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Oh that would be fun.
It's the first day of an extended five-day weekend brought about by overlapping holy days of Desna and Abadar. Everybody is taking his or her free time off, except for Whizzlebang, the gnome Paladin of Gneshau. See, Whizzlebang goes around the town and makes sure to encourage workaholics who try to skip the holiday to actually take a hike to the park and relax. Then he goes about arranging a hiking trip for families with kids to the local scenic spot. There are baskets with delicious food and supplies for artists who will draw inspiration from serene environs to create their works. And there's the +2 flaming keen rapier in case some absolutely obnoxious troll shows up to crash the picnic. Because for people to enjoy their vacation, somebody needs to work hard.
Paladins of Shelyn are far more interesting than Paladins of Killmaimburn but YMMV.
All the talk of Ragathiel being a welcome necessity shows just how big did Asmodeus score by getting Heaven to accept Raggy into their ranks. Well played Mr. A, well played.
If a player is playing his/her paladin as a murderous raving lunatic, then that's a problem with the player, not with the fictional deity.
As far as Shelyn is concerned, I didn't say she was uninteresting, actually I quite like her as a deity. She just doesn't seem militant enough to have an order of paladins.
• I see beauty in others. As a rough stone hides a diamond, a drab face may hide the heart of a saint.
• I am peaceful. I come first with a rose rather than a weapon, and act to prevent conflict before it blossoms. I never strike first, unless it is the only way to protect the innocent.
• I accept surrender if my opponent can be redeemed—and I never assume that they cannot be. All things that live love beauty, and I will show beauty’s answer to them.
• I live my life as art. I will choose an art and perfect it. When I have mastered it, I will choose another. The works I leave behind make life richer for those who follow.
• I will never destroy a work of art, nor allow one to come to harm, unless greater art arises from its loss. I will only sacrifice art if doing so allows me to save a life, for untold beauty can arise from an awakened soul.
• I lead by example, not with my blade. Where my blade passes, a life is cut short, and the world’s potential for beauty is lessened.
That's from Inner Sea Gods... and I agree with Gorbacz that there are some tasty concepts in there to drive a character.
Ragathiel (and many of the empyreal lords) imo work much better for people NOT playing paladins. Paladins can already be righteous crusaders. What about a rogue dedicated to Ragathiel? Or a summoner, or a witch? They can be heavily flavored with a particular empyreal lord, adding extremely righteous/holy powers to their otherwise not-very-religious base. A ranger who chooses Tanagaar (a giant owl with forest powers and forest themes) gets some bonus forest-y stuff on top of his already forest-y class. But a ranger who chooses the Lord of Motely Repose (dazzle powers) or the Lady of Inspired Notes (perform/communicate powers) has a lot of personal flavor conveyed in that - sure he is a wilderness ranger, but he's the total opposite of the taciturn loner. Instead he's all about rainbows and illusions, or is a hardcore lover of music.
I'm not saying (at all) that any class should/should not follow a particular empyreal lord, but rather that the beauty of the empyreal lords is that they allow someone to quickly and easily convey an important aspect of their character, one that is backed up with mechanics. I personally don't think I'd choose a paladin to use Ragathiel with - but a celestial bloodrager, or a tiefling fighter, or the aforementioned rogue in a holy-themed party is where the the flavor can really shine.
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Personally, I find the Empyreal Lords vastly more interesting than (most) of the deities, and in particular, most of the major deities.
Sheyln. . . The only really interesting aspects of Shelyn is all about her brother and her failures, and honestly, (yes I understand there are rules for it), in my opinion makes for a terrible deity for a paladin. Best case, her faith has the defender aspect, but there seems to be some glaring issues with comparing beauty to good and ugliness to evil, (a huge unpleasant issue in itself), but probably needs to be the opposite, and also along with a lot of the material on her, highly implies a lot more of a chaotic, free-spirited outlook over a disciplines, orderly one.
Really don't need to say any more about Iomedae.
Eristal is pretty cool. I'd honestly have to say more so pre-errata. Cries of "mysogony" where very contrived and off base, but we will leave it at that. Otherwise, a disciplined, rugged warrior that cares more for the pack than the individual and actually advocates not adventuring as a lifestyle is an interesting twist to the typical LG, and anything that makes Abadar cry like a child is damn awesome, but still leaves enough room for heretical issues as needed.
Desna, is ok. Would be a lot, and I mean A LOT more interesting if her followers where not given the best abilities in the game.
Cayden is basically a political statement constantly miming pressing the <hot> button, but if you read into all of his non-Core stuff, finally starts to make a lot more sense. Well, as a lesser deity, folk hero, at least. Still kind of cool. Thing is, I could actually see him being a patron of Paladins much more than Shelyn, Desna, or even Abadar or Irori, but that's where rules and the need to fill the official Alignment slots fail.
Abadar, lets face it, boring as _________.
Torag is kind of cool. Has a pretty specific way of blending both protection and aggression that makes sense and is also playable. Also sort of seems to cover a lot of the aspects that theoretically make Sheyln good, but much less contrived. It might have been better to remove a bit of the Dwarf <almost> only aspects, and open his faith more to all, but could be wrong.
Sarenrae. Hum. She makes a really great "we need a solid just simple good" patron, and I like the sort of angel of fire, both redemptive and destructive aspects. I'm not sure about the Dawnflower Heresy. On one hand it's kind of cool (as a heresy), but on the other it also severely undermines a lot of stuff about morality, thematic appropriateness, and believability about the already very flimsy setting.
On the other hand, with the Empyreal Lords, we have a bit of info and essentially free reign to fill in the gaps as needed. Leaving as much creative free space as possible for the player rockets them to the finish line for cool factor.