Any Class Can Be A Knight (More Thoughts on Outside-The-Box Character Presentation)

Something I've repeated time and time again on this blog is that your character class is just a word that describes a certain package of skills your character possesses. Those skills and abilities are neutral regarding your story, provided your story in no way goes against the description of your skills.

What does that mean in plain English? Well, just because your character is a monk, that doesn't mean you are required to play a fantasy Shaolin monk, or even have studied at a monastery. You could just as easily be a member of an elite group of soldiers rigorously trained in secret fighting techniques. You could be a defender of nature, tapping into the flow of the green's energy all around you to accomplish superhuman tasks by borrowing the powers of dangerous beasts (the self-healing of a lizard, the leap of a monkey, the stunning speed of a viper, etc., etc.). Hell, you could just be a back-alley bruiser who, through a lifetime of breaking bones and busting heads, has stumbled upon a kind of strange, violent zen that makes you more dangerous than any berserker.

None of this is new from me, and if you read my old piece What's In A Name? How Your Character's Class is Limiting Your Creativity, you've probably heard this song before. And if you've seen my article 5 Tips For Playing Better Monks, then you might not be surprised by my example paragraph. However, there is a question I see time and time again on the groups I hang out on that I want to talk about. Something that I think could yield some truly legendary characters if we stopped and gave it some thought.

"What's the best character class for a knight?"

Depends... what do you want to play?

My answer to this question, and one that's gotten both push back and enthusiasm in almost equal measure, is simple; any class.

Have You Read Any Arthurian Lore?

As has been pointed out by memes no-doubt created by literature majors, the Knights of The Round Table were more than just a group of men trained to the sword and the lance. They were, in short, the front line of one of the most batshit anime teams you've ever seen.

We all know Lancelot, and the fact that as long as he kept his vows that he had the strength of ten men. That isn't an exaggeration, either; we're talking some Samson level destructive capacity, here. But what about some of the others?

Seriously, we NEED a series (or at least a comic) about this nonsense.

Take Sir Kay, for instance. You might remember him as Arthur's foster brother, and all-around bully in The Sword in The Stone. While later legends stated he was a braggart and occasional fool, Kay also possessed a heart of ice that made him immune to fear. He could go nine days and nine nights without the need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, and at will he could grow to the height of the tallest tree. Or what about his companion, Sir Bedivere? A man who was perfectly handsome but for his one missing hand, who killed men by the hundreds, and who was Arthur's butler and the steward of the royal court? Two lesser-known knights, Sir Marrok and Sir Gorlagon were both goddamn werewolves!

The list goes on and on.

But That's Not What I Meant!

One of the most common responses from the push back side of this conversation is that these players or DMs have a specific, unspoken set of skills their knight concept must possess. They're looking for a mounted warrior capable of using a wide variety of weapons, and moving about freely in heavy armor.

However, that isn't necessarily a knight. Ringo Starr is a knight, for god's sake.

Just in case you thought I was leaving the bards out of this.

You don't have to be a particular character class to be a knight, anymore than you need to be a specific class to be a priest, or a noble. Hell, the Blackbriar and Stonejaw families in my Baker's Dozen of Noble Families have just as many barbarians and druids in them as they do any other character class.

The reason why is simple; the words we're using to describe these concepts are not directly connected to the skill list of a character class. Anyone can be born into a noble family, or raised to noble status by a monarch. Anyone, once ordained, can be a priest regardless of any connection (or lack thereof) to the divine. Anyone can be a knight, as long as they're tapped on the shoulder and given their honor.

Because sure, a canny fighter who comported themselves with honor on the battlefield might be knighted. A squire might be raised to the position of knight after years of training and hard-fought battles... but why would a kingdom in a fantasy world not have evokers who were knights? Or warrior monks whose intense regimen and training made them ideal bodyguards in a room where no weapons were permitted? Or even warlocks or magi, who blend steel and sorcery into a single, deadly art form?

There's no doubt that, "Figure on horse in heavy armor with socketed lance," is definitely a (and I hate this term) realistic description of a historical knight. But our history is kind of irrelevant if we're playing in a fantasy realm that is not, and has never been, Earth.

So the next time you sit down to make a knight, you can make the stereotypical elite warrior who also acts as a lord and defender of the realm. But you're making a character in a fantasy world... why wouldn't that world embrace other options? Even if it's just a side step into playing a barbarian knight whose strength doubles when battle is joined, roaring so loudly they cow their opponents and growing thrice their normal size?

Because that kind of character also has their roots in the traditional myths that we're playing with. But if you want the best class options for a mounted warrior, or a melee specialist who wears heavy armor, then that is what you should ask for advice about. Because those things, at least, are directly connected to a class's skill set.

And if you're looking for some truly unusual knightly orders, from the mourning colors of the Grave Wardens to the mismatched finery of the Dishonorable Fellows of The Black Standard, then you might want to take a look at my recently-released 100 Knightly Orders from Azukail Games!

Like, Share, and Follow!

That's all for this week's Fluff installment. Hopefully it got some creative wheels out there turning!

If you'd like to see more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archive, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or, if you're in a mood to pick up some new fiction, you could jump over to My Amazon Author Page to grab one of my books... like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

To stay on top of all my updates, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter! And if you'd like to support me, consider leaving me a tip by Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Every little bit helps me keep making content just like this!

Why Are We So Intent On Screwing With Paladin Alignment?

I've covered all kinds of topics on this blog, and in my work for other gaming sites. In all the topics I've talked about, though, nothing generates page views, comments, and shares like paladins. 5 Tips For Playing Better Paladins remains of my most popular pieces in my InfoBarrel archive, and anytime someone brings up my piece You Don't Have Any Actual Authority Just Because You're A Paladin, there is always a spike in traffic. Love the class or hate it, people always want to talk about it, and I think I've finally figured out why.

Because paladins are superman.

Not sure where you're going with this one, exactly...

Men of Steel, Creeds of Iron

All right, let's back up a second so I can establish some baseline points. In games like Pathfinder, and 3.5, the paladin base class must maintain a lawful good alignment or it loses most of its class features. They can worship good gods, or no gods, but that alignment is ironclad. If they change from lawful good to any other alignment, their powers go bye bye. While games like 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons have removed this alignment restriction, it is still very much a requirement in other games.

But why?

Well, a big part of it is that the paladin is drawing on specific myths and source material. There are several myths in Arthurian lore, for instance, where knights were considered unstoppable until they broke their vows, and lost their strength. Lancelot is perhaps the most famous, because whether his love was or was not true, consummating it betrayed the vows he'd made to his king, and his god. Myths about the lengths Sir Gawain went to keep his word, or about the way Tristan refused to give in to temptation, also play into this theme.

The point of these myths, and which seems to be what the alignment restriction is there to enforce, is that paladins are both good and just. It isn't just that they are trying to do the right thing, but that they must do so according to the vows they've sworn, and the code they follow. Whether it's something like a fantasy version of chivalry, or oaths they've made to the divine like Samson in the Old Testament, paladins have to have both in order to embody this particular archetype.

That's where Superman comes into the picture.

This has got to be some kind of magic armor to never get tattered.

 

Superman, it could be argued, is the most iconic superhero in the genre. There were masked men, vigilantes, and crime fighters before him, but he was something new. It's one reason he's survived so many decades, and remained such a major pop culture figure. However, if you were asked to list the things people know about Superman, you'd likely get super strength, super speed, and flight, before someone mentioned that he was a goody two shoes. He always does the right thing, because he is thematically (one might even argue cosmically) good.

And that bores a lot of people.

Sure, I get that. Some of us don't like heroes who act like heroes. We like hard-edged tough guys, driven antiheroes, or uncompromising hard cases who go their own way to get the job done. That's why characters like Jonah Hex, The Question, Wolverine, and several different versions of Batman still have followings.

But that isn't Superman.

I don't think this is really a contentious statement, because anytime something has happened where writers have tried to make Superman darker, or edgier, or less heroic, even the fans who claimed he was boring raised their voices against those decisions. Because that goes against the grain of the character, and what he was designed to represent. Truth, Justice, and Tolerance (before it was changed to The American Way during our national obsession with communism). And pretty much without fail, the comics always return to his good, heroic roots.

The same thing happens with the paladin. Because that lawful good alignment restriction isn't just a check placed on the class's power (though it could be argued it serves that function, as well, preventing them from using certain abilities, or taking levels in certain classes, which would be deemed too powerful from a game balance standpoint), it is also statement of the class's purpose. Paladins don't have to be knights, they don't have to be nobles, and they can be of any race, age, or ethnicity. But the thing they share is a dedication to a single purpose; righteousness, and adherence to their code.

The Gods Have Nothing To Do With It

One of the most common misconceptions is that paladins are like clerics; they serve a god. So why couldn't, say, a neutral evil paladin serve a neutral evil god, maintaining all their class features as long as they remain within that alignment instead?

Because, as mentioned above, paladins are not expressly servants of a particular god. They are not imbued with the might of a single, divine being whom they represent on the material plane as a kind of avatar. They are forces of good, and of law, which is why they have that particular alignment restriction.

The one on the left, in case you're not sure.

 

If you read the entries for classes like the cleric, or the inquisitor, they are specifically attuned to a god. That's the source from which their powers flow. But while paladins cast divine spells, very little attention is paid to them serving a god. Instead, emphasis is placed on their code, which dictates how they use their strength, and what actions they take to fulfill their oaths and vows. Emphasis is placed on their alignment, rather than on the alignment of the god (if any) that they serve.

That, of course, suggests that for the paladin, what is just and right takes precedence over church and god. It is, in a very real sense, what the class draws its power from. And that is why, if the paladin steps away from that path, she shuts the door on that power, and cannot use it again until she has atoned for the decisions that made her step away from righteousness in the first place.

When it comes to heroes, you might prefer yours operating within shades of gray, if not outright darkness. That's perfectly fine. But a paladin is a force of good, and that is what powers their strength, and grants them their abilities. Taking that away pulls the heart out of what the class is about, and makes it into something else. Especially in a game like Pathfinder, where you have clerics, warpriests, inquisitors, and a dozen other classes that all operate similarly to paladins, but within those darker areas.

Not all heroes have to be shining examples of good. Some of them, though, really do.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed the film, and it provides you all with the same sort of inspiration it did me!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!