Posted by Harandor/Cheviers on March 6, 2000 at 19:33:50:
Here goes.
1) I agree with everything that Nepenthe has said about paladins, except the Lore thing which I never actually used. Where game mechanics are concerned, Paladins lack in one of the four basic elements of PKing. Incapacitation, Confusion, Prevention from Fleeing, Mega Damage. You would quickly raise summon, shieldbash and wrath as examples of these elements, but those can be worked around. Take Svyatapolk's fight with Zommeris. The latter didn't have his protective shield up, and was missing aura, yes? Fight could have been different.
2) Like Uncle Bob, I believe a lone paladin SHOULD be able to take down a lich. But this paladin would have to be extraordinary, and have substance parallel to that of his equal counterpart lich's roleplay, if not even more. Liches are part of the game, super-paladins are not. But the sad fact remains, that I have yet to see a truely, truely, extraordinary paladin. I do not mean this as an insult to Etherian, Svya, and others as guildsitters. They are playing paladins, and while my first impression is that they are okay paladins, they are not extraordinary ones and it will take an extraordinary one to find the Grail. Remember, Tristan and Bors couldn't touch the Grail, only Galahad could.
I've recently had the opportunity to play with two extraordinary role-players, one of which is Soriadh, whom I enjoyed travelling with tremendously. (Please introduce yourself to me on the IRC channel if you see me) The other will remain anonymous. Suffice to say, the amount of dedication, consistency, well-thought, fleshed out character development they have has put my five years of mudding in CF to complete shame. These two random examples I have picked out have clarified to me, Mr Light-Forever, how and why paladins have yet to truely shine. I suspect it's partially because it's a reality that playing evil, acting out your evil nature is easier than playing 200 hours of self-sacrifice, doing things which do not benefit yourself, dying, giving your things away, etc. It's harder, then running around with a hundred multi-colored phylacteries and having people speak of your name is shushed whispers of awe and admiration. The paladin role-play is a different route. You WILL get flamed, ragged on by most people, who are interested in power, and not the nobler aims and ideals of a warrior priest of the light.
3) Balgrimnr - Okay, I've settled it within myself. No more replay of that stuff on the hilltop, because it won't be an issue in my future characters. I'll separate things.