Chaotic Good Paladin

[Beowulf]

Has anyone played with the idea of a chaotic good paladin? 3.5 has an optional rule for one, called the "paladin of freedom".

I was wondering if any of you had thought of something similar.

[serleran]

Dragon #39, I believe.

[gideon_thorne]

I have 9 paladins in my home brew. One for each alignment.
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Peter Bradley

[Zudrak]

gideon_thorne wrote:
I have 9 paladins in my home brew. One for each alignment.

Dragon Magazine #310 had an article for 3e that dealt with the other 8 alignments for a paladin class. They were interesting ideas.
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[Treebore]

Its an idea that has been "played around with" for a couple of decades, and can work.
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[Zebulon]

Personally, I don't like the idea (of paladins of other alignments). Here are my points about the subject:

1) I like the idea of a champion devoted to a cause and getting its own abilities for supporting it. Like the idea of the Champion class in Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook. On the other hand, a class devoted to defending an alignment, means nothing to me. I see paladins as an archetype of knights who protect the weak and innocent, and thus should be lawful and good, but not the agents of Law and Goodness on the material plane. Now there could be "black knights", but I don't like the idea of simply reversing the paladin's abilities. I would prefer the design of an entirely new class with its own appropriate abilities (such as backstabb for example, rather than reverse lay-on-hand).

2) For holy-knights, more appropriate for defending alignments, for having holy-knights of various alignments at least, I think multiclass Fighter-Clerics are more appropriate.

[BLOOD AXE]

There was a Dragon mag. with a Paladin for each alignment.

FOUND IT!!

#106 Elf Chick w/ pseudo-dragon & horse on the cover.

It has a Paladin for every alignment except the regular Paladin (LG) and Anti-Paladin (CE). Pretty neat. Could be used with some tweeking.

[serleran]

Personally, I think paladins should be excised from fantasy roleplaying completely. Clerics should replace them, as they do, already.

[Matthew]

Bah! Paladins are great, people just don't understand them. Paladins of contrary alignments should get their own class and stop sullying the good name of Paladins everywhere!
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[bighara]

Matthew wrote:
Bah! Paladins are great, people just don't understand them. Paladins of contrary alignments should get their own class and stop sullying the good name of Paladins everywhere!

Hear, hear!

I say "Bah!" to non LG paladins. The only thing that makes the paladin a worthwhile class to play is -IMNSHO- the fact that they have such a strict code. I used to hate paladins (at least as PCs), but now I've come to enjoy them IF THEY ARE PLAYED AND CK'd CORRECTLY! It's a real challenge and one that -frankly- most players aren't up to. The analogy I often use with players is that the paladin is sort of like Superman. It's not about about what you can do, it's about what you won't do. Superman's got all sorts of cool powers. Let's face it, there isn't a lot he can't do. The only balancing factor (except kryptonite) is his honor and concern for his fellow man. He doesn't take advantage unfairly, he respects others' rights, he deliberately tries to work for the greater good. I see this as pretty hard to do when you've got all nine alignments having champions. I mean, how would that work for CG? The "paladin" would try to protect folks but not follow any particular rules about how he does it? Doesn't sound like much of a code to me. At least, not in a way as to define a PC class. Sounds like a CG fighter RP-ing his alignment. And what about CN??
CE Anti-paladins/Blackguards I like. They represent entropy and mayhem. They are usually walking avatars of some dark deity. Their limitation is usually their dark master's whims and their own fury. Even in situations where discretion might be smarter, the beast within pushes them to act, to kill, to destroy. If they live to higher levels, they are rarely great lords, more often they are generals in the service of a Lawful Evil ruler.



Of course, in my games, a LE kobold doesn't register on a Detect Evil. Neither does a CE Assassin. Individual alignments of normal people and creatures don't set off the Evilometer. It takes some sort of magical or supernatural connection to evil to be detected that way. An evil cleric will register as evil, likewise a vampire, etc. This helps keep paladins from simply wading in and killing a NE NPC they picked up on their radar. Not to mention the "Lawful" part of their alignment. A paladin doesn't necessarily have any secular authority. They can't execute people out of hand. They also can't just grab an evil NPC who's just walking down the street and tell the watch to chuck him jail for being a "bad guy." In the wilds or a dungeon, a paladin that constantly "shoots first" when seeing creatures like orcs when there isn't any obvious evidence of evil actions will end up falling from grace.

[Aladar]

bighara,

That is a very good (and simple) analogy with Superman of how a paladin should act. I need to print this out and have one of my players read it.

Thanks.
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[bighara]

Aladar wrote:
bighara,

That is a very good (and simple) analogy with Superman of how a paladin should act. I need to print this out and have one of my players read it.

Thanks.

No problemo. Superhero analogies are what I'm here for!

[Beowulf]

It seems most of you have misunderstood my question, perhaps do to my poor wording.

What I meant was how might one handle this in C&C? I am not interested in how it might be run in other games.

[gideon_thorne]

Beowulf wrote:
It seems most of you have misunderstood my question, perhaps do to my poor wording.

What I meant was how might one handle this in C&C? I am not interested in how it might be run in other games.

Well, every answer given above could apply to C&C. Since most of it is talking about material that came from AD&D, all one would have to do is flip the AC and you'd be ready to go.

The simple answer is, just take away the Alignment restrictions and make sure folks adhere to whichever alignment the character chooses. The powers and abilities seem to be pretty straight forward to modify to suit from there.
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Peter Bradley

[Joe]

I believe what makes a paladin so special and unique is that he is NOT like other classes.

I have never been in favor of

The paladin is an archetypal icon of law and all that is good.

If you wish to make holy warriors of other alignments then fine...call them holy warriors, but they are not paladins.

Leave the paladin the steadfact icon he was always intended to be.

My two cents.