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This was going to be the 5 best deities for paladins to worship, but then I realized there were only 7 of them.
So i thought it might be best go over all of them....Starting with my least favorite. Keep in mind this is mostly going purely by their code and how easy they would be to RP
Erastil:
Abadar:
Iomadae:
Fight evil, Protect your comrade, Itch for a good fight and don't abandon or betray your team unless they give the go ahead. Not to mention as long as it towards fighting evil most paladins of iomadae don't really care HOW you do it, and they certainly won't stop you from using said means even if they wouldn't do it themselves.
Sadly she's not any higher BECAUSE she's so typical, and the whole never running from a fight can make said character come off as pretty stubborn
Torag:
Shelyn:
Irori:
Sarenrae:
As far as I can think of there is really no downside to having Sarenrae as your patron deity. As the very face of the word "Redemption" A Paladin worshiping this god is one that would give others a second chance when others would just kill them or lock em away forever. Promoting all the good aspects of fairness and the like without being obnoxious about it.
This is just a likable god all around. And anyone who knows how to roleplay a paladin of this god would be a joy as opposed to a bore.
Welp those are my thoughts what do you guys think?
You don't understand the Pathfinder setting at all. There are many more than seven deities to choose from. Anyway, my choices are mine, and different to everyone else. That's not to say they're better or worse than yours. My thoughts are that this is a worthless topic, but I would choose Iomedae 'cause she smiteth the murder-hobo, and Ragathiel, 'cause murder-hobo paladins doth displease the Polish bag.
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I'm not entirely sure I agree with your assessment of Erastil. Yes he prefers the "old ways", but I don't see him as particularly dogmatic as he prefers to
...lead... his followers by example and good deeds rather than flowery rhetoric.
This would mean his paladins would operate in a similar manner, making them less likely to be lawful stupid (probably the reason for the clash with Abadar).
Think of the Old country Sherriff; he is respected for his wisdom and knowledge of people and been known to turn a blind eye to a supposed lawbreaker if he considers them to be generally law abiding. For Example, Marshall Curly Wilcox from Stagecoach (a really old film) who lets the Ringo kid go free because he recognises that the kid will do no more harm and will be looking to settle down and lead a productive life. He adheres to no particular doctrine other than common sense (a.k.a. "The Old Ways"). This would be the staple for a paladin of Erastil.
You can see how such an attitude might be frowned upon on cities; though it can still be found in Constables who know their community and who really is a bad guy as opposed to an opportunist or someone driven to acts of desperation by circumstance.
I'm curious as to why do you restrict your choice to only these seven deities?Probably because those seven deities are the core deities with Paladin codes.
That is, the only ones with official, published paladin codes.
But yeah, that was my impression, too.|
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I'm curious as to why do you restrict your choice to only these seven deities?Probably because those seven deities are the core deities with Paladin codes.That is, the only ones with official, published paladin codes.
But yeah, that was my impression, too.
I'm sorry I should have clarified that, but yes it was these 7 in particular because these were the only ones with an actual paladin code and unless you're gonna have a campaign in tian xia(in which case you would be more of a swordsaint then a paladin) Then these 7 are the only paladin deities that would make sense in a campaign on golorion. If you're doing a homebrew custom game then my thoughts don't even matter.
Probably should have been more clear on that.
Yeah, there are a whole bunch of other "suitably divine" beings that could sponsor paladins, even within the Inner Sea region.
Most just lack published paladin codes. And not all codes were published in one place, so it's hard to find them all.
Personally, I'm not fussed by Erastil being fairly dogmatic and conservative. It's important to have varying outlooks represented in society (and in all alignment groupings) to really make it thrive.
And in the same vein, I like the contrasting paladins you can get following the various deities from the supermartial end of Iomedae to the more peaceful extreme of Shelyn or more insular Erastil, from unforgiving like Torag to forgiving like Sarenrae.
Personally, I'm not fussed by Erastil being fairly dogmatic and conservative. It's important to have varying outlooks represented in society (and in all alignment groupings) to really make it thrive.
And in the same vein, I like the contrasting paladins you can get following the various deities from the supermartial end of Iomedae to the more peaceful extreme of Shelyn or more insular Erastil, from unforgiving like Torag to forgiving like Sarenrae.
Is he dogmatic and conservative? The paladin code just says to keep to the old ways which means absolutely nothing without context or a definition of what the old ways means. Old ways could mean don't double-drip or just be nice to be people, which is probably the oldest moral code ever conceived.
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Is he dogmatic and conservative? The paladin code just says to keep to the old ways which means absolutely nothing without context or a definition of what the old ways means. Old ways could mean don't double-drip or just be nice to be people, which is probably the oldest moral code ever conceived.Personally, I'm not fussed by Erastil being fairly dogmatic and conservative. It's important to have varying outlooks represented in society (and in all alignment groupings) to really make it thrive.
And in the same vein, I like the contrasting paladins you can get following the various deities from the supermartial end of Iomedae to the more peaceful extreme of Shelyn or more insular Erastil, from unforgiving like Torag to forgiving like Sarenrae.
Yeah now that you point it out it is rather vauge isn't it?
Sarenrae is best girl and has the most true-to-Paladin-type paragon-of-Good-but-not-of-stupid Code. She also fits probably the widest choice of character backgrounds because of this. As a bonus, she has both an interesting and mechanically good favoured weapon.
I'm not sure how Torag counts as Good since he advocates slaughter and no mercy against any Giants, Orcs, and Goblinoids (and possibly Elves) unless you can exploit it (or similar racial enemies for non-Dwarf Toragadins, I guess?). He seems more Lawful Neutral to me, but that's not what Paizo has written for his alignment.
Iomedae is kind of boring to me, to be honest, and the whole never run away thing, as mentioned, is pretty bad.
Under Irori you mentioned that you are "shoehorned into being good"... How is that different from any other Paladin sans-archetype? A Paladin is Lawful Good and doesn't make any sense to be otherwise unless there's an archetype being used.
Shelyn's Code has a weird obsession with works of art, so only characters with a similar dedication to art would choose her. This also means your character may be averse to a lot of actions depending on what they deem works of art and what they deem as harming one (collapsing a stonework bridge, blocking a temple passage for escape, taking a piece of an item needed for something like removing a magic jewel from a statue's eye, etc.).
I agree with Bill Dunn that Erastil's Code doesn't seem too stuffy, and more seems to encourage preserving tradition so it isn't forgotten and discourage being swept up in glamour.
Others have mention Kurgess and Apsu having published Codes, and Alseta and Ragathiel do as well.
Ragathiel is very good for a Paladin who wishes to go out and actively combat the forces of Evil, but he's not merciless like Torag (he's more of a "you get ONE more chance" kind of guy, due to his own background of being the son of an Archdevil).
I quite like Apsu's Code, and with the prominence and popularity of Dragons, he's just plain awesome (his followers' battlecry is "AND I WILL END DEATH!" and that's just badass). Apsu also is a deity of travel, so it makes sense for his Paladins to be adventurers. He's got a neat symbol, too! *wink*
Kurgess is similar to Irori, though more into the spirit of friendly competition and comradery.
Alseta is pretty niche, focused mostly on protecting Elf Gates, but there is a Code nonetheless.
You forgot the best deity for Paladins: Aroden! No published code, but there were Paladin orders of him. Fact that he's "dead" doesn't matter: Paladins don't need a deity. If you really want to be weird play a Chosen One with a Figment Familiar.
I can just imagine that Paladin having a Homer Simpson style conversation with his brain, except with a little imaginary angel on his shoulder instead of his forehead.
Anyways, on-topic:
Erastil: Keeping with the old ways (in other words, a respect for tradition) goes hand-in-hand with a Lawful alignment. Furthermore a respect for tradition usually implies a belief, conscious or not, that most traditions exist for good reasons. It makes a certain logical sense, in that behaviors which are useless or detrimental would be discarded before they can become traditions, and a community that clings to a wholly damaging tradition would be out-competed by one that does not. Also, small communities retain their appeal because people can only know about three hundred people well. Much more than that and you're living among strangers, which is an understandable cause for anxiety in unsafe parts of a world like Golarion.
Abadar: A Paladin who follows Abadar shouldn't be some Judge Dredd parody played straight. He follows Abadar because he believes that the world needs rules in order for Good to have a fighting chance. He may take the pessimistic Hobbesian view that the State of Nature is the War of All Against All. In other words, without a strong Lawful Good authority, the only law is Might Makes Right.
Iomedae: I also used to think she was a bit generic, as the Paladin Goddess of All Things Paladin. But she has enough history that a Knight of Ozem, or a Paladin who venerates her as a sort of patron deity for humanity following Aroden's disappearance, could make for an interesting angle.
Torag: Many Humans of Ulfen or Taldan descent venerate Torag, so he's definitely not limited to Dwarves.
Irori: A Paladin of Irori would believe that discipline, asceticism, and goodness go hand-in-hand.
Sarenrae: Fully agree. I think it's somewhat telling that one of the best-fitting deities for a Paladin is actually Neutral Good.
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I've always kind of wanted to play a Paladin of Erecura, who despite being the queen of the second layer of hell, is Lawful Neutral. That her portfolio includes "espionage" and "deception" makes this a particularly inappropriate choice, so I'm curious about what it would have to look like.
I'm not sure how Torag counts as Good since he advocates slaughter and no mercy against any Giants, Orcs, and Goblinoids (and possibly Elves) unless you can exploit it (or similar racial enemies for non-Dwarf Toragadins, I guess?). He seems more Lawful Neutral to me, but that's not what Paizo has written for his alignment.
Good doesn't mean perfect. So he's not as good as some of the others, there's room for some variation.
Torag's paladin code is weird and vague like Erastil's. It mentions how a paladin of Torag shouldn't allow surrender or show mercy which isn't very Good by most other Good-aligned Gods standards but it says to always show honor in the direst of circumstances. So... it's basically saying to be ruthless but also be honorable in the darkest situations.
Dah funk?
Torag's paladin code is weird and vague like Erastil's. It mentions how a paladin of Torag shouldn't allow surrender or show mercy which isn't very Good by most other Good-aligned Gods standards but it says to always show honor in the direst of circumstances. So... it's basically saying to be ruthless but also be honorable in the darkest situations.
Dah funk?
Honor is like respect: It's earned, not given. If an opponent hasn't done anything to deserve honor or mercy, don't give it. Who are you to judge the worthy, they may ask? The answer is, you are a champion of Heaven, and you are the worthy*.
*Make sure you're actually in the right when you say this, or you'll be taking a trip to Fall City.
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Basically, Torag doesn't do things halfway. Your enemies want to fight? Fine. But once the fight has started, they don't get to back down. If they didn't want to die in combat, they shouldn't have started a fight, or at least declared it a non-lethal sparring match before they drew their weapons.
Yeah, this means that paladins of Torag can't start fights for giggles, but no paladin should start a battle to the death for fun, and if it isn't a battle to the death, this needs to be cleared up beforehand. Once the fighter's lives are on the line, it's to late.
Sarenrae: Fully agree. I think it's somewhat telling that one of the best-fitting deities for a Paladin is actually Neutral Good.
Exactly. Usually, Paladins are Lawful more because of their dedication to Good. They are Good in a Lawful manner.
I think the choice of Deity comes from alignment(rules, of course!) and character concept.
The best thing to do is rummage around PathfinderWiki or your suitable choices if using your home game pantheons and ask, "how does this work with my character design".
After that write down your Paladin's code and submit it to your GM.
Yup. Definitely important to remember that the person selects the deity when you're a Cleric, Paladin, etc. You're not going to receive prepared spellcasting type spells/powers from a deity you dislike, are being forced to worship, or only kind of pay lip service to while doing the opposite.
Witches and Oracles, though? Yeah, they kind of have things dropped on them to fulfill their mysterious benefactor's mysterious purposes.
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I picked Soralyon as a deity for one of my PFS Paladins. This was because at the time the published paladin codes that existed didn't seem to fit the character, and I could create one myself that would fit him. Since the only thing published about the deity at the time was a few lines in a single book, Inner Sea Gods, it seemed like a safe bet that a conflicting code wouldn't be published soon.
A couple of asides for some of those deities you listed to consider.
Abadar does not expressly dislike usually immoral practices if they happen to be legal. Slavery being one of the big ones. He may look down on things like being overly zealous with harming and killing them, but having them by breeding or by seizing doesn't bother him. The government of a town could take a debtor's children to be sold into slavery and it's A-OK with Abadar. Because it's legal.
This is something I find juicy in game terms because other Paladins could see Paladins of Abadar as evil by omission. But it is a topic to mention to anyone wanting to play a believer of Abadar. And something worth discussing. Especially if the local lord asks the Paladin of Abadar to help round up some escaped slaves (which he's totally required to do technically).
Now for sheer Holy F-ery let's talk Torag. If you look at his code for Paladins... there is no forgiveness. In fact it's perfectly in the Paladin's code to do Non Lawful Good things. If you run into an enclave of orcs and you find the orc baby scenario (never do this to your players, it's a d$#% move) the Torag Paladin is able and encouraged to smash every baby orc skull he can find and will not fall for it according to the core tenants of Torag's faith.
Now it's blatantly against common Lawful Good practice, but Torag believes in the Conan way of life. Drive your enemies before you and hear the lamentation of their women. In more modern dialect it translates to killing the bad guy and any heir they might have that might continue his legacy, regardless of other factors. Only ending the threat and potential threat matters.
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A couple of asides for some of those deities you listed to consider.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
Yeah... the thing with torag is that I am not sure why he is lawful GOOD.
That code seems neutral (general honesty, honor, and work ethic), leaning into evil (its answer to goblin baby problem).
It makes sense for a god of the underdark- that place is brutal, and it is hard to survive in the struggle for resources without living like that. But generally, the reason taht 'the children grow up to be enemies' is 'because you give no quarter and your slaughter makes them hate you with a passion'.
Heck, the entire reason why orcs are running about out of the underdark in setting is because the dwarves harried them to the surface during the quest to the sky. if they just negotiated and passed through, then the orcs would be happily living underground. By extension, the life style of the orcs might be tightly correlated to the post surface situation- the dwarves prepared for their quest to the surface, but the orcs were forced to abandon everything they knew, fleeing for their lives. So the dwarves could make their own little settlement on a mountain without generating bad blood, while the orcs would be forced to raid to get resources in order to even begin to survive (which settled them into current position).
When you take a post colonial view of the situation... dwarves are jerks. Why are they portrayed as 'lawful good'?
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I've never understood this hard line of "Orcs/goblins/bugbears are evil, stop trying to make them not evil" from certain game developers. I've seen way too many canon characters created from supposedly evil creatures who are good and nice to others simply because it's easier for them to blanket something. Now sure, if the Orc is howling and talking about the kittens he plans to grind on top of his human-stew for flavor... Smite it.
But the wider implications of alignment aside, it's entirely possible to have a Lawful Good villain. Law is subjective on who makes the laws, as is Good technically. A paladin who believes that your God is a pagan and needs to be cleansed from his lands... might just force you to repent or be executed and technically it's Lawful and Good.
One of the many reasons I feel like Paladins and Anti-Paladins should have their alignment restricted to simply match their deity and leave the topic of Lawful Stupid in the dust behind it.
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The out for a Paladin of Abadar dealing with legal slavery (or various other legalized evil) is the "if a system is fundamentally flawed, I will work to aid citizens by reforming or replacing it." part.
Oh I entirely get that, I really do. But you are ignoring an evil that your Deity of choice is actually not inherently against. But Abadar is one of those weird Deities where a Paladin could legally smite a Cleric of his own religion, so take that for the grain of salt it's worth as well.
I've never understood this hard line of "Orcs/goblins/bugbears are evil, stop trying to make them not evil" from certain game developers. I've seen way too many canon characters created from supposedly evil creatures who are good and nice to others simply because it's easier for them to blanket something. Now sure, if the Orc is howling and talking about the kittens he plans to grind on top of his human-stew for flavor... Smite it.
But the wider implications of alignment aside, it's entirely possible to have a Lawful Good villain. Law is subjective on who makes the laws, as is Good technically. A paladin who believes that your God is a pagan and needs to be cleansed from his lands... might just force you to repent or be executed and technically it's Lawful and Good.
One of the many reasons I feel like Paladins and Anti-Paladins should have their alignment restricted to simply match their deity and leave the topic of Lawful Stupid in the dust behind it.
I can understand somethings- such as undead being always evil (since they are literally twisted by various forces and often separated from fundamental needs that might help them sympathize with others)... but yeah, living things are harder to write off.
I can understand that a goblin might be too flighty to be properly good, but I am sure they can be trained to be neutral at least.
I will note that the lizard folk bestiary entry was delightfully postcolonial- they are mostly just reactionary against human imperialism. They even get a morally grey version of cannibalism ('hey, every ounce of food is precious in this swamp. Why should we let the food got to waste?').
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Save for, remember, Pathfinder isn't really built around "Gray Area Morality"
Bestiary says:
Alignment, Size, and Type: While a monster's size and type remain constant (unless changed by the application of templates or other unusual modifiers), alignment is far more fluid. The alignments listed for each monster in this book represent the norm for those monsters—they can vary as you require them to in order to serve the needs of your campaign. Only in the case of relatively unintelligent monsters (creatures with an Intelligence of 2 or lower are almost never anything other than neutral) and planar monsters (outsiders with alignments other than those listed are unusual and typically outcasts from their kind) is the listed alignment relatively unchangeable.
So, Monster alignment in Pathfinder is as gray as you want to make it.
Official Golarion might be another thing, but then, I'm not playing official Golarion at home. Meaning that Paladins better not try reenacting that scene from RotS in my games.
Heck, the entire reason why orcs are running about out of the underdark in setting is because the dwarves harried them to the surface during the quest to the sky. if they just negotiated and passed through, then the orcs would be happily living underground. By extension, the life style of the orcs might be tightly correlated to the post surface situation- the dwarves prepared for their quest to the surface, but the orcs were forced to abandon everything they knew, fleeing for their lives. So the dwarves could make their own little settlement on a mountain without generating bad blood, while the orcs would be forced to raid to get resources in order to even begin to survive (which settled them into current position).
When you take a post colonial view of the situation... dwarves are jerks. Why are they portrayed as 'lawful good'?
Before we get all orc-sympathetic, it’s worth noting that the orcs and dwarves were enemies long before the Quest for Sky. Orcs may have been driven to the surface by the dwarf migration, but there’s no indication the cruelty of their culture is a result of those migrations.
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This was going to be the 5 best deities for paladins to worship, but then I realized there were only 7 of them.
So i thought it might be best go over all of them....Starting with my least favorite. Keep in mind this is mostly going purely by their code and how easy they would be to RP
Only 7 Core deities, as others have noted above, but I'll take my shot at this, and then dabble in a few others.
Erastil:
Honestly consider him and his dogma to be very inflexible, remembering the old ways is fine and all. But it almost seems like it's at the expense of everything else. Then again this might just be me being a city boy by nature. But when I see someone say "Stick with Tradition" I actually hear them say "I'm afraid of Change" Maybe that's just me.
I actually want to run with the bad first impression (which lasted for quite a while) Erastil made, and make a story out of it: Okay, maybe Erastil isn't that bad himself, and he might even have some justification for trying to suppress change, like seeing some world like Earth(*) go down the tubes and being in dread of history repeating itself. But large subsets of his worshippers are another matter entirely, and use this as an excuse to be repressive. A Paladin of Erastil has to try to thread the needle between keeping communities well-balanced and safe on one hand, and said communities expanding out of control and wrecking the world on another hand, and said communities becoming repressive in their enforcement of tradition on another hand. (Three hands? Hey, it gets weird in this world.)
(*)Not Earth itself only because the timing is wrong. Otherwise it fits quite well.
Abadar:
Spoiler:
He's....ok. Seems like a typical enforcer in a city based campaign. That said Abadar's Paladins seem more concerned with the Law aspect then the good one, and generally seem to see any good deeds done as a happy byproduct of enforcing the law. This Deity IMO is the one that would most encourage the much despised stereotype of Paladin Buzzkill or Lawful Stupid. As the general impression is making sure the law is followed rather then seeing good things done.
Not just any enforcer. Capitalist Enforcer. Seems strange that Abadar would commission Paladins when Paladins(*) are restricted to being Lawful Good, but this awesome Council of Thieves PbP had a Paladin who roleplayed this magnificently. Interestingly, this Paladin was also the party's Trapfinder, having fittingly dipped 2 levels in Rogue.
(*)Not considering the Grey Paladin archetype, which is just terrible.
Iomadae:
Despite being considered by many to be the first god that comes to mind when people think of a paladin, it's not without reason. Like really you can't go wrong choosing her as your deity, as her code is pretty straightforward.Fight evil, Protect your comrade, Itch for a good fight and don't abandon or betray your team unless they give the go ahead. Not to mention as long as it towards fighting evil most paladins of iomadae don't really care HOW you do it, and they certainly won't stop you from using said means even if they wouldn't do it themselves.
Sadly she's not any higher BECAUSE she's so typical, and the whole never running from a fight can make said character come off as pretty stubborn
I see Iomedae as starting to crack under the pressures caused by the Worldwound. She's still around and still Lawful Good in Starfinder, though, so she must have gotten better, although possibly a fall and atonement were in there somewhere in between, although possibly covered up. (Hey, you don't suppose maybe THAT is the reason for the Gap . . . ?)
Torag:
Spoiler:
Another Fairly Straight forward Deity, Keep your word, Protect your own and make your own stuff, not much more else to say about this guy. Only real downside i can think of is you would have a rough time trying to justify anyone but a dwarf worshiping this guy. But if you can it's not hard at all.
It looks bad. But on the other hand, he did manage to reach out to more than just Dwarven worshippers, so maybe he's not as bad as he seems. Also, his Obedience is far less deadly than Ragathiel's (while arguably bad for your hearing and for any tendency you might have towards developing repetitive stress injury . . .). Although unlike the above, he ISN'T still around in Starfinder . . . .
Shelyn:
Peace before war, Show mercy if possible, and never judge someone based on their background. This can lead to a very Open minded character, which is often the opposite of what people typically think of a paladin, Sadly The issue comes when you realize that whoever is playing the character may accidentally become TOO much of a pacifist and just end up looking like a complete wuss. Get past that and she's really good
If you just read her entry in www.pathfinderwiki.com, you can see that she's NOT a pushover, and probably wouldn't expect her champions (Paladin or otherwise) to be pushovers (although the ones in Cheliax may have to seem to be, just to avoid being rounded up and executed -- but then again that's true for anyone there who isn't a Devil worshipper). Now if only she hadn't had the youthful lapse in judgment to post that image of herself on Spiritbook . . . .
Irori:
This god is interesting as he technically has no paladin code. His dogma is very simple "Strive to be the best person you can possibly be....how you go about doing that is up to you. For a paladin this is a bit more limited since you are shoehorned into being good but aside from that you can play such a paladin however you want...within reason. Might not be the best of all of them but is probably the most flexible
Might not be so much of a shoehorn as it seems -- although he is labeled as Lawful Neutral, he seems to be nicer than somebody like Abadar, so his commissioning Paladins (albeit weird ones) is not as surprising. What's surprising, given his flexibility of code, is that he is Lawful. I know, Sacred Cows regarding Monks, and all that . . . and suddenly, even though I am mostly a Vegan -- and even though I just ate -- I have a craving for hamburger . . . I suspect Irori would not approve . . . .
Sarenrae:
Possibly the most well known of all the good aligned deities in the game...and it's warranted, as the deity who single-handedly fought off the rough beast buying asmodeous time to seal it away. And is just a promoter of goodness everywhere even non religious folk respect her and her followers.As far as I can think of there is really no downside to having Sarenrae as your patron deity. As the very face of the word "Redemption" A Paladin worshiping this god is one that would give others a second chance when others would just kill them or lock em away forever. Promoting all the good aspects of fairness and the like without being obnoxious about it.
This is just a likable god all around. And anyone who knows how to roleplay a paladin of this god would be a joy as opposed to a bore.
Unfortunately, Sarenrae seems to do a terrible job of being a champion of redemption. Instead, she winds up tolerating a great mass of worshippers who practice things like slavery -- she just keeps giving them second, and third, and fourth, and fifth (and so on) chances to keep doing wrong. Maybe Torag isn't so wrong to criticize her for this. And who has Sarenrae actually redeemed, anyway? In contrast, Shelyn actually seems to do a better job of giving second chances, and has even made great progress on redeeming Whisperer of Souls, which was supposed to corrupt her, and Desna -- who doesn't even try to commission Paladins(*) -- is on record as having redeemed a Demon, of all things.
(*)And for some reason isn't even allowed to . . . ummm . . . suddenly having uncharacteristic and untimely hamburger craving again . . . .
Welp those are my thoughts what do you guys think?
Those are mine above for the Core Paladin deities. Here are a couple more (outside the Core Deities, and not an exhaustive list):
Ragathiel:
His Paladin Code isn't so bad, and even commands getting past certain types of prejudice, but his Celestial Obedience is scary -- although the world is exceedingly unlikely to become depleted of wrongdoers deserving the death penalty, even if you only consider the ones that can be obtained for performing the required ritual, this can certainly happen locally, and then what happens?
Damerrich:
No Paladin Code listed, and his portfolio sounds even more scary than Ragathiel's, but on the other hand, his Celestial Obedience, while sounding scary and unpleasant, actually isn't so bad -- nowhere does it say that the list of those who have died by your hand has to be long, let alone become longer each day, and it could even be used as an act of penitence -- in fact, the instructions for his Obedience subtly encourage this -- so it is much less likely to spiral into excess than that of Ragathiel.
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You don't understand the Pathfinder setting at all. There are many more than seven deities to choose from. Anyway, my choices are mine, and different to everyone else. That's not to say they're better or worse than yours. My thoughts are that this is a worthless topic, but I would choose Iomedae 'cause she smiteth the murder-hobo, and Ragathiel, 'cause murder-hobo paladins doth displease the Polish bag.
It's exactly the opposite. The only deity I'd consider for playing a Paladin is Ragathiel. Kill, maim, burn, torch the villages, eviscerate children whose parents ping as evil, cast atonement, blow up some goblin orphanages, rinse, repeat, call the Internet Police on any power-crazy GM who would dare to say that my interpretation of LG and Raggy's code is in any way wrong.
But basically, just kill everything, Ragathiel will sort the good from bad over at his place. Then kill Dispater, kill all Evil and Neutral gods and maybe, *maybe* spare some Good deities who actually understand that winning the battle against evil requires omnicide.
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I'm going to cover the Gods that attract me as Paladin patrons.
Erastil If I were to run as a gm an incarnation of Erastil, I would base it Hershal from the Walking Dead(the pastor/farmer w/ the large family).
He has a lot of skills, wisdom, and common sense, compassion but balanced with the needs of the people around him. He's a strict father, but he's also beloved and has earned that love.
Those who worship Erastil try to be that compassionate, wise member of the community. My paladin of Erastil would be a person who at one point all of this was a challenge but because it was a challenge they now embody it. Changeling, half orc or elf seem to be pretty good racial choices here.
Sheyln "Beauty above me, Beauty below me, Beauty all around me." Sheyln is all about seeing the worth in things and people, even if it's not initially obvious, and bringing it out. A paladin of Shelyn would embody this, giving others and encouraging others to be their best selves. They probably had this experience themselves too. Think of that really great teacher you had, who's encouraging and supportive, but can also say enough is enough.
That is who I see a Paladin of Sheyln being. Think Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. Think the movie version of Wonder Woman, and you get some idea who a Paladin of Sheyln would be.
Hope that's helpful.
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It's exactly the opposite. The only deity I'd consider for playing a Paladin is Ragathiel. Kill, maim, burn, torch the villages, eviscerate children whose parents ping as evil, cast atonement, blow up some goblin orphanages, rinse, repeat, call the Internet Police on any power-crazy GM who would dare to say that my interpretation of LG and Raggy's code is in any way wrong.But basically, just kill everything, Ragathiel will sort the good from bad over at his place. Then kill Dispater, kill all Evil and Neutral gods and maybe, *maybe* spare some Good deities who actually understand that winning the battle against evil requires omnicide.
Wow, that is so far away from Ragathiel AND from Lawful Good that I'm not sure what phrases would describe it other than "savagely Chaotic Evil murder-hobo" or "intentionally ruining the game and should be told to leave".
Have you even read ANYTHING about Ragathiel? I'm assuming you haven't, so I'll post some of it here:"The paladins of Ragathiel are shining beacons of furious resolve on the battlefield, and they are careful stewards of valor everywhere. These paladins disproportionately come from cultures that are typically hostile to paladin training, including those of half-orcs, hobgoblins, Gebbites, and the Nidalese."
"Those proven guilty must be punished for their crimes. I will not turn a blind eye to wrongdoing."
"Rage is a virtue and a strength only when focused against the deserving. I will never seek disproportionate retribution."
"Redemption finds hearts from even the cruelest origins. I will strive not to act upon prejudice against fellow mortals based on race or origin."
By the way, Ragathiel doesn't do the sorting out after the fact. That's Pharasma.