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From: ncg@ukc.UUCP (N.C.Gale)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Paladins
Message-ID: <5085@ukc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Apr-85 06:51:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: ukc.5085
Posted: Sun Apr 28 06:51:05 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Apr-85 04:14:38 EDT
References: <544@udenva.UUCP>
Reply-To: ncg@ukc.UUCP (Nigel Gale)
Distribution: net
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Lines: 40


You think Paladins are a pain in the *, eh?
Listen, Smelly, my longest ever running character is a 9th level
Paladin, and if you think they are difficult to get on with,
you should try *playing* one.
It takes more than forever to achieve a worthwhile level, and in the
meantime, you're not allowed to do any of the obvious things that
Parties resort to: burning Oche Jellies, killing helpless CE creatures -
most of the really valuable decisions in our Party had to be made
while I was incapacitated.

but as to the question of what to do when a paladin is being played
as the equivalent level A***hole, that's easy:
You either remove, or suspend his Paladinhood. Give him (or her) a
(temporary?) compulsory change of alignment.

This happened several times to me, even when I played him impeccably:
The party once found some poison (gasp, horror), obviously we couldn't
use it, so we gave it to an NPC to sell, as a bonus.
For this generosity, my P'hood was suspended, I had to spend a
considerable amount of time wearing hair undergarments and beating
myself with birches. I very nearly had to get Atoned as well.

On another occasion we were lumbered with half a dozen Hobgoblin
prisonners. We couldn't keep them, but should we release them -
no, they're intrinsically evil, and would rush out raping and
killing innocent peasants the minute we let them loose. So we
killed them (humanely, like dangerous animals). Whups, there goes
the Paladinhood again.

There were a couple of times when I didn't play him impeccably,
and the same thing happened.

(shakes with frustration)

No one can call Paladins anything until they've been one, then they
know just how much of a burden a P'hood can be.

-Nige Gale