LogFAQs > #911245113

Nichtcrawler X posted...

Which I still find silly. Evil Paladins are definitely a thing.

In mythology, they're arguably not.

The concept of a Paladin in D&D started out from the actual historical paladins, who were Charlemagne's Peers/personal guard, who were basically knights rooted in chivalry, honor, valor, and being faithful Christian soldiers fighting back the heathen Saracens to protect Europe. They're very much about as Lawful Good as you can get.

Along the way they picked up more elements of what we traditionally think of as a "holy knight" (on par with Galahad and Percival from Arthurian myth), when they evolved into the idea that, in a universe of magic, holy knights are going to have literal miracle powers (like Clerics do). But if the Cleric is a warrior-priest, then the Paladin is militant lay clergy akin to a Templar, Hospitaller, or Teutonic Knight (ie, the difference being that one is a priest who fights, while the other is a knight who prays - their priorities are reversed, but they're both servants of god).

So by their inspiration, it's pretty much literally impossible to be an Evil Paladin. Because the moment you become Evil, you stop being a Paladin.

This is kind of typified by Arthur's Grail quest - in spite of his Round Table being filled with chivalrous knights of all manner of personality and motive, nearly all of them were too impure to achieve the Grail. Only Galahad and Percival were worthy - in D&D terms, Galahad and Percival would be the only Paladins at that table, while the other knights are basically Fighters who espouse a code of behavior and some of whom at least aspire to piety. But simply being Good or even Lawful is not enough. You basically have to be the most Lawful of the Lawful, the most Good of the Good, and pious as fuck.

It really wasn't until people started specifically thinking about D&D Paladins as "knights in service to a specific god" that people started wondering "Well, what if you were a knight in service to an evil god?" that the idea of Evil Paladins was couched in terms that made sense at all. And even then, the answer wasn't "Evil Paladin" as much as it was "Anti-Paladin" or later "Blackguard" (ie, the "Dark Knight" archetype, serving an evil god). And players were discouraged from even thinking about playing one.

Eventually things evolved to the point where the prevailing attitude was more "Ehh, play a dark knight in service to an evil god if you want to", which is when the idea of an Evil Paladin basically became a thing for real. Which is basically where we are now - if you want to play a Paladin, and you decide you want to worship a god like Bane or Tiamat or Asmodeus, you just take the Oath of Vengeance or the Oath of Conquest, take some evil spells, and bam, you're an evil Paladin.


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