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The Fallen Hero
2017-05-18, 11:37 PM
Hello everyone I was toying with a concept and thought why not ask GITP to see if I could get some input into how this would fair in a game!

The character in question is a Paladin a young one just hitting maturity whose running from his calling, which of course is to be a Paladin for the church to uphold justice and law and generally be a good person. Well he has not qualms with actually helping people and crusading for justice and peace he does not wish to follow the Church and doesn't truly want to be a Paladin and bind himself to a god and so he ran away after attaining his first level as a Paladin.

For some backstory, the young man in question is named Fox, he was raised inside the Church of Pelor after his parents were killed during a war that ravaged his village him being found struggling to live beneath his dead mother, his father died defending the village as a soldier stationed in the nearby garrison. Inside the Church he displayed a profound deep psychological effect on himself to want to pursue justice and save people, for that reason he was appointed the squire of a veteran Paladin and trained in their arts. Although he developed quickly he always questioned the Church on why they did not send out forces to actively stop the tragedies that were unfolding across the land and held a deep hatred for their perceived "Laziness" and less proactive approach to dealing with the situations at hand. When he finally graduated Fox was given an heirloom from his family a Greatsword passed down from father to son and that's when Fox snapped inside and knew he had to do something to stop something like this from ever happening to someone else.

In the night Fox gathered his things and ran off to deal out justice on evil throughout the land where the Church "would" not. Now he wanders the land Greatsword slung across his back bound in chains and a lock claiming he will only draw it when the time arises.

What do you guys think? I was thinking throwing ancestral weapon onto the Greatsword and having the character build it up until actually needing it as a dramatic effect.
Also got the idea well listening to Loss of Me from Final Fantasy IX check it out if you guys want!

Florian
2017-05-19, 02:18 AM
Itīs enough to be a paladin to, well, be LG and a paladin. Outside the Forgotten Realms, faith and church affiliation are not needed. So itīs pretty ok to have someone with more of a crusader-mentality have the feeling that pelonites are a bit ineffective and leave them.

OldTrees1
2017-05-19, 02:22 AM
Thread title confused me for a moment since this Paladin seems to be running towards their calling.


Yes, this is an interesting idea for a Paladin character.

Using Ancestral Weapon is a good way to make sure the heirloom will be of appropriate strength regardless of when it ends up being drawn. Very clever.

I would consider looking at both the Paladin and the Paladin of Freedom. I have a feeling you and your DM might be inspired to do a bit of mix and matching. (Say a Paladin but with the Aura of Resolve rather than the Aura of Courage)

Gildedragon
2017-05-19, 12:32 PM
I'll second Paladin of Freedom or the fauxladin that's the Crusader.

If there you can take dynamic priest to be Cha casting it might be suiting. Fox is less guided by conviction on outside structures or gods, but his sense of right and wrong.
Play around with ACFs
I'll second ancestral relic. Though maybe working with your DM to design a weapon of Legacy (ditching the non gp costs) is perhaps better (the omen could be that it acts as a mundane Periapt of Faithfulness; talking to it, or grasping the hilt, helps him see the situation clearly)
I'd ask the DM if one could wield it sheathed as a non-lethal weapon

animewatcha
2017-05-19, 12:45 PM
If anything would this be up Greyguard's alley?

ksbsnowowl
2017-05-19, 05:01 PM
Sounds like this paladin would love the spell Door to Great Evil (Ghostwalk web enhancement).

The Fallen Hero
2017-05-20, 01:19 AM
I should have explained the running from his calling a bit, although he is a Paladin, he is running from his training and to him away from being a Paladin because the Paladins he's seen he views as lazy and unwilling to help the downtrodden masses.

I'm glad people seem to be agreeing with the ancestral weapon! I'm also glad some people have brought up that you don't need to have a god to be a Paladin I was thinking Fox would convert from being part of the Pelorian faith to perhaps his own ideal? I'll just call it the Light for now as in just pure goodness in general, I was considering just standard Paladin maybe going into Crusader at level 6?

If Fox doesn't become a Crusader I was thinking about making him into a Pious Templar of his ideals, Pious Templar does require some feats that are linked to a deity but I bet you could get away with an ideal if you talked it out with your DM! The whole becoming a Pious Templar or Crusader would be based around him accepting his role as a Paladin and then becoming a real hero instead of just being an immature kid playing hero. Essentially at level 5/6 he grows up and starts actually being the hero to the people who have been in his situation.

Gildedragon
2017-05-20, 01:48 AM
sticking to paladin might be better... because of the multiclassing restrictions (you'd end up with no spells)

Fox seems more a Paladin of Freedom than anything, bucking the idea of hierarchy and rules for going about and doing good... and just going out and doing good.

Big diff between a P.o.F. and a standard P is that the former is not immune to fear (instead they are immune to compulsion effects)

Note that there's a variant in Dragon 349 "Sword of Celestia" that, instead of a mount, gets a self-upgrading sword they can also upgrade further as if they had Craft Magic Arms and Armor.
They can summon it as a free action, and repair it with healing magic... but they can never give it away or lend it.

The Fallen Hero
2017-05-20, 01:56 AM
I might have to look into Sword of Celestia that sounds really cool and flavorful much like the Ancestral Weapon. I did have the idea that the Ancestral Weapon has been upgraded before in the past over time by his ancestors but that was all for war and killing this time around Fox imbues it with Holy Energy. Thus turning the weapon of war and rage into a weapon that people can rally around and see as an icon of justice and light.