A Paladin In Citadel: paladin

Showing posts with label paladin. Show all posts

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Emirikol The Chaotic

Here are the stats for Emirikol the Chaotic, as they appear in Monte Cook's adventure, A Paladin In Hell. It would have been so cool had they also provided a portrait of Emirikol, but sadly they did not.

The Adventure begins with the funeral of a paladin, with his body, the attendees and the entire temple being dragged into the depths of hell. The players set off to save the attendees, and recover the temple and the paladin's body, and discover why they were sucked into hell in the first place.

Emirikol acts as the adventurers' patron in A Paladin In Hell, gifting the adventuring party with an abyssal sailing ship, Demonwing, to aid them in their quest.

Why? Play the adventure, and find out for yourself...

ADnD 2nd Edition: A Paladin In Hell Adventure

Yesterday, I was asked where the colorized illustration of A Paladin In Hell comes from, a fragment of which appears in my banner.

It is a painting by Fred Fields, who was a regular AD&D 2nd edition artwork contributor from 1990-1998. This painting graces the cover of the 1998 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adventure, A Paladin In Hell, by Monte Cook.

The adventure itself has attracted mixed reviews: while it is not my all-time favorite adventure, it's not bad, but I had to buy it, if simply for the cover.

Incidentally, Emirikol the Chaotic makes an appearance in this adventure.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A Paladin In Hell From The Players Handbook

Most of us are already familiar with this old-school classic, but here it is again: A Paladin In Hell, by David C. Sutherland, a black and white illustration appearing on page 23 of the 1978 Advanced Dungeons And Dragons Players Handbook (thank you, Akrasia, for the correction). This illustration ranks up there, with Emirikol The Chaotic and a few others, as my all-time favorite D&D artwork.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

APIC And The Missing Article

Considering that when I first posted background explaining the title of my blog, I had zero followers, I thought I would take a moment and again provide some of that detail.

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with the original little brown books. It is in the mid-1970's, and I am in grade school. My older brother is a member of several wargaming clubs, at both the local college and university, and is resentful (as elder brothers are wont to be) at being forced to take me along to his weekend club meetings. It is at those club meetings that he becomes first acquainted with Dungeons and Dragons, and he brings the LBB's home, where they are discovered by me.

Several years later, I graduate to middle school, and the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide is published (Editor: In fact, its 1978, and the Players Handbook, not the DMG. Thanks, Akrasia.), which includes the classic illustration by Sutherland, entitled "A Paladin In Hell". That illustration, along with several others in the DMG (and Players Handbook and Monster Manual) captures, for me, the D&D ethos.

The title of my blog, A Paladin In Citadel, is an homage to that classic D&D illustration, A Paladin In Hell. Living in Citadel, a community in northwest Calgary, I have, of course, replaced the word "Hell" with "Citadel" (this is not a comment on what I think of my community ... sometimes a cigar is just a cigar folks).

Someone emailed me, asking why my blog is not entitled "A Paladin In The Citadel", and noted that I am clearly missing the article "The" in my title. I hope the above explanation clears up any confusion about the missing article!

As for being A Paladin In Citadel, I can assure you that I have never played a Paladin, nor do I have any interest in doing so (my disinterest in playing any of the specialist classes -- other than the Bard -- is already well-known).

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Greyhawk's Paladin

It's always wise to check your facts before putting anything in writing.

This is good counsel, as, in the case of my earlier post, on the Paladin, my thinking was wrong. While I presumed the Paladin first appeared in AD&D, she actually appears in Supplement I: Greyhawk, in 1976, two years prior to the AD&D Players Handbook.

In Greyhawk, the Paladin is not really a class of its own. It has no separate experience table, nor does it have any of the intermediate named levels that mark the other classes. Instead, a figher can, if she has a Charisma of 17 or higher, and is lawful from the commencement of play, opt to pursue Paladinhood. The Greyhawk Supplement is vague on the method of attaining this station.

The actual text from the Supplement.

"In addition, certain lawful fighters may opt to become paladins."

"Charisma scores of 17 or greater by fighters indicate the possibility of paladin status IF THEY ARE LAWFUL from the commencement of play for that character. If such fighters elect to they can then become paladins..."

The text goes on to chronicle the restrictions and advantages of this station, much of which appears in the AD&D Players Handbook.

It's interesting to again discover that much of what appeared in AD&D was already in OD&D, in primitive form.

I'm still not a fan of the class as written, though. Not even in OD&D.

Monday, September 7, 2009

The Paladin

I've never played a Paladin.

Pretty hard to believe, I know. After all, who hasn't played a Paladin, at least once in their D&D career?

Honestly, the character never interested me. Sure, I played more than my fair share of Bards (the Bard was the ultimate multi-tasker, having spells, thief skills and being okay in combat) and I played an awful lot of Clerics. You're thinking, the whole idea of the Paladin is pretty cool, what's not to like about him?

For some reason I never got into the Paladin, though. I always felt he was (1) unnecessary because a Paladin is basically a Cleric with a sword and (2) part of the general power creep that started in AD&D and never stopped.

I posted earlier about my character creation method. As long as the sum of your character's ability scores is between 63 and 69 (average of between 10.5 and 11.5 per ability) we're gonna get along just fine.

Here's the problem with my 69-sum character generation method and the AD&D Paladin. In order to be an AD&D Paladin, you need the following minimum stats:

Str 12

Int 9

Wis 13

Con 9

Dex (no minimum)

Cha 17

Assuming you actually roll these scores, and the 69-sum ability score method is adhered to, then, based on the above minimum stats for a Paladin, the maximum Dexterity you can roll will be a 9. And using the 69-sum method already has a built-in power-creep factor of an extra point on every ability score (average 11.5 instead of 10.5).

In addition, in order for your Paladin to get the 10% experience bonus in AD&D, you need a Strength of 16 and Wisdom of 16 (ability scores in excess of 15). So to get your experience bonus, you either have a Dexterity of 2, or you need at least a sum of 70 to have a Dexterity of 3. Is this why all Paladins are bumbling pretty-boys?

Frankly, i'm not even sure why a Paladin needs a minimum Charisma of 17. There does not seem to be any Paladin AD&D ability tied to the high Charisma. He does not get any special leadership advantages for being a Paladin. He doesn't even get a retinue of followers or men-at-arms at name-level.

The Paladin, as defined in the AD&D rule-set, raised the bar for every other player, as in order to be competitive with the player playing the Paladin, you had to have your own stats at his level as well. And so power creep was institutionalized in AD&D, and all the D&D iterations that followed.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

A Paladin In Hell Redux

I will post later today, regarding levels of abstraction as they relate to D&D, and in particular, the OD&D end-game. While i'm trying to put my thoughts together, I give you "A Paladin In Hell, Redux.

The original 1978 "A Paladin In Hell" illustration, by David Sutherland, kicked off my blog. I now give you the re-imagined version, from the cover of a TSR adventure bearing the same name, which I believe was published in 1998. This cover was illustrated by Fred Fielder, of whom I know little. I will have to find out what other illustrations he is credited with.

Enjoy.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

A Paladin in Citadel

By way of introduction, the name of this blog is inspired by an iconic illustration from the early days of Dungeons and Dragons. That illustration, found on page 23 of the original Advanced D&D Players Handbook, published in 1978, is entitled "A Paladin In Hell" and depicts a paladin battling various classic D&D devils. That illustration, along with several others from the early days of D&D, set the tone for the kinds of D&D games that were played "in the day."

I have titled my blog "A Paladin in Citadel" for several reasons. The first is as a homage to that early D&D illustration, considering the impact it had on early fantasy role-playing. The second is in reference to who I am and where I live, being a paladin in Citadel.

This blog has been created to allow me to comment on the rules-light fantasy role playing games which I love to play. In particular: OD&D and its immediate decendants (for example, B/X, BECMI, and retroclones); The Fantasy Trip and it's retroclone, Legends of the Ancient World; Avalon Hill's Magic Realm (perhaps the greatest, and worse role-playing game ever); Dragon Warriors RPG; and Dungeoneer.