Suggestions on a path and/or faction to pursue
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Currently playing a Paladin class character who worships the Triad and most specifically Torm. /topic/4007 This is his back story to date. My need for advice comes in the matter that most of the factions I've been researching request a low level character and I'm currently a level four, so I need to progress his story more before I can progress his level. His devotion to Torm dictates that he must be loyal and dutiful, and so, he seeks to find a patron organization to which he may serve the light and act in the tenants of his faith. From what I have seen so far, The Knights of the Merciful Sword are no longer active or they are rarely active and currently no longer reside in the city and so there isn't really a faith based organization to join. Looking for advice on any ideas to help advance his story since paladins are supposed to take an oath and pledge their service to the faith and I am unsure on how to go about such while still maintaining overall connection with the stories unfolding in Arabel.
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Hang out with the Red Harts. They probly fit the best with what your talking about I'd say. If your guy doesn't agree with them though, nothing to stop you trying to form your own group. You dont need to join a DM faction to be involved in all the stories at all, just go round and talk to people, ask what evils lurk around, and who is fighting them, and how, and how you can help. you'll get involved pretty quickly if you simply ask people what major troubles there are in the region, and offer your help.
Red Harts is just a suggestion though. I mean, ask about other factions, see if any need 'cleaning up' you could join a faction and try to change it's outlook for instance.
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I shall start trying to seek out members of the Red Hart to see if I would fit in with them. The main wrench in my plot machinations is that although my character is technically a paladin class, in terms of story elements, he has taken no formal oaths, so for all intensive purposes he is merely a warrior who prays all the time and not actually a paladin and I'm kind of stuck how to actually go about "taking paladin vows" within the story of the server.
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Just make up your own vows, dude - create a story, run with it and make some awesome happen.
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Thank both of you for your help and suggestions. Using some of your suggestions, as well as some ideas born from not being able to sleep tonight, I believe I have come up with a decent deus ex machina to keep my character's story flowing. Now lets try to sleep so I can survive my shift and get back online tonight.
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@latoksinned:
… I'm kind of stuck how to actually go about "taking paladin vows" within the story of the server.
The Red Harts could actually guide you through this. Go to them and explain things IC. There are knights focussed on Nobanion, Helm, The Red Knight. You could set up some really good RP with this and in the process create story. You really need another Paladin to witness your vow. No other character really understands the Paladin or his vows except another Paladin.
Creating your own story by "Just making up your own vows, dude" is cool and relatively easy. However, it doesn't involve others. How much cooler if you find a Knight to mentor you through the process. A knight who can then challenge you when you fail and assist you in the process of atonement. Oh, and make sure your character fails sometimes. A Perfect character is so two dimentional as to be tedious. So, you have a vow. Allow the knight to break it for a sensible reason.
Working through these issues will create far more colour for your character than the vows themselves. It's how you fulfil the vows and the affect of those vows on others around you that will entice players to interact with you.
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Red Harts aren't your typical paladins, however. Take note that they are mostly fighters and from my experience, alot of paladins end up trying and not joining due to a variety of reasons.
Alas, church-based factions also meet a quick end, because you're unable to recruit enough people of your own faith to keep going.
Coincidentally, I was in the process of setting up a "goody good" paladin/champion style faction when I was elected leadership of another faction I was a member of.
So I might approach you to take over the entire thing.
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If you're a paladin class, then you have taken the vows automatically to your deity. You can't be a paladin with divine powers unless you took a vow somehow, or else your god would take them away.
If you're searching for a group IG to attach to, then you will find very few. Paladins, as a rule, are loners due to their views and outlook. You'd have to search hard to find other goodly allies.
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I'm playing one of the Red Harts' resident paladins.
Firstly, thanks for starting the thread, I just learned some valuable things, myself.
Now, while of the three Red Hart characters I currently see active regularly, two are Paladins, the Order itself is not a paladin order. They're a religious group of knights in shining armour, but at closer inspection, if you want to translate their mentality, vows, and such into mechanical classes, they're at least as much rangers as they're paladins.
They're cool to 'hang out with', and being a generally lawful and good faction, they'd probably get along with you. But I can't guarantee they're the right place for any given paladin. And after all, DM factions are not the only imaginable source for adventure.Khamal has a good point. It's hard to get along with people when you're a paladin. I've been having trouble getting along with pretty much everyone, including other paladins, on moral grounds. I'm not easy to get along with as a person, granted, but even taking that into account, Khamal's got it right. It's what you get for being self-righteous.
Since the topic of failing your vows has risen, if anyone here has experience, how long does it actually take for a fallen Paladin to sufficiently atone? Is it a matter of days? Months? Or should a story of atonement be expected to be an epic tale spanning a year and a half?
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Since the topic of failing your vows has risen, if anyone here has experience, how long does it actually take for a fallen Paladin to sufficiently atone? Is it a matter of days? Months? Or should a story of atonement be expected to be an epic tale spanning a year and a half?
All fallen paladins become angry, resentful and hate the world, thus becoming blackguards. So in that effort: Find some evil friends, invest in bluff, then backstab them all with GREAT JUSTICE once you have proof of their crimes. That should do.
I think Jagged is the only one (in the past year) that has fallen and actually regained his paladinhood. All other cases tend to die, drift towards evil or reclass as fighter/whatever.
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How long did it take Jagged?
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Didnt seem to be very long to me. but I wasnt paying massive attention to be honest,
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I forgot to mention that I played a paladin in the Red Harts and I had very few close allies.
Paladins are a class that has to really forge their own path and inspire others to follow them. Paladins are not followers, they are leaders, and should be on the fore-front of creating awesome. Paladins shouldn't spend their time seeking allies and wandering the Guildhall. They should be open and visible to everyone. If people don't know you're a paladin, they you aren't doing it right. Evil players should avoid you, or at least, should be working against you at all times.
My Hart was dedicated to eradicating the Grodd and lycans. She declared her intentions and eventually found the elven PC faction to cling to. So she had a few elves and the other Harts as her only friends.
Without them, she had to be careful who she associated with. Yes it was lonely at times, but that's the downside of being a paladin class, especially in the majority grey area of the CoA culture.
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I don't even remember Jagged playing a character let alone a Paladin.
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Rexahr Rakhal (spelling?), the lean, mean smiting machine. I think he holds the record for highest damage in one hit to date. Just what we'd expect from him.
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Join gilded times and write goodly stories?
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@Khamal:
If you're a paladin class, then you have taken the vows automatically to your deity. You can't be a paladin with divine powers unless you took a vow somehow, or else your god would take them away.
I attempted to explain in the back story that he is sworn to the Triad, but that he is pretty much running on research pertaining to what a paladin is and what they are supposed to do. He was also a lay-member of the church of Tyr before leaving to find his path as a paladin. Essentially for class specifics he is a paladin, swears allegiance to Torm and the Triad, does good deeds, acts within the dogma of his religion, but he has no formal knighthood, title, or recognition as a paladin bestowed by an outside source.
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I would not advise you to make your character's development hinge upon admission into a DM faction. You could always try to start a paladin order as a player faction.
Personally, I've been watching Landon for a while now, and I think he's just ducky.
(And there is an outside source which recognizes his being a paladin - Torm. He just doesn't have knighthood to go along with it.)
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I have been thinking through what everyone has said here and I feel a good point that continues being made is that conflict and inner demons inspire deeper meaning, personality, and story arcs. Perhaps one of his ongoing struggles could be people looking down on him or not taking him seriously due to lack of knighthood, or perhaps the struggle of continuing to be a minority faith in the city and attempting to find his place. The overall consensus Ive gathered is that there should always be one goal that is near unobtainable so the life and trials of the character contine to unfold. Perchance he needs to grow to worry less about the organizations of mortals and more about his duty to Torm. Well you have all given me a great deal to work with and I thank you all, we shall see where Landon's interactions and relationships lead him.
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You don't need to actually join a Knightly Faction such as the Red Harts to gain benefit and story from interacting with them. Working with them as one of the most obvious Lawful Good factions would be fairly logical. They don't hold Torm as a core deity of theirs and thus being separate might seem a good idea, but they do uphold the Paladin's Values of Law and Goodness and as such could provide role-models that an independent paladin might seek to aspire to. There would be nothing wrong with finding a Paladin inside the Red Harts and asking them to mentor you, yet remaining outside the faction and following your own path. In fact, it might actually be a wise thing to do. You get a mentor not a boss. You get someone who is outside your life and problems to aid and advise you with a fresh outlook. And, you don't have to obey them, which is where Paladins inside the Order have become unstuck as their orders clash with their Paladin oaths.
