What is the difference between a paladin and a war priest?

What is the difference between a paladin and a war priest?

Question is for worldbuilding.

Paladin is the tip of the spear, war priest is the shield.

I would explain it the same way I explain the difference between a paladin and a priest in Warcraft.

A priest weilds their deaties power, and call on it to aid them. Like in Warcraft priests channel the light.

A paladin on the other hand is the embodiment of their patron or a vessle or their patron.

So in short using Warcraft, a priest channels the light, a paladin is a vessel of the light. Hope that helps

Whatever you want it to be. Paladins are loosely based on chivalric knights, so they're not usually clergymen for starters.

If you're worldbuilding you can give an answer yourself. Have you thought about some ideas?

These.

A War Priest is attached to a Church, a Paladin is attached to an Order, which is affiliated with a Church.

In generic fantasies at least.

Paladins are touched by the power of Lawful Good itself. They often but do not necessarily worship a god- they serve the cause of justice itself.

War priests are priests, of any god, who can have any view on good or evil, who like caving in motherfuckers' skulls.

The idea of paladins as a class is really disappointing as the holy warrior archetype is so typed up with it leading to the sort of question where you ask what's the differece between a cleric decked out in armor and some armored autist screaming deus vult?

If you're talking Pathfinder, let's take a look at the outright divine classes all fighting for Jesus, and how that reflects them

>Cleric
Wants to heal people like his Lord and Savior Jesus, and as such shoots healy lasers out of his eyes and/or ass and beats people with maces.
>Oracle
Wants to heal people like his Lord and Savior Jesus, but loves Jesus a bit too much and in reaction he's now blind and got a couple superpowers.
>Paladin
Wants to smite evil in his Lord and Savior Jesus' name, and thus he's capable of findin' evil, fightin' evil, and smitin' evil.
>Warpriest
Wants to fight for the people in his Lord and Savior Jesus' name, so he's real good at fighting in general. And healing. And protecting. They get a lot of good shit.
>Inquisitor
Wants to uphold the word of law as spoken by his Lord and Savior Jesus, so he's real good at finding liars and fighting people of all kinds who dare threaten the law.

Paladins are not members of the clergy. They're not members of a templar order or any part of the church. They're warriors of exceptional virtue who, through that virtue, gain the blessing of god/gods.

Lancelot, Roland Jeanne d'Arc, etc are your paladins.

>The paladin enters the Dark Lord's stronghold on her own
>That day, the Dark Lord received "just the tip"

A paladin is a heavy armored priest, while a warpriest is a priest that specializes in war.

Paladins can be warpriests and warpriests can be paladin, but they can also not be.

Paladins are champions of an ideal that might or not be supported by a deity and they are not necessarily clergymen

War Priests are just clergymen that are trained to fight for their faith

Literally the difference between a knight in a holy order and a priest who goes on Crusade. Their fundamental functions are completely different. The, say, Knight Templar is specifically a soldier of God, whereas the priest is... well... a priest, who happens to be fulfilling his duties as a priest with an army.

If you want to get more to the roots of things, a priest is someone who has a specific place and duty to perform rituals, coordinate festivals and generally tend to the needs of a community of believers. "Priest" is a social role, in other words. They act as counselors, managers and teachers. So a warpriest would probably be someone who does that in an army, for soldiers.

If you're very religious and want to dedicate yourself to that as a personal thing, without taking up priestly duties, then you become a monk.

Some paladins are leaders, but generally not religiously. They don't conduct weddings or funerals or guide others in prayer, or anything like that, usually - the classic image of a paladin is a knight kneeling with his sword before an altar, praying alone on the eve of war. They're more like very religious laypeople.

...

A Paladin is a Preaching Fighter.
A War Priest is a Fighting Preacher.

It's your fucking setting, how would we know? If you're asking about reality, then the difference is that a paladin is one of Charlemagne's coolest and most trusted knights, and a war priest is a member of the clergy who goes to war.

In my setting paladins are knights of the civilized world and warrior priests are more primitive tribal guys.

A Paladin is one who has an Oath. Everything a Paladin does is tied to that oath. Once taken up, a paladin will do whatever their sense of morality and their God says will help them achieve their oath. They're a one man crusade.

Warpriests are glorified soldiers, fighting for some religion. They're bound by the precepts of their church. To them, their church's word is the word of their God.

For examples from other media, Alexander Anderson, 4th Ideal Skybreakers, the Boondock Saints, and Optimus Prime are Paladins, Enrico Maxwell, Fate's Executors, the Faith Militant, and the Derethi are all warpriests.

Paladin is the Chivalrous knight.
War-priest is the fanatic religious fighter.

A paladin is a LG follower of a LG, NG or LN deity, trained as an enforcer or protector of the faith and bestowed specific powers suited for this task by their deity.

A warpriest is a cleric with above-average martial training, though still solid spellcasting. Can be of any alignment, but are usually followers of gods that put an emphasis on martial prowess.

Paladins are like 90% martial and 10% caster. Clerics are 20/80 (unless they have time to buff beforehand). Warpriests are somewhere in the middle.

Fighting and preaching
Versus
Preaching and fighting

War Priest is a priest first, warrior second, Paladin is a warrior first, priest second.

Yeah I just made that up.

This is a problem in class bloated systems.

What is the difference between a cleric of nature and a druid?
A swordsage and a hexblade?

No one is a cleric of "just nature", though. Cleric of a specific nature deity, sure, and they're probably on good terms with most druids, but they clearly have different responsibilities and are granted different powers accordingly.

The way I see things, a war priest would be a man with divine powers tasked by his deity to take part in a war, and wields his powers for the cause his God inspired him to follow.
A paladin is a man who took and oath to uphold the values of his god, and as such chooses the cause he believes will best serve this ideal. He might receive aid from his God, perhaps even powers, but won't receive orders from the church to carry out the will of the gods. He will try to be a hero while the priest will try his best to be a tool.

A war priest has obligations to their church or temple, performing ceremonies to bless warriors for a coming battle, or to consecrate the dead that have fallen in the field. Though they are likely martially trained, they are priests first and warriors second.

A Paladin is a holy warrior obligated to an Order which in turn may be obligated to a temple or church. They are the spear. It is they that go out and wage holy crusades in their god's name. A war priest may accompany an order of paladins, to bless their actions and consecrate the dead.

Paladin fights for justice
Warpriest fights for faith