Hello
I am about to join a campaign and need to come up with a guy. I want to be a Paladin. Without being a retarded, I want my character to be fun to play and for all involved. Please help me come up with fun paladin ideas. I need a creative springboard.
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A paladin serving godess of love and beauty sworn to spread love and fight things ugly, like undead.
>I want to be a Paladin.
>I want my character to be fun to play and for all involved.
pick one
So in this character's mind, unattractive = unholy? That might be interesting if he were a jolly man who was found smiting genuine undead threats only to later have to be talked down from smiting a haggard barmaiden.
A book-dumb lady paladin who does good deeds because she can't figure out anything else to do with her life.
A convicted criminal who assumed another paladin's identity to escape his past.
A good-natured professional hero whose order is gone and/or excommunicated him for not being corrupt.
Whatever you choose, just remember by choosing paladin you're not suddenly your group's own Internal Affairs Office.
The easiest way, ironically, is holding yourself to absolution on your god's ideals. Not just law, but the god's ideals. This in of itself oft includes uplifting the people, never betraying trust, not sacrificing others, and so on.
The actual ideals tend to break the common lawful stupid archetype. Actually following legitimate ideals can, if done properly, create an epic character. One who would do anything they needed to help and save others. Paragons not of justice and law, but of their god.
But first, you need to pick a god OP.
>convicted criminal who assumed another paladin's identity to escape his past.
This sounds interesting. Would you still have this character utilize standard paladin progression? I have no intention of playing internal affairs.
I'll certainly do my best. I don't want him to simply be a blank mouth piece for a god with little else to him though.
>Would you still have this character utilize standard paladin progression?
If he took the oath and the gods gave him his powers, he's a paladin even if he doesn't actually belong to an official order.
Of if you wanted to go all-out you could work with your GM to play a Fighter who just makes Bluff roles when doing Sense Evil or something.
That's the funny thing though. Tenets, if read very carefully, can allow incredible things.
For example, you can play a silver-dragonborn paladin of Tiamat. He's gonna be a bit weird, but he would never actually be violating tenets.
So what can make your character truly unique is how they follow the tenets. As long as it is within what is listed, anything is possible. And that, THAT allows for incredibly unique paladins. So I recommend picking a god, scouring those tenets, and knocking out a paladin that would be very unconventional, potentially ridiculous in the context but in reality fits every tenet.
That allows an amazing and unique paladin.
I think I'd have him take an oath, being a convicted criminal headed toward the gallows would surely be grounds for a man to turn toward the heavens, right? Especially if he were also trying to take someone's identity, perhaps he would be sworn to Mask?
Currently browsing my man.
Nice. If you feel up to it, ask your DM to be strict on the tenets. Mine is, and it can be enjoyable if you're up for it.
Don't know what system you're on (may have missed it somewhere, apologies), but Helm all the way back from 2nd ADD is a good god to start from. Nice, simple, yet still has potential. Definitely a nice platform to jump from.
Looked at Helm. Seems as good a place to start as any. Although if I am gonna go running over the horizon with this whole secretly an ex convict concept, would it make sense for him to have taken an oath under The Traveler? I'd want him to be chaotic good and I know The Traveler is one of thr dark six, but he's also the only one of them who isn't evil and transformation seems like an appropriate theme. Don't wanna be that guy though.
Playing 5e.
Eh. At this point, the ball is in your court. We've provided instructions on what one would do. Now it's really more of how your DM rolls. If he thinks Traveller would fit, then go ahead.
Just research the tenets beforehand. That allows practically all manner of things to happen.
Just be reasonable. Don't go full purgebot. Trust your GM not to fuck you over. Be a good dude.
Thanks, much appreciated. Judging by your 'eh' it's not something I'll probably put too much stake into since you seem pretty knowledgeable, if the tenets look good maybe but the last thing l want to do is roll up a paladin that acts like a totally imbalanced split personality that shits on everyone's day because the tenets tell him to.
Will do. Regardless of what I go with l want him to be a jolly knight.
If it's 5e, then Oath of the Ancients is great for the character you're going to play. Essentially, the oath's code is "don't be a dick, help preserve knowledge and kindness, and as long as you follow those two commandments, do as you will."
What about just deformed people? Hell, what about conventionally ugly people?
Be a Fighter and act like a paladin. All the benefits of RIGHTEOUS CRUSADING without the need to rely on magic or a chance of falling. And you can actually bend and break the rules without any divine intervention bullshit.
>A convicted criminal who assumed another paladin's identity to escape his past.
Bonus points if the rogue killed the paladin and regretted it, so is now trying to replicate the paladin's ideals whilst still being a bit shifty and incompetent at it.
I have two ideas:
1) Have your character be foreigner, maybe from an exotic land, but being a frenchman amoung english can work aswell as being a moor amoung english. Anyway, the idea is that your character follows good and righteous ideas, but his faith, garb, speech is foreign to most people in the part of the world where the party is, thus you character may be viewed at first as strange or alien, but after showing your worth you could become respected and trusted.
2) A half-orc paladin, who was brought up in the outskirts of his non-orc civilization, as he is rejected as mongrel or monster, and amoung orcs he is seen as weak. He sets out to redeem orcs and other monstrous races, by turning them toward the light and philosophy of his religion, trying to bring orcs civilization so that peace can be made between mankind and orckind.
You could have a paladin that's gruff about helping people but he is honor bound to throw himself in front of the danger.
Dedicate yourself to a goddess worth serving.
his goal as a character is to find beauty in all things, as his goddess does
>paladin of love
i gotchu senpai
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Don Quixote
a good hearted paladin who is entirely insane, who thinks windmills are dragons and dogs can talk and that he is the chosen righteous fury of his god
Sounds dangerously lolandumb, but awesome if it were pulled off graciously.
Op here. Still monitoring the thread. Some of your ideas are very entertaining, keep them coming as long as you see fit to do so!
The resulting character will probably be a conglomeration of some of my favorites that mesh.
Gamers' perception of paladins is one of my biggest pet peeves. Played correctly, a paladin should be everybody's favorite PC in the party, up there with bards and sorcerers. Don't forget that charisma is one of your primary stats. High-Cha characters aren't abrasive or sanctimonious or preachy! You inspire people to be the best they can be by setting an example.
When having a paladin deal with non-good PC's, remember that their goal is to inspire people to live as you do, not coerce them. You will never stand by if they do something EVIL, but up until that point, you would understand that if anybody perceives you as being judgmental in prudish, that will murder your chances of inspiring them to follow your way of life.
also what is that tiny shortsword grip doing on that massive paddle of a sword ree
rest looks good though
If they're ugly or deformed they really aren't people.
-Sune 3:16
You say a goddess, but that's clearly some delusional, hedonist healer.
How about a real goddess instead, hm?
If it's in 5E, convince your GM to let you run a Oath of the Grave Paladin. Walk around killing old people, the sick, undead and the severely injured. When confronted respond with "It was a Mercy to them. I prevented a worse fate. They can rest now."
dont be lolrandum about it
dementia isnt funny
have your character forget things
where he put his helmet
what color his hair is
what his wife's face looks like
>Assuming another paladin's identity
I actually played a character like this once. Guy trained all his life to become a paladin, only to be deemed unworthy. Not having any of that shit, he became a priest, left the church, and began masquerading as a paladin of his own faith. The god was Neutral Good, so no smiting happened.
He didn't like lying about it, but he knew that a priest showing up to do good didn't stir the same hope and inspiration as a paladin showing up to do good.
Had a lot of fun with it. Especially when the rogue found out and tried to blackmail me.
Eris is a false goddess and her religion based on lies and deception.
Girls, you're both pretty, but you're awful people, just like damn near everyone else in that world.
A paladin who is just in it for free lodging and a hot meal.
It's not like he ain't trying but he's not as devoted as people might expect.
For him it's only work as any other.
However, it allows him to have a more worldly view of things compared to his brethren.
Wouldn't that undermine the whole "chosen by your deity" ideal? I mean, losing your faith is an interesting story, but not having any to lose to start with implies a god asleep at the wheel, or Paladinhood being so common as to be as meaningless as bakerhood.
I assume it goes like
>The paladin begrudgingly allows his hideous teammate to stand near him throughout the journey.
>Eventually, perhaps because his teammate hit enough hit dice to ping on detect, the paladin realizes he's really undead. This explains why he kept offering raw deer brainjelly to paladin and happily took the nightshift guarding.
>Dire circumstances force the paladin to stay his hand and keep the undead around until whatever present greater danger is out of the way.
>Undead teammate dies before the paladin has a chance to kill him himself at the climax
>Paladin realizes too late that true beauty was on the inside all along
I suspect everyone jumps to the same conclusions.
I agree, some of these concepts make it feel like Paladin is another job you get and stick with, like "ditch digger". I guess it depends on from where a Paladin's ability comes from: Devoted faith in a god, supernaturally strong adherence to a code of beliefs or is it something you just train for like anything else and you can totally "fake it until you make it" in the morals area.
Maybe if it's a "chosen by a god" thing, your god could have faith in you even when you don't have faith yourself kind of thing.
"I'm just a Paladin for the paycheck" doesn't work for me. A dropped out beggar priest with the smallest of miracles maybe, proper Paladin though? Eh, I don't know.
Have faith, that is all. As long as you have that spark in you, you will be fine.