DnD/Class Handbooks/Paladins/Call of Duty - Paladin

Call of Duty – A Paladin’s Sourcebook: Chapter 3: A Variety of Paladins
violating the Code of Conduct? You may never
use these skills, but might use them quite often,
especially if there is an evil government to fight.
Consider the campaign world.
Roleplaying: The rogue/paladin is sometimes
considered a curious combination. However, not if
you remember what a rogue really is. From the
Player’s Handbook: “Rogues don’t have much in
common with each other. Some are stealthy
thieves. Others are silver-tongued tricksters. Still
others are scouts, infiltrators, spies, diplomats or
thugs.”
A paladin who is also a scout or diplomat is
very reasonable, and some paladins could even
be infiltrators or spies against evil organizations.
This is exactly the purpose of the undetectable
alignment spell.
The paladin is an “identity” class and is as far
away from being a “skill set” as possible, while the
rogue is the definition of a “skill set” class. Some
rogue/paladins may be scoundrels turned good
guy, but others may have been pretty good guys
all along, and just possess some skills more
appropriate for a spy, diplomat, or scout than for a
warrior.
Some rogue/paladins tend to skirt the edge of
the Code, and sometimes seek atonement
quite a bit for bending or breaking the
rules. Some players may see this as a
weakness; others see it as an
endless opportunity for fun as
you try to find how far you
can go.
However, your
rogue/paladin might be an
honorable knight who shuns armor
and uses only light weapons. The rogue
levels just define his style of fighting.
It takes a rogue to catch a rogue, and
this type of character might focus on fighting
evil rogues and assassins. Interaction with
old friends from a shady past could be
interesting.
Sorcerer/Paladin: The Arcane Defender
Gameplay: High Charisma anyone?
This combination has a lot of
potential as long as the
levels are not taken
evenly. One level of
sorcerer can be a big
help to paladins by
giving them useful spells
like shield and true strike
(cast before smiting evil,
just to be sure) and a
familiar to scout around,
48
preferably a raven or other flyer. More levels of
sorcerer can grant spells like bull’s strength, but
this is probably not the optimal path. A single level
of paladin gives the sorcerer a great bonus to
saving throws with divine grace, and a boost to hit
points at low levels.
Roleplaying: Force of personality is likely to
be the most outstanding trait of this character.
Arcane magic comes naturally to him, and yet the
forces of good called him to a different path.
Conservative orders of paladins may regard his
sorcerous abilities as strange and unbefitting, so
this type of character might wish to work outside
such a group (maybe with a motley party of
adventurers...). However, characters with more
sorcerer levels than paladin levels may serve to
counter enemy magic for paladin orders during
large conflicts.
This archetype might be especially repulsed
by evil magic, and seek to defeat evil sorcerers
and wizards before all other enemies.
Wizard/Paladin: The Other Arcane Defender
Gameplay: The sorcerer/paladin is a better
choice than this if you want just one or two
spellcasting levels, but if you want to
have more spellcasting levels than
paladin levels, this option gives you
access to higher-level spells and
more feats. Unfortunately, paladins
and wizards require completely
different ability scores. To a wizard,
Intelligence, Dexterity and
Constitution are most important,
while the opposite is true for
paladins. This combination is not
recommended from a powergaming
point of view.
Roleplay: Paladins who feel
like they can serve the forces of
good more by studying magic would
logically multiclass into wizard as
soon as possible. Wizards may
hear the call to become a
paladin early in their career
and abandon their studies,
probably upsetting their
masters and whoever
funded their
education, if
anyone. The
dichotomy of
this class
combination
makes this a cool
roleplaying choice.