I had made an offhand mention in my first D/D Dwarf entry about paladins being a human only class. As I thought about it, I actually came up with a fairly descent idea as to why that is within the context of the setting.
Paladins are part of the Militant Order of one particular god of good, law, and all that upstanding stuff (as to which god, we'll figure that out when we start hammering out the religion in the game). Paladins are a lot like special forces or the U.S. Marine Corps; highly trained, first in/last out, off doing things that regular armed forces can't handle. The paladins are trained in Ashford Bay, but maintain outposts throughout the Isles. The Order also has a strict "humans only" policy, stemming from their belief that the god they worship only grants divine protection, blessing, and ability to humans (whether or not that is true hasn't been tested, it also means clerics to this god are only human as well due to the same "ideal")
Much like the above mention Marine Corps, while many paladins are out there doing the right things for the right reasons, some think they're much better then everyone else. They have an air of haughtiness to them, they are the best of the best, and many take their oaths of routing out evil to the extreme, making them zealots along the lines of the Inquisition. This makes many paladins assholes, but assholes that fight the good fight, which can make for good characterization.
Do we want Paladins to be headquartered in Ashford Bay, or have that just another outpost, with the headquarters elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteThis group of Paladins would be, yes. I want to really drive home the fact that each island chain grew up independent of others. So everything in Bluestone is self-contained. There may be other islands were paladins aren't a human-only ego group of elite soldiers, but the Order that started on Bluestone is.
ReplyDeleteThere are other Paladin Orders out there, just like there are other humans, dwarves, kobolds, druids, MUs, etc. in other chains that maybe in the far future will get different write-ups with slightly different fluff/crunch.
I like your take on Paladins. Yes, they can be arrogant pricks, but a certain cockiness is required to face the horrors they must meet and battle. It's like an inflated ego is a job requirement. :)
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