On The Paladin

A Paladin is a Lawful human fighting-man of at least fourth level who is recognized by God as one of His best warriors against evil.

Responsibilities of the Paladin:

A Paladin must always remain Lawful. Furthermore, he must promote the philosophy of Law and the Word of God to his fellows and other Men (but not to the point of boorishness.) A Paladin must strive to live by the following words:

“So help me God, uphold this Oath: The Paladin is Chaste and Temperate, Charitable and Diligent, Grateful and Humble, Valorous and Just; and so will I remain.”

 

It behooves the player to keep this saying at the top of the Paladin’s character sheet.

 

The Path to Grace:

 

It takes a full year to train to be a Paladin. Upon February 2, Candlemas, the Lawful fighting-man presents himself at a monastery of his denomination and humbly asks to serve as  “God’s sword-and-scales on Earth.” (He informs his particular church of his intent beforehand.) Until March 25, Lady Day (or the Feast of the Annunciation,) he must stay inside the monastery and its grounds. He will pray, fast and study theology there. All the while, he will serve as the sexton or assistant sexton.

He is then released until the end of harvest on September 28. During this time, he must be available to whatever church is nearest to him on Sundays and Holidays.  On Christmas Day, he must report back to his monastery. There he will pray, fast and study again until January 6th, Epiphany. Then he is released again. 

He must return to the monastery on Candlemas, February 2. Upon the final day of Candlemas, February 5, he will be anointed by the abbot there and released from his toil. He has earned the title and privileges of a Paladin.

 

Privileges of the Paladin:

 

A Paladin is immune from laws which apply only to commoners. He may dispense justice upon them as needed. Commoners will seek out a Paladin to adjudicate their disputes and so maintain the peace. If not already nobility, the Paladin is raised to a noble rank equal to a Count, and must Squander same in order to maintain his station and standard of living.

 

Powers of the Paladin:

• The Paladin is immune to disease and poison. He is immune to all touch attacks from the undead.
• He may Turn Undead as a Cleric three levels lower.
• He may Lay On Hands and cure 1d6 + character level in Hit Point damage once per day, to himself or to another willing target. Against an unwilling target, this is a touch attack (Armor bonus does not apply.) This touch attack damages the undead instead of healing them.
• At level 6, he may cure one disease in the same manner, once per day.
• At level 8, he may break one curse in the same manner, once per day.
• At level 10, he may banish an evil outsider or disjoin an evil magic item once a day as a special attack at a range of 3 scale inches.
• He may call forth a special war horse. See below.
• In his hands, a Holy Sword is a +5 weapon instead of a +3 weapon.

The Laying of Hands abilities are discontinuous and situation-sensitive, like clerical spells are. 

Falling from Grace:

 

Should a Paladin’s alignment change through play or by foul magic, he will immediately fall from grace. This means he loses all of his special powers until he seeks out his priest, does penance for 3d6 weeks, and fulfils a special quest the priest assigns such as aiding pilgrims or slaying a particular evil beast.

The Paladin’s War-Horse Quest:

Those fighting-men both lawful and devout may undertake the quest to win a war-horse of exceptional quality.

To do so, they will pray for 24 hours during a quarter or cross-quarter holiday and thereafter receive a vision of an ideal steed. The steed will be 1d8 days’ ride away and be guarded by a foe equivalent in strength to the fighting-man himself, such as an Antihero or equivalent evil fighter, or a cunning monster or monsters. This horse might be of any color or colors or of any breed (as researched and determined by the player,) except for this: the horse may never be fallow, (the color of misfortune for Lawful riders.)

 

A fallow horse.

The horse, once captured and broken, will serve the fighting-man. It will consume a Retainer slot, never check morale, and be exceptionally smart (INT 11) and brave for its kind.

A lady fighting-man of intact virtue will instead find and tame a unicorn.

Should such a fighting-man change alignment, his steed will desert him immediately. Should he atone and become lawful again, he may call a replacement steed in a year and a day.

Should his steed die, he may not call another for a year and a day.

In the case of the lady fighting-man who loses a unicorn in any fashion, she may never call another, but may call an exceptional equine mount instead.

Should she become married, or should she or lose her maidenhood in manner fair or foul, the unicorn will desert her forever.

On Alignment

Cosmic Alignment (usually simply called “Alignment”) is a descriptive measure of where your character’s heart lies. There are three alignments: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. Lawful characters stand in defense of the civilization of Mankind and try to follow the law and be good. Chaotics are aligned with the forces which would destroy civilization and remake it in some other manner. They follow their own personal code of ethics and may be tempted by the lure of evil. Neutrals are not interested in one or the other, or may actively seek balance in the world.  

Smart monsters are usually Chaotics, even if they lead very strict and ordered lives, for they seek to destroy Man and his allies. Unintelligent monsters and animals are Neutral, for they have no ethos. 

Every sapient being has a Cosmic Alignment. You should pick one alignment for your character: Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic and have him live that alignment. 

Law is a shorthand for “that which favors human civilization” and Chaos is short for “that which opposes it.” The terms sound anthropocentric because Men named them. 

These concepts are both common terms and forces of nature herself. There are alignment languages and even magic items and places with alignment. 

Make sure your Lawful character is doing his best to maintain civilization. He might be an evil schemer using the system, a paragon of virtue, or a lonely woodsman blazing trails for others to follow, but he should work for the betterment of Man.

    

Make sure your Chaotic character, good or evil, tries to buck the system and be unpredictable. Since Chaotic often goes hand-in-hand with the enemies of Man, tell your Referee you are playing a Chaotic, but write a different alignment on your character sheet!

  

In contrast, Neutrals are those people who are not particularly interested in the Big Picture for any number of reasons. A Neutral is mainly out for himself. A rare Neutral may be interested in maintaining the balance between Law and Chaos, Good and Evil. The secretive druids of the deep woods are Neutral for this reason. 

Most men and demi-men are Neutral. 80% of men, hobbits and dwarves are Neutral. Dwarves are 15% Lawful, while men and hobbits are 10%. Elves are 10% lawful, 70% neutral, and 20% chaotic, since elves have a distaste for the modifications to the natural world wrought by the other common types. Neutrality is the default alignment because most people operate in some shades of grey, even good people and reprobates.

Planar, or Cosmic Alignment

Unlike the Material Planes such as our Universe, the Outer Planes (heaven and hell and their several divisions) are aligned. Law and Chaos determine the alignment of the beings, places and things which originate therefrom. A demon doesn’t “believe in chaos,” it is inherently Chaotic due to its planar origin. 

The Outer Planes are also colored by Good v. Evil. This is why we sometimes see “protection from evil” spells, enchanted places and the like. Devils, for instance, are evil, but also quite orderly and prone to offering binding contracts. Outsiders such as angels and devils will revel their good and evil status respectively, which are a part of their beings and not their cultures. 

These guidelines for NPCs only, and so bear no sanction on the choices of players or the nature of PCs. 

On Changing Alignment

Characters begin play with an alignment but they may decide to change their ways. In order to assume a Lawful or Chaotic alignment, a character must declare he is doing so (essentially swearing an Oath to God) and then act like it. In 3d6 weeks, the character’s alignment will change. He will lose the native ability to speak his old alignment language and gain the ability to speak the new one. 

If the Referee deems the character to be acting sufficiently out of alignment, he can give the player a warning (away from the table.) If the character persists in his ethical misbehavior, the Referee has the right to change the character’s alignment unilaterally. This is no different than a Referee-controlled foe inflicting Hit Point damage. Changing alignment in this way removes the character’s ability to use his alignment language, but does not confer the use of the new alignment’s language. 

Should the player wish to have his PC revert to his former alignment, he must have that PC again swear to it and then begin to behave as such. After 3d6 weeks, he will officially resume that alignment, including the ability to use his old alignment language. 

Should any character change alignment willingly, he will lose all XP gained in that level abs be reduced to the minimum number of XP necessary to attain it.

Some characters, such as Clerics and Paladins, are especially sensitive to alignment changes.