Paladin codes - Page 2 - OG Myth-Weavers

Notices


GM Workshop

A community-created and maintained place for Game Masters of all systems to bounce ideas around. It's a place for inspiration and sharing tips.


Paladin codes

   
There may be an issue with him attacking a party member because of a magical blade which he thinks is "evil", but when asked when detected it was not evil. And when identified it came up as Holy and Vampire bane. It is intelligent and named Destroyer and speaks in a deep sinister voice, but it is not evil. But it has not happened yet......yet.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalar View Post
PG-13 indeed. But if it's not something that could be posted on the Weave, how close to falling is the character in question?

Obviously excluding the details of combat, of course; killing is a messy business.

It does depend on how paladins function in your setting. I've been put in plenty of catch-22s as a paladin, where literally no answer would've kept the GM from declaring that my paladin fell. Didn't kill a goblin because it was a newborn? Fall. Killed a newborn goblin? Fall. Stopped a corrupt guard from doing bad things to a woman who was out after curfew? Fall, because it was "unlawful".

Then again, some GMs simply hate paladins.
Detect evil on the baby goblin. Is it evil? If yes, kill it. If no, leave it be.
Stop a corrupt guard? Not actually an evil act. Probably not lawless either; the guard is bound by laws the same as everyone else, and if the local jurisdiction backs him up, the paladin can appeal to their deity's laws. In 3.5 you fall for evil acts but not lawless acts, anyhow. A paladin can even steal if there's a Good reason, like feeding a starving orphan or saving the world. Changing alignment from LG means you stop being a paladin, though.

Real catch-22: You have an Evil prisoner, who won't talk of his own free will. The fate of the world rests on him talking. You can either beat it out of him, or use a spell to make him talk, but either way it's an evil act. Paladin falls, world is saved. Much drama. Optionally, you can then seek out an Atonement quest.

Sidestep real catch-22: "I can't make you talk, but my buddy Miss Enchantress over here is looking for a new thrall. You can talk to me, or you can talk to her. It's up to you."

Horus was a vengeful god on a holy quest to slay Set for killing Osiris; the moral tenets of the Avenger Paladin wouldn't be far off the mark. A Paladin of Horus would, by this extension, be a relentless protector of the weak and besieged. I would say that any action taken as part of a righteous oath of vengeance - specifically, an oath invoking Horus' name in response to someone coming to harm - would be exempt from the decrees against violence in the forty-two negative confessions, since they are being performed in the service of the deity who was seen as representative of the Pharaoh. Given the duplicity involved in Horus and Set's conflicts with one another, you might even permit such a paladin to deceive the target of his oath. It all depends how laissez-faire your society is in letting "official Paladin business" work as reason for questionable or evasive conduct.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalar View Post
PG-13 indeed. But if it's not something that could be posted on the Weave, how close to falling is the character in question?

Obviously excluding the details of combat, of course; killing is a messy business.

It does depend on how paladins function in your setting. I've been put in plenty of catch-22s as a paladin, where literally no answer would've kept the GM from declaring that my paladin fell. Didn't kill a goblin because it was a newborn? Fall. Killed a newborn goblin? Fall. Stopped a corrupt guard from doing bad things to a woman who was out after curfew? Fall, because it was "unlawful".

Then again, some GMs simply hate paladins.
I've always found that to be a pretty silly GM response to a Paladin. I much prefer situations where either decision is fine. As an example, had a Paladin in a previous game run into a Hag. Could've fought and killed the Hag and would've been fine. Could've bartered with the Hag who didn't like the actual villain of the story, and let the Hag go. Still fine. I gave the player a difficult choice without having to put their Paladin code on the line. Not sure why some GMs see the code and think they absolutely need the PC to break it, but it does happen.

As for the OC post, an alternative track is to ask the player what made them interested in a Paladin of Horus in the first place, and build the code around that. In the end we're here to have fun, even Paladins, so whatever code helps make the character more interesting, more dynamic to play I think will work.




 

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Last Database Backup 2024-03-28 07:20:00pm local time
Myth-Weavers Status