Poll: Where all the (D&D) paladins at?

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Pathfinder gave paladins a nice boost in the ass-kicking capability department by improving their smite evil ability and placing a little less emphasis on rigid rules and restrictions. I'm currently a Warforged paladin/archaeologist (a bard variant) and play him as a boisterous loudmouth who likes strawberry pastries and kitties.

 

[Atmos Duality]

If you've got a closet pally, you could use a night like that to show them you're not going to pull the tired old "DM Catch 22, lose your powers or lose your powers" on them.

See, that... who does that?! People keep mentioning it, but really, WTF?! Do DMs actually pull shit like that? Loss of powers - really?

They most certainly do. Most D&D DMs I know (apart from myself) have done so at least once.
Granted, most of those DMs did so in 2nd Edition, where class and role were conjoined at the waist along with stats. Paladins were *potentially* powerful at all stages of the game, but they paid dearly for their art which is why they had all those restrictions.

Moreso than most Clerics, ironically. You'd think they would have been even more strict than Paladins.

For 3.5, most players I knew played Paladins to eventually "fall" into a Blackguard...which is functionally the same damn thing as a Paladin, only they get Grimdark powers and a weak Sneak Attack.

The most interesting "religious" character I can remember playing was a Sorcerer+Cleric of Boccob (god of magic and arcane study). I was actually casting healing spells as a Vanilla Sorcerer (before being ordained) due to a way I found to cheat the system through Metamagic Feats. Yes, Arcane-power Heal Wounds without using the Bard spell list. In 3.5e.

I eventually found a way to write it into his development.

In any case, Pathfinder does Paladins much better methinks. It's literally 3.5e with a LOT of the useless bloat trimmed off and the rules clarified/unified. A lot of the problematic classes from the Core and Complete books were cleaned up and unbroken or buffed.
It's a much better product than 3.5e.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

I always liked the paladin archetype, but I've never played a proper game of D&D. Very few nerds around when I was growing up, and they were more the weeaboo type. Now that I'm out on my own I'll run in to the odd person who used to play, but they've no will to pick it up again. So I settle for playing paladin in Baldur's Gate. And Neverwinter Nights. And Diablo 2. And...

 

[Antitonic]

I'd also include a picture of Bernadette from Flipside, but I can't find a good image of her in the 30 seconds I was willing to spend on looking for one.

Spoiler

A paladin? Really? I'd have thought she'd count more as a Fencer or something similar. To be fair, I haven't caught up in a few chapters, so there could be some development I'm unaware of...

 

[DeadYorick]

Screw Paladins

DM a game of all Bards, see the most hilarious game youve ever experienced

 

[tobi the good boy]

I wonder if you could try and play a paladin that worships a god of madness. They're still good and adhere strictly to the laws of their god... It's just those laws are completely bat-shit insane. Sort of like if chaos was contained in jar.

 

[kingthrall]

I've been DM'ing (and very rarely playing) D&D for about 6-7 years now, and in all that time, I have never seen someone roll up a Paladin. Ever. Not even consider it. Even among groups that all dedicate themselves to being good-aligned (which, to be honest, seems kinda rare) no one ever wants to play the Paladin.

Is this just my players? What sort of mythical sasquatch-like beast even plays this class?

I always play an Anti-Paladin as my favorite choice. I think the real reason is that all your choices are black and white and that you are always stuck with the lawful good option. At least if your an evil paladin you can just choose whatever you feel like, if you feel like a bit of mercy for being bored or whatever.

 

[endtherapture]

I played a Paladin in Baldur's Gate 2 and owned. Inquisitors are so overpowered in that game. you and Keldorn can just rip mages up. So fun.

 

[Agow95]

I haven't played one myself but I'm a DM and one of my current players is a paladin, albeit not a very good one, when I'm not telling him that he's committing a act forbidden by his code and his deity's dogma, I'm telling him not to police the party's rouge. Also he ruined my plan to have a NPC guide reveal himself to be evil and killing one of the party, by randomly using detect evil for the first time in a month, and having the entire group kill him in 3 rounds

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

I usually play a Paladin in Baldurs Gate

But I'm guessing from some of the responses that doesn't count?

Meh...... I'm not nerdy enough to play D&D anyway.

 

[malestrithe]

The one time I played a Paladin, I played one devoted to a Wilderness God. The DM almost did not allowed me to do it because he did not want a goody two shoes ruining the fun of the party.

Well, after explaining to him that Lawful Good does not mean harass the thief for stealing, it simply means look out for the greater good, what benefits the majority of people, and sometimes you have to let things go if there is some benefit to it. Basically, it was one of them as long as I don't know about it, everything is fine deals.

Anyway, my vegetation god paladin was only concerned with the wilderness. He wanted to make sure it was relatively intact. His faith told him that Elves and Halflings were his friends, and to give some leeway to Hunters, trapsmen, loggers, druids and rangers because they know the wilderness.

The rest of the party, however, thought some of the things I did was evil. Whenever we were in town, would spread lies about the forest, telling the villagers about some monster lurking outside the safety of the town's defenses. There was this one time when my religious institution asked my party to transport a family of owlbears from one area of the woods to another. We did not trap it, we just had to release it. The party was disturbed when I told them that the church does this from time to time to make the wilderness a little more dangerous to non experienced travellers.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Can I be a paladin of the Emperor of Man Kind God of peace through superior swordsmanship or Tzeentch/Ceogorath Gods of Just as Planned and dickishness?

 

[Robertus2210]

Paladins have a handy skillset sure, but I prefer powerhungry coldhearted characters myself.
besides the whole honor thing, gets in the way of money, victory and power.

 

[pffh]

This is from a 3.5 perspective:

I avoid the paladin class since it fails quite a bit on a mechanical level and it's rare that a DM will let you fix a class when there are better alternatives out there. But I do like playing paladin like characters (Holy warriors with a certain code that they follow to the letter) and use either a cleric or a crusader for these characters.

 

[Meatspinner]

I haven't played one myself but I'm a DM and one of my current players is a paladin, albeit not a very good one, when I'm not telling him that he's committing a act forbidden by his code and his deity's dogma, I'm telling him not to police the party's rouge. Also he ruined my plan to have a NPC guide reveal himself to be evil and killing one of the party, by randomly using detect evil for the first time in a month, and having the entire group kill him in 3 rounds

Yeah, I remember when my group did that back in the day. Had them tried for murder.
Apparently "Dat holy man in da shiny armor sez he wuz wicked" isn't a just cause for murder it seems

 

[Smiley Face]

Not that I've played a lot of D&D, but I don't see myself ever playing a paladin - it puts restrictions on your character that I just don't want to have. I can't remember it all off the top of my head, but associating with evil characters, lying (?), not to mention Lawful Good. A lot of it comes from my problems with the D&D alignment system - my ideas of right and wrong don't mesh with their divisions - my character alignment usually slouches into Neutral, but only because my actions, consistent within their own system, fall all over the damn place. If I were to have to follow Lawful Good to the letter, I would feel needlessly restricted in order to follow a mindlessly stupid code. No one wants that.

I am sometimes forced to be pally/cleric since somehow, despite all logical reasoning my friends refuse based on... they're Atheist... yeah, I kid you not. In a fantasy world where god/gods aren't a matter of faith but absolute, undeniable fact they refuse based on the fact in this world their faith is in no god so in a fantasy based setting they can't follow a god... I honestly wish I was making this idiocy up.

I can understand that. I'd feel uncomfortable to play anyone devoted to serving a deity, but it would very much be for the same reason I'd be uncomfortable playing a samurai devoted to a feudal lord - blind obedience is both stupid and wrong, and I find it hard to get behind it. If it's arranged more in terms of a contract of them giving powers in exchange for prayers and promoting their interests, that's more acceptable. And there's NOTHING stopping them from being devoted to an ideal - that's neither stupid nor wrong.

Now, if the class DIDN'T have these restrictions, I wouldn't have a problem with it - when I homebrew a monk so they work, this is one of the things I change. I suppose I could also look at the Chaotic Good paladin variant.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Paladins just aren't good against variety. They're only good against evil, and imo smite evil isn't very good anyway. At 10th level, you get to do ten more damage for three hits per day. And if you miss it still counts as using it once. Also, they stop getting features after level 6.

...assuming you're playing 3.5e. If you're playing Pathfinder, I have no clue if paladins are good

And paladins get whiny if you loot bodies or execute prisoners (if there aren't any nearby authorities to send them to), which are both completely neutral things to do in medieval times!

Well, the variety thing depends on the game in question. If the game is mostly about fighting evil things (like, say, Ravenloft, where pretty much everything is evil) then that's less of a problem.

Also, on smites - in Pathfinder, your example 10th level paladin could smite 4 evil individual creatures per day - each smite lasting all day, granting their level (10) to flat damage on all attacks (which, by the way, multiplies on a critical hit, as with all flat damage) and their Charisma modifier to their hit and AC vs that target. Oh, and the target of the smite loses all DR vs the Paladin, including Epic and dash.

Paladin Smites are fucking awesome in Pathfinder. ^^

The creators obviously realized that only 4 hits per day was seriously under-powered, much as you said.

I'd also include a picture of Bernadette from Flipside, but I can't find a good image of her in the 30 seconds I was willing to spend on looking for one.

Spoiler

A paladin? Really? I'd have thought she'd count more as a Fencer or something similar. To be fair, I haven't caught up in a few chapters, so there could be some development I'm unaware of...

Her dream is to join the Knightly Order dedicated to upholding laws and doing good... so paladin.

The dex-based two-weapon fighting Paladin is a perfectly workable build. Twice the number of attacks means twice the number of times to deal your level in damage on a smite (again, assuming Pathfinder - I've been playing it for 5 years, so it's hard to assume anything else).

So yeah, Bern wants to be a knight, and she fights using the power of her awesome sexiness and a pair of swords. Oh, and she is very lawful, and very good, and dislikes magic (a paladin trope).

It's like Miko, for Order of the Stick - her class is paladin, but her style and theme (and job) are samurai.