4 Reasons to Play a Paladin in Your Rpg Games - How to be a great role player - #gm tips

Hello and welcome to this episode of how to be a great player, well as promised we continue on our fairly successful series of videos and on the different classes that one can play and looking at the classes from a narrative perspective rather than from anything else. Now we've been getting lots of requests from you guys as to what you would like us to cover next and to have a look at next... and the RPG paladin class was one that came up quite frequently because the paladin class has been and I think will be for quite some time always considered to be the dumb choice. The party pooper who is going to make sure everyone is lawful good and no one commits crime and everything is awfully boring... well I've been trying to revamp the paladin and various systems that I've played over the years, trying to make the Paladin a little bit more flexible a little bit less *** retentive and a little bit more fun to play. Now I think the paladin has some huge potential and some wonderful story options and should be played more often but there are things that get in the way. Now something that all of you youngsters might not remember was in second edition (2e) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) in the eighties, that's the 1980s mind you, there was a thing called a kit and the Paladin kits were absolutely mind blowing-lee wonderful and I'm going to be rehashing some of those paladin kits here for those of you that didn't have the joy of playing Dungeons and Dragons second edition (DnD 2e) where the paladin was at his most party pooper-ish he was literally the paragon of good and law and justice and everything right in the world and so it was very difficult to play with a party that contained anything other than good characters... so thief was out Wizards who used bad magic were out, priests who used dark spells were out, druids were basically out, rogues ranges anyone who had a dubious background was out, because the paladin was in and had such such strict rules that they had no other choice that has laxed over the time over the iterations of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) to the point now that the Paladin is in my opinion are fairly well rounded class with some cool powers and the ability to see beyond just their codex or their religious canon that they have to follow. So let's have a look at the Paladin after that long preamble - the merits of a paladin are fairly obvious in MMOs around the world. The Paladin is referred to as the cockroach, the reason being you cannot kill a paladin, paladins get the advantage of having melee combat heavy armor and being able to protect themselves and in a variety of defensive shields and things like that, as well as their magical faith which will protect them beyond, and then of course they have the added advantage of the healing, that comes with being a high-level paladin and the healing will keep that said paladin going just that much longer. So the paladin has the advantage of bringing together the cleric spells and the warrior skills all bundled up in a nice heavy suit of plate armor. This is a good combination if you like to live for a long time, so the paladin's merits are that it has combat, it has healing, it's got melee, it also has cool things like the paladin's mount - that famous war horse or Pegasus or Hippogriff or war dog or whatever mount is appropriate to your particular paladin, and deity and of course - they have religion. Now the religious side of things in my opinion is something that makes them the most interesting of the classes, the cleric of course is a priest and we'll cover the cleric later on, but the paladin is someone who fights on behalf of their God trying to enact or enable or bring about their gods views and opinions in the world much more so than the cleric. The cleric can sit back and just kind of go, well you know it's not exactly how I do it, but it is your choice, the paladin is the one who has to embody the god and go out there and on behalf of their God. That is their job by definition they are a representative warrior class of their deity so you've got these really cool elements that you can play with you've got a combat aspect, you've got the healing aspect, you've got the religious aspect, you've got the mount aspect - so there are a lot of things that are particularly cool about the Paladin class. The cons of a paladin class of course are the restrictive cannon or codex that they have to live by, usually the deity will have a certain set of rules or the game system itself will have a certain set of rules about what the paladin can and can't do what they can and can't accept and generally speaking this is where the paladin has his most greatest adversary is in these rules that usually dictate that the paladin must enforce their particular laws at all times and those laws are frequently in opposition with the rest of the party so it's about how do we work with that how do we work with that opposition with that- darling that stickler in the mud that's going to keep the party from doing what they want to do rather than what the paladins rules say they should do because if you think about it now the biggest challenge is that you got a player who's chosen to play the paladin and it's the paladin's rules that are restricting the party no other class has this as a ability or a negative where the class choice is mechanically affecting everybody else in the party out of game as well as in-game so it's an interesting challenge and it's one that I think can be overcome quite easily with some creative role-playing they are not focused either paladin's are not focused they're very scattered people now paladin's are not focused in terms of they're not a Malay caught the character specifically they're not a healing character specifically they're not a divine spell caster specifically so they are not a fighter they are not a cleric they are not either one of those two things they are the sort of mishmash in between taking arguably the best of both worlds together so there is a certain lack of focus that paladin's have in that area and that is potential negative speaking your potentials if we look at the potential of the Paladin that paladin has this link with their Divine Being that is second to none the cleric is there fulfilling the Divine's will fulfilling the Divine's rituals and making sure that the flock is there doing what they need to do and yes the cleric is very combative they could also wear heavy armor and wield maces and run around and do all sorts of wonderful damage but the paladin is the one who is there representing their God as a shining example as a leading light on the planet so the paladin's potentials are these epic quests these God inspired quests that allows the Paladin a certain agency to be a well a little bit important as a matter of fact so their quests can be taken to a whole nother level which again is not something that necessarily a standard fighter is going to have a rogue isn't going to have a god necessarily looking upon them and judging them for their actions as harshly as the God would for a paladin so there's a lot of pressure and that means that we can have some great epic quests with the paladin the paladin as much as they're unfocused they're also fairly balanced they bring the you divine spell caster together with the melee character so there is a certain balance there which allows them to become a very good very all-round leader who understands magic and who also understands Millay so there is a very good potential for the paladin to be the leader class now if we're going to look at modern-day examples of that Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is in my opinion a fantastic example of a a paladin can be a good leader he's not the greatest fighter he is not the smartest either but he is the one who brings balance to those three other misfits and makes sure that he enacts the will of his sensei he is the Paladin of Splinter and splinters ways and the ways that splinter believes in so for me that is a good example of how a paladin can be expressed and if you look at the traditional series or even the reboot Leonardo has always had a conflict with the hot-headed Raphael who wants to go out there and just save the day and he tries to bring him back with some thought with some contemplation following the laws and tenants that splinter has sent down set down and he reigns in Donatello when Donatello goes off and starts to invent crazy and wonderful stuff he brings voice to that reason to that then gives voice to that reason that he brings so that is a potential of the paladinous to be this really great center pin around which the rest of the party bounces around and has brought back to ground by the paladin now an important point here with this potential for the paladin to reign and everybody is that when the paladin tries to force their law force there that's when there's pushback not only from the characters but from the players characters as well so as a paladin character you need to be very careful in terms of how you and act those changes suggestions and insights and that's important to remember and that for me is one of the great potentials of the paladin is that you've got this wonderful space that you've got to try and walk this line pulling people in line without losing them because if you lose them while then you're playing a paladin in the completely wrong way you're playing a patter than how everybody perceives a paladin should be played which is in my opinion wrong as this forceful my way or the highway type of approach that's not going to ever work and I don't think that's how paladin's should be played or had ever been intended to be played I just think it's has been manifested now if we look at the different types of paladins this for me is something that was a very interesting exercise to do and I did go back to second edition Dungeons & Dragons and the paladin's Handbook which was released specifically for the paladin to look at what they did with the Paladin because on the surface the paladin is a tank who runs around an armored hits stuff he'll stuff and then prays a lot oh and then tells everyone what to do that is the broad strokes view of paladins and role-playing games Lisa certainly is in my circle of awareness so if we look at the paladin the very first type of paladin is the paladin just a champion of a God who runs around imposing his judgment kind of like Judge Dredd and saying right this is right this is wrong you should be smited for it is wrong and I am right for I have a symbol saying I am right now the idea here is that this is the stereotypical paladin and yes you can certainly play that type of paladin there's nothing wrong with that but I challenge you to try and find ways in which the paladin makes it a little bit less domineering and more suggestive more caring more assertive perhaps but also more understanding people are fallible people make mistakes that's why there are things like paladins and clerics to help guide them on the right way so rather than telling people what they should do a better approach and this I hold true in real life as well is one should be the example that is set I do not think you should do that and so I have not done it myself you want to break into the castle there's got to be a better way can't we talk can't we negotiate our way and can't we find a better solution than breaking in no we can't all right well then we're going to break in but we're going to break in and get exactly what we want we're not going to hurt anyone we're not going to steal anything else we're just going to get what we want because that would be the best solution out of a worse situation so that to me is what a true paladin should be doing now some of the other paladin types that I came up with or that I have seen in the past is the desperate escapee now if you look at pulp fiction if you look at stories of paladin's people who embody their gods desire their gods will their God's law people who embody those already mentioned people like Leonardo the desperate escapee is a paladin who has to be a paladin of a god because they know they got exists and there is no alternative but they're trying to escape and they can't Constantine in that film with all dem what's his face anyway him in that movie Constantine he in my opinion as a paladin he goes about fulfilling and following the laws and tenants of those that are in power but he doesn't have much of a choice he can't escape his fate he is destined to always do this so a paladin who does what needs to be done because he knows that the consequences alternatives are diabolically disastrous is a paladin who acts reluctantly and that to me is a very interesting paladin not a morose depressed paladin but one who has accepted his fate and has decided that well the alternative is far worse so this must be done so the desperate escapee or the reluctant paladin if you will is another example of a good one the last of his kind now we don't often see these as paladin's but frequently in novels in movies we come across the last of their kind you are the last great warrior of the order of the rose and so you are the only one who can guide everyone to salvation this is a great opportunity to play a paladin who is someone who comes from the love an order that has been destroyed the last Templar for example might be someone who comes with a whole lot of rules relations which make people better but no one remembers them they've been forgotten they've been lost whatever the case might be the idea is is that you are the last of your kind you have these rules that you follow and you follow them because that's what you've always done and it will help ultimately reestablish a new order in the future so that to me is a very interesting paladin to play out the helpless hero now this is a paladin which could be very gimmicky it's a paladin who is basically the helpless hero they can't help but be the hero now I had an opportunity to play with a individual who played a hero a paladin as a matter of fact and who inspired me to come up with this idea of the helpless hero near paladin was honest good-natured kind-hearted and just did the right thing cuz that was the right thing to do that to me is a helpless hero that's a person who can't help but be good and just and caring and kind and leading and and and just doing the right thing that's not a paladin who is enforcing their will that's a paladin who's doing it that way because well that's the way it should be done and to do it any other way is unconscionable so the helpless heroes a lot of fun the Black Guard of course as the paladin has gone in the opposite direction and has forsworn their vows now for me an important thing to look at here is that I have never played my paladin's according to an alignment system and second edition paladin's had to be lawful good started to wax a little bit in third edition I think my feather dishin we don't care anymore which is a good thing a paladin of an evil God shouldn't act evil acts that doesn't make them a black paladin or a Black Guard or a black warden or whatever you want to call your anti paladins your dark negative paladin a paladin who purposefully goes against their God is a Black Guard a paladin who fights and rebels against a specific God because they believe in that God and they believe that God to be wrong that is very different from evil paladin or an unlawful paladin who kills babies whilst they sleep in their mothers wombs that is not an evil or negative paladin that is a paladin who is by all circumstances doing the right thing according to they God so black God is a very interesting paladin one who's trying to bring down the God that they worship in this really bizarre sort of parent teenager type relationship with the teenager rebelling against the God and fighting against them and the god kind of going hits that's so cute you know fighting against me well you're going to find it's very difficult all out there on your own until eventually the paladin strong enough to take on them God now another type which is almost the exact opposite is the peacock this is a pattern who prides themselves on their shining armor they're big plumes they warhorse that they ride it on and save damsels in distress or they save princes who are in distress and they themselves are a damsel who is not in distress or however you want to go at that combination the peacock is the Paladin who is pretty the Paladin who is beautiful divine graceful and the embodiment of everything that is pure and wonderful with the deity assuming that's what the dad she likes a peacock is a lot of fun to play because they will do everything in their power to make sure that they look good now a fighter could be a peacock I suppose but the fighter doesn't have that divine glow that the paladin has or that almost cat-like sense of satisfaction with self that they are just better than anyone else so the peacock is an interesting angle to take and of course you can mix these together and mottled and evolve the character over time then finally and this class comes straight out of Dungeons and Dragons second addition is the hospital iere or the hospital a hospital here hospital ER i ne wagon said they called them the hospital yeah it is basically the Paladin who has forsworn any form of combat or at least *** they will engage in defensive combat but they will not kill anything and if they do they are in violation of their faith and their God will be unhappy they get benefits to their healing rights and that kind of thing so it's basically like a combat medic if you like they run around and they keep everyone alive but they themselves don't necessarily engage in mass *** now it's an interesting class to play because you haven't a traditional tank who should be on the frontlines this one isn't this one is in the back lines keeping everyone alive and fighting off those that would prevent that from happening so the hospital here is I think a very interesting take on the Paladin class and of course there are many many other variations on paladins which I'm sure you can list below if you feel so inclined to share with the rest of us now finally when we look at stories story is very similar to the potentials of the Paladin the stories are epic quests god-inspired narratives the idea that there is this greater being looking out specifically for your character specifically we're not talking general wash here we're talking you have taken a vow you have sworn a vow to your god now that's the next type of story that you can have is the vow taking now I've got a paladin my other game which is on bacon RPG on the YouTube channel and he is playing a paladin and he's playing a paladin to what I think is a very good way of doing it he knows what's right he knows what's wrong he sticks to what's right but he doesn't enforce it on the others unless they violate it in a very specific way now he and I are engaged in a very long discussion about his vows how does his paladin take his vows what does he have to say what does he have to do what does he need to go through in order to become an official paladin of the church now that is something that I think is very important and I mean that's that's well we have spent a lot of time on and is a great story quest this taking of the vows because there's a GM I have to look at what what else is going to happen to risk the party as a player he has to formally commit to the rules of his deity now another option for the player the paladin of course is the fall from grace story a lot of players don't want to fall from grace they don't want their paladin to lose their powers and for good reason paladin without his powers is basically just a fighter and are not a very good one at that so the idea of having this as a story is tricky from a narrative perspective it cannot be any of the lesser stories and is a powerful powerful story because it sets the Paladin up for a fall that takes the Paladins powers away so you as the player are forced you are forced to try and come up with narrative solutions with practical solutions that your paladin wouldn't normally have done because they would just rely on their powers and of course it leads to the next type of story which is the rise in grace so you've fallen from grace in the return to grace the redemption story what an epic story we watch these in as movies and we read them as books and we enjoy we enjoy them as plays all the time the return to grace the character who's fallen away and has refound themselves as discovered their ultimate original reason for being a paladin in the first reason place and has now going back to claim that that is fantastic it's a great great story option and then of course the tragic hero is the paladin who wants to save everyone the Paladin who knows that if they don't do the right thing the world is going to come to an end and then because of their actions because of their characters party they're their fellow party actions all of these things they fail anyway the tragic hero this is a very very sad story of failure and one that could lead to another character coming in to try and pick up that story or that the character fails they abandon their vows they leave everybody they go into a state of depression and then they start to return again later on or they they just don't they just it just ends tragically and everyone gets melancholic about it so the paladin is far more than just some dullard who stands in the corner telling people what they can and can't do there is so much to this class that we can explore and discover and there's this whole religious Pantheon sitting above them judging them all the time pushing them to be better than the rest of the people around them that is a very interesting class in my opinion and one which I would encourage everybody to explore at least once just to see it's like to have all that pressure and then gods watching you all and I'm oh it's tiring but it can be incredibly rewarding let me know your thoughts on the pally the paladin the paladin some people might pronounce him pronounce it and leave the comments below now something that you can do is share this video we were the one we're this week is sharing week sharing is caring as they say so share this video with all the other players even if you don't play paladin's your system doesn't support paladins well maybe there's room for someone who wants to take up a religious warrior class and drive it into your next campaign until next time I wish you and yours though they're happiest