portal to go into hell instead of the material plane.
We have a bit of game lore going for all this.