Xuldarinar
2018-08-05, 10:36 AM
The following homebrew (house rule really) is based on the Playtest of Pathfinder 2E (http://paizo.com/pathfinderplaytest). As the game progresses, this may be changed based on adjustments in the game system. Most of my attempts at brews in this window will generally be less detail oriented, falling mostly into the realm of house rules, minimizing what may ned to be done by time of the proper full release of Pathfinder 2E. Thank you.
Optional Rule: Paladins of Unconventional Deities
Typically paladins are relegated to following deities that are Lawful Neutral, Lawful Good, or Neutral Good in alignment. You may, however, have players that wish to attempt to follow far less conventional deities for paladins. Doing so may be more difficult than the standard, considering the anathema they must keep in mind along with their code of conduct, but it is not impossible. Here we'll discuss the different deity choices they may make, their anathema (drawn directly from the open playtest), and suggestions on how to make them function. Any additional rules a paladin should follow while abiding by one of these deities, like a paladin of Gozreh being restricted to non-metal armor and shields, or any changes of rules or mechanics, are up to the GM (Though I welcome discussion here!)
If you are using this rule, you may of course also allow clerics of similarly removed alignments. Again, one must consider the edicts and anathema of one's deity and abide by it. This may make maintaining distant alignments difficult but not impossible.
For sake of discussion, here is the (current) code of conduct for paladins:
1. You must never willingly commit an evil act, such as murder, torture, or the casting of an evil spell.
2. You must not use actions that you know will harm an innocent, or through inaction cause an innocent immediate harm when you knew your action could reasonably prevent it. This tenet doesn't force you to take action against possible harm to innocents or to sacrifice your life and potential to attempt to protect an innocent.
3. You must act with honor, never cheating, lying, or taking advantage of others.
4. You must respect the lawful authority of the legitimate ruler or leadership in whichever land you may be, following their laws unless they violate a higher tenet.
You may ignore a lower tenet in favor of a higher tenet if two tenet come to conflict, but you cannot purposefully engineer a situation to allow you to ignore lower tenets using higher ones.
Now, the non-traditional paladin deities:
Asmodeus:
Anathema: Break a contract, free a slave, insult Asmodeus's pride.
Considerations: As a paladin of Asmodeus, there is no direct conflict between your code of conduct and your anathema except in the possible instance of freeing a slave. However, so long as you are in a land in which slavery is the law of the land there should be little conflict there.
Calistra:
Anathema: Become too consumed by love or a need for revenge, let a slight go unanswered.
Considerations: As a paladin of Calistra, you will find remarkably little conflict. Edicts on personal freedom, taking revenge, and seeking hedonistic thrills can be abided by without creating any conflict so long as you view them in the right light. Remember to deliver retribution upon your foes but never let that consume you.
Cayden Cailean
Anathema: Abide slavery, be mean or standoffish when drunk.
Considerations: So long as you are not resident in lands in which slavery is legal this one is easy to follow, if you are not a mean drunk. While slavery is not a good thing, allowing it to exist in of itself does not conflict with the paladin's code of conduct. In cases of conflict when in such lands, consider the Anathema a higher tenet of the code than respecting authority provided it does not clearly put anyone into harm's way.
Desna
Anathema: Cause fear or despair, cast nightmare or use similar magic to corrupt dreams.
Considerations: Only in the most specific circumstances would a Paladin of Desna's anathema come into conflict with their code. In short, if we consider nightmare and such magic to be akin to evil spells, and paladins shouldn't generally be causing fear or despair anyways, there isn't any place of contention.
Gorum
Anathema: Kill prisoners or surrendering foes, prevent conflict through negotiation, win a battle through underhanded tactics or indirect magic.
Considerations: Already a paladin should be giving quarter to surrendering foes, nor do they tend to have cause to kill a prisoner. Curiously honor is important to this Chaotic deity, so you ever have greater cause to abide by it. I can see conflict arising from preventing conflict through negotiation, but generally speaking such a paladin simply then shouldn't be in charge of negotiating anything except terms of surrender and should focus instead upon glorious combat.
Gozreh
Anathema: Bring civilization to intrude on the wild.
Considerations: In my opinion anyways, a paladin of Gozreh would be in truth somewhere between a paladin and a druid in nature. Such a paladin isn't going to be encouraging the making of settlements, and will as much protect nature as they will the innocent.
Lamashtu
Anathema: Attempt to cure a madness or deformity, provide succor to Lamashtu's enemies.
Considerations: Finally we meet one that could actually be difficult. Now, so long as you don't consider madness and deformity in of itself a bad thing then that part is fairly simple. Deep such things the will of the Gods, and abide such. The problem arises with providing succor to your deity's enemies. Although the playtest calls out Desna as a specific example, in truth Lamashtu considers all other gods her enemies. In short, a Paladin of Lamashtu would likely have to refuse to provide aid to Clerics and Paladins, and other divine agents, of other faiths. While this can be workable, no doubt this could easily become a source of contention.
Norgorber
Anathema: Allow your true identity to be connected to your dark dealings, share a secret freely, show mercy.
Considerations: While all aspects of Norgorber's anathema could present difficulty, only the inability of showing mercy is the one I see that could be of conflict and even that isn't technically a conflict with the code. As a Paladin of Norgorber, you'd have to disguise yourself all the time, perhaps even by means of a mask. You cannot lie generally, but that does not mean you have to tell the truth either. Silence may be a common answer from you. No tenet of the paladin code states you cannot hold secrets however. For simplicity's sake, you could simply consider your deity's anathema a higher tenet, allowing you to lie when it comes towards actual secrets, but I would advise against abusing this. You will likely follow him as the Reaper of Reputation or as Blackfingers.
Pharasma
Anathema: Create undead, desecrate a corpse, rob a tomb.
Considerations: Unless you consider your standard adventuring to be robbing tombs, a Paladin of Pharasma should have little trouble functioning. Since I cannot find any spells that create undead (in this version of the game) it is unknown if they would fall under evil spells, not that paladins would get access to such abilities normally anyways.
Rovagug
Anathema: Create something new, let material ties restrain you, torture a victim or otherwise delay its destruction.
Considerations: For a chaotic evil deity, you will find little conflict between the rules you have to abide as a paladin and the ones you have to as a follower of Rovagug. Simply put, be a relatively ascetic paladin. Not torturing people is fairly simple, and in battle do not stay your blade if you can help it. Not creating something new is a matter of interpretation, whether it means you cannot invent or if it means you cannot craft anything. Your edicts may be difficult to follow, being that you have to destroy all things and work on freeing Rovagug, but starting with what paladins would focus on anyways and trying steering things towards his release, you could certainly manage.
Urgathoa
Anathema: Deny your appetites, destroy undead, sacrifice your life.
Considerations: This largely depends upon what your appetites are. Certainly take care of yourself so that you can help others, this is not of issue. Destroying undead may become difficult not to do depending upon what you are put up against, be it the classical skeletons or later down the road a lich. Now, edicts can make this more difficult as you are to, among other things, create or protect the undead. We do not know if creating undead is an evil act, or done by evil spells, in 2nd edition pathfinder. Protecting them however is easy enough, especially if they are intelligent, good, and/or not opposed to the party. in short, this one is in some ways the most situational.
Zon-Kuthon
Anathema: Create permanent or long-lasting sources of light, provide comfort to those who suffer.
Considerations: Do note it says you cannot provide comfort, but that doesn't mean you cannot save people who suffer. A Paladin of Zon-Kuthon is not going to be the most kind hearted soul, a flagellant whom has to help those in need but they cannot comfort those who suffer.
Optional Ability: Retributive Hand
If you follow a deity that provides an option of channeling negative energy, or perhaps exclusively provides the option, then Lay on Hands may clash with this. Instead, you may allow paladins devoted to one such deity to utilize a reversed version of Lay on Hands: Treating living creatures as undead and undead creatures as living, making this an effect of negative energy instead of positive.
Additionally, such a paladin would have at 4th level the option of Channel Death instead of Chanel Life, functionally granting the harm spell instead of the heal spell. Following this trend, and depending upon your deity, other abilities may take on other similar minor changes.
Why?
You may be wondering why would a deity allow this or why would someone follow a god of such a distant alignment? Well, thats certainly up to you. Paladins are great for public relations, spreading the faith, and here is a follower with a differing view point and yet they are handing over their soul. An evil god certainly has a great deal to gain, and even chaotic good ones can appreciate having an armored paragon of good under their name. Maybe the deity will try to get them to turn to a more standard alignment, or maybe they'll want them to remain a paladin as long as possible.. they and their followers making certain the paladin is not put in a position to fall. Besides, paladins are some of the best equipped to strike down fiends and even the evil aligned deities don't get along with other evil deities and their followers.
Mechanically speaking, there is an additional reason to allow this and that comes in the form of a first level paladin feat: Deity's Domain.
As for why a paladin would follow a non paladin deity? In most cases its a matter of their perspective and culture. For evil ones, maybe they are misguided and don't know the deity is evil or feel the greater good is served ultimately by their deeds, were just raised to follow or even they owe a debt. For non-evil ones, why does anyone follow any particular deity?
Optional Rule: Paladins of Unconventional Deities
Typically paladins are relegated to following deities that are Lawful Neutral, Lawful Good, or Neutral Good in alignment. You may, however, have players that wish to attempt to follow far less conventional deities for paladins. Doing so may be more difficult than the standard, considering the anathema they must keep in mind along with their code of conduct, but it is not impossible. Here we'll discuss the different deity choices they may make, their anathema (drawn directly from the open playtest), and suggestions on how to make them function. Any additional rules a paladin should follow while abiding by one of these deities, like a paladin of Gozreh being restricted to non-metal armor and shields, or any changes of rules or mechanics, are up to the GM (Though I welcome discussion here!)
If you are using this rule, you may of course also allow clerics of similarly removed alignments. Again, one must consider the edicts and anathema of one's deity and abide by it. This may make maintaining distant alignments difficult but not impossible.
For sake of discussion, here is the (current) code of conduct for paladins:
1. You must never willingly commit an evil act, such as murder, torture, or the casting of an evil spell.
2. You must not use actions that you know will harm an innocent, or through inaction cause an innocent immediate harm when you knew your action could reasonably prevent it. This tenet doesn't force you to take action against possible harm to innocents or to sacrifice your life and potential to attempt to protect an innocent.
3. You must act with honor, never cheating, lying, or taking advantage of others.
4. You must respect the lawful authority of the legitimate ruler or leadership in whichever land you may be, following their laws unless they violate a higher tenet.
You may ignore a lower tenet in favor of a higher tenet if two tenet come to conflict, but you cannot purposefully engineer a situation to allow you to ignore lower tenets using higher ones.
Now, the non-traditional paladin deities:
Asmodeus:
Anathema: Break a contract, free a slave, insult Asmodeus's pride.
Considerations: As a paladin of Asmodeus, there is no direct conflict between your code of conduct and your anathema except in the possible instance of freeing a slave. However, so long as you are in a land in which slavery is the law of the land there should be little conflict there.
Calistra:
Anathema: Become too consumed by love or a need for revenge, let a slight go unanswered.
Considerations: As a paladin of Calistra, you will find remarkably little conflict. Edicts on personal freedom, taking revenge, and seeking hedonistic thrills can be abided by without creating any conflict so long as you view them in the right light. Remember to deliver retribution upon your foes but never let that consume you.
Cayden Cailean
Anathema: Abide slavery, be mean or standoffish when drunk.
Considerations: So long as you are not resident in lands in which slavery is legal this one is easy to follow, if you are not a mean drunk. While slavery is not a good thing, allowing it to exist in of itself does not conflict with the paladin's code of conduct. In cases of conflict when in such lands, consider the Anathema a higher tenet of the code than respecting authority provided it does not clearly put anyone into harm's way.
Desna
Anathema: Cause fear or despair, cast nightmare or use similar magic to corrupt dreams.
Considerations: Only in the most specific circumstances would a Paladin of Desna's anathema come into conflict with their code. In short, if we consider nightmare and such magic to be akin to evil spells, and paladins shouldn't generally be causing fear or despair anyways, there isn't any place of contention.
Gorum
Anathema: Kill prisoners or surrendering foes, prevent conflict through negotiation, win a battle through underhanded tactics or indirect magic.
Considerations: Already a paladin should be giving quarter to surrendering foes, nor do they tend to have cause to kill a prisoner. Curiously honor is important to this Chaotic deity, so you ever have greater cause to abide by it. I can see conflict arising from preventing conflict through negotiation, but generally speaking such a paladin simply then shouldn't be in charge of negotiating anything except terms of surrender and should focus instead upon glorious combat.
Gozreh
Anathema: Bring civilization to intrude on the wild.
Considerations: In my opinion anyways, a paladin of Gozreh would be in truth somewhere between a paladin and a druid in nature. Such a paladin isn't going to be encouraging the making of settlements, and will as much protect nature as they will the innocent.
Lamashtu
Anathema: Attempt to cure a madness or deformity, provide succor to Lamashtu's enemies.
Considerations: Finally we meet one that could actually be difficult. Now, so long as you don't consider madness and deformity in of itself a bad thing then that part is fairly simple. Deep such things the will of the Gods, and abide such. The problem arises with providing succor to your deity's enemies. Although the playtest calls out Desna as a specific example, in truth Lamashtu considers all other gods her enemies. In short, a Paladin of Lamashtu would likely have to refuse to provide aid to Clerics and Paladins, and other divine agents, of other faiths. While this can be workable, no doubt this could easily become a source of contention.
Norgorber
Anathema: Allow your true identity to be connected to your dark dealings, share a secret freely, show mercy.
Considerations: While all aspects of Norgorber's anathema could present difficulty, only the inability of showing mercy is the one I see that could be of conflict and even that isn't technically a conflict with the code. As a Paladin of Norgorber, you'd have to disguise yourself all the time, perhaps even by means of a mask. You cannot lie generally, but that does not mean you have to tell the truth either. Silence may be a common answer from you. No tenet of the paladin code states you cannot hold secrets however. For simplicity's sake, you could simply consider your deity's anathema a higher tenet, allowing you to lie when it comes towards actual secrets, but I would advise against abusing this. You will likely follow him as the Reaper of Reputation or as Blackfingers.
Pharasma
Anathema: Create undead, desecrate a corpse, rob a tomb.
Considerations: Unless you consider your standard adventuring to be robbing tombs, a Paladin of Pharasma should have little trouble functioning. Since I cannot find any spells that create undead (in this version of the game) it is unknown if they would fall under evil spells, not that paladins would get access to such abilities normally anyways.
Rovagug
Anathema: Create something new, let material ties restrain you, torture a victim or otherwise delay its destruction.
Considerations: For a chaotic evil deity, you will find little conflict between the rules you have to abide as a paladin and the ones you have to as a follower of Rovagug. Simply put, be a relatively ascetic paladin. Not torturing people is fairly simple, and in battle do not stay your blade if you can help it. Not creating something new is a matter of interpretation, whether it means you cannot invent or if it means you cannot craft anything. Your edicts may be difficult to follow, being that you have to destroy all things and work on freeing Rovagug, but starting with what paladins would focus on anyways and trying steering things towards his release, you could certainly manage.
Urgathoa
Anathema: Deny your appetites, destroy undead, sacrifice your life.
Considerations: This largely depends upon what your appetites are. Certainly take care of yourself so that you can help others, this is not of issue. Destroying undead may become difficult not to do depending upon what you are put up against, be it the classical skeletons or later down the road a lich. Now, edicts can make this more difficult as you are to, among other things, create or protect the undead. We do not know if creating undead is an evil act, or done by evil spells, in 2nd edition pathfinder. Protecting them however is easy enough, especially if they are intelligent, good, and/or not opposed to the party. in short, this one is in some ways the most situational.
Zon-Kuthon
Anathema: Create permanent or long-lasting sources of light, provide comfort to those who suffer.
Considerations: Do note it says you cannot provide comfort, but that doesn't mean you cannot save people who suffer. A Paladin of Zon-Kuthon is not going to be the most kind hearted soul, a flagellant whom has to help those in need but they cannot comfort those who suffer.
Optional Ability: Retributive Hand
If you follow a deity that provides an option of channeling negative energy, or perhaps exclusively provides the option, then Lay on Hands may clash with this. Instead, you may allow paladins devoted to one such deity to utilize a reversed version of Lay on Hands: Treating living creatures as undead and undead creatures as living, making this an effect of negative energy instead of positive.
Additionally, such a paladin would have at 4th level the option of Channel Death instead of Chanel Life, functionally granting the harm spell instead of the heal spell. Following this trend, and depending upon your deity, other abilities may take on other similar minor changes.
Why?
You may be wondering why would a deity allow this or why would someone follow a god of such a distant alignment? Well, thats certainly up to you. Paladins are great for public relations, spreading the faith, and here is a follower with a differing view point and yet they are handing over their soul. An evil god certainly has a great deal to gain, and even chaotic good ones can appreciate having an armored paragon of good under their name. Maybe the deity will try to get them to turn to a more standard alignment, or maybe they'll want them to remain a paladin as long as possible.. they and their followers making certain the paladin is not put in a position to fall. Besides, paladins are some of the best equipped to strike down fiends and even the evil aligned deities don't get along with other evil deities and their followers.
Mechanically speaking, there is an additional reason to allow this and that comes in the form of a first level paladin feat: Deity's Domain.
As for why a paladin would follow a non paladin deity? In most cases its a matter of their perspective and culture. For evil ones, maybe they are misguided and don't know the deity is evil or feel the greater good is served ultimately by their deeds, were just raised to follow or even they owe a debt. For non-evil ones, why does anyone follow any particular deity?