101 Atypical Paladins

[falcon1]

75: What The Twist reminded me of: He's well dressed, with an elegant cane. With an extremely heavy top. He attends the galas and parties of the upper crust, always selling his latest piece of art. Which is always a commentary on some social injustice. He owns several expensive hotels. And several more that provide shelter and food to poor children. He has impeccable manners. Until he sees someone being exploited. Then the cane I mentioned earlier? They find out about the heavy top.

[NovenFromTheSun]

76. The Oblivious, or "what's a paladin?"

They have the powers, they have the cause, and they have the good nature. What they don't have is any conception that he or she is doing anything out of the ordinary. They think that everyone can lay on hands and those using bandages or spells are just relying on some kind of aid or mnemonic. They don't quite grasp that their smite attack is anything more than a really good hit. They might not even know that paladins exist, thinking them just legends or never even hearing of them.

[Cluedrew]

I had this idea a while ago but then life got in the way:

77) The Warden {of Nature}:
There are some places where one should never go, but people do. The desperate and the foolish. But waiting there, ready to turn back the foolish and guide the desperate is the warden. Protecting the people from the dangers there. But also guarding the place, because it is a beautiful place although not one that mixes very well with people. The warden loves both sides, keeping them separate preserves both, but some times, they will mix. And some times people learn.

This one just came to me:

78) The Warden {of Prison}:
"Correctional" services is too often is a joke. Put some chains on them for a time, take the chains off until they do something and then you put the chains back on. But not here, not under this warden. Smite evil has surprisingly little use in a prison riot, and none at all the rest of the time. It is the other, less glorified skills that have a role here. Destroying evil doesn't mean hurting evil. Sometimes it just takes a nudge, or a bit of help to let them take the path that they wanted to take but couldn't. Helping them while they are here and when they leave, the warden will see satisfyingly few of them ever again.

In other news, anyone else want to make the most interesting all paladin party ever?

[Darth Tom]

28:
I post this again.

Add a really thick French accent and you have my HEMA instructor. Especially the commandments.

[OldFenris]

Hi, I`'m new, couldn't resist the Topic :)

79. The Penitent

Once he was the Top-Assassin of the Local Thieves Guild. Countless Victims fell to his Blade, until the Guildmaster gave him the Order to kill a famous party of Adventurers. He took his most trusted Fighters and ambushed the Party while they were examining the Sewers, but as it happens, they were too powerful, he got killed and his Corpse vanished through some Drainage Tunnel.

Since he was such a powerful Asset the Guildmaster ordered that he get raised from the Dead, but it took a few Weaks until his Body could be recovered. During this time he was a Larvae in Hell, and when he finally was raised, he had only one Goal: Never going back to this Place. He left the Thieves Guild and went to a Temple of Ilmater, where he begged for a second Chance. He is now a Blade for the Broken God, trying to work his way up to Celestia, especially by righting the wrongs he did in his first live.
(Stole this Backstory from an ancient Baldur's Gate Fanfiction, don't remember wich one though, used it once in a Game.)

80. The Alpha-Mother

The Party was hired to destroy a Tribe of Gnolls, that raided the Area around a small Village. When they found the Caves, the whole Tribe attacked in a terrifying Frenzy. After the last of the Gnolls were slain, the Party searched the Caves to save abducted Villagers and get some loot. When they found a Cave full of youngs of the Gnolls the Dwarf sighed and draw his Axe once again. "Stop!" said the Paladin "We can't kill Children". "Oh come on!" retorted the Dwarf "When we leave them here, they either get eaten by their neighbours or starve to Death. It is a Mercy we have to do". The Eyes of the Paladin flashed shortly in bright Light, as always, when she judged someone and then declared "They are not tainted by the by the Ways of their Parents". "So what ?" said the Dwarf "Do you want to raise them yourself ?!".

Around 15 Years later there were at first Tales of Gnolls returning Children that got lost in the Woods or saving Merchants raided by Brigands, later they started trading with the Village.

81. The Knight of the Dead

She was a powerful councilwoman, until she found out about a Conspiracy by the Snakefolk that wanted to take over her City. When she was too much of a Thorn in their Side they poisend here with a magical Poison that should even prevent a raising from the Dead. But her Will was to strong and she only fell into a Coma. During this time her soul was already on the Fugue Plane. When her time for judgement came the God of Death said that she was yet alive and had to wait till her fate was clear. During this Time she stood beside the God, hearing the Tales of the Dead, hearing the Judgements of the God and she saw the God crying behind his Mask. She felt pity for the dead and Sympathy for the grim Judge. One Day the God said that the Poison in her Blood is defeated and she can return to the Land of the Living. When she awakened she still felt the Power of the final Judge. At first she used it to rout out the Snake-Cult, later she travelled the land, visiting cemetaries, morgues and haunted Places, talking with Ghosts and other sentient Undead, helping them to find peace i.E. by bringing their murderers to justice or by finding out what happened to their loved ones.

[Anderlith]

The Sociopath

He doesn't feel empathy. In his heart of hearts he couldn't care less if the damsel died, outwardly he is a textbook paladin, but inside he is just following a textbook chart of what he is supposed to do without feeling it. He doesn't value anything a paladin stands for, but he never lets anyone see that side. He smiles the charming grin, the one he practiced in the mirror, because paladins are supposed to be charming. He kills evil things because paladin's are supposed to kill evil. He even married a woman he has no feelings for because he saved her from a dragon & she swooned, & that is what a paladin is supposed to do. If you could see to his inner thoughts you might wonder why a sociopath would ever even begin to follow the paladin path, well it's because he was prophecized, foretold, trained & groomed & thinks that this is what he is supposed to think & do & feel.

[Cluedrew]

So... someone what thought there way to paladin status instead of feeling their way there?

[Samzat]

83. The Contradiction
Who ever thought of an undead paladin? Gods know you didnt when you decided to become a lich all those years ago. At a certain point you ran out of things to do. You couldnt think of magic items to make, or spells to research, or evils to commit, so one day you sat down and had a good think. That day turned into 2 years, just pondering and reflecting, looking for inspiration. You scryed on all manner of places in search of a muse, and one day you came across a paladin. He had this look in his eye, the look of a man with a drive, and a purpose. You realize then where the hole in your atrophied, shriveled, desiccated heart was all along. Though you couldnt figure out when the change happened, you had wanted this the whole time. And gods, the look on those paladins' faces when you came to their temple and kneeled at their knight-commander's feet.

[iceman10058]

83. The Contradiction
Who ever thought of an undead paladin? Gods know you didnt when you decided to become a lich all those years ago. At a certain point you ran out of things to do. You couldnt think of magic items to make, or spells to research, or evils to commit, so one day you sat down and had a good think. That day turned into 2 years, just pondering and reflecting, looking for inspiration. You scryed on all manner of places in search of a muse, and one day you came across a paladin. He had this look in his eye, the look of a man with a drive, and a purpose. You realize then where the hole in your atrophied, shriveled, desiccated heart was all along. Though you couldnt figure out when the change happened, you had wanted this the whole time. And gods, the look on those paladins' faces when you came to their temple and kneeled at their knight-commander's feet.

I love this, can I use this?

[Samzat]

I love this, can I use this?

Go ahead. I probably won't.

[Floret]

84. The Half-Monster
At least that is what his mother called him, after it turned out after birth he was not her husband's son, but one of the Orc Raiders'. And afterwards, the children in the village. Most people met, in fact. The last war was still too fresh in memory - ending just about around his birth.
She was almost about to kill him on the spot, then and there - but the priests of the temple she had fled to from the raids forbid it. Of course, many orcs were evil. But not inherently. This child was to be judged on its own merits, not by his blood.
He was raised more by the priests than by his own parent. The only thing she ever did was to tear out his teeth, as they started becoming big - for his own good, she said, to not look so intimidating. Eating was hard, but he got used to it.
Eventually he chose to follow the Path of the god in whose temple he'd grown up in. It only seemed natural, to protect others from injustice, after her priests had protected him. And since noone was gonna listen to a half-monster's sermon - going out into the world, weapon in hand, sounded like the natural way.

(Based on a character of my boyfriend)

[sengmeng]

85) the Fashionista

Helping the poor, defending the weak, smiting evil: all essential for being a paladin, but pointless if you don't look really, really ridiculously good looking doing it.

[Bohandas]

85) the Fashionista

Helping the poor, defending the weak, smiting evil: all essential for being a paladin, but pointless if you don't look really, really ridiculously good looking doing it.

This immediately made me think of Rarity

[Lentrax]

This immediately made me think of Rarity

Yeah, but is it really atypical?

[eru001]

He who fought monsters.

He was a mercenary, a brigand, or a pirate, until one day his band ran afoul of a werewolf. After a desperate fight several were dead, and he, was wounded. For safety, his comrades abandoned him in the wilderness. He had to make his way on his own, for some time. He had plenty of time to think. To reevaluated his life. To realize that he was going in the wrong direction. Off in the distance he spotted smoke one day. It led him to the remains of a chapter house of some order of paladins or other, from the scattered bodies it looked like the five residents had done a number on an orc horde before it finally overran them. He stayed there for a while, the partially burnt building was still reasonably good shelter. He read through some of the manuals, and practiced, practiced, practiced. After all, he had plenty of time, and it was better that he not seek out company anyway. He wasn't friendly around the full moon anymore. During this time, he found some clarity, and he figured that while it might be too late to fully redeem himself, it wasn't too late to at least help somone. Off he went, sword in hand. He blows in from out of town, on clear moonless nights. Fights bandits and monsters, and leaves, taking only a bowl of stew and pint of ale as payment, refusing all other compensation. For a long time he isolated himself during the full moon. Now though, now he just makes sure that the nearest prey are someone who deserves it. Every weapon which comes to hand after all, one of the only lessons from his less reputable days that he still holds to.

[Bluepaw]

87. The Gambler

In the eyes of those who encounter him a run-down smugglers' tavern or on a corrupt kingpin's pleasure barge, he may resemble other dime-a-dozen dashing swashbucklers, but he has an ace up his sleeve: the divine blessing of the Goddess of Luck, whom he has faithfully served in his years of wandering. He knows, like no one else in the room, that luck is more than random chance or temporary victory in corrupt circumstances: it is a force, a weave, a subtle attunement to an inscrutable truth. The House may always win the battle, but the greater balance prevails in the long term. He is here to ensure that it does. And as he rolls his holy symbol across the table, the sound seems to go out of the room for a moment, leaving only the bump and clatter of the die. His eyes meet the eyes of the kingpin's lackey operating the game, glittering with a microsecond of a wink. So, punk: do you feel lucky?


88. The Fact-Checker

AKA the altogether-too-topical paladin: She serves an almost-forgotten God of Knowledge, whose temples are overgrown, whose priests have been let go due to lack of support from the populace, and whose libraries, once-spectacular civic centers, have become the playground of spiders and vermin. Her society's thirst for knowledge has apparently turned to revulsion: why struggle for the truth when whatever people happen to think or serves their immediate goals is far more satisfying, far more successful at gaining them what they want? But there are a few who remember. Our paladin's once-mighty order may have gone underground, but it has not vanished: she seeks out threatened knowledge in a corroded society, protecting those who cultivate it where possible, memorizing it and fleeing where not, and in her spare time, copying the rare and ill-maintained manuscripts she has rescued. So far she has operated in the shadows. But should she fall under the sights of the regime, she won't be at a loss for tactics of resistance: she has not failed to learn from history...

[Crisis21]

89. The Unexpected

Okay, you know my type. The patron god of a 'typically evil' race who favors his chosen children and the rest can rot in the nine hells. Yeah, I care about my chosen people, I like seeing them happy, but I gotta admit that I've come to enjoy seeing their enemies driven before them and hearing the lamentations of said enemies' women. Everyone who's not part of mine sees me as evil, after all, so why not own the label and show them just how bad I can be.

So what the %#$* am I doing with an oath-sworn goody two-shoes Paladin?!


90. The Jizo

After your first lifetime, they offered you a place in the Heavens as an honored hero. You refused.

After ten more, they offered you a place as your god's own honor guard. You refused.

After a hundred, they offered to make you a minor god with retinues of honored heroes as your servants. You refused.

There is only one desire that drives you, lifetime after lifetime, to push yourself to the limits, to aid others at great cost to yourself, and to delve into the deepest pits of corruption with your staff held high. That desire is that one day you will possess the strength necessary to storm the gates of hell itself and free all the misguided souls from their eternal torment so that they may repent and seek a better path. Not a select few, not those that are judged worthy of a second chance in a celestial court, all of them.

[Leewei]

91. The Mobster. In an oppressive, evil empire, the underworld's protection racket is reasonably-priced and very effective. The Don always keeps his word, and is generous to his community. In the family, someone without honor is worthless.

[Crisis21]

92: He Who Rages Against The Heavens

The gods are a lie. They are naught but powerful parasites who glut themselves on the faith and worship of the mortal realm, never doing anything worthy of the praise they demand. They take and take, but never give back anything of value for the faithful do not need gods to draw upon holy powers, just their unwavering faith. This perpetuated falsehood that says otherwise must end. For all to live in peace and harmony, these so-called 'gods' must fall.

[Dr paradox]

93. The Deprogrammed
Once, there was a fringe god. A small god. Their teachings were esoteric, their tenets off putting, and their church insular. It wasn't exactly a "growth" religion, but it survived for centuries as an underground, borderline illegal cult on the edges of society. Every so often, they would send agents into civilized lands to spread the good word and bring disaffected youths back to their compounds for induction into their happy family. Among these was a unique young woman - driven and intense, and the High Reverend-ess of the church quickly took her under her wing for special lessons. As the years went by, the young woman was groomed to be the sword and shield of their little church - trained to root out nonbelievers, and put trespassers in their temple to the sword. It was the only calling she ever received, from the only voice she had ever trusted, so she did it without joy and without question.
The day came, however, that the infractions of the little church became too great for the local kingdoms to countenence any longer. Adventurers were dispatched, quests were accomplished, unholy idols were put to the flame, and the dark stones of their accursed ziggurat were toppled and left to be consumed by the surrounding forest. As many of the cultists as possible were captured and brought back to a monastery in civilized lands to be saved from the dark influence of their former god. Among these, improbably, was the young woman.
Over time, she was drawn out of the stupor the High Reverend-ess' lessons had placed her in, and the more she learned of the outside world, the more she was horrified by what she had done. But, her god worked in strange ways, and the power she had been invested with - and the commandments that rang through her dreams - never departed. Spurred on by a desire for redemption mingled with the still burning desire to punish the unworthy, the young woman stole off one day with a party of adventurers who had stayed at the monastery for a time.

[DontEvenAsk]

58. The Backwater

Coming from the simple country folk of the swamps, this simple, naïve but friendly Paladin travels his homeland to fight evil and help those in need. Armed with a fishing harpoon and a wooden shield, he is able to fight off the pesky boggarts and fiends that dwell in the mires nearby. He wears rusted armor that floated down the great river that ends in his lands, and a tabard of his deity sewn by his mama. He yearns to prove that fancy book learning and formal training do not make one a paladin; it is the devotion and dedication to spreading good in the world that makes one a paladin. Fighting will always be his last resort, and he has had success in converting the nearby monsters to the light.

Relatedly,

94. The Farm Knight

Her mighty lance, with which she spears evil foes? A pitchfork. Her strong wooden shield, with which she protects the innocent? An old, retired barn door. Her paladin's mount, who carries her proudly into battle? A draft horse who pulls the hay cart in peacetime. Her only armor is a homemade quilt stitched into the form of a gambeson. She wears false armor over top - wood painted in shiny silver-tone pigments that she saved for months to buy. She's not part of any official order, and she might not be in service to a deity - if so, probably a god of agriculture, the hearth and home, or simply her own race. She probably has a chicken or two in tow, maybe a goat or sheep, possibly a barn cat or herd dog.

This paladin is a farmer and a farmer's daughter. She tends the livestock, washes the laundry, does the dishes, and fetches the water from the well. Some days she cooks breakfast; she makes excellent waffles. She quite likes this life, and her mother, and the animals, but she does want something else from life - not necessarily to leave the farm, not forever anyway, but to be of use beyond it.

Growing up, she loved fairytales and bedtime stories about noble warriors who fought evil - the origin stories of saints, Knights of the Round Table, Robin Hood, that kind of stuff. (I actually have something of a bibliography of these sorts of legends, but that's probably a list for another time.) She was that kid who decides, "I'm gonna be a knight and slay dragons when I grow up!" and means it. At first it was the glory and glamour in the stories, but as she grew up she came to realize, in a sheltered farm girl way, what it was really all about - standing up for the little guy. She can get behind that.

She still doesn't really understand what paladinhood means, though, not completely - she's lived her whole life with her loving, wonderful mother, and her small, civil village, where no real evil has ever come. She's never killed a person (although she can't speak to never having killed at all; gotta do something with hens too old to lay, after all). She's certainly never been in a city, and she's not familiar with corruption or moral ambiguity. But she's not stubborn and willfully ignorant about these things - she's simply never been exposed to them. Learning about them won't be fun, but that's part of the job - and she figures it's worth it. She is genuinely Lawful Good, just very green and wide-eyed.

Still, that pitchfork makes a helluva weapon when she really applies herself. And for the love of god, don't hurt her ma.

(This is more or less my current character in a Pathfinder game I'm in with some old friends. She's actually a Knight, not a Paladin, but I intend to take Paladin levels somewhere down the line. So far we've learned that the formerly normal church in her hometown has been infiltrated by creepy cultists who do gross meat magic and attack on sight, and she had a small breakdown upon realizing she'd killed some in self-defense. Good times.)

[Braininthejar2]

95: The construct: They say there can be no real good without free will. And yet, he brings justice every day, working tirelessly for the cause, bringing light and hope where there is none. He doesn't question his path - he was forged to be that way. And yet, there is much more to his zeal than just blind obedience.

[CartmanTuttle]

96: The Action Hero

Who says you can't be awesome AND a goody-two-shoes? You stand for law and all that is righteous, but when the bad guys come knocking, you're armed and ready with a shotgun in hand, a pistol at your hip, various automatic weapons and explosives on you, and a big mouth. Sure, people might think you're cheesy spouting off those one-liners, but you are the paragon of justice, and sometimes it comes in the form of machismo.

[Jendekit]

24. The Thug.

She's not well-versed in theology. She's not a gifted orator or motivating person. She's not an inspiring presence or a comforting comrade. She's not warm, she's not fuzzy, and she's nobody's idea of a positive role model. She doesn't have a mind for strategy, a gift for words, a knowledge of the world, or skill with crafts.

She breaks things. That's all she's good at. That's all she's ever been good at. She's really, really good at smashing.

She'll never build a monument. She'll never cure a disease or write a book or compose a song. The only thing she's good at is hurting things, hurting people. And the only good she can do with this skill is to hurt the bad people, to stop them from hurting the good people.

And maybe, just maybe, some good can come of her breaking things.

He rather than she, but this is my next character.

"Isn't that why you keep me around? Hurting people's the only thing I'm good at."