How to play a paladin?

Johannes asked about playing a Paladin...

It is a mistaken belief that a paladin must be a knight in shining armour type. Even requiring adherence to the Lawful Good alignment and the paladin code, this class allows many many archetypes.

(I'm afraid I am going to have to divert into some rules-speak for a moment. Sorry about this, but I think it's important. Firstly, a paladin who abandons the Lawful Good alignment becomes an ex-paladin. A paladin who willingly commits and evil action becomes an ex-paladin. A paladin who grossly violates the code of conduct becomes an ex-paladin. And the code of conduct states that the paladin must "respect legitimate authority, act with honour (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents... A paladin will never knowingly associate with evil characters, nor will she continue an association with someone who consistently offends her moral code. A paladin may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful good." And that's it. Anything else is a House Rule, and should be flagged as such by the DM when starting the campaign.)

So, let's have a look at some paladin archetypes:

Luke Skywalker: Hardly the knight in shining armour, he rebels against the authority in the galaxy (not a legitimate authority), acts with honour, and maintains a moral code. Probably not a lawful good character, but he wasn't created with the paladin in mind. You can certainly imagine constructing a similar character who is a paladin.

Buffy: The reluctant paladin. She's not a perfect example either, but again it is possible to create a similar character who is a paladin. Her focus is on fighting evil, rather than being the shining example. Again, probably not lawful good, but close enough for illustrative use.

Joan of Arc: This is a good one. She's a dangerous religious fanatic, who may or may not have been insane. As a simple peasant girl, she's about as far from the classic knight archetype as you can get. She's probably lawful good, respects legitimate authority, acts with honour (or, at least, never acts in a grossly dishonourable manner), and punishes those who harm innocents. She may also be insane. Did I mention that?

In fact, many of the classic "knight in shining armour" types are very far from being paladins. Lancelot, probably the classic example people think of when considering the paladin, falls from grace when he has an affair with the queen (gross lack of respect for legitimate authority, in this case the king). The Round Table story does contain a true paladin - but it's Lancelot's son Galahad, who is humble, true and pure.

The crusader knights were emphatically not paladins. Depending on how cynical you are, you can accuse them of seeking riches and power, or even of taking advantage of the Church's willingness to absolve them in advance for any sins they might commit while on Crusade. What were those sins?

How about the Templars, a holy order of Knights set up to protect pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem? Initially, they might have been paladins, but the order swiftly mutates. Soon, they are hugely wealthy landowners (not bad when you consider their vows of poverty), and are money-lenders beyond compare. In 1314, the last grandmaster of the order is burned at the stake on charges of witchcraft, although these may be a fabrication due to the fact that the King of France owed the order a huge sum of money.

Getting back you Johannes' initial example, I say go for it. There is no requirement that a paladin refrain from drinking. As for being loud, that's just ridiculous. As long as you stay lawful good, and don't violate the code (which actually says nothing about humility), you'll be fine.

Besides, how else is a half-orc paladin supposed to act, other than loud? And if a half-orc can do it, so can a member of any other race. Those things that we hold to be right, and good, and true either are right, and good, and true, or we're nothing more than another set of petty tyrants, inflicting our ways on others. (And the flip-side is also true - upbringing is no excuse for poor behaviour in the eyes of an impartial alignment system.)

Be warned, however. Some DMs delight in screwing over the players of paladins. These same DMs often delight in twisting wishes to screw players over, or in secretly raising the DC on that save you have to make, just so the invulnerable character suffers. Because, of course, they are the king of the game, and it's their right, nay, their duty, to mess players around. If you find yourself with such a DM, you'll find that the only valid paladin archetype is the one he espouses. You then get to play along with his interpretation of the paladin, often having little or no choice in how to play your character (and, if you're really unlucky, he'll strip you of your paladin status for no obvious reason, and usually without warning). I recommend not playing a paladin under such a DM. In fact, I recommend not playing under such a DM at all.