Paladin

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Paladin is a character class in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and later role-playing games, many of which were influenced by D&D. The class is loosely based on the paladins of medieval romance.

Dungeons and Dragons

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, paladin is one of the base character classes. The paladin is a holy knight, crusading in the name of good and order, and is a divine spellcaster. By definition and game restriction, paladins are always of the Lawful Good alignment. Paladin characters are expected to demonstrate and embody goodness and law - they are not supposed to lie or use poison, and some interpretations say they should use stealth, missile weapons, and other forms of impersonal warfare only as a last resort. Switching to any alignment other than Lawful Good or breaching part of the Paladin's code of conduct results in a loss of all class abilities. The paladin is a champion of justice and destroyer of evil protected and strengthened by an array of divine powers. Most of these powers relate to providing benefits to those around the paladin. These include healing and curing of disease, morale in combat and turning of undead. Most of the abilities are similar to but of a lower level than the cleric's abilities.

The classic view of the paladin is that of the knight in shining armor. The character the class was derived from ( Holger Carlson, from Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions), was such a figure, but being a knight is by no means a requirement of being a paladin. They do often join an order, or serve a church, but they can also act on their own.

The epic paladin stands in the forefront of the battle against chaos and evil in the world, shining as a beacon of hope to all who fight the good fight.

Later editions brought forward the more generalised concept of the "paladin" just being the pinnacle of combat related to a particular religious organisation. This allowed "paladins" of various gods that were of an alignment other than Lawful Good. All "paladins" had a code or set of rules that must be followed but because of the differences in point of view between the alignments the rules governing behavior changed from order to order. This allowed for one of the more heinous villains in the game setting, the "Anti-Paladin". A complete and utter opposite of a proper paladin he is one of the dark champions of an evil order. Everything about him is a twisted visage of a paladin. Where the paladin is charismatic in a charming or trustworthy way, an anti-paladin's charisma came from being frightening or manipulative. A paladin's abilities were also mocked with the anti-paladin's abilities like "Harm" "Cause Disease" and "Cause Fear". These were never recommended as player characters.

World of Warcraft

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In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Paladins were a class exclusive to the Humans and Dwarves races of the Alliance however when The Burning Crusade expansion was released the Horde faction gained these holy warriors with the addition of Blood Elves. The Draenei race were added to the Alliance faction and given the Paladin as a playable class.

In the Warcraft universe's lore the Paladin was first conceived by Archbishop Alonsus Faol of Northshire Abbey. Faol felt that the contribution to the war effort by pure clerics during the First Great War (Warcraft: Orcs & Humans) would not be sufficient for the battles ahead. Faol decided to create a more versatile cleric that didn't need protection in combat. Faol's apprentice Lord Uther the Lightbringer became the first Paladin. Uther used his natural leadership skills to rally the best knights of Azeroth to be blessed as Paladins and formed the Knights of the Silver Hand (upgraded knights in Warcraft II that could heal and exorcise undead). At this point, Paladins were amongst the Alliance's most powerful offensive units when it came to close combat since they were upgraded knights. By the time of Warcraft III Paladin had become a career or class of its own (i.e. people are trained straight to Paladin, rather than becoming Knights and converting). Due to this they converted to more pious means, being more general support troops. In-game, they were "Hero" units, and possessed the weakest direct offensive skills of the four Alliance heroes, instead protecting the troops with their aura, healing and resurrection abilities. During his later life Uther trained Prince Arthas as a Paladin. However, in Warcraft III, Arthas was corrupted by the Lich King and ultimately abandoned the way of the Paladin, killing his father the King and betraying the Alliance to the Scourge. Uther became possessor of the late King's ashes placed in a special magical Urn and was killed by Arthas who wished to take possession of the urn. This led directly to the collapse of the Silver Hand and the Paladins became scattered. They can now can be found fighting under any Alliance flag.

In World of Warcraft gameplay, the Paladin is considered to be a melee-oriented "hybrid class" (a class that fills more than one role). Paladins have auras they extend to party members, short-duration "blessings" they can cast on allies, the ability to heal allies, a unique system of "seals" and "judgments" for combat, and a few special anti-undead/demon spells. Paladins can be specialized using "talent points" rewarded at level 10 and above. The three "talent trees:" are holy, protection and retribution. Each tree has its pros and cons; the holy tree helps the paladin specialize as a healer (acting as an armored cleric) the protection tree toward the role of a damage-absorbing "tank" in a group, and the retribution tree towards increasing the paladin's ability to do physical damage, (representing a zealous crusader).

Initially, the Paladin was viewed as a class that can take a lot of damage (in large part because of their heavy armor and healing abilities). Unfortunately, this caused quite a bit of consternation amongst World of Warcraft's players, with Paladins being viewed as plate wearing Priests. There has also been quite a bit of outcry stemming from comparisons against the formerly Horde-only Shaman class (and, to a lesser degree all other classes). Of course, there are also some on the opposite side of the fence who view the Paladin as too strong. They possess many "panic-button" abilities that serve to keep them alive or allow them to escape from dangerous situations such as their "Divine Shield" and its variants, which makes the paladin or a party member invulnerable for a short period of time. These abilities compensate for the Paladin's lackluster damage dealing by making them difficult to kill. Additionally the Paladin's healing spells are noted for being more mana-efficient than those of Priests, making Paladins with the correct equipment and talents the best single target healers in the game.

After the release of the Burning Crusade expansion methods have become available that allow Paladins to deal damage much more effectively particularly after patch 2.3. Previously, the majority of a Paladin's damage comes from a system of "procs per minute"; a certain ability (such as Seal of Command, which adds holy damage to melee strikes) can only occur X amount of times per minute. Crusader Strike has brought more consistency to a Paladin's DPS and Seal of Blood now procs with each swing. This allows a paladin to produce a high amount of damage over time. They still lack the flexibility of damage dealing that other classes who specialize in that area, such as Enhancement Shamans, Hunters, Rogues, Mages or Warlocks. As a result paladins are more in line with Shadow Priests and Arms Warriors. The release of Wrath of the Lich King addressed many of these issues, once again making the retribution Paladin a respectable damage dealer.

Final Fantasy

In the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, Paladin is an advanced job that can be accessed after completing a special quest. It functions like a Warrior, but with more defensive abilities. It can also use White Magic. A Paladin's main function is defense. Because of this, players often set Warrior as a support job. This allows them to use the Provoke ability and draw enemies' attacks towards them and away from party members (referred to as tanking).

Cecil Harvey, main protagonist of Final Fantasy IV, is classified as a Paladin for most of the game. Similar to Final Fantasy XI, he can use White Magic, but the general role is more offensive than defensive.

Quest for Glory

In the Quest for Glory adventure games, the Paladin's most important 'ability' is the Honor, which also shows alignment in that game's system. Fighters and Wizards can achieve the Paladin rank at the end of Quest for Glory II, and be imported as Paladins in Quest for Glory III. They can also undergo training in the third but this is usually regarded as difficult if the player is not using exploits to raise his or her honor.

Although Quest for Glory paladins must act with justice and compassion, they are not necessarily "lawful good" by D&D standards; obeying unjust laws in fact causes a loss of Honor. Thieves may even become paladins, although this requires avoiding several side-quests that involve stealing from innocents prior to becoming a Paladin. After becoming a Paladin-Thief, in order to access the Paladin abilities, the thief must refrain from dishonorable actions (i.e. stealing).

Also, the character interactions are tied to "Paladin" and supersede any interactions that might be bound to the other characters (to an extent). For example, in the Third Game, the Liontaur Rakeesh will tell the Hero he needs to use his skills as a Fighter/Wizard/Thief to bring peace to Tarna if he is not a Paladin, but if the Hero is a Paladin, he refers to him that way rather than as any of the previous.

A person can only become a Paladin when he or she is granted the status by another Paladin. This usually occurs in the form of a speech and the handing down of the sponsoring Paladin's sword. Only a special Paladin sword may erupt into blue flame.

The Paladin gains more abilities the higher his "Honor" level grows. He will likewise lose Paladin abilities for losing Honor points. Honor Points are described in the Fifth Game as "the sum of all the good that a player does in the game. It increases with acts of kindness and heroism, and decreases with cruel or illegal activity. High Honor is the measure of a true Hero. Low Honor is indicative of a skilled Thief."

See also

• Cleric (character class)
• Warrior (character class)
• Final Fantasy character classes

Further reading

• Defenders of The Faith - A Guidebook to Clerics and Paladins D&D Accessory by Rich Redman & James Wyatt. 2001