so i was playing in my first PFS campaign the other day and mentioned that i may consider playing a paladin. immediately the entire table began urging me to avoid that. which confused me. I know the usual reason people are advised to avoid paladin (alignment restrictions and whatnot) but ive played paladin with most of the people at this particular table and proven that im more than capable of staying within my paladins code of choice (from the faiths of purity book) without being a hinderence to the group. so when i asked them they told me that quite a few PFS scenerarios paladins a forced to be a hiunderence because of the inherent nature of the scenario. (they quoted a few but i remember specifically remember one about going to a city where its illegal be a divine caster and stealing somthing from someone) i know not all paladins would have a problem with this especially if the situation demands it but it still seems odd that paizo would punish a player for being foolish enough to play a certain class.
does anyone with more experience than me have any suggestions or input. if it really is going to be a huge hassle for the entire group just because i want to play a paladin id rather pick somthing else. its one thing to make me have to work around it but another if now the entire group has to.
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I actually do know of a certain Scenario which would have pretty instant and inherent ramifications for a Paladin (ie Atonement time). (I should rephrase that, IMV it would cause a Paladin to fall). Without naming any particular scenarios, I think Season 4 does present some .. challenges for the LG amongst us.
Also, should the only challenges in the game come from CR encounters? Hell no. You should also be challenge in a rp sense to. How will your Paladin react to a corrupt official/guard or do when he is offered a slave or drugs?. Would a Paladin lie to get a job done, work with an evil person to defeat a far more evil one?
Keep in mind that playing a Paladin has it's own challenges. At times it might seem that you are simply playing a Fighter with inferior feat Progression. Ive seen Paladins that rarely ever seem to use any clerical ability at the other end of the spectrum.
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I've been playing a paladin since season zero (currently level 14) just fine thank you very much. That being said, I am not going to say it was easy. Yes, there are a number of scenarios that can be troublesome for paladins and there may be a few occasions where you will choose to "fail" a faction mission or have to be very inventive in how you conduct your actions. But, that is really no different than the inherent risks playing a paladin in a home-style game.
IMO, there is one key thing that has to be present and it has nothing to do with the characters, COOPERATION! If either you or other players at your game want to be hard-headed, it could cause problems. As long as they are willing to compromise with their morally questionable characters and you are not an uber-zealot, then it will work out fine.
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Most pfs scenarios are decidedly less heroic than your usual adventures, take place in urban areas with annoying no trespassing no solicitation , no murder laws, and you have far far FAR less control over the actions of your fellow party members.
If you want to play a paladin then play a paladin. Just be aware of time that it is going to cause problems on a few missions.
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I think your friends are referring to a series f scenarios that happen to send the Pathfinder party to the country of Rahadoum, where it is illegal to be a Divine caster. Then again, just to add spice, your mission in the first of the series is to smuggle a Cleric in to Rahadoum.
There are also other scenarios where you might find issues or that your Paladin is potentially illegal out of the box, such as playing a Paladin of Sarenrae in any scenario that happens to be set in Taldor.
It can be done. It wouldn't be amongst the easiest things you will ever do.
Especially since, depending on your Paladin's faction, some of the faction missions could cause your Paladin to fall and require an Atonement if you do them...
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Venture-Lieutenant, Florida—Melbourne
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What you are going to find is table variance with Paladins. I have a paladin in PFS and most understand that if the Paladin's code is interpreted too ridgedly you simply wouldn't be able to play one in PFS. But since Paladins are perfectly legal in PFS, obviously it is intended that you should be able to play one successfully. Also note that if you are going to do something that makes you change alignment or make you fall then the DM should be giving you a warning before you do it so that you can make an informed choice. There are a few DMs and Players out there who have issues with Palidins and try to deliberately make them fall ( violating the PFS "don't be a jerk" rule to do so). Fortunately I have not had to deal with such people yet.
There is, of course, the other end of the spectrum too. People who use their Paladin's code justify violating the "don't be a jerk" rule also, so just don't be one of those.
I play my paladinhood low key in PFS. I don't bust into the room boldly announcing I am a paladin and am all that is righteous. To my character, my paladins code is a personal matter. I would also recommend going Silver Crusade as I have not seen a Silver Crusade faction mission that would require me to violate my code. I cannot say the same for any other faction mission.
As far as adventures are concerned, there are some that push the boundaries of the code, especially in regard to being honest. These are usually some form of infiltration mission that requires you to pretend to be a member of an orginazation you are not. Whether doing these should require an Atonement is up to you and your DM. My personal experience is that most DMs let this slide for the sake of playability.
People sometimes need to remember we are here to have fun, not to promulgate some strict abstract notion of morality.
As everyone has said, its that the paladin has a rough life sometimes. The pathfinder society aren't always good guys, and them and the factions sometimes have missions that go against the paladin code.
It depends also on who you normally play with. Some people think paladin's deserve to have it rough and some look for chances to drop them and it feels like you can't do anything, and sometimes people think something is something you should fall for that you entirely disagree with. I've seen arguments for paladin's falling for being healed, and in one instance for not killing someone when the paladin was built entirely around not killing to avoid being told killing is bad.
Another thing is that sometimes paladin's are played as though they have to tell everyone else what to do, which isn't much fun for other players at the table, in particular when it directly contradicts the mission or puts them in trouble. Or it goes the other way around and other players tell you how to play your paladin. Neither of these are fun I don't think.
I'd say if you think you'll have fun go for it.
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I would also recommend going Silver Crusade as I have not seen a Silver Crusade faction mission that would require me to violate my code. I cannot say the same for any other faction mission.
There's one scenario in season 4 where I can see a Paladin of a certain deity balking at a Silver Crusade mission:
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Having played a paladin to level 11 and I have to say there are advantages (Detect Evil at will destroys some scenarios) and disadvantages (sitting out of certain parts of scenarios, choosing to fail/skip some faction missions). But that is true of all characters. Play what you want and that which is fun to you.
well ive decided to play an oracle barbarian first just to get a hold on society and to get used to the local players. once i fully understnad the magnitude of say sitting out part of a scenario and whatnot ill probably give paladin a shot.