You Don't Have Any Actual Authority, Just Because You're A Paladin

Before we get started, I wanted to link 5 Tips For Playing Better Paladins at the top of this post. Useful for newer and experienced players alike, this post gets you thinking about this class.

The marketplace is bustling, and stall owners are hawking their wares at the top of their voices. Jewelry, tonics, fresh fish, and the finest dates you've ever tasted are all on offer. Then, from the corner of his eye, the paladin sees two kids stealing bread. He shouts at them, and they run. He gives chase, shouldering a wide swath, and demanding the thieves surrender. He runs them down, after several blocks, and when one puts up a fight, the NPC gets grappled for his trouble. A group of city guards round the corner, and the paladin hails them. Then he looks on in dumbfounded confusion when the guards demand he give himself up.

Easy way or the hard way, pal, it's all the same to me.

 

We sometimes get so caught up in being big damn heroes that we forget something important when it comes to our character sheets. Simply put, nowhere on the sheet is there a box labeled jurisdiction. And, many times, we forget that to our serious detriment.

Paladins Aren't Police Officers

The paladin is the epitome of the knight errant. One part Templar, and one part wandering hero, the paladin maintains a strict code of conduct to ensure his alignment remains both lawful and good. And, given that we know they have to act in the interests of good as meta information, we expect other people to trust them. However, nowhere in the class description does it say that a paladin is automatically granted the authority to enforce laws (his own, or anyone else's). The same statement holds true for the samurai, the cavalier, the gunslinger, or any other base class.

Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!

 

While there are background traits like law enforcer you can take, and prestige classes like Grand Marshal, Hellknight, or Eagle Knight which have authority in certain areas of the world, it's important to remember that at level one any authority you possess is entirely part of your character's story. It's something that comes from your creativity, and the niche you fill in your background, instead of something you're given as an unspoken class feature.

Which is why you need to check with your DM before you start busting heads.

Know The Law, If You're Going To Enforce It

RPGs are all about escapism, and storytelling. Which is why, generally speaking, the legal system is kept sort of vague. Like other parts of RPGs, the laws that govern cities, towns, and nations don't really come up unless someone violates the all-important Common Sense Doctrine (if it's a felony in the real world, it's probably a felony in this fantasy world, too), or the DM is purposefully doing a, "the players are now on the run from the cops, and have to prove their innocence," kind of plot.

Is diplomacy still an option? Tell me diplomacy is still an option?

 

If part of your character is that you uphold the law, however, you need to understand A) what law it is you're actually upholding, B) what your place in the hierarchy of legitimate authority is, and C) how far your authority extends, geographically.

For example, say that you are a first-level paladin. You talked with your DM, and your character operates as a sort of medieval fantasy version of the Texas rangers. If anyone in the nation puts out a call, you ride there to deal with the problem. That's your job; serve, protect, and follow your code. That makes explaining your character's presence in any situation really easy; you're there on orders. But you need to know who you work for, and what the extent of your authority is. Are you allowed to detain people? Can you make arrests? If you show up and there are a bunch of town guardsmen, do they have to obey your orders? Are you allowed to determine guilt and innocence yourself, and mete out the appropriate punishment, or is everyone allowed their day in front of the judge? What power do you have where foreigners, especially foreign dignitaries, are concerned? Do neighboring lands grant you a kind of reciprocity, extending goodwill towards you with the understanding that you will abide by that nation's rules and laws while working together?

Perhaps the most important question you need to ask concerning paladins is whether your paladin code is different from your oath of office. Because if that's the case, you might find yourself caught between promises, and have to make hard decisions.

This same logic goes for any PC you want to have legitimate authority. For example, if you're a noble, what does that let you do? Do you just have wealthy family and a lot of social connections? Or does your father, being the baron, mean that you have a de facto position of authority because your father governs this region? If your character is a guardsman, or a soldier, what can they do in terms of your adventure? Can your ranger flash his badge, and make someone step aside? Can the chaplain bark an order, and make militia members stand at attention, stop fighting, or fight a different enemy? If you're a cleric, inquisitor, or paladin with official standing as a priest, exorcist, etc. in a popular faith, does that give you any secular authority at all?

Lastly, though, you need to know if you still have any authority if you leave your starting area. If you're a small-town sheriff, or a watch detective in a certain city, can you go to another place and still do your job? Or are you given the, "this is our problem, and we don't need any backwoods/big city badges like you trying to do it for us," speech? Perhaps most importantly, though, does being a government officer in one place put you on a watch list for other countries? Eagle Knights are heroes in Andoran, but if one rides into Cheliax he can practically guarantee round-the-clock surveillance from government officials, and possibly several orders of the Hellknights. A member of the Risen Guard is a person to be treated with respect and deference in Osirion, but will she get that same treatment in a place like Quadira, who may still resent the loss of control over Osirion? After all, just because your badge means something at home, or where your organization holds sway, that doesn't mean it's recognized anywhere else.

These are all things you should work out with your DM before the game starts to be sure you're on the same page. It's important to remember that just because your cavalier is a member of The Order of The Lion, or your cleric serves the state god, that doesn't immediately grant you the privileges and powers that come with a badge, or being an appointed official.

That's all for this week's Fluff post. If you've used this strategy in your games, leave a comment below and let us know how it went for you!

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Absolute Good, Absolute Evil, and Alignment in RPGs

There is nothing more guaranteed to start a fight among tabletop gamers than talking about alignment. From paladins to necromancers, rogues to assassins, it seems that everyone has an opinion about the nine alignments used in Pathfinder, and in several editions of Dungeons and Dragons. However, while we can endlessly debate over whether or not raising the dead is inherently evil, or when killing someone is and isn't required, there is a bigger issue behind alignment that we rarely talk about.

Absolute good and absolute evil aren't just theoretical constructs in these games. They are genuine, universal forces.

Absolute is a good word. I'll add that to the contract.

Beyond Simple Morality

Morality, as we all know, is not universal. Morality is a construct that's made up of your past experiences, the values you were taught, the opinions you've formed, the religion you follow, the culture you're inundated by, and a thousand other facets. Two people, even people with similar backgrounds, who are faced with the same situation can have vastly different opinions on what the right thing to do is.

And that's in the real world, where we don't have the capacity to re-shape reality with a thought, and devils don't offer you power in exchange for obedience. In a world with magic and monsters, where the gods and their servants walk the earth and take a visible hand in world events, things can get a lot more complicated quite quickly.

Except for dogs. Dogs have no alignment, and usually no morality.

This is where the ideas of absolute good and absolute evil come into the picture. It is important to remember in any discussion about alignment in games like Dungeons and Dragons, or Pathfinder, that the world isn't one big ball of gray areas like we have in reality. Good and evil are real forces in this world, and there are both beings and places that are wholly made up of those forces. This is a world where angels and demons aren't myths or ideas, but real beings that will likely show up in your adventure at some point.

The implication of that is that there are universal truths when it comes to good and evil. These truths aren't flexible, or subject to personal opinion or cultural translation. In order for there to be absolutes, there must be a scale of good to evil that everyone falls on, and which is determined based on rules applied unilaterally. It also means that in every situation you face there are good answers, and evil answers, and that they could be graded like a fill-in-the-blank test.

As a system for fairness, it leaves a lot to be desired. It's what these games use, though, so we need to make sure we get a handle on it.

Determine What is Good, and What is Evil, in Your World

If you are playing a game that uses the nine alignments, something you should do is sit down with your group, and answer any and all questions they have regarding the nature of absolute good and absolute evil in your world.

For example, which acts are inherently good, or inherently evil? Is murder for hire, a requirement for the assassin prestige class, an inherently evil act? Alternatively, is defending the innocent or weak inherently good, regardless of your motivations behind doing it? Are you concerned only with the actions taken by the characters, or also with the reasons those actions are committed, and the situations in which they were committed?

Do we have rules for that? Tell me there's rules for that!

Most of the time alignment is something that sits in the background, not bothering anyone. But given that there are spells, magic items, and other things that have different effects based on your character's alignment, it's important to think about these things. Not just for clerics and paladins, but for all the characters in the game, PCs and NPCs alike. Because if there is such a thing as pure good and pure evil, then it means there is a scale you can judge someone on, regardless of who they are and where they come from.

However, that doesn't make alignment simpler than morality. It just means that you're trading in the complicated web of morality as a societal and personal construct, for the complex network of how good and evil applies to a game world with varying cultures and a vast, rich history. And you still have to figure out what a culture's values and morals are as a secondary layer over the concept of alignment.

Big weights for your brain to lift.

Alignments Aren't Ironclad... Remember That

Most of this post was meant to address the idea that, if there are such things as absolute good and absolute evil, then there is a scale that exists outside of cultural influence, or personal opinion of right and wrong. That scale is kept purposefully vague, but in order for it to work we all have to agree about the big issues regarding what acts are, or aren't, inherently good or evil throughout the scope of our games.

However, it's equally important to mention that PCs aren't robots with rigidly-defined programming. They're real people (or at least they should feel like real people), which means that alignment is nothing more than a general rating of their personality. You still have to look at who they are, what their life experiences have been, what they value, what they've been taught, and what their own personal morality is.

In short, you have to define your character specifically, so that you know which of the big, general boxes they fit in.

I see you found the neutral evil box. Welcome.

Too often we hold to the idea of a rigid alignment that a PC has to stay within at all times. A single step outside that parameter, and we insist they're no longer playing the proper alignment. However, it's important to remember that alignment is a meta concept, and that it's fluid. It isn't meant to represent every action a character ever takes; it's simply a dipstick you can use to get a general feeling of who they are, and how they're likely to act.

Honor, and keeping your word, are concepts that fall on the lawful side of the coin. However, that doesn't stop a character with barbarian levels from keeping his word, along with his chaotic alignment. Especially if he banks on his promises as a form of social currency. Being flexible and adaptable to changing situations are generally associated with chaotic alignments, but that doesn't preclude a lawful character from being able to rapidly shift gears to meet a changing situation. Oppressing the free will of others is an evil characteristic, but that doesn't preclude an evil baron from being genuinely concerned for the welfare of his vassals within the scope of his own laws and proclamations. People are complicated, and there's no way to say for certain what someone will or won't do. Which is why it's important to think about their morality and personal motivations first, and to ask how those fit into the alignment scheme second.

Alignment can change and shift, often dramatically. But it's not something that typically happens all at once; you need to re-orient your motivations, beliefs, and actions so that you've leaped into another box.

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What is Chivalry?

Everyone's heard the word chivalry at some point in their lives. Some of us (paladin players, I'm looking at you) probably have delusions that we live our lives in a chivalrous way. We open doors for women, stand until the guests are seated, and we offer a hearty handshake while making eye contact. We don't lie, we don't steal, and we generally turn down monetary gifts offered to us by old women for helping them cross the street.

Generally

Whatever good things it is we do that we think of as part of a code tends to make us feel noble, at least for a moment or two. Knights without their shining armor, we are the errant servants of the realm. Without us the world would surely be a darker, danker place.

Congratulations, you have no idea what chivalry actually is.

All Right Smart Guy, What is Chivalry?

Well since you asked, I'll tell you.

The word chivalry that we know comes from the French word chevalier. The word cheval is French for "horse," and so a chevalier was the warrior who rode him. This word would be corrupted and bastardized until it became the English word cavalier. In short the original idea of chivalry (which came out under Charlemagne in the 700's and was codified in the 900's) was how good you were as a mounted warrior.

Chivalry, motherfucker, do you use it?

The chivalry that the mounted tanks of the Dark Ages knew was very different from the diluted code of noble conduct that many modern folks think of (more on that here). In its barest form it was a measure of bravery, combat skill, and battlefield valor. As time went on and the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries rolled around though the Romance genre was born.

We know what happens then.

So, What Happened?

Chivalry as a code of conduct had been evolving along with the knights of Europe and the culture they fought in. Originally a list of requirements for boosting one's reputation as a mounted warrior, it grew into a system codifying how a knight needed to behave sometime around the Crusades. It was mostly concerned with combat (over half of the rules referred to "warrior codes" as seen here), but there were also huge swaths of the code dedicated to the display of heraldry and what was appropriate to wear and show at what times. There were parts about protecting the weak and downtrodden, as well as refusing monetary rewards for services performed, but by and large they fell into the background. There were also codes in place for how knights should act toward women (noble women, at any rate), but they were generally concerned with making sure that proper titles, compliments, and etiquette were maintained. Because it seems that no matter what era we exist in, men have no fucking clue how to talk to women.

Anyway, what happened with the Romanticists (capital "R" on this one) got hold of it is pretty much what happens when your favorite gritty drama falls into the hands of fan fiction enthusiasts.

Shit

Yep, the same folks who gave us the softer parts of the Arthurian legend, and who whitewashed the 12 Peers along with knights as a whole (sort of like of Game of Thrones was written by David Eddings instead of George R. R. Martin) pretty much shooed away all the bits about dueling etiquette and which insults and offenses were considered worthy of bloodletting. Instead they focused on ideas of "courtly love," paying more attention to balls, dances, and the kinds of praise used by knights to flatter and uphold noblewomen. They also spent an unhealthy amount of time on stories about knights breaking all codes of chivalry to fuck their sworn lieges' wives, and thus was the romance genre as we know it born.

That's It?

Glossing over the finer details, yep, that's pretty much what it's about. So the next time you don't hold a door for someone and you get a roll of the eyes and a comment like, "looks like chivalry is dead," you should jaw jack them for questioning your honor.

Unless they're not Christian. Or of noble birth. I think at that point it is your duty as a chivalrous individual to slay them and carry the head through the streets on the tip of a bared sword to make your point. The French translation is sort of funny though, so check that last to be sure you're not supposed to use a cherry wood pole. That kind of mistake would be embarrassing.

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