Pathfinder 1E Acceptable Paladin Deities

[koesherbacon]

One of my players just asked whether Paladins can worship any deity or do they have to be within 1 step of LG in a similar way that a Cleric must be within 1 step of their deity.

He wants to play as a Paladin of Gorum, which I don't have any significant problems with, so if it's not allowed by the rules I might house-rule it.

We've already discussed that a CN deity like Gorum's Paladins would still be LG, but they would be abiding by the deity's rules and laws, not necessarily the laws of wherever they happen to be.

Thanks for clarifying this for us.

 

[delericho]

Strictly speaking, a Paladin doesn't have to worship a god at all - she can derive her powers directly from Good. Presumably, then, such a Paladin could choose to give worship to any Good or Neutral deity of his choice, under much the same arrangement (they're a Paladin because of Good, but they happen to worship a non-Good deity).

A Paladin couldn't worship an Evil deity, because of the restrictions on associates - although a Paladin could work with a Cleric of such a god short-term to deal with a greater threat, it's not really possible to see how the Paladin herself could worship the deity long-term and consider it an alliance against a greater threat.

Finally, note that the Paladin's alignment restrictions and code don't vary (per RAW) based on the deity they follow - so a Paladin who also worships a CN deity is still herself required to be LG. This may well put her at odds with her deity quite frequently, since although Lawful doesn't mean "obeys the law", it does imply respect for the concept of laws, and order, structure, and society. A Chaotic deity, by contrast, not only doesn't care for such things, but is actually diametrically opposed to them. So that would be a tricky line for the Paladin to walk.

 

[Starfox]

You have to look at each patron on a case-by-case basis.

Gorum is CN, but he has a fixed concept - combat prowess, elitism, and development through trials and fights. A paladin could probably work around these concepts in a lawful good manner. Technically he could not worship Gorum, but many of Gorums tenets could fit a paladin. Such a paladin would often clash with the church of Forum, because of the alignment differences, but could respect the deity.

Calistra on the other hand is also CH, a deity of revenge, seduction, and prostitution. Not a good fit for a paladin.

 

[James Jacobs]

First off... whatever works best for any one GM's game is always the right answer. What follows is the official in-Golarion answer, but feel free to adjust as you wish for your game.

On Golarion, paladins don't HAVE to worship a deity, but the vast majority do. Those who do worship a deity need to worship one that's either lawful or good... and it's best if it's a deity who's lawful good. Golarion has paladins of all the lawful neutral, lawful good, and neutral good deities (although in some cases, like Irori, those paladins are relatively small in overall number compared to deities like Iomedae, Abadar, and Sarenrae, who have a LOT of paladins).

There are no paladins of Gorum, because a paladin simply can't worship Gorum and remain lawful good—and being lawful good is what being a paladin is all about. Becasue...

If you're worshiping Gorum like a religious character should, and are correctly following Gorum's teachings... you're not interested in good or evil, and you're doing a lot of actions in your religious rites and practices that are fundamentally chaotic in nature, and as a result, your alignment will shift to chaotic relatively swiftly. And once your alignment shifts away from lawful, you become an ex-paladin.

If you're keeping your lawful good alignment by doing things that are lawful and good but still claim to be worshiping Gorum, you're really only doing lip-service to Gorum and not really worshiping him at all. At BEST you're a heretic, but with that huge a difference in alignment, it's more likely you're blaspheming. In either case, claiming to belong to a group (in this case, the faith of Gorum) but behaving fundamentally unlike a member of that group is expected to behave is a chaotic act, and as such you'll soon shift to a chaotic alignment anyway. And as soon as you shift away from lawful, you become an ex-paladin (and are likely to be hunted by Gorum worshipers eager to put you down for being a blasphemer).

You CAN be an antipaladin of Gorum, but that's an entirely different character!

 

[delericho]

First off... whatever works best for any one GM's game is always the right answer. What follows is the official in-Golarion answer...

Honestly, how are we supposed to have a proper Paladin thread if people are going to pop up with definitive answers?

If you're keeping your lawful good alignment by doing things that are lawful and good but still claim to be worshiping Gorum, you're really only doing lip-service to Gorum and not really worshiping him at all. At BEST you're a heretic, but with that huge a difference in alignment, it's more likely you're blaspheming. In either case, claiming to belong to a group (in this case, the faith of Gorum) but behaving fundamentally unlike a member of that group is expected to behave is a chaotic act, and as such you'll soon shift to a chaotic alignment anyway.

That's a really good point, and not something I had considered when I wrote my first post. In light of which, my previous post is clearly in error.