About the first of three stages for the Paladin

[Maximus Power]

Most Champions of Toran go through three stages of life; the first and most common stage is that of the dutiful fighter. Born and raised on tales of honour and glory, these men and women serve Toran with or without the church's backing. They often strive to lead those into battle in Toran's name. Always fighting evil wherever they find it. They serve Toran primarily in name.

- Paladin Orders: Toran's Paladins

A passage I just read. With D&D, it isn't like Dungeon Siege where you start as yourself - and your preference decides your class. With D&D, you have to pick a class then live that class out. Your class isn't decided by your actions which I think would be a better system for Paladins.

When you pick the class of Paladin, it is like signing a mental contract that you personally agree to. I'm talking about the sterotype of the Paladin because that is what most of us think at first glance about a Paladin.

Point is, wouldn't it be more reasonable to start out say.. a more class neutral class (if you know what I mean)? A fighter would be a "class neutral class". What i'm saying is Paladins should start out as regular fighters (as that is the closest they can get to Dungeon Siege style), and through their actions are accepted by the temple to start training as a true Paladin.

Alright alright. D&D has been around for decades and many of you have been around here for years. I just came here today and giving a lecture already! While I won't be able to change anything about the way the Paladin Orders are in the game, or even have the DMs create an entirely new system from this one lecture - it is something to keep in mind when you look at that passage a second time.

[ZeroVega]

That's what bio's are for. They're there to give GMs a background for characters which allows the GMs to decide whether or not the character should be that class. More than once when I was a GM I saw the kind of character that someone wanted in the bio as conflicting with the class or alignment choice. Also, it says "Most" not all; and the number of PCs who are paladins of Toran make up only a small small percentage of overall Paladins (plus most of them don't last).

Your way would be ideal, but then everyone would start out as a commoner right? Then their actions would progress them into a class. Then they would take it from there. *shrugs* I'd probably end up as a druid, which is the furthest thing from what I want.

ZV-

[FlameStrike]

It's an interesting comparison, D&D to Dungeon Siege... although the game styles are much different, players would regret multiclassing as much as in your example, since usually Single-Class characters are more successful than those that multiclass. Of course, there are many exceptions, but having the Paladin class in mind, multiclassing can take away much power from it.

 Now as for the RP perspective, there are usually many possibilites, and not all paladins need to be following the same path and fitting the stereotypical image, it gets old and leads to boredom, honestly.

[Shadowblade225]

This sort of brings us back to the Lvl 1 dilemma.  What does lvl 1 really mean taking into consideration one's own unique character/history/class/etc...?  I'm tired as I write this so I'll not expand further at this time and offer a book of personal opinion, but I'm sure alot of folks out there will have a lot to say.

[Acacea]

What ZV said. Every class has some kind of necessary experience beforehand, some more than others. These are either detailed into a background story, or roleplayed over a long time in game in order to multiclass later. In either case, you have to start out as some class, and so the training and such for that first one is always going to be assumed into the backstory rather than done over a lifetime.

I'm all for detailing background experiences for character classes, though, especially the more arduous ones. You don't just wake up as a monk, after all! Or a wizard... or... etc. You see the issue.

[Schmack]

Acacea - 6/1/2006  2:58 PM  You don't just wake up as a monk, after all! Or a wizard... or... etc.

 Harry Potter woke as a wizard!
 
 MWAHAHAHAHA!!!  HARRY POTTER!!!!
 
 I am normal.
 
 [/Hijack]