After reading about Paladins and their history in D&D and their real life history (The Smoking Wrym issue 1, one of the Kickstarter 'zines I backed and actually got around to reading last night), I was thinking about how to work that into the Fantasy Trip.
First, TFT has no classes, no automatic skills based on an arbitrary level system. Instead you gain experience and basically trade that for learning new spells, new talents or improved stats. Most players will buff up their stats, allowing them to hit more often and take more damage. But eventually they also start adding skills or spells.
A paladin is a fighter with some sort of noble cause, be it religious, political or something else. The Fantasy Trip leaves a lot of this to the individual gamers - there is no specified religions and few political groups other than what comes up in various adventures. In a way it is like proto-Traveller: it is a great sandbox to play whatever you want. Additionally, they describe how you would set up a thief character based on skills and stats: high dexterity, sneaky skills and probably at least the Lock/Knock spell.
To translate this to my world of TFT, I do have a vaguely defined set of gods and goddess (see this post) Of those I've never really delved into too much detail, except for Mim here, using another Kickstarter supplement to flush out one of my college-originated gods. So let me run with that a bit.
A paladin of Mim is more often a Dwarf than not, but he does have human followers as well. He is a god of the rains, and his symbol is often a knife on a cross. This is often emblazoned on shields and breastplate. Occasionally a trusted paladin may be carrying a holy relic, a magical item. They often will have fine armor or weapons blessed by the priests with magical enhancements.
As a fighter, the paladin is going to want a higher strength to carry big weapons, but a decent enough dexterity to actually be able to hit things. IQ gets the short shrift at least at the beginning. As with all fighters, pick a couple of weapon skills according to how you want to fight. As a GM, if the player is going the paladin route, I'd even allow for a +1 weapon (either +1 DX or +1 damage) that has the symbol engraved on it, or a +1 armor of a similar nature. Low level paladins are just your normal low level fighters, but they have a goal that should be role played for experience points. In my games I've sporadically given an extra 50 XP for players who really play their characters well. Not enough to bump anything up by itself, but added in with other XP it helps.
As the paladin to Mim gains experience and skills, there are certain spells that reflect a character of Mim. The Scour spell (IQ11) allows the player to clean an area of germs and vermin. Clean hands are a virtue as well as food you can eat without worrying about food poisoning. The magic rainstorm (IQ12) is one of Mim's favorites: when casting, a 4 will allow it to last for 24 instead of 12 turns, a 3 will not cost the player any ST to cast: Mim has gifted this to the player. Similarly, the control elemental skill, if calling a water elemental, will give the paladin a +1DX advantage, a fire elemental a -1DX. Oddly the earth elemental also gives a +1DX advantage as Mim is fond of his mother, Alamia, Goddess of Earth. The lightening spell (IQ14) is also a favorite of Mim, and has the same benefits as the magic rain spell if the player rolls well.
As for talents, beyond the wide array of weapons skills, other skills a paladin should aim for are are literacy, to be able to read the sacred scrolls; quick-draw, swimming to be immersed in the rains; shield expertise as a bonus in fighting; toughness. Your standard enhanced fighting skills. Additionally, they should also work on the healing arts to reflect the traditional laying on of hands. The physicker and master physicker skills are handy, and priest and theologian skills to promote the faith.
Here are some examples of a write-up for various items for paladins of Mim.
Sword of Mim: a +1DX blue-steeled sword that has a knife engraved on the cross-piece, the Sword of Mim is given to all paladin acolytes as they enter the world. It gives a +1DX being a finely crafted sword, but only to followers of Mim. To all others it is just a really nice sword with no advantages.
Satquil, Sword of Mim. This enchanted 2-handed sword is also made of blue steel with a gold knife engraved along the blade, and runes across the hilt. Lost for centuries, it never rusts and is always sharp. When handled by a Paladin of Mim, it gives +2DX to hit, does 3d+1 damage, and on a critical hit also does 1D of lightening damage.
Mim's Armor: +1DX chainmail fitted to the paladin, it offers 3 hits of protection but only has a -2DX adjustment. It too is made of a blue steel, and the accompanying tabard has a vine-encrusted dagger on the chest. It is given to paladins once they complete a quest from Mim.
Zadquil, Holy Armor of Mim. Made by the mystic amorourer Bizma, wife of Mim, the holy armor is fine plate armor made of blue steel, with vines engraved in gold along the edges, and a knife on the breastplate. It will stop 8 hits and has a -3DX applied. There is another spell applied that allows the armor to fit whoever is wearing it if they are a paladin for Mim.
Caphriel, Holy Relic. This branch with runes carved into it allows for 2 3D lightening blasts a day. Found by Doras Thundersword, the first cleric for Mim, this branch has been passed down for millennia to the high priests.
Cup of Mim, Holy Relic. There are several of these as most shrines to Mim will have at least one. This cup is always full of fresh rain water when a prayer to Mim is given. Smaller cups can be used 1-6 times a day, larger cups 2-12 times, and the more rare water flask, which holds about 4 cups, can be used 1-6 times a day as well.
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