Advice for Creating a Paladin of Abadar?

[FratManCy]

Hey folks, FratmanCy's back again with another question aimed at our good friends here Paizo Forums!

I've seen Abadite Clerics, mercenaries, etc, but I've never seen one as a paladin. Instead of dumping fantasy tropes on the would be character and letting my future teammates cry about their fear of a knight a with a code, I'm petitioning this board for advice.

I'll be starting out at level 3, core races only, 4d6 drop lowest stats.

Would anyone have any cool rp suggestions for my potential character?

[MrRed]

As Abadar is the LN god of cvilization, the "noble knight" concepts works well in our group: the paladin upholds traditions and is generally very convervative, demands respect from those of a lower social standing but ,in turn, is sworn to their protection. Ranks in diplomacy, knowledge nobility and maybe even local (i.e. law) seem to work well. Also, get the shiniest bright golden armor there is ;)

[Abyssian]

I like the idea of a Holy Gun of Abadar who sees his arquebus (use musket stats) as the logical progression from the crossbow. He'd be very genteel and look down on rural types, believing that they need to be protected and urbanized to be proper contributors to society.

Feel free to take my character concept, I don't think I'm ever going to get to play him. The picture I drew of him is a Halfling in a high-collared greatcoat smoking a long-stemmed clay pipe.

[Helaman]

Its hard to give build advice when you are rolling but MrRed has it pretty right. Also is worth looking at the Paths of Balance supplement which has some stuff on Paladins of Abadar. Alternatively, hit the pathfinderwiki site for more fluff.

[MC Templar]

I played a Paladin of Abadar once, his oeuvre was his work guarding caravans.

He viewed trade itself as being a defining element of the freedom for good people to seek honest wealth. That for trade to succeed, the merchants need to be protected from lawless and evil forces, and when they arrive, the people in a new market get access to things that would not otherwise be available. His view is without the laws to protect the people and strong brave men to protect the merchants, everyone looses access to the benefits of trade. Which makes trade something of great value to communities and worth protecting.

In this case, the character wasn't so much a knight of noble birth, as he was a caravan guard who viewed his work as a divine calling.

[Ascalaphus]

You could make him a Compassionate Conservative.

Or actually the opposite: someone who intervenes when the free market isn't promoting the common weal. Because the market isn't functioning well, due to dragon attacks.

[master_marshmallow]

Are you looking for build advice or RP advice?

As for RP, have him focus on protection of the weak, and punishing syndicates of crime. Specifically the corrupt and chaotic, rather than the normal trope of hunting and slaying evil monsters.

For build advice, mix the two archetypes Sacred Servant (picking up the Travel Domain with no subdomains from Abadar) and Oath of Vengeancce. Travel domain will improve your speed by 20 ft. thanks to it's built in +10 move speed and you will end up getting a free Longstrider spell to cast. It also gives you the spell Fly later on, and Dimension Door which lets you pick up the Dimensional Dervish feat chain later on for full round attack goodness. Oath of Vengeance is there to make up for the smites that you lose by taking the Sacred Servant archetype. The spells aren't so bad either.

His background could have been something like having his family who were wronged in some way by an evil organization. You swear vengeance on said organization and that was your driving decision to become a paladin.

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

My Runelords character is a Halfling Paladin of Abadar, quite enjoyable.

Have you read the Code of a Paladin of Abadar from Faiths of Balance?

[Devastation Bob]

I always thought of Paladins of Abadar as super-cops. It's law and order with the benevolent streak from the LG alignment. His holy symbol is his badge. Maybe the church doesn't always agree with his actions, (free healing to wounded innocents), but he's a good cop. Personality wise, think Nicholas Angel from Hot Fuzz.

[Red Square Bear]

I'd go Lawful Good but "Lawful over Good" as described here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ToBeLawfulOrGood

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

Yes, my Paladin actually ended up having a chat with Abadar, and has de-stressed the good vs evil side of his ethos and does more of the Law vs Chaos side of it. With that said, I'm still an evil-smiter!

[Calybos1]

As noted, you could make him an idealized cop: making the world safe for civilization and commerce, so that everyday citizens can rest easily knowing he's on guard. He keeps things orderly and keeps the peace.

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

Sort of a Judge Dredd type!

[Devastation Bob]

I am the law! And as a paladin he's not limited to his deities favored weapon (light crossbow), he could show his faith using a heavy repeating crossbow. Or go unarmed strike, so they can gaze into the fist of Dredd.

[TheSideKick]

FratManCy wrote:

Hey folks, FratmanCy's back again with another question aimed at our good friends here Paizo Forums!

I've seen Abadite Clerics, mercenaries, etc, but I've never seen one as a paladin. Instead of dumping fantasy tropes on the would be character and letting my future teammates cry about their fear of a knight a with a code, I'm petitioning this board for advice.

I'll be starting out at level 3, core races only, 4d6 drop lowest stats.

Would anyone have any cool rp suggestions for my potential character?

abdar loves hell knights, screw a pally lol

[Gregory Connolly]

Too bad you can't be a Paladin/Hell Knight.

[TheSideKick]

Gregory Connolly wrote:

Too bad you can't be a Paladin/Hell Knight.

why in gods name would you want to?

[Gregory Connolly]

Because if you look at the powers of a Hell Knight, they basically make you a champion of law. The fact that all of the flavor of the class is evil means that it is not going to work with either Paladin or Antipaladin. I can easily picture a deity such as Abadar having a prestige class like this that does work with Paladin.

[TheSideKick]

paladin hell knights can only choose The Order of the Godclaw. even that is very, very difficult for a lawful good player, with a paladin code, to RP.

thats why i said why the hell would you want to...

[Axial]

I would recommend basing him partially off the Lawgiver, Abadar's herald (at least in terms of armor design and using a warhammer). Other then that, maybe a two-headed eagle emblem on his tabard or shield, and maybe a golden key in his possession?

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

My halfling Paladin of Abadar, in full regalia, Thistle Cowbell

[Dreadwave]

I've played an Abadarian Paladin. He was an investor in expeditions to the frontiers and actively sought funding for building supplies and mercenaries to defend the new towns. Heck, in Kingmaker he was the trailblazer that Druids/fey hated when he came to negotiate a contract for new settlements near their homes.

Physically he looked like a warcraft 3 Paladin(not Arthas)

@TheSidekick: I don't see any restrictions prohibiting a Paladin from taking the Hellknight Prestige class. Granted I don't recommend it(I have a player using a Paladin/Hellknight in Wrath of the Righteous). It's a challenge to balance the Paladins code with the Hellknights Chain(their code)and when the two inevitably come in conflict the Helladin is going to fall from one of the classes have to atone in some way.

Personally Hellknights fill the Judge Dredd niche better than Paladins anyway.

[pennywit]

A few RP quirks I can think of:

The Three Amigos Situation. Recall that at the end of The Three Amigos, the villagers offered a bag of money to the Amigos, but they returned it and said that doing good was reward enough. I imagine that a paladin of Abadar would keep the reward. From the paladin's point of view, the bag of money is his justly earned reward for defeating El Guapo.

In Conflict With Other Abadarians. If you've ever studied contract law in real life, you know that there are a lot of exceptions to the general doctrine of "Once you sign a peace of paper, you are obligated to do what that piece of paper says." I could see a paladin of Abadar coming into conflict with other Abadar followers, perhaps acting as an advocate before a tribunal. Where the LN (or perhaps LE) Abadarian advocate insists that a peasant must be bound to his contract, the LG Abadarian paladin argues that certain extenuating circumstances excuse the peasant from the contract. (Perhaps it was substantively or procedurally unconscionable?)

Help Others to Help Themselves. Faiths of Balance indicates that Abadarian paladins don't carry others, but teach others to recognize opportunities and to rely on themselves. In this regard, it might be interesting if your paladin takes on the Holy Tactician Archetype. Instead of simply defeating the bandits plagueing a village, your paladin trains a village militia, then (using his Teamwork abilities) leads the militia in an attack against the bandits. Before he leaves, the paladin finds a promising warrior in the village, then leaves this warrior to lead the militia.

(Side note: This would work particularly well if you can persuade another player to play a bard who is your paladin's boon companion.)

[Winfred]

Gregory Connolly wrote:

Because if you look at the powers of a Hell Knight, they basically make you a champion of law. The fact that all of the flavor of the class is evil means that it is not going to work with either Paladin or Antipaladin. I can easily picture a deity such as Abadar having a prestige class like this that does work with Paladin.

You can certainly have a paladin hellknight. For example http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Regan_Vashan

The founder of the order of the Godclaw was a (ex)paladin of Aroden.(post aroden death)

I could also see paladins in the order of the Pike or Scar. Perhaps pyre depending on specifics.