Lately, we've all been seeing the topic of paladin throughout the forum, and although, I may not be an expert, there are a couple ways that I do know one can be lawful good.
- Donate to orders/communities/societies that are Lawful Good
- Protect the defenseless, give to the poor
- Try to save those who have fallen and yet have a chance to redeem themselves
- Slay those who are too far damned to be helped and pray mercy upon their soul
- etc, etc.
Now, here's what I'm working with. My group tends to be more neutral and chaotic, whereas I'm one of the few lawful's in the group by nature. In fact, the only alignments I play are Neutral Good and Lawful Good. I know, I know, there's no flavor in my characters. That's what everyone else says. I simply don't like playing douchebag-esq characters, nor do I like being evil. It's just who I am, and they have all accepted that.
On the other hand, the campaigns that I often play in are no where near black and white, so when it comes to making good vs. evil decisions, often times I have to spend half an hour arguing with the group about it because I genuinely want to help people, but I feel as if I've been stuck in a corner. Adding on to that are the friends that I play with who prefer gray in everything they do. I love black and white. I love knowing that my helping people makes the world a better place. But when the game reflects the aspect of real life where people lie, cheat, backstab, and take advantage of your assistance to better their own agenda, it gets rather rough.
I'm not saying all of the games I've played in have been like that, nor am I saying the world is a horrible place. In fact, the last campaign I was in involved a giant black phylactory in the sky, and I had the pleasure of killing as many evil things as I possibly wanted. At the same time, though, the people we were serving ended up being evil, the elves turned out to be an ego driven race with a superiority complex that enslaved lycanthropes for half a millenia, and one of our characters made a deal with an evil guy involving a gift if the character set the evil dude free. Thankfully, I wasn't playing a paladin at the time.
One way of lessening the challenge of being a paladin that my dm has done is allow for paladins to be of different alignments. For example, if you want to be a do-gooder and wish to worship Sarenrae, you can be Chaotic Good, and so long as you follow her dogma and the LG protocol, you're fine. At the same time, that kind of ruins the pleasure I get from being a paladin because, rather than being a knight in shining armor as one might invision one would be from mythology, instead, I'm a knight who serves everyone but fights against the very laws that set his morality in place. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if a paladin is held to a code of conduct, that's a law, and if a Chaotic Good Paladin holds himself to a law, that's against his nature, so neither can be possible. It all just seems backwards to me, but hey, the dm says it works, and I don't like arguing.
With all of that being said, I'm battling with myself over playing a paladin, my favorite class, with the friends I've known for 7+ years because I don't want to ruin their experience, but at the same time, I wish I could play without repercussions. If I played a paladin every game, I'd lose my powers within half an hour because I'd be letting everyone do things that a LG would not originally let them do. Either that, or I'd have to leave the group because my way of playing d20 games doesn't mix well with the people I play with.
What are your guys' thoughts? Is there something I'm doing wrong? Any and all advice is welcomed.
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should have just left it alone... but you couldn't resist, could you.. WHY, WHYYYY, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
play a paladin, do what is right, tell others what you believe is right, as long as they are not evil, or actively breaking the law infront of you, wash your hands of there sin.
follow your paladin code, not the laws of the land.
remove paladins "do this or fall" from game.
play a champion of Irori.
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This paladin is probably the greatest and farthest stretch I have ever seen. I read it over, looked at the paladin code, looked it over again, found nothing wrong and figured this is now my favorite way to play a paladin. Gets all the goody two shoes people off my back. Cedric
Dude...I love you...thank you. Hahahaha
You should message it to me when you're done. I'll be looking forward to it.
It's been a while since I've read the exploits of Sir Cedric. It might keep me occupied for a night. What kind of paladin is he? One of a kind.
Lately, we've all been seeing the topic of paladin throughout the forum, and although, I may not be an expert, there are a couple ways that I do know one can be lawful good.
- Donate to orders/communities/societies that are Lawful Good
- Protect the defenseless, give to the poor
- Try to save those who have fallen and yet have a chance to redeem themselves
- Slay those who are too far damned to be helped and pray mercy upon their soul
- etc, etc.Now, here's what I'm working with. My group tends to be more neutral and chaotic, whereas I'm one of the few lawful's in the group by nature. In fact, the only alignments I play are Neutral Good and Lawful Good. I know, I know, there's no flavor in my characters. That's what everyone else says. I simply don't like playing douchebag-esq characters, nor do I like being evil. It's just who I am, and they have all accepted that.
Playing a paladin can be a challenge, but here is one thing to remember: lawful good is not the same as lawful stupid. You do NOT have to adhere to hte letter of the law, as much as you have to do good and fight evil. You do not have to be holier than thou, or pretentious or arrogant. You just have to be one of the good guys, and never let up on trying to be good and do the right thing.