The new Paladin, and his (overpowered, some would say... but that’s not the point of this thread) abilities attract some players just because of the powers, not the idea of the class.
The consequence, in my experience, is a lot of really “lame” paladin RP.
On to the point of this thread: What’s the WORST paladin RP you’ve met? (and please, don’t take it personally because you actually play a paladin just like an example… let’s just share stories, if possible)
I’ll begin: I’m DMing a campaign where this Paladin acts completely arrogant towards defeated enemies. He actually mocks defeated foes, wants to torture (yes, torture) them… but the best happened in the last session:
“and those are the slaves” (NPC)
“Really? Orc slaves? Nice.” (PAL)
“Nice? That's certainly amusing coming from you.”(NPC)
“Yes, at least they’re being put to use.”
And the he proceeded (out of game) to defend this paladin code =)
At which point he reverted to a common fighter.
Got anything to share, any of you? :D
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I'm going to put a disclaimer on the following comment, in that I don't think that the player in question was roleplaying his paladin badly, its more a matter of an amusing quirk he adopted to his own personal code.
When another player made him invisible in one session, he asked him never to do so again, because he felt it was a dishonorable way to take advantage of his opponent.
In another session, the bard again made the paladin invisible, at which point the paladin apologized to his opponent and told the opponent where he was, and then asked the bard again not to make him invisible.
Hate to post this in a "worst" paladin thread, as I thought it was actually pretty amusing, but I had to share. ;)
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Oh, and to rat out my dear youngest daughter, this one is a bad paladin story . . .
Upon seeing a bright naga taking down her brother's and sister's character, as well as their pet dog, her paladin immediately says, "I'm going to run . . . I don't want to die."
"Are you going to try to take them with?"
"Not if they slow me down."
;)
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The new Paladin, and his (overpowered, some would say... but that’s not the point of this thread) abilities attract some players just because of the powers, not the idea of the class.
The consequence, in my experience, is a lot of really “lame” paladin RP.
On to the point of this thread: What’s the WORST paladin RP you’ve met? (and please, don’t take it personally because you actually play a paladin just like an example… let’s just share stories, if possible)I’ll begin: I’m DMing a campaign where this Paladin acts completely arrogant towards defeated enemies. He actually mocks defeated foes, wants to torture (yes, torture) them… but the best happened in the last session:
“and those are the slaves” (NPC)
“Really? Orc slaves? Nice.” (PAL)
“Nice? That's certainly amusing coming from you.”(NPC)
“Yes, at least they’re being put to use.”And the he proceeded (out of game) to defend this paladin code =)
At which point he reverted to a common fighter.Got anything to share, any of you? :D
As long as slavery was not illegal by the local laws it would not go against the paladin code, as upholding personal freedom is a chaotic standpoint.
EDITED
EDIT
KnightErrantJR, you're right.
Let's see if we get funny stories :D
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Man, here I thought this was going to be a light-hearted thread about paladins doing goofy non-heroic or amazingly dumb things, not version 23,456,984 of the paladin code debate . . . ;)
And the decision to turn the paladin into a fighter wasn't just arbitrary. The player himself accepted.
Now he's a LN knight who can act pretty much as he pleases, withing the law of the realm he serves.
... and don't get me started in using "immunity to diseases" to visit some shady spots in port cities (no, really) =D
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No need for paladin code debate (even though I contributed to that thread jack). I don't have any good stories about paladins.
And the decision to turn the paladin into a fighter wasn't just arbitrary. The player himself accepted.
Now he's a LN knight who can act pretty much as he pleases, withing the law of the realm he serves.
... and don't get me started in using "immunity to diseases" to visit some shady spots in port cities (no, really) =D
That is funny.
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The paladin's new power gives his the opportunity to BE a paladin in my opinion. 3.X paladins were garbage, plain and simple, and as much as I love the concept, I hardly ever played them.
But I also feel that the paladin should be played as the ultimate champion of good that it is supposed to be. OP's paladin should really reconsider his stand-point. Torture is right out, no matter the reason. Slavery is revolting, but tolerable if the slaves are treated well and given the chance to earn their own freedom.
I am currently playing a paladin, and the party, who are mostly good, with one exception, who is CN, keeps complaining about me being overly good. I heal potential non-evil enemies, seek peaceful negotiations with anything that does not dominantly register as evil (fiends, undead, evil dragons and clerics of evil gods are given neither negotiation options nor mercy), and I "waste" personal resources on making the world a better place for all.
The GM sometimes thinks I am running him a little too loot-oriented, but it is merely my character realizing that while it is admirable to do what you can with almost nothing, it is those who have wealth and power who can change the world.
The paladin's new power gives his the opportunity to BE a paladin in my opinion. 3.X paladins were garbage, plain and simple, and as much as I love the concept, I hardly ever played them.
But I also feel that the paladin should be played as the ultimate champion of good that it is supposed to be. OP's paladin should really reconsider his stand-point. Torture is right out, no matter the reason. Slavery is revolting, but tolerable if the slaves are treated well and given the chance to earn their own freedom.
I am currently playing a paladin, and the party, who are mostly good, with one exception, who is CN, keeps complaining about me being overly good. I heal potential non-evil enemies, seek peaceful negotiations with anything that does not dominantly register as evil (fiends, undead, evil dragons and clerics of evil gods are given neither negotiation options nor mercy), and I "waste" personal resources on making the world a better place for all.
The GM sometimes thinks I am running him a little too loot-oriented, but it is merely my character realizing that while it is admirable to do what you can with almost nothing, it is those who have wealth and power who can change the world.
i think this concept is a great idea for a paladin. i dont really care for the class but the concept is spot on. good job. screw what your gm says. play your character the way you wanna play it and what makes it fun for you. thats what the game is about anyways.
The paladin's new power gives his the opportunity to BE a paladin in my opinion. 3.X paladins were garbage, plain and simple, and as much as I love the concept, I hardly ever played them.
But I also feel that the paladin should be played as the ultimate champion of good that it is supposed to be. OP's paladin should really reconsider his stand-point. Torture is right out, no matter the reason. Slavery is revolting, but tolerable if the slaves are treated well and given the chance to earn their own freedom.
I am currently playing a paladin, and the party, who are mostly good, with one exception, who is CN, keeps complaining about me being overly good. I heal potential non-evil enemies, seek peaceful negotiations with anything that does not dominantly register as evil (fiends, undead, evil dragons and clerics of evil gods are given neither negotiation options nor mercy), and I "waste" personal resources on making the world a better place for all.
The GM sometimes thinks I am running him a little too loot-oriented, but it is merely my character realizing that while it is admirable to do what you can with almost nothing, it is those who have wealth and power who can change the world.
Hey, I can't remember calling you too loot oriented!
I think Toshiro is a great example of how a paladin should act; selfless, duty-bound, fearless, compassionate yet determined and merciless in the face of great evil.
As for the OP's question, I have seen my shares of paladins being played throughout my 20+ years as a GM. I have seen paladins take bribes, do random acts of violence to innocents and committing torture and other atrocities. Needless to say in most of these cases the paladins in question quickly lost their powers. One of the worst things I have seen (yet still kind of funny) was when a paladin in my group tried to steal his masters holy avenger (which I had put there to be inherited by the paladin later on).
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I know a guy who proudly and frequently recounts the time his paladin of a law/death deity murdered a child for swearing in church. His justification is that his deity would deem his actions both lawful and right. According to his story, the DM had no problem with this. He hasn't mentioned if he was rewarded XP for killing the kid.
In the years I've been gaming, I've luckily had more run-ins with people who abstain from playing pallys specifically because they understand the significance of the code and know they won't have fun sticking to it. I've seen a lot more NPC paladins than PC since these players also don't want to be burdened with the chore of explaining why they constantly surround themselves with miscreants who will never reform.
"My honor is my life"... so if I loose my life I loose my honor... I think it says it all.
"Death before dishonor!"
.. I should play a paladin next time...
I once had a player who had a scruffy-looking paladin. To introduce him to another player's character (a mage), I had him come upon the mage just after the mage had fended off a group of bandits. The paladin drew his sword and commanded the mage to stop and drop where he was. Thinking he was another bandit, the mage yelled something about not being taken by bandits and turned to run - so the paladin cut the unarmed, good-aligned mage down from behind for ignoring his orders.
Yeah... that game didn't last long.
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That's actually funny.
- The holy avenger thief paladin
- The murder-children-in-church-for-swearing paladin
- the backstabs-good-aligned-characters paladin
I see a new Paladin Code of Ethics being born out of this ahahah.
Hey, I can't remember calling you too loot oriented!The paladin's new power gives his the opportunity to BE a paladin in my opinion. 3.X paladins were garbage, plain and simple, and as much as I love the concept, I hardly ever played them.
But I also feel that the paladin should be played as the ultimate champion of good that it is supposed to be. OP's paladin should really reconsider his stand-point. Torture is right out, no matter the reason. Slavery is revolting, but tolerable if the slaves are treated well and given the chance to earn their own freedom.
I am currently playing a paladin, and the party, who are mostly good, with one exception, who is CN, keeps complaining about me being overly good. I heal potential non-evil enemies, seek peaceful negotiations with anything that does not dominantly register as evil (fiends, undead, evil dragons and clerics of evil gods are given neither negotiation options nor mercy), and I "waste" personal resources on making the world a better place for all.
The GM sometimes thinks I am running him a little too loot-oriented, but it is merely my character realizing that while it is admirable to do what you can with almost nothing, it is those who have wealth and power who can change the world.
Was an off-hand comment back when we were focused on something else, and I was adamant about being rewarded. Just one occurrence, and probably in jest.
I think Toshiro is a great example of how a paladin should act; selfless, duty-bound, fearless, compassionate yet determined and merciless in the face of great evil.
Kinda funny how having two sets of codes of conduct (paladin code + bushido) makes it easier to be a proper paladin.
As for the OP's question, I have seen my shares of paladins being played throughout my 20+ years as a GM. I have seen paladins take bribes, do random acts of violence to innocents and committing torture and other atrocities. Needless to say in most of these cases the paladins in question quickly lost their powers. One of the worst things I have seen (yet still kind of funny) was when a paladin in my group tried to steal his masters holy avenger (which I had put there to be inherited by the paladin later on).
Wat? Who were you playing with then? Even Magnus should be above that kind of stuff.
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don't know about "worst" I've ever seen, but some fun things that have happened to Pally's in our games.
3.5ed, White Plume Mountain, one of the final rooms, with an enormous Crabbymonster guarding the magic doohickey.
Paladin/Monk goes first, (among the party) and proceeds to dash across the room, trying to secure the Macguffin. He runs (flat-footed, remember) clean past the Huge (possibly Gargantuan) Crabbymomster o' Doom.
Of course, he catches the AoO, what with being a Monk/Paladin who is running full-tilt past a gigantic claw-wielding-grapple-beastie. Claw/Claw/Constrict/Constrict later, and <snip> goes Lando.
He was reincarnated as a Halfling, and proceeded to spend a LOT of money getting sizing enchanted onto his collection of longswords.
PF, Council of Thieves, just after the culmination of the first adventure. Paladin (same player as above) decides he's going to go hunting "Shadow Beasts" to make Westcrown a safer place. He goes out, at night (bad idea at that time, in that AP), with next to no backup. The beasties come from the darkness, tear him a new one, and so falls the Paladin.
He is reincarnated as a Troglodyte (his "punishment" from Iomedae, in his own estimation) and soon becomes known as the Lizardin of Westcrown. Downside: he stinks, BAD. Upside: almost nothing in the AP can now touch him with attacks, as well as the usual Paladin "I save" abilities.
The new Paladin, and his (overpowered, some would say... but that’s not the point of this thread) abilities attract some players just because of the powers, not the idea of the class.
The consequence, in my experience, is a lot of really “lame” paladin RP.
On to the point of this thread: What’s the WORST paladin RP you’ve met? (and please, don’t take it personally because you actually play a paladin just like an example… let’s just share stories, if possible)I’ll begin: I’m DMing a campaign where this Paladin acts completely arrogant towards defeated enemies. He actually mocks defeated foes, wants to torture (yes, torture) them… but the best happened in the last session:
“and those are the slaves” (NPC)
“Really? Orc slaves? Nice.” (PAL)
“Nice? That's certainly amusing coming from you.”(NPC)
“Yes, at least they’re being put to use.”And the he proceeded (out of game) to defend this paladin code =)
At which point he reverted to a common fighter.Got anything to share, any of you? :D
The patent difficulties of having to be a class with "a code" in a world where there are a large number of races that are "always Chaotic Evil."
What's he going to do? Try to release them? Reform them? Slaughter them wholesale? I suppose if he releases them first, he can do that...|
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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One of the groups of high school kids I introduced to playing the game had a paladin in it. The kids were very new and I surprised that one of them would take on the challenge of a paladin. He did very well, and I was often impressed by his actions.
The problem came from the rogue in the party.
Just as the party moved into sight of the main bad guy he called them out and asked them stop. He asked if they were friend or foe, and the paladin started to call out that they were a foe when the rogue stopped him and proclaimed they were friends. The main bad guy asked for proof and the rogue back stabbed the paladin, who ended up falling past 0 hp due to being low on hp already.
The bad guy was satisfied and started to monologue, but after only 10 seconds of it, the rogue yelled "BORING" and threw a dagger at him, which hit and scored a critical hit with max damage. Everyone in the party beat the bad guys in initiative, and killed the main baddie before he could act.
The paladin wasn't out of the fight though. The barbarian had a habit of throwing things, and threw the paladin at the bad guys animal companion (a giant frog) and scored a direct hit. Luckily, the paladin didn't lose so much health that he died.
After the fight, the paladin was revived. The paladin's player was so amused by what happened that he didn't make a big deal out of it. They continued to adventure together until school started again.
A sadistic, evil lawful good paladin that also had a kill-everything-first-and-ask-questions-later attitude.
It obvious to me now how stupid it was for me to allow it.
This old gem.
WOW! That-! That was amazing. I think my paladin would smite him, and I think the GM would let it work. He was like a "That Guy" with templates.
Really Paladin should be a Prestige class. That Fighters can role-play themselves into becoming by 3-5th level, by role-playing there alignment and code well.
Kind of miss the first age, when paladin was a 9th level prestige class of Knight.
We have had a party that had a paladin that kept slaves. He treated them well (fed regularly and healthily, kept in clean clothes, with a good shelter to sleep in -- allowed rest if working in a very hot/cold environment -- punished but didn't maim or kill run aways (there were a few), etc) and freed them after several years of service.
The culture he was from kept slaves lawfully (and had laws on how to treat slaves, etc) and he made sure to acquire his through legitimate legal means.
Now I won't say slavery is something we need -- and most of the other party didn't like it (especially the one time slave CG halfling) but it never escalated into something the party was willing to fight over with him.
The worse paladin I ever saw did all the following in the first session:
Lied to the employer, stole from said employer, used poison in the first combat in the campaign, killed someone that surrendered and asked for mercy (standard NC bandit), threatened torture on another one (with no need), and refused to help people without compensation.
At the end of that session he was told he couldn't keep playing a paladin in that game and to either redo the guy as a fighter or start a new character.
This old gem.
Huh, that brings to mind a game I was in as a player once. Due to some Flaws, my CG character was under a compulsion to eat fresh raw meat every night. I met the paladin and the rest of the party on the way through the woods where I lived, and one of the party members convinced me to guide them through the woods. That night, my character went to slip away for his nightly meal (not something he was proud of, hence living alone in the woods) when the paladin, in a fit of metagaming, suddenly became aware that I was leaving and leapt out of his tent to tell me that I wasn't going anywhere, because he decided who did what and when in the party.
A bit puzzled and a bit disbelieving of such an attitude, my character shrugged and said the paladin couldn't exactly stop him if he wanted a guide. So the paladin cut his throat.
Later that day, the paladin's player punched me in the head for arguing with him about what constituted dishonorable behavior. Yeah, the irony wasn't lost on me. The jerk went on to become a known figure in the LARP community of Denmark.
I never got into LARP, or played with him again. The other two players, first-time roleplayers, never played an RPG again to my knowledge.
Later that day, the paladin's player punched me in the head for arguing with him about what constituted dishonorable behavior. Yeah, the irony wasn't lost on me. The jerk went on to become a known figure in the LARP community of Denmark.
Wow, that really was Player versus Player violence.
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Wow, that really was Player versus Player violence.
Later that day, the paladin's player punched me in the head for arguing with him about what constituted dishonorable behavior. Yeah, the irony wasn't lost on me. The jerk went on to become a known figure in the LARP community of Denmark.
Violence: It solves everything!
The Paladins just playing CE characters with paladin class abilities are bad enough. But I think those who not only stick to the code, but take it way too far, being huge jerks in the process and annoying everyone at the table are worse.
I didn't ever see anyone who thinks he can just ignore that code (the "I'm CN, why can't I just kill everyone" outburst came from a player playing a wizard), but I've seen some players who used the class as an excuse to be a*~%$&@s.
The last character risked a riot when he called out the bard when he was lying to a mob to calm them down. Nothing like "But that's not true!" when you want to stop people from killing each other.
He was exceptionally rude. He almost got the group killed a couple of times when he refused to do any sort of negotiation with enemies, even if they had virtual armies at their disposal.
He died when he stormed into a quartet of assassins (they formed a nice X, with him in the exact centre of attention of 8 sneak-attack enabled weapons). He was almost naked, by the way. No armour. Who says assassins don't do good deeds?
Actually, by the law of the day, the
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paladin = Change that word to = Commander (paladin is a fiction description of a character class)
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was within his rights
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morally = Morality is in the eye of the beholder. Just because the Commander saw it as morale to do so; Does not mean it was morale or right to do so. People will argue this ether way.
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and
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legally = Legal to do so my the government or organization that the commander works for. Another government might rules this illegal, and charge the commander with war crimes.
I am beginning to think they should have put "standards" for good/lawful/evil/chaotic behavior.
Not putting every situation down but being a little less vague, maybe give what the majority in DND times would have for laws and moral standard.
As of right now it is so broad most players cant agree. Obviously it was done so each world can be different but a baseline for players to manipulate like we do with the rest of the rules would work better by being able to assume certain things if a DM hasn't mentioned a change.
I will say the thing I often say about "worst" characters...
Most of the time, the problem doesn't come from the characters, but from the players themselves.
Many players play a paladin as an excuse to be a rigid and condescending jerk, quick to judge and condemn.
They forget a paladin should not just be a judge, he should also be an example of virtue.
Good vs evil? It's iffy, but a code in that regard can usually be worked out.
Law vs chaos? You might as well describe what colour the moon smells like.
Now my favorite paladin was play much like Andy Griffith, and a bit of a reluctant hero (reluctant in that he didn't really enjoy 'adventures' and preferred to find non-violent common sense solutions).
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(long post, sorry)
Funny Paladin Stuff? Yeah, guilty of a few of those here. I love playing paladins *because* of how strange and arbitrary the code is about a lot of things (an old WotC board poster called "K" wrote up an amazing breakdown of the code in a project called the Dungeonomicon. Well worth a read if you can find it.)
My favorite pally of all time was Greyson Caine, a Geshtalt Paladin/Monk in a very high power game. It started at mid-level so I began the character as having left the church due to ideological differences and retired to some frontier town. He was the bouncer at a brothel. He was a drunk (he'd been arrested a few times for public drunkenness, for which he did his time and payed his fines without incident), a gambler (he never cheated, though he did occasionally bluff), an unrepentant womanizer (though never disrespectful about it) and kind of an abrasive jerk to people he didn't know very well (he had a habit of assuming the worst in people, telling them his assumptions, and telling them to either prove otherwise or get lost). He was also every inch the iconic paladin underneath his "old world-weary soldier" coping mechanism.
The game began with a younger church-knight, a prodigy names Nathan, seeking out Caine and convincing him to come back and help right the wrongs that had begun infecting the church. The two began a very odd-fellows relationship, both being paladins, but having very different takes on interpretations on the code and the purpose of their order.
Some of my favorite interactions:
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Nate: "You had sexual relations with a whore!!?"
Caine: "That term's a little derogatory. Just because they're whores don't mean they shouldn't be treated like women."
Nate: "I.. um, what? You didn't answer the question."
Caine: "Well not that it's any of your business, but yes."
Nate: "You paid for sex! That is completely immoral!"
Caine: "Whoah now kid, I said I slept with the lady. Never said I paid her for it."
Nate: "You refused to pay her?!"
Caine: "She wouldn'ta taken it if I'd offered. She woul'da been insulted. Respect, remember?"
Nate: "I... don't understand..."
Caine: "Some leatherneck roughed her up and made her sick with somethin' unmentionable. I patched her up and cured her. She was very appreciative."
Nate: "You took advantage of her! She could have just said thank you, or cooked you breakfast or something!"
Caine: "Oh, she did that too. She's not a very good cook, but I' ain't one to complain about breakfast in bed. I was real hungry by then."
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Nate: "I thought you said you took a vow of pacifism?"
Caine: "I said I wasn't going to lift a weapon ever again. Not the same."
Nate: "You just killed that man!"
Caine: "He was armed and trying to rob us."
Nate: "You don't call that violence?"
Caine: "Violence? Definitely. I just wasn't armed."
Nate: "His skull's cracked! What's that in your hand if not a weapon?"
Caine: "My beer mug."
Nate: "It's solid steel!"
Caine: "It's Dwarven."
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Nate: "That man was cheating. How did you beat him?"
Caine: "I prayed for guidance."
Nate: "You invoked the Lord's power to gamble with?!"
Caine: "Yep. Won us our travel expenses too."
Nate: "What would the Deacon think of that?"
Caine: "Don't much matter what the Deacon thinks. He ain't involved in my prayers."
Nate: "Sometimes I think the Lord doesn't pay very close attention to your behavior. The church would never condone this."
Caine: "What the church condones and what the Lord thinks ain't exactly similar."
Nate: "Oh, so now you claim to know what the Lord thinks?"
Caine: "We've talked a few times. I don't really know what he thinks, 'cept in regards to me."
Nate: "Oh, and what's that?" (dripping with scorn)
Caine: "Honestly? I think he finds me amusing. Why else would he put up with me?"
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Nate: "You converted an entire tribe of Goblins? How? Why?"
Caine: "Well, I figured that Goblins are about as smart as your average five year old, and there's no one anywhere that understands the basic principals of good and evil better than a five year old, assuming someone takes the time to ask them the right questions."
Nate: "You converted them because they're stupid?"
Caine: "Yep. Smart people don't do well with religion."
Nate: "What!?"
Caine: "Smart people spend all their time looking for loopholes. We don't need that crap. I think we should toss out all the scholars and philosophers and replace them with goblins."
Wow I wished I had been in that game Doomed Hero -- I would have loved to have played with those two.
I had a friend who ran a Paladin/Bard. That is mind-blowing in itself, but he did a decent job. I think the hardest scene was when the party was staying a night in a tunnel on the road (ruin from a long lost civilization) when he decided to detect evil on the local group of soldiers from the allied lands that were patrolling the road and also staying over night in the tunnel.
Well, one of them was LE. He wasn't doing anything to provoke anything, just joking with his pals and having a meal around the fire, when our Paladin walks up and tells him he is evil and tries to start a fight. The rest of the soldiers are nonplussed, and suddenly he is dissing with a dozen guys with ranseurs who are allies of our leige lord....
It wasn't the first time he did that. He didn't actually fight that time, but we had to pull him out of it. That incident ended up creating a lot of trouble for us later on. :)
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Wow I wished I had been in that game Doomed Hero -- I would have loved to have played with those two.
It was a blast. The end game involved my character sacrificing himself by tackling a self-made God into a pool of anti-magic lava that the Terrasque was trying to escape out of. Nate ended up saving the world with a Rock to Mud spell (ruining the Terrasque's grip on the stone and sending him crashing back down into the pit, and on top of Caine and mr. bad-God.)
Caine was later resurrected by the Goblin High Priest. :)
Wow I wished I had been in that game Doomed Hero -- I would have loved to have played with those two.It was a blast. The end game involved my character sacrificing himself by tackling a self-made God into a pool of anti-magic lava that the Terrasque was trying to escape out of. Nate ended up saving the world with a Rock to Mud spell (ruining the Terrasque's grip on the stone and sending him crashing back down into the pit, and on top of Caine and mr. bad-God.)
Caine was later resurrected by the Goblin High Priest. :)
Reading those interactions were rich! I would personally love to see some more exchanges if you can recall them. Great comedic foil, but it also sheds the concept of a Paladin in a new light instead of the stereotypical fashion that some people tend to play the class (and sometimes terribly, I may add).
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I once dropped into a friend's game for a couple of sessions and offered to play the parts of some bad guys for him. The party of heroes had a very self-righteous paladin among them who was very keen to smite evildoers. Our heroes rode into a town under the thumb of a nebulous evil overlord just in time to see a band of unsavory orc mooks collecting said overlord's tribute and generally oppressing the populace.
So the Paladin steps forth and immediately challenges the mooks. The Orcs know they are obviously out of their weight class, so they refuse to fight:
Pally: "Leave those people alone! Your days of oppressing them are over!"
Orc: "Heh! Says who?"
Pally: "I do! Now drop that ill gotten lucre and fight!"
Orc: "You got any idea who I work for??"
Pally: "I don't care. You're done here!"
Orc (dripping sarcasm): "har har. All right, mate! Whatever you say!"
Pally: "This town is under our protection now!"
Orc (laughing hard): "Sure mate, if you say so! We'll just leave you to it, then."
Pally: "Hey! Where are you going?"
Orc: (still laughing at him) "You said it's your town now, right? So we're leaving you to it! You sure showed us!"
Pally: "err... uh... hey! You can't just leave!"
Orc: "Watch me!"
The Paladin then charged the orcs, at which point they dropped all their weapons and fled, leaving him sputtering in frustration.
That night, the big-bad sends some goblin scouts out to spy on the party. They are discovered, and the Paladin grabs his weapon and leaps into action, itching for a fight. The goblins of course all flee, but one is captured and brought before the paladin, who threatens him with a greatsword:
Goblin: "Uh. Hello, mate!"
Pally: "Who do you work for?"
Goblin: "Who, me? Nobody!"
Pally: "Why were you were spying on us!"
Goblin: "I was just out for a walk!"
Pally: "Tell me what I want to know!!!"
Goblin: "I can't, they'll kill me!"
Pally: "We'll protect you!"
Goblin: *snrk* "Yeah, pull the other one!"
Pally: "Then you can die on your feet in battle!"
Goblin: "No! Don't hurt me!"
Pally: "Draw your sword!"
Goblin: "I'm unarmed!!"
Pally: "What's that thing at your side?"
Goblin: "What, this? It's just for show, I never use it!"
At which point the Paladin simply killed the Goblin. The DM was generous, though, and didn't make a big deal of it. No jury would have convicted him, I think. :P
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I'm going to run a paladin NPC in one of my games pretty soon who's a slobbering drunk that gambles away his money and spends his nights with surly women down by the docks (taking full advantage of his immunity to disease).
Yet he's still a paladin. He always pays for his drinks on the spot, never leaves a debt unresolved, and would never take a woman to bed without consent (and potentially a bag of gold). He is lawful. He is good. He is also a smelly alcoholic that sleeps in the gutter when he can't afford his rent.
In the same vein of thought, I have an entire religious country in one of my games where paladins are considered to be horrible people whose enforcement of laws borders on overt cruelty. All "evil" races are rooted out and eradicated, anyone who does not praise their god is removed from the country, and laws are upheld with spear and blade. Are they lawful? Yes. Are they good? Technically. Are they complete arses? Absolutely.
But they're still paladins.
And that, I think, is where people get hung up. It might be a strict code, but even the strictest code has wiggle room for character.