Paladin som ett exempel
Tänk på den här historien från Giant på lekplatsforumet :
Due to setting off a trap, my paladin/crusader and some his comrades were trapped in a solid wall of force that was filling up with a mist that was causing us drowning checks. Our DM was being nice and making it a flat DC 16 fort check instead of a steadily rising con Check, and it took two failure to drop us unconscious.
Through trial and experimentation, we discovered that my crusaders Foehammer and Mountain Hammer maneuvers would crack the shell long enough to get one person out. So, every turn, I cracked the wall, and one person would squeeze through the opening. First out was the wizard, who had failed two saves and had to be thrown. Then the cleric, to whom the same thing had happened. Because they were lying there inert, I sent the monk (trained in heal) out there to help them. At this point, the fighter who was in there, helping me, dropped unconscious due to failed saves. The DM was not being nice to me…I made save after save trying to figure out a way to strike the wall and hurl the fighter out. It ended in me managing to put the fellow on my shoulder, slam the wall with a warhammer, and toss him out. The round I did that in, I got my first failed fort save, upon which my DM said I could feel my lungs filling with water. Still, I was able to hurl my friend out of the wall of death and pick up the gear I’d dropped. Armed and ready, I make my next fort save.
Nat 1. I drop unconscious. IRL, the group panics. And I mean they PANIC. I have been playing the laid-back moral compass of the group…My paladin didn’t police, but he was kind and noble and to many of them, a bit of an innocent…he was a farm-raised boy and it reflected in the way he treated things and people. They didn’t want him dead. Well, the rogue did, but that’s because the player hates me IRL (he’s the person my inevitable conflict thread was about). The swashbuckler’s player almost started crying. And then we switched to the portion of the party that was pursuing a hag coven.
I sat back and actually smiled, because you know what? How much of a better death can a Paladin 5/Crusader 1 with an utter devotion to his friends and his god ask for? I saved every single person in that orb with my conviction and devotion to my god, hurling a fully armored fighter to safety with my lungs filled with water before giving in.
[the paladin’s player steps outside for a break, and returns to discover the party found a way to save him.]
While the cleric and monk and wizard are all thanking me, we hear the swashbuckler’s character scream in the distance. Having recently regained consciousness, I hit myself with lay on hands, charges of a cure mod wand, and start running. The cleric catches up to me and says
Cleric: “Haven’t you done enough heroics for the day?”
Paladin, stonefaced, with water dripping off his face and still coughing up liquid as he runs: “Nope. Paladin.”
Det "nej. Paladin, "för mig fångar allt en Paladin ska vara. En Paladin handlar inte om att tvinga sina kamrater att överensstämma med hans eder. han är inte en evangelist eller demagoge. Han är ett exempel . Ett exempel på allt lag och gott kan göra för världen. Han kan respektera allierade som använder andra metoder för att uppnå Bra; Han kan respektera allierade för vilka Bra inte är deras första mål i livet så länge de inte är onda. Men för sig själv är han den oupphörliga, oföränderliga bastionen av Good. Han berättar att han kommer, han spelar med alla sina kort på bordet, och han slutar aldrig någonsin.
Och i slutändan ser Paladinerna inte på någon organisation, tro eller till och med gud: de kan gå med andra att de finner likasinnade, de kan dyrka de gudar som de tror kommer att uppnå mest bra, men i slutändan svara på godheten själv. Om de upptäcker korruption i deras kyrka eller hemliga onda i sin guds plan ser de sig att lämna den kyrkan, lämna den guden och fortsätta att driva Good.
Paladiner och tro
Det är i alla fall det perfekta. Det är det som en välfungerad Paladin bör sträva efter: och han borde inte ha, åtminstone initialt, uppnått det. En Paladin är bara intressant om han falter, andra gissningar själv, och så vidare. För att ta fram ett annat citat:
Book: I've been out of the abbey two days. I've beaten a lawman senseless. Fallen in with criminals. I watched the captain shoot the man I swore to protect. And I'm not even sure if I think he was wrong.
Inara: [softly] Shepherd...
Book: I believe I just... I think I'm on the wrong ship.
Inara: Maybe. Or maybe you're exactly where you ought to be.
Det är ganska mycket hur din Paladin ska vara på en dålig dag. Och om han gör saker rätt, blir det dåliga dagar.
Paladins och Falling
Det finns många sätt att hantera Falling. Personligen tenderar jag att helt och hållet avskaffa det från mekaniken: ett fall inträffar endast när det är berättigat, vilket görs i samråd med Paladins spelare. En fallen Paladin hämtas alltid av någon annan stor makt, vanligtvis den Ond som förstörde honom.
Men det är inte det enda tillvägagångssättet. En annan som jag helst tycker om, men det har aldrig hänt i ett av mina egna spel, faller som att gå förbi. Paladin håller sig per definition tillbaka och faller när han slutar göra det: men när han gör det är han en hemsk sak att se.
Till exempel, en annan Giant i lekplatsposten . En kult släppte ut en ödmjuk pest, de hade fångat huvudkulten och behövde veta var ritualen skulle slutföras, men kunde inte få ut det av honom, inte ens när de började använda tortyr och paladin stormade ut. När han återvände och fann att de fortfarande inte hade fått informationen tog han över förhöret:
Cultist:
"Ha! I know who you are, Sir Peter Fairgrave; kingdom breaker, runaway child, father slayer. You can't threaten me: I know what you are. Your order, your God won't allow you to lay your hands on me, otherwise you'll fall, and you won't be able to help a soul."
Sir Peter:
sighs "You seem to be under the misconception about what I am, what I do. I am a paladin, that is true; but as a paladin I don't fear falling... I look forward to it."
The cultist shot a nervous look at the rest of the party, we were all looking at each other, not sure what was about to happen. The cultist opened his mouth to speak, but Sir Peter cut him off.
Sir Peter:
"As a paladin, I walk on a razor's edge. Not between good and evil, I could never be something like you, but between "law" and "justice". The "law" I follow doesn't permit me to harm you, but I could be "justified" in anything I did to you in order to save innocent lives. ANYTHING!"
"You don't know what it is like to be me. You don't know the pain of having to store all your anger, all your fury, all your sense of justice, and hold it inside you, all day every day for the rest of your life. Doing the right thing doesn't mean I get to stop all evil, I just get to trim it when it becomes overgrown. The path I walk is not about vengeance, or what's right; it's about moderation in the face of power, restraint and compassion for scum like you.
"This is why paladins don't fear falling. We don't spend all day looking for ways to prevent ourselves from doing evil and giving in to the darkness -- we actively seek it out. Every time we face evil, we ask ourselves, 'Is this the threat that I'm going to give it all up for? Is this what I am going to give up my ability to help others in the future, in order to bring it down now. Is this the evil that I am willing to forsake my God and my power to stop?!'".
At this point, he stands up suddenly and swings his arm against the chair he was sitting on. Sending it flying and shattered against a wall, he then kicks over the chair the cultist was sitting on, he leaps and straddles his chest, flinging him about for a few seconds in pure rage, before calming once more.
He looks the cultist straight in the face, both their noses just inches from each other.
"What you should be asking yourself now, what you really need to be thinking about, is: 'Is what I'm doing something that will make this guy want to fall?' Because you should know that once I fall, all those rules which protect you from me are gone. No longer will I be able to be stopped by you, or by my order, or by my God. If I give everything, and I mean give everything, I will never stop. If you escape me today, I will hunt you down and grab you into the pits of hell myself. Even if that means that I have to invoke the wrath of every demon in creation, just so they throw open a pit and drag me down where I stand, because when they do drag me down, I will make sure that my fists are wrapped firmly around your ankles and you go down with me. I want you to listen to me now, and I mean really listen, because Hell truly hath no fury like a paladin scorned."
"So I ask you, one last time: tell me where the other rituals are being held, or I swear to all on high that I will fall, and fall hard, just so I can show you what it is that paladin truly keeps his code in order to hold back..."
At this point the player, Chris, just stops talking and looks at us. We are all kind of stunned by his speech, naturally.
He just picks up a D20, looks at the DM and says "I wish to roll intimidate."
Nyckeln är att Falling är inte en fälla och det är inte ett straff för dålig rollspelning. Fallet är en berättande konstruktion som ska vara höjd av drama. Det behöver göra någonting stort: att avlägsna en dator av hans förmåga att göra någonting gör det inte. Detta är en av de största misslyckandena i 3.5, enligt min mening, och du borde prata med din DM om hur man åtgärdar det.
Talar om din DM ...
Min sista råd är att din DM är ombord med detta. Många DM har mycket smala förutbestämda idéer om vad som gör en Paladin. Vissa DM: er kommer inte att låta dig undvika att vara en inbyggd lera. Jag rekommenderar starkt att du undviker Paladin-klassen med sådana DM. Egentligen skulle jag förmodligen undvika sina spel helt, personligen.