How can you play this game as a paladin (SPOILERS)?
Kneller
Member Posts: 438
This is my first paladin run ever. I'm still in BG1, but I realize I'm going to have a big problem in BG2. That is, if you're a LG character, how can you deal with the Thieves' Guild vs. Bodhi situation. You have to side with one to advance the game, but I can't see a Paladin getting on board with either. I mean, yeah, technically you can ignore the whole alignment thing for the most part, but I tend to play my characters properly.
Now, I know you can say that the Thieves' Guild is the lesser of two evils, but they're still pretty evil by paladin standards. Your first quest from the Thieves' Guild is to steal an amulet. No paladin would stand for that. The same goes for Bodhi, as your first quest with her is robbery. Right there is a catch-22.
I want my PC to be a charismatic front-liner, which means the paladin is the obvious choice. However, this really isn't a game for a paly, is it?
Now, I know you can say that the Thieves' Guild is the lesser of two evils, but they're still pretty evil by paladin standards. Your first quest from the Thieves' Guild is to steal an amulet. No paladin would stand for that. The same goes for Bodhi, as your first quest with her is robbery. Right there is a catch-22.
I want my PC to be a charismatic front-liner, which means the paladin is the obvious choice. However, this really isn't a game for a paly, is it?
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But bottom line is this: your character knows that Imoen has been unjustly imprisoned in Spellhold and has to accept one of two evils to get her out of there.
NOTE: In my paladin playthroughs I usually pretended they became Fallen Paladin by ToB. There's just too much happening to keep a paladin on a stable goody-two-shoes path.
1) Lawful good is not the same as lawful stupid. Doing nothing when there are difficult decisions to be made is not an option for a true paladin. Paladins recognise that evil is all around us but there are grades of evil. The greater the evil, the more urgent it is to put an end to it. Therefore it may be necessary to take steps which in other circumstances would be unthinkable when a great evil is afoot.
2) The Thieves Guild seems to be composed of human(oid)s whereas Bhodi is a vampire, a creature which is evil by its' very nature (at least in AD&D 2). The thieves may repent of their evildoing but Bodhi cannot, nor do I have a helmet of change alignment, so Bodhi represents the greater evil.
3) When all this is over I shall have to do penance, which may involve taking steps against the Thieves Guild for example.
I would like to thank Minsc for supplying the "mots juste" for this note.
(And I must learn how to spell note.)
It offers you a way to go through this business without involving the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi's guild, provided you take them both out later in the game.
It's pretty good, recommended to anyone who doesn't feel comfortable with either option.
In an extreme case he would refuse to carry out an instruction even from his god if it contradicted his code.
Choosing between one's family and duty to a lawful authority is a common theme. Look at Ned Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire, who needs to decide whether to leave his family to serve his king, and even so we feel sure he conceals some things from King Robert. Contradictory duties can be forced on a Paladin, and yours may see the saving of his friend as very pressing.
I think there's a pretty big difference between Lawful Stupid and just not wanting to help out either of two evil factions. I'm all for rescuing Imoen, and that definitely should take priority. But "the means justifies the ends" doesn't work for a Lawful Good character in my book. Many of you said that the Thieves' guild is the obvious choice for a good character, and I agree, but it's tough, if not impossible, to justify for a paladin. Regardless of the specifics of a paladin's code, I sincerely doubt that any code would say it's ok to aid and abet a criminal organization.
Of course, this is only one of probably many unsolvable moral dilemmas for paladins in this game.
In addition, you never have to do any evil for the thieves (previously mentioned amulet quest is not a part of the main quest line) only fight vampires. Which I'm happy to do.
"You can't always get what you wa-ant!"
In short (in my view only), things might be pretty black and white to the Paladin. But any Paladin has to know that things are not always that black and white to the rest of the world. They are the example (the carrot, not necessarily the stick). Be that upstanding beacon of goodness, but to do that you don't need to be a prig about it and kill everyone that doesn't believe as you do.
Though my next run will be with a Blackguard so Bodhi, here I come. Heh.
A good plan, except I believe Aran Linvail is on the Council of Six.
It might be interesting if you could join the Sacred Heart and have them help you get to Spellhold. That might be a preferable alternative for a paladin. But again, I don't see any reason why Paladins need to hide away from the realities of life in a big city just to remain a Paladin.
Hm, I think a paladin should have no trouble picking either. I usually never play paladins (I don't like the feeling of having to depend on the benevolence of a deity for even part of my power).
But, lawful good doesn't necessarily mean that you can't break any rules. It means, you can't break 'your' rules. Lawful people are a just a bit more autistic than the others.
At most they are limited by their deity in their choices, but I doubt they'd really fret over the little things.
If you roleplay your paladin as a character that has the principle of not joining up with anyone or anything remotely evil (or in the case of thieves I personally think they can be chaotic of any alignment), then that's your choice. But it's not how every paladin would react to that situation.
Also if you want to go with the 2e handbook.
Siding with the Shadow Thieves as far as I recall only results in the category 'grave violations' if you don't do too many of their thieving side quests. Even if you consider them 'extreme violations' you can repent for them by forfeiting your stronghold(or perhaps just refuse it in this game for roleplay purposes) and you'll have offered sufficient penance. It's actually one of the sample penances in the handbook.
I hope this helps.