D&D 1E AD&D paladin strictures

[Mort]

For Lawful Evil paladins, try the Rose of the Prophet trilogy by Weiss & Hickman. A very interesting take.

I bought the books 30 years ago and never read them. I still see them on the bookshelf whenever I'm at my parents house (admittedly a while now!) Are the books any good?

I say this having read other Weis and Hickman books. Other than the Dragonlance series which finished pretty strong, their other series seem to start well and then descend into an incoherent mess - thinking of both the Darksword series and the Deathgate cycle!

 

[Dioltach]

I haven't read them for years, but I remember them being the most mature of the early W&H series. Some very likable characters, and a nice break from the standard pseudo-Medieval Europe fantasy of the time. Probaby ahead of their time for at least one of the main characters.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Maxperson]

You can also look at thier other world - DragonLance.

If you look at the Knights of Paladine (Solamnic Knights), and later when the Knights of Takhisis came to be.

The two orders, LG and LE had to come together into one to fight a bigger threat (during the fifth age).

So the concept a LG Paladin can't/won't work with other alignments is not fully true.

Sure, when it came out, I always thought of them as being like a Knight of the Round Table/Camalot/King Arthur, displaying the best of the best, showing others how one should be.

So with regards to wealth, since such "knights" had to come from a wealthy "family" to begin with (to be allowed to be trained as a squire then into the knighthood as a knight) the family had to be about to afford this.

Other "knights" (like in DragonLance), they could own land and build castles, what the rules say a "modest" or "small castle" is a grey area. Modest/small as compared to what?

Lord Soth's castle was HUGE!

The Knight's and their fortresses/castles had to be paid for as well. Is that part of getting rid of the individual's excessive wealth, but for the benefit of the knight's order? The order is wealthy while the individual remains "modest"?

The Solomnic Knights weren't an order of Paladins. They were an order of knights, some of whom were probably Paladins. The two orders working together aren't an example of Paladins working with evil, but rather LG knights working with evil for a greater good. The Paladin members may have objected and not gone, or perhaps went and atoned for it later.

 

[Fenris-77]

The two orders, LG and LE had to come together into one to fight a bigger threat (during the fifth age).

So the concept a LG Paladin can't/won't work with other alignments is not fully true.

So yeah, that's an example. It also doesn't change the rules from 1E, which would have prohibited the whole business if they were all Paladins, thus allowing Evil to consume the land. The example doesn't change how 'true' the rules are - the rules just are, and an example from relate fiction is only tangentially related.

 

[Lanefan]

For Lawful Evil paladins, try the Rose of the Prophet trilogy by Weiss & Hickman. A very interesting take.

Haven't read this in ages but it's sitting on the shelf three feet from me. Thanks for the tip!

 

[TwoSix]

If you read the Dresden Files(and I highly recommend them), Michael, Sanya and Shiro are very good examples of Paladins as well.

Agreed (especially with Sanya as a non-stereotypical paladin!), although I think the best representation of a paladin in a D&D-style setting is Paksenarrion from Elizabeth Moon's trilogy.

 

[pemerton]

The order is wealthy while the individual remains "modest"?

Well, that was (and is) true for many real-life religous orders.