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I've been looking at the Hell Knight Commander prestige class lately, and thinking it might be a lot of fun to take on my Tiefling Paladin. He's certainly used to strange looks - how many Demon-spawn do you see wearing Sarenrae's Holy Symbol? The evil-seeming Hell Knights wouldn't be much different.
I've never seen a Hell Knight in any of my games before, though, and don't have much of an idea how they're usually roleplayed. Would they fit a rather brutal Paladin? He's a bit of a Batman type - does nonlethal damage using the Blade of Mercy trait, but scares the pants off of evildoers with the Enforcer feat and lots of Intimidate checks.
I was thinking perhaps Order of the Nail might be a good fit. What do you think? Would this work?
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I can weigh in on this! My 12th level character, who is eagerly awaiting for when we get a local Eyes of the Ten going, is a Human Cavalier (1) Paladin (7) Hellknight (4). His name is Silver Crusader Bael of Iomadae, and has taken the Oath of Vegence, and the Oath Against Fiends. I agree with what thefortier said, and think that Iomadae would work much better for a paladin hellknight than Sarenrae would, for various reasons.
Bael is a stern Chelishman, born in Westcrown, and I try my best to play that into his play-style. He acts with utter certainty and confidence, his upbringing formulating his mind into a military one of rules and laws, and he only deviates from his plan if his allies or bystanders are in danger. He charges into battle with the fury of a thousand angels, and a thousand devils. His words are few, but when he speaks, it shakes others to their core with his conviction. He believes truly the only way to uphold the law, and to save the innocent, is to slaughter every creature that would do wrong. There are no exceptions in his wrath, no mercy for the wicked. Anyone evil and chaotic is smote with extreme prejudice. Out of combat, he is still a terrifying, mountain of a man. He does not have the kind touch a paladin normally carries. Instead, his touch is reserved for those of cruelty, and attempts to return the cruelty thrice-fold.
I play him as dark and scary. He makes children cry whenever they see him, but it isn't because he is trying to. Rather, he is a demonslayer by profession. His entire existence (And his entire build) is based around slaughtering evil creatures from other realms, or taking those of the material plane who wish harm on the innocent and doing his damnedest to make sure they stop breathing. He's haunted by the memories of the people he couldn't save, and the allies he held as they took their last breath. And there has been more than one ally that has died on him before. After fighting abominations for years on end, he's in a permanent state of trauma and dissociation. He loves all of those who do good and uphold the law, but he has been bathed in the bold of demons too many times for him to show it. He does what he does for them, and he can't even smile when he sees them safe.
Mechanically speaking, Gendarme Cavalier archetype, with the Order of the Star. Paladin Oath of Vegeance and Against Fiends. Hellknight, with the Order of the Godclaw. He has Intimidate maxed out, and has taken several feats to maximize its usage. Here's how I have him built out at 12th level, in case you were looking for tips.
Human (Chelish heritage)
20 point buy as follows at first level
18 + 2 racail = 20 STR
13 DEX
14 CON
7 INT
7 WIS
13 CHA
4th Level Ability Increase to CHA
8th Level Ability Increase to DEX
12th Level Ability Increase to WIS
+6 Belt of Giant Strength
+4 Headband of Alluring Charisma
26 STR
14 DEX
14 CON
7 INT
8 WIS
18 CHA
1st Level: Cavalier 1 (Gendarme, Order of the Star (Iomadae))
Power Attack (From cavalier level)
Step up (Human bonus feat)
Furious Focus
2nd Level: Paladin 1 (Oath against fiends, Oath of Vengeance)
3rd Level: Paladin 2
Following Step
4th Level: Paladin 3
Fatigued Mercy
5th Level: Paladin 4
Blind Fight
6th Level: Hellknight 1 (Order of the Godclaw)
7th Level: Hellknight 2
Step up and Strike
8th Level: Paladin 5
Weapon bond
9th Level: Hellknight 3
Pantamic Faith (Travel Domain)
Compulsion force of will
Curnogon Smash
10th Level: Hellknight 4
11th Level: Paladin 6
Deadful Carnage
Dazed mercy
12th level: Paladin 7
A note I've found on any and every character ever that is a paladin. GET A SILVER SMITE BRACELET. I have seen many, many, many paladins at high level tables that don't have one. Even if you only have one level of paladin, that is THE BEST 16K you could ever spend. As for the rest of the equipment, tailor it to your needs. Bael uses a big greatsword. It is in fact a +1 Holy Cold Iron Greatsword. He has a pair of Inheritor's Gauntlets on, for when he needs to bane his weapon against evil outsiders for a little more umph. He's got a Cloak of the Dark Tapestry. He throws a +1 on his hellknight armor whenever he has any extra gold. He also carries a bronze griffon, because flying creatures outside are annoying.
I hope your hellknight paladin goes glorious! And I hope any of this helps.
i like the idea of a pally/hell knight. +1 for switching to iomedae and to godclaw. i haven't really thought through the mechanics of it all, but a few inquisitor levels could be really interesting in the mix too?
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Also a thought that you might want to consider is Ragathiel, the empyrael lord of vengeance, if you don't want to worship Iomadae, or find her too standard of a god. Sarenrae doesn't work quite right with the idea of a Hellknight. She's not lawful, and most hellknights' have alignments hovering between neutral and evil. it's perfectly acceptable for a paladin hellknight to worship Sarenrae, but you might run in to some RP'ing issues, or a DM who thinks your actions don't fall inside the realm of Sarenrae, and now you're out of paladin abilities. (Hellknight abilities are retained for up to a week after breaking the code of conduct, and sometime within that week you have to do a repentance in order to keep them. It's described in Council of Thieves, as well as the Guide to the Inner Sea, which is where the Hellknight class is located. I'd recommend buying it and reading all about the Hellknights. Paladin abilities go kaput the moment you break the rules though, so that's ouch).
i like the idea of a pally/hell knight. +1 for switching to iomedae and to godclaw. i haven't really thought through the mechanics of it all, but a few inquisitor levels could be really interesting in the mix too?
I would advice against this. It works beautifully for roleplaying, however it really hurts your combat abilities. If you want to do that kind of hellknight, the inquisitor type, there is a prestiege class for it. It's called the Hellknight Signifer. They work as both arcane and divine casters, and are in fact better eldritch knights than eldritch knights are.
yeah- i was really just thinking about the RP...
you could take upto 4 levels with only -1 BAB, and judgment would add +2 to hit (the twice/day you get to use it)- and you'd have 1-2 2nd level spells. so, mechanically i don't think it would be terrible- the real problem (i think) is that if you're looking at maxing out at 12th level (for PFS play) it would cut into your HK levels.
i don't want to hijack this post but could you really abuse a signifier
edit: (without counting Magical Knack) at 12th level you'd have Cleric CL 10 and Wizard CL 11, plus all the abilities of a 7th level signifier. the stats, unfortunately, don't line up that well (+2 con/cha, when what you need is int/wis) but i threw that together without too much hunting- there's probably a better way (i think samsarans get +2 int/wis, and could take the fate inquisition for their 2nd 'domain' for the augury SLA)
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I'll echo a lot of what's been said here. I'll add too that even in the Cheliax faction, I was never called on to do anything that outright violated my code as a paladin of Iomedae or Hellknight of the Order of the Nail. That being said, faction missions during every mission have been phased out, and for season 5 I am very leery of the Paracountess's intentions with the valiant defenders of Nerosyan.
Mechanically, Valeria is a Shining Knight Paladin 5/Order of the Nail Hellknight 3/Lore Oracle (legalistic/sidestep secret) 1. Legalistic works really well with being a hellknight. Boon companion for a full-level Axebeak mount with the order of the Nail's Onslaught makes for some fun charges. Smite Evil + Smite Chaos + Gauntlet of the Inheritor's Evil Outsider Bane + Cornugon Smash + Ancestral Scorn is going to be making the whole Worldwound cry this season.
I'm a little torn between the Silver Smite Bracelets and Bracers of the Avenging Knight. The bracers are cheaper, but I believe would boost both the paladin AND hellknight smites. But the bracelets would add an extra smite per day...might be worth it.
One last note to The Morphling....make sure you have a copy of the Inner Sea World Guide to get access to the prestige class. It's pretty clear that that isn't where you've been researching it, since you used the d20pfsrd's altered nomenclature.
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To make it work, you need to take a paladin deity most leaning to law, discipline, punishment of the wicked (effectively the one that lets you play LGN - Lawful Good with Neutral tendencies),
and marry that with the Hellknight Order leaning furthest toward LNG (ie Lawful Neutral with Good tendencies).
Which ones those are, I couldn't say right now, but Sarenrae would not be a good fit IMO, since a paladin of the Dawnflower is already hovering one alignment step away from his patron, any further, and there are likely to be repercussions.
Similar poor fits would be Shelyn (love, beauty, art, poetry and mercy are likely to be considered frivolous weaknesses by even the most liberal Hellknight order).
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I'll echo a lot of what's been said here. I'll add too that even in the Cheliax faction, I was never called on to do anything that outright violated my code as a paladin of Iomedae or Hellknight of the Order of the Nail.
This is very important.
You can't play a character like this, without the cooperation of the GM.They have to buy into the concept, and agree to only give the PC missions that were not morally squicky.
If you haven't already, talk to them, and find out their stance on how rigid they are with alignment violations, how evil they believe the Hellknight Orders to be (especially their leaders), how often they would have the PC 'consort' with evil Hellknights, and whether that would be grounds for immediate loss of paladinhood, or regular atonement.
You say this is for PFS, but is that for a home group, who meet regularly with the same players, or are you intending to attend conventions, store game days, etc?
Because the standard PFS assumption is that you will be seated with a different GM every game, you will meet a LOT of variation on the above issues. What flies with one GM could be seen as a travesty by another, an intentional mangling of canon, or (if the GM has religious beliefs) they could even be offended that it's an attempt to score some kind of 'points' about real-world religion.
You could find yourself having to defend the character concept every session, or even find your PC declared to have drifted to evil, and therefore unplayable. It only takes one GM to put a red marker through your chronicle, and declare the PC finished on the online reporting, and while that is appealable, you would actually find a lot of GMs and Venture Officers support that GM's decision.
Home game; playable.
PFS in a stable home group; playable.
PFS with revolving group of strangers; more trouble than it's worth.
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Sarenrae is not a hippy pacifist. I can totally see a Paladin of Sarenrae being a Hell Knight.
"She is no victim, and once it is clear that her words and power are wasted on those who refuse to listen and believe, she responds to violence in kind, with swift metal and scorching light." - Gods and Magic
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I'll echo a lot of what's been said here. I'll add too that even in the Cheliax faction, I was never called on to do anything that outright violated my code as a paladin of Iomedae or Hellknight of the Order of the Nail. That being said, faction missions during every mission have been phased out, and for season 5 I am very leery of the Paracountess's intentions with the valiant defenders of Nerosyan.
Mechanically, Valeria is a Shining Knight Paladin 5/Order of the Nail Hellknight 3/Lore Oracle (legalistic/sidestep secret) 1. Legalistic works really well with being a hellknight. Boon companion for a full-level Axebeak mount with the order of the Nail's Onslaught makes for some fun charges. Smite Evil + Smite Chaos + Gauntlet of the Inheritor's Evil Outsider Bane + Cornugon Smash + Ancestral Scorn is going to be making the whole Worldwound cry this season.
I'm a little torn between the Silver Smite Bracelets and Bracers of the Avenging Knight. The bracers are cheaper, but I believe would boost both the paladin AND hellknight smites. But the bracelets would add an extra smite per day...might be worth it.
One last note to The Morphling....make sure you have a copy of the Inner Sea World Guide to get access to the prestige class. It's pretty clear that that isn't where you've been researching it, since you used the d20pfsrd's altered nomenclature.
You are correct, the Bracers of the Avenging Knight are in every way better than silver smite bracelets. Do that instead! Bael was 11th and 2 pips before UE came out, alas, and I didn't even know that the Bracers of the Avenging Knight existed.
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Unfortunately Sarenrae is required for one of his traits (Blade of Mercy). I've been trying to make the juxtaposition work in my head, but I still have doubts that his personality as a Sarenrae worshipper would fit the Hellknight mentality.
I have the Inner Sea World Guide, it's just not searchable as easily as the absurdly convenient d20pfsrd, so I use that while building characters. Searching through the 30 or 40 PDFs I have for all the books is tiring.
I know none of the GMs I play with would veto the character, but I know there would be raised eyebrows as long as he was a Sarenrae paladin and not an Iomedean one (or another similar god).
I still love the idea of a Hellknight Paladin, but maybe this guy's not the one I'll go with. And yes, I was inspired by Judge Dredd. :) I like the idea of a wholly good but utterly merciless champion of order. Incorruptible but uncompromising to the last.
And this paladin's probably not him. He's never killed a single humanoid in his entire adventuring career (NOT an easy feat in PFS, mind you). An evil dragon is the only sentient being whose life he's ended - and you should have seen how much my group freaked out that he did it, since he was usually so adamant against killing. He knew it would have killed innocents if left to live, and was forced to take its life (a coup de grace, in fact).
Do you think a Hellknight who never kills could work? No mercy, no weakness, no rest... but no killing. The guilty can learn the value and power of law working the mines or locked in the dungeons.
Omf. I don't know how any lawful characters survive PFS, much less one as rigid as a hellknight.
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Omf. I don't know how any lawful characters survive PFS, much less one as rigid as a hellknight.
You must be one of those people who thinks "Lawful" means "never breaks any laws" rather than "believes in order and law over chaos and anarchy." I don't have any non-lawful characters in PFS yet. Alignments aren't restrictive, they're descriptive.
Honestly I don't think the two character classes are compatible. Hellknights are all about Law above all else. Paladins are about Good above all else. When law and goodness happen to be opposed, such as in Robin Hood kind of situation, what is the Hellknight/Paladin to do?
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Honestly I don't think the two character classes are compatible. Hellknights are all about Law above all else. Paladins are about Good above all else. When law and goodness happen to be opposed, such as in Robin Hood kind of situation, what is the Hellknight/Paladin to do?
Choose good, then atone for your chaotic actions.
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Omf. I don't know how any lawful characters survive PFS, much less one as rigid as a hellknight.You must be one of those people who thinks "Lawful" means "never breaks any laws"
It does when you're a paladin.
rather than "believes in order and law over chaos and anarchy."
Consider for a moment your typical pathfinder party, which make the laws of quantum physics look downright regimented...
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Honestly I don't think the two character classes are compatible. Hellknights are all about Law above all else. Paladins are about Good above all else. When law and goodness happen to be opposed, such as in Robin Hood kind of situation, what is the Hellknight/Paladin to do?Choose good, then atone for your chaotic actions.
You'll be spending more time in the confession booth than Hugh Hefner.
"Father, forgive me for I have sinned...
I have stolen, assaulted, robbed, tresspassed, destroyed public property, destroyed public property, commited grand theft equine, breaking and entering, manslaughter, and premeditated murder"
"... dear gods how long has it been since your last confession?!?"
"About a 15 minute workday..."
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If you wish to roleplay an Inevitable, you may do so. I, however, will roleplay a Hellknight instead, who is a person who upholds the law, not a lawfulness-elemental-incarnate entity of pure law.
And Paladins are Lawful Good, not Lawful Stupid. I have no patience for people who say "Noooo, your paladin can't dooooo that, he's Laaaaawful." He upholds the ideals of law, he does not need to fear losing his divine power every time he jaywalks.
If you wish to roleplay an Inevitable, you may do so. I, however, will roleplay a Hellknight instead, who is a person who upholds the law, not a lawfulness-elemental-incarnate entity of pure law.
And Paladins are Lawful Good, not Lawful Stupid. I have no patience for people who say "Noooo, your paladin can't dooooo that, he's Laaaaawful." He upholds the ideals of law, he does not need to fear losing his divine power every time he jaywalks.
If you want to be lawful good on the sheet and nowhere else thats fine too.
Paladins do a LOT more than Jaywalk. First of all you're working for the second biggest artifact smuggling operation on Golarion, right behind the Aspis consortium.
Second you quite often enter civilized areas with the intent to unlawfully kill the resident: ie, murder.
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If you want to be lawful good on the sheet and nowhere else thats fine too.
Drop the tone, it's not welcome. I realize I started this argument but now I'm ending it.
This thread is now about the topic again, rather than a tired dead horse alignment feud that was Empowered Maximized Disintegrated to dust eons before D&D 3.5 was released.
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It'd be fun to play a Good aligned Chelaxian Hellknight, since my gaming group has them pegged as the "really Lawful Evil but it says Lawful Neutral on the sheet" faction in most cases. It'd need to be a different guy than my Tiefling Paladin though, most likely.
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Norse Wolf's tone may be winding you up, but he does have a point.
The reason the Silver Crusade faction was introduced, was because players of Paladins were finding themselves constantly torn between sitting out the adventure, tagging along but contributing nothing to its success, or actively preventing it being completed. All of which could be claimed to be Player vs Player actions (if 'sitting out the encounter' resulted in another PC's death).
And this was happening, whatever faction they chose, even Andoran, which had been advertised to the public as the 'noble, freedom-fighting, slave-rescuing, exemplars of democracy and equality'.
Paladin players considered themselves to have been the victim of a bait and switch, when the faction missions they were given by this allegedly good faction, were all in the nature of 'Murder this person, because he prevented us stealing things that don't belong to us', 'Murder this person, to cover up your faction leader's adultery', 'Murder this person, because they snubbed me at a party once, and made me look bad.'.
And those are the faction missions. Many of the official main missions are even more suspect.
I'm of the same opinion as Morphling, that paladins should have some leeway, and I was all over the PF Alpha/Beta testing, petitioning for the Code to include the clauses allowing working with the enemy of my enemy, and you'll see from my posting history, that I'm the one defending players from GMs who try to strip them of their powers.
But even I would not play a paladin as a member of the Pathfinder Society. Whether that be actual PFSoc play, or as a PC in a normal Golarion campaign.
I would actually find it easier to rationalise a paladin Hellknight, than a paladin Pathfinder.
Season Five may change this, if the scenarios are going to send the Society into the Worldwound, rather than committing crimes around the Inner Sea.
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I've never found a single instance where my character was required to commit an evil act in Pathfinder Society.
My Lawful Neutral magus commits lots of evil acts, but she doesn't have to. That's just her choice.
My Paladin has been a perfect example of why the Silver Crusade is needed. He spares the lives of people we really probably should be killing, negotiates with monsters we really should be fighting, and draws his reverse-bladed scimitar (yes, I'm Rurouni Kenshining the Blade of Mercy trait) only as a last resort. But when he does, justice and righteousness hesitates for no man or beast.
He still leaves 'em alive though if he has any ability to do so. They just wake up with a concussion and the memory of a terrifying half-demonic face in their nightmares.
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That's why I love what I've seen so far of the retconned Secondary Success Conditions. Suddenly, faction missions to "steal X" and "assassinate Y" have been replaced with "make sure NPC Joe survives" or "Don't kill any of the orphans and bystanders."
I have high hopes of Pathfinder Society games taking on a much more heroic tone, and relegating the term "murderhobo" to a silly joke of the distant past.
Oh, and I've been playing a PFS paladin for some time now, and I've never run into any alignment troubles with our missions yet. Has it occurred to you that, if a paladin's code conflicts with the Society's/faction's missions, the problem is not with the code? Because it apparently occurred to the developers.
No, the problem is not with the code. It has been the iffy missions in earlier PFSoc scenarios. And if they're doing something about it, I'm glad.
I haven't played any Season Five, but I was at the Season Four finale, which showed that future scenarios would be tying into the events in Wrath of the Righteous AP.
I'm not aware of any retconned missions for seasons 0-4, only that the tone would be changing, moving forward, and that would mean far more missions to rescue & protect the innocent, and smite obvious evildoers (many of whom will be of the Always Chaotic Evil subtype).
()
A paladin Hellknight could work in Season Five+, since if you're going to charge into a nest of demons, do you care if the people fighting alongside you are sponsored by Asmodeus, if they're helping you squish evil?
There may be some rivalry, between the hard-ass Hellknights and the 'soft' paladin, but it would be Legolas/Gimli style.
"I killed forty!"
"Forty-ONE!"
"Damn you, Pansy Dawnflower, I set that one up!"
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I'll echo a lot of what's been said here. I'll add too that even in the Cheliax faction, I was never called on to do anything that outright violated my code as a paladin of Iomedae or Hellknight of the Order of the Nail. That being said, faction missions during every mission have been phased out, and for season 5 I am very leery of the Paracountess's intentions with the valiant defenders of Nerosyan.
My dear sir, you can rest assured that the paracountess wouldn't dream of of endangering your chances of ultimately containing that demonic nastiness. And when all is settled and done, you'll understand that we both want the same thing... Order in a chaotic world, imposed by whatever means neccessary.
I just want to know how the Paladin side of this type of character can constantly justify working so closely with pure evil? (The most goodly order of Hellknights is really only squeaking by, and all of them tend to find themselves working alongside fiends at some point or another.)
I can totally support that the concept can work in a vacuum, and that the classes don't conflict. But once that RP starts, and you have to deal with how all the *other* Hellknights apply to your vows of goodliness...
So let's look at the Orders:
•Order of the Chain: If you can't be okay with slavery, then you won't fit in, even if you, personally, don't have to hunt down the run-away slaves and return them to slavery.
•Order of the Gate: Here's your stereotype of Cheliax. The devil-worshipers/summoners are here, so no go for Paladins again.
•Order of the Godclaw: You can almost get away with this one. If only that darn Asmodeus didn't count himself as one of the patrons of the Order...
•Order of the Nail: This one can work, as long as you stick to brigands and violent savages and don't delve too deeply into what "savage" means (peaceful barbarian tribes are savages too, which is why we can't go there if we want Paladin to work).
•Order of the Pyre: "Hunting heathen worshipers of false gods" sounds good, and workable, at first... But who are false gods? Cults that worship nonexistent gods? Or followers of all those unlawful gods. Somehow, I'm willing to bet it's more of the latter than the former.
•Order of the Rack: Eradicating revolutionary idealism doesn't sound like a "good" hobby. Absolutely a lawful one. But not a good one.
•Order of the Scourge: Judge Dredd. You won't have problems here as a Paladin, thankfully.
•Order of the Coil/Pike/Scar: Even if you could make one of these work (Coil is right out, but Pike/Scar could be managed I bet) they're lesser Orders and, as such, don't offer a 3rd level Discipline in the HKC prestige class.
•Order of the Crux: Extinct Order. But even if you thought you could join up, the only remaining 3 members are all undead, which would mean you can't avoid that "teaming up with evil" thing that Paladins can't do.
So realistically you're stuck with Order of the Scourge (and if your DM is totally willing to cater to you hardcore, you might make Nail work).
If you don't want to allow Hellknight Paladins in YOUR game that's cool... but the base assumption is that they indeed DO exist. The guy that Creatively Directs the game world says so. ;)
Right, but a lawful good PATHINDER paladin hellknight...
Paladins are rigid champions of good that just happen to be lawful. When push comes to shove their dedication to law can waver. Their dedication to good can not.
Hellknights are rigid champions of law: specifically the laws of cheliax. That wriggle room that paladins need, like superman overcoming kryptonite "just this once", isn't there. They've got themselves locked in in two directions. If its not a strait jacket its a pair of reaaaaaaaly tight leather pants.
Now being a pathfinder requires a lot of funky dance moves. I don't have the 9 Volume set "laws of cheliax" but you don't have to go out on a limb to say that murder, trespassing, theft, assault, resisting arrest, smuggling, inappropriate use of a charm spell on a goat, poaching, and harboring a fugitive are just as illegal there as they are anywhere else: but this is what a pathfinder usually has to do to complete their mission.
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Had I the power to found a new Hellknight Order, I would undoubtedly do so. :)
I don't feel that Order of the Scourge would work for Pathfinder Society, since the Society *does* have you committing crimes according to local laws. Order of the Nail fits, though. Why do you have to assume that peaceful barbarians are savages? I don't interpret them as such.
If its not a strait jacket its a pair of reaaaaaaaly tight leather pants.
But I look really good in tight leather pants. :3
Again, we're running into a fundamental disagreement over what a "Lawful" alignment means. A Chelaxian Hellknight doing a Pathfinder mission in Andoran, for example, will feel free to break its laws since Cheliax does not recognize Andoran as a nation. It's a rebel state rightfully ruled over by Cheliax, according to their laws.
While *in* Cheliax, my Hellpaladin would steadfastly refuse to break laws, the Society be damned. But as a Hellknight, he would likely have opportunities to pursue his mission without breaking the law, since the Hellknights are essentially law-enforcement themselves.
So, Hellknight question aside, it sounds like you're saying that there's a conflict between being a paladin and being a Pathfinder agent.
Oh hell yes.
The difference is that a paladin can bend on the law part in the name of the good part. A hellknight can bend on the good part in the name of the law part.
How so? As I said, I've played a PFS paladin for awhile and I've never been asked to murder, steal, smuggle, etc.
What scenarios have you played?
If that's how your missions have been going, you're either in a very antipaladin faction (somehow) or your GMs have been interpreting the stories pretty loosely to allow murderhobo shenanigans.
The latter, since otherwise you'd have to banhammer paladins.
Fortunately, the clarified Secondary Success Conditions will remove any such leanings from scenarios of all seasons, past or future.
I doubt this is going to end the murderhoboing...
Again, we're running into a fundamental disagreement over what a "Lawful" alignment means.
No.
I fully recognize that there are ways to be lawful besides "follow the legal laws". A mafia boss with a strict heirarchy and code of conduct, an obedient yakuza,an uptight BY THE BUILDING CODE engineer and a red mantis assassin who always follows the orders of her superior can break the laws without breaking their lawful alignment.
Paladins however...
Additionally, a paladin's code requires that she respect legitimate authority , act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.
Laws are how the legitimate authority tell you what to do. You can't just redefine that as "good authorities".
A Chelaxian Hellknight doing a Pathfinder mission in Andoran, for example, will feel free to break its laws since Cheliax does not recognize Andoran as a nation. It's a rebel state rightfully ruled over by Cheliax, according to their laws.
A chelaxian hellknight in such a situation could break Andoran laws that were conflict with those of cheliax (for example, helping a chelaxian cross the border to retrieve an escaped slave) but not laws that they had in common (theft, murder, trespassing etc)
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Then you haven't played enough scenarios, end of discussionI've never found a single instance where my character was required to commit an evil act in Pathfinder Society.
Can you point out a scenario where the players are required to commit an evil act to complete the module?
Faction missions do not count.
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Order of the Nail fits, though. Why do you have to assume that peaceful barbarians are savages? I don't interpret them as such.
Maybe not. But the Chelaxians do.
There's a major part of Curse of the Crimson Throne, where the PCs are forced to leave Korvosa to get the McGuffin, and since the Shoanti have it, the PCs have to make major amends for all the Bad Stuff the Chelaxians did to them in the past.
While no armies currently muster at the foot of the Storval Rise, the nomads still consider themselves besieged, as every year more and more foreigners trod upon their tribal lands and many communities hold Shoanti as dangerous primitives. Although few communities murder Shoanti outright, within recent memory the Korvosan government paid bounties on Shoanti scalps. The Order of the Nail Hellknights also see the barbarians as threats to law and peace in southern Varisia and actively—and sometimes violently—seek to dissuade Shoanti from traveling beyond the Storval Plateau. Both affronts remain sore subjects in the Shoanti mind, and many still seek revenge for countless specific dishonors.
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It gets worse too.
The Order of the Nail is actually one of the least good-friendly Hellknight orders after what was revealed in Castles of Golarion. Now there may be some leeway in how much low-ranking members of that order know, but Citadel Vraid's approach to enforcing order has gone from suppressing the native populace to outright genocide, with sacrificing souls to Hell thrown in for good measure.
That still leaves some other orders, but if the Citadel Vraid notes hold, the Nail hellknights are pretty much Sataninazis.
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One thing I noticed is that you called it the Hellknight Enforcer. That means you probably got the prestige class off of d20pfsrd. Make sure you pick up a copy of the Inner Sea World Guide so that you are following PFS rules regarding Additional Resources.
Yes, a hellknight paladin can certainly function, and if you spend your time playing season 5 adventures, you will function very well. Smite chaos is basically another smite evil you can use against demons, and if you go with Order of the Godclaw you can grab the travel domain to move at a speed of 40 ft. in your hellknight plate.
Just remember to keep some gold for an atonement; it won't be needed most of the time, but it's good to have in the event that you waver.