Paladins in birthright

Dungeons & Dragons MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
1

[Image]
When you look at the paladin in birthright it is obvious that they’re a
rare breed using generic 3d6 creation rules only one in 518 Anuireans
and one in 887 Khinasi qualify for paladinhood. Making it almost the
hardest class to roll. When we assume that everyone who qualifies for
paladinhood also becomes a paladin. And then consider the population of
Anuire (2,6M) and Khinasi (1,6M) and the relative popularity of the
religions that allow paladins we get the following table for the TOTAL
of Paladins walking around on Cerillia at a given moment.
Anuire 5000
Haelyn 3000
Cuiraecen 1250
Nesirie 750
Khinasi 1750
Haelyn 475
Avani 1275

Not much but it will have to do.

Jan Arnoldus

2

> When you look at the paladin in birthright it is obvious that they’re a
> rare breed using generic 3d6 creation rules

I do believe that for any blooded character you use the 4d6 take away the
lowest method, vastly increasing your chance of creating a paladin..

> only one in 518 Anuireans
> and one in 887 Khinasi qualify for paladinhood. Making it almost the
> hardest class to roll. When we assume that everyone who qualifies for
> paladinhood also becomes a paladin. And then consider the population of
> Anuire (2,6M) and Khinasi (1,6M) and the relative popularity of the
> religions that allow paladins we get the following table for the TOTAL
> of Paladins walking around on Cerillia at a given moment.
> Anuire 5000
> Haelyn 3000
> Cuiraecen 1250
> Nesirie 750
> Khinasi 1750
> Haelyn 475
> Avani 1275
>
> Not much but it will have to do.

Then again, how often do you expect to see the religious zealot?? They are
supposed to be rare because of the requirements set upon them, very few people
can play a paladin properly

3

It should be a lot less than this..
not everyone who’s capable would want to be a paladin, in fact very few
would.
(not everyone who’s got the ability to be a special forces soldier is
going to be one, not when sports pays more grin)
the alignment restriction alone would cut out another big percentage..
then factor in those that don’t have access to the training necessary..
family obligations, church politics, etc..
then there’s the annoying tendency for paladins to die for the cause..

you would be lucky to have 50 paladins of haelyn in Anuire.

i’ve considering removing paladin as a class completely, and rewriting it
as a ‘kit’ instead. and requiring the player ‘prove’ himself as a squire
first

On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, Jan P. M. Arnoldus wrote:

> [Image]
> When you look at the paladin in birthright it is obvious that they’re a
> rare breed using generic 3d6 creation rules only one in 518 Anuireans
> and one in 887 Khinasi qualify for paladinhood. Making it almost the
> hardest class to roll. When we assume that everyone who qualifies for
> paladinhood also becomes a paladin. And then consider the population of
> Anuire (2,6M) and Khinasi (1,6M) and the relative popularity of the
> religions that allow paladins we get the following table for the TOTAL
> of Paladins walking around on Cerillia at a given moment.
> Anuire 5000
> Haelyn 3000
> Cuiraecen 1250
> Nesirie 750
> Khinasi 1750
> Haelyn 475
> Avani 1275
>
> Not much but it will have to do.
>
> Jan Arnoldus
>
> ***************************************************************************
> > ‘unsubscribe birthright’ as the body of the message.
>

4

In a message dated 97-09-11 10:48:57 EDT, 080768ja@student.eur.nl (Jan P. M.
Arnoldus) writes:
> When you look at the paladin in birthright it is obvious that they’re a
> rare breed using generic 3d6 creation rules only one in 518 Anuireans
> and one in 887 Khinasi qualify for paladinhood. Making it almost the
> hardest class to roll.

As it always has been in AD&D. This reflects that few people are suitable
for the rigors and extreme ethos of being a paladin. Paladins are the chosen
hands of the gods, and as such should be treated very carefully.

> When we assume that everyone who qualifies for
> paladinhood also becomes a paladin. And then consider the population of
> Anuire (2,6M) and Khinasi (1,6M) and the relative popularity of the
> religions that allow paladins we get the following table for the TOTAL
> of Paladins walking around on Cerillia at a given moment.
> Anuire 5000
> Haelyn 3000
> Cuiraecen 1250
> Nesirie 750
> Khinasi 1750
> Haelyn 475
> Avani 1275

Also, remember that only one in 100 people, regardless of suitability or
class, have a bloodline, so our table becomes:

Anuire 5000
Scions/Regents: 50
(Commoners: 4950)
Haelyn 3000
Scions/Regents: 30
(Commoners: 2970)
Cuiraecen 1250
Scions/Regents: 13
(Commoners: 1237)
Nesirie 750
Scions/Regents: 8
(Commoners: 742)
Khinasi 1750
Scions/Regents: 18
(Commoners: 1732)
Haelyn : prob.: 250
Scions/Regents: 3
(Commoners: 247)
Khirdai: prob.: 400
Scions/Regents: 4
(Commoners: 396)
Avani: 1100
Scions/Regents: 11
(Commoners: 1089)

>
> Not much but it will have to do.

It’s a good start, definitely. Now, looking at the above numbers, we can see
that, since almost every player wants to have a bloodline, a PC paladin is
one of, if Anuirean, just over 100 blooded paladins, or in Khinasi, one of
36. In a country (or the equivalent) of 2.6 million people or 1.6, this
means that all of these people will be extremely well known, and have to
deal with the same problems that regents go through: easy for enemies to
find, hard to move quietly, except in their own home areas, and sometimes not
even then.

So, I would require that my PCs, if they want to be a paladin, and if they
roll well enough (I use 4d6, drop lowest, assign straight across, then they
can have me reroll any one stat, and they can switch any two), which is rare,
they must be commoners. Of course, commoner paladins are also rare enough to
cause recognition in some areas, but much less so than a Paladin scion.
Possibly I might allow a Paladin scion who is already linked to a domain, be
it as General, Lieutenant, or High Priest, etc…

Hope this helps somewhat. Excuse me for getting long-winded on my first
post. :slight_smile:

Nikolas Izak Landauer
Dacileva@aol.com (until I can get something better)
Ai laurie lantar lassi surinen.

5

Someone wrote (wish I’d kept the original):

>And then consider the population of Anuire (2,6M)

First, how accurate is this and what method was used to figure this out?

Second, being fairly new to BR, I only own the boxed set and a PS of
Halskapa. In the Atlas of Cerilia on pg. 3, ‘by my estimate, about one
thousand Anuireans can claim descent from these ancient bloodlines.’ If
this is true then the numbers of blooded paladins are significantly lower.

Has anyone actually taken the time to count up the blooded NPCs

in the boxed set and the different PSs that relate to Anuire? I wonder how
close to one thousand this number of already created blooded characters
comes.

Keith Horsfield
Member Team OS/2
“To a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

6

Joshua wrote:

>i’ve considering removing paladin as a class completely, and rewriting it
>as a ‘kit’ instead. and requiring the player ‘prove’ himself as a squire
>first

I do this already.  PCs start as fighters in service of the church

with all the restrictions of paladinhood, alignment, behaivor, tithe, etc., but
none of the benefits. Transgressions of these PCs is not viewed
favorably, but it is not a deathknell to their achieving paladinhood. Upon
reaching 3rd level, the player may choose their PC to undergo the right of
investiture (yeah need a new name). During this ceremony, the god is
called upon to lift up this holy servant to ward and protect the church.
Whether or not the PC is vested or not with the benefits of paladinhood is
solely up to the god (read this as the DM). With an immaculate service,
paladinhood is granted, though for those whose service has been tainted
by transgressions (most all PCs have swayed from the path) a quest is
normally in the offing to prove the individuals worth.

Keith Horsfield
Member Team OS/2
“To a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

7

Jan P. M. Arnoldus wrote:
> Stuff about Paladins

Ok, this brings up the question, how the heck does a Vos become a
Paladin. And before anyone says that they can’t be a Paladin, I refer
you to Teodor Profiev, on page 74 of the Rulebook.

Tripp

8

> Has anyone actually taken the time to count up the blooded
> NPCs
> in the boxed set and the different PSs that relate to Anuire? I
> wonder how
> close to one thousand this number of already created blooded
> characters
> comes.

I think if you actually count you’ll find a lot less than 1000 blooded
NPCs…1000’s a lot eh? I did count out all the blooded wizards in the
4 existing domain boxes and they surpass the number of true mages
estimated in the rulebook…

Paul L.

P.S. But they only claimed like 100 of them.