Reasons for a paladin to fall . . . with a twist

[Seonaid]

Ever since I perused shilsen's "bad paladin" thread, I've wanted to play a fallen paladin, but since paladins (fallen or not) tend to be fairly one-dimensional (as mentioned many times), I decided I wanted to play someone who thought s/he was fallen, but who in actuality was not. With my DM's permission, I would play him/her with "intrinsic" abilities still functioning at top form (divine grace, etc.) but the "hands-on" ones either not at all or in a sporadic fashion (no mount, etc.).

My problem is that I can't think of a good reason why a paladin would think s/he is fallen but the god/dess wouldn't. It would most likely be something like a "rock and a hard place" scenario where the paladin was forced to make a decision where neither option was really the path of LG.

If it helps, the setting is 3.0/3.5 FR, the character is 12th-level, and I'm just joining a campaign that is not new (i.e., it's been going on for a bit).

 

[DragonTurtle]

Guilt over not saving an innocent. However in reality the innocent was anything but.

 

[DragonTurtle]

Actually in an attempt to give your DM a plot hook, the "innocent" may not even be dead, the paladin only thinks he/ she is.

 

[Alhazred]

DragonTurtle has a good point. The paladin thinks he failed to save an innocent and, consequently, he unconsciously blocks attempts to Detect Evil, Lay on Hands, Cure Disease, casting spells and attracting a mount. However, since he hasn't fallen, the instrinsic abilities (chiefly Divine Grace) still function without the paladin realising it.

 

[Alhazred]

double post

 

[blargney the second]

How about a decision that you had to make that forced you to be lawful XOR good? The deity approved overall of your decision, but you don't know that.

 

[Nifft]

Sure, sounds nifty -- the best reason IMHO for a Paladin to wrongly think he's fallen would be false orthodoxy. He thinks he's broken some holy doctrine, when in fact his deity is quite forgiving -- intent of the law vs. letter of the law, Good over Lawful, that kind of conflict.

-- N

 

[anton1066]

Why not instead, have it be a conflict between church and diety. The Palidin's supperiors gave him a dirrect order that he refused. But unbeknownst to the Palidin the diety agrees with the palidins choice.

 

[DragonTurtle]

I like those ideas as well, gives the paladin a chance to adventure away from the church.

 

[fusangite]

My problem is that I can't think of a good reason why a paladin would think s/he is fallen but the god/dess wouldn't. It would most likely be something like a "rock and a hard place" scenario where the paladin was forced to make a decision where neither option was really the path of LG.

I think you should go the opposite route. In your shoes, I would draw my inspiration from Christ's dispute with the Pharisees. Christ argued the the Law should serve mankind rather than mankind serving the Law. The Pharisees argued that God would never force people to choose between the Mosaic covenant and doing the right thing -- following the covenant would always be the right thing. So, my view is this: he clearly grossly violated the letter of his paladin code in order to do good. He believes that it is never right to breach the code; his god disagrees. I think this is also a good way to get in touch with the Christian themes the paladin class evokes while still operating in a place like Faerun. Parenthetically, the parable of the Good Samaritan is actually about this -- the Samaritans were notorious amongst the Judeans for not adhering to the Law; thus, the priest who knows that he will have broken the Law if he touches the body beside the road, if it turns out to be dead, will not help the wounded man; the Samaritan, on the other hand, helps him because he doesn't care that much about the Law. I think working out the difference between the letter and spirit of the paladin code would be a great theme around which to build a character.