Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!cepu!ucla-cs!reiher
From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Paladins
Message-ID: <5231@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 6-May-85 16:40:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.5231
Posted: Mon May  6 16:40:54 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 9-May-85 02:06:04 EDT
References: <544@udenva.UUCP> <5085@ukc.UUCP> <619@whuxl.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 33
Summary: 

In article <619@whuxl.UUCP> mike@whuxl.UUCP (BALDWIN) writes:
>I can well imagine a Zen Paladin.
>"what is the sound of one orc dying?"
>"Leather boots" :-)

I'm no Zen expert, but some of the koans I've heard suggest that a Zen paladin
would be likely to have a very short life span.  The one about the monk
achieving enlightenment just as the tiger finishes eating his unresisting body
doesn't bode well for a Zen Buddhist paladin's lifespan.

Seriously, though, paladins really only make sense for militant religions.
A Jewish paladin could be really interesting.  Imagine the fun of deciding
which monsters are kosher and which aren't.  And under what circumstances is
it permissible to smite a monster on the Sabbath?  Some Talmudic scholar with
a bent towards gaming could have a field day here.  As far as your major point
goes, I think that it is necessary to play Paladins, as written in AD&D, very
tight.  They have major powers which must be balanced by major restrictions.
Thus, the question of whether one is permitted to kill prisoners of CN 
alignment, for instance, or whether it is permissible to allow one's comrades
to use poison against CE nasties is the heart and soul of AD&D paladins.  If
you want to have paladins with more freedom of action, you would be well advised
to change their powers.

Finally, I'm getting sick and tired of people flaming the paladin concept
because the Church in the Middle Ages killed a bunch of people.  The paladin
concept is based on an idealized form of Christianity, true, but AD&D is
fantasy, anyway, so why not use a fantasy version of Christianity?  The excesses
of the Catholic Church are irrelevant, just as similar excesses by other
branches of Christianity.
-- 
        			Peter Reiher
        			reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher