Thinking I could do an entire series of paladins for the various gods and goddesses of my little corner of the Fantasy Trip world. And that eventually I may have to bring it all together a bit better. And so here we are, some details for the goddess Tona's Guardians. Here is the description for Mim's Paladins.
The goddess Tona is the goddess of lesser creatures, as well as healing and the strife of life. Her paladins will always be animal and healing centric in their goals as well as their skills. There are only a few large enough temples that can train her paladins. These expansive temples have a temple, a hospital and healers training as well as the paladins training. There are two branches a paladin can follow when following Tona: the way of the creatures, where the focus is on the animal world, and the way of healing, where it is a both healing and more clerical path.
There is a bit of overlap between the paths. Both will eventually lead to horsemanship, bow, animal handling, naturalist, ax/mace and the cleric skill. Advanced paladins may also pick up vet though the healing path stresses that aspect more.
For those following the creature path, the talents a follower will pick up will have basic weapon skills, though the bow is the preferred weapon of choice. They will be taught running, alertness, tracking, expert horsemanship, expert naturalist.
Those on the healing path pick up physicker and master physicker, master theologian, literacy and scholarship (to read all those tomes).
The Temple of Reysandoyal, located in the grasslands, is a sprawling collection of temples, training facilities, and a healers college. Large pastures surround the facility and they are also known for well trained horses. There is also what many would consider more of a zoo, but is actually a place of healing for various creatures. There are several surrounding villages, as well as wandering tribes. Children are brought here to see if they have an affinity for the goddess and her creatures, and if so, may remain to be trained. Training takes years, and more than a few stay on to train the next group. The first few years are when the trainee decides which school to follow. They are all taught to care for animals. and learn horsemanship, animal handling, naturalist, cleric and the bow. After the first few years, when they are deemed ready, they make a training circuit throughout the grasslands and beyond with a senior paladin. Upon returning, they are granted their mace, the official indication that they are now a paladin of Tona.
The main advantage of being a paladin of Tona is there is magic involved. The mace is more than a well-crafted mace: it is enchanted with the spells of control animal and summon wolf without any cost to the wielder. After that the normal cost in ST is spent. Each spell may be called once per day without ST cost. The mace has an affinity for the goddess, so that a 3rd enchantment limits this spell to only her paladins. There are a few magical users in the temple that help enchant these weapons. Critical hits bring down the blessings of Tona, which make the character seem to glow for a moment:
- 5 will restore 1 hit point to you
- 4 will restore 2 hit points to you as well as double damage
- 3 will restore 3 hit points to you as well as triple damage
And yes, this is more than vague reference to Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. But I enjoyed those books and so I decided to bring them in a bit to my world. Hey. Cidri is a BIG place!
We could do a bit of homebrew and add more spells or skills, but I am happy with the base rules of the Fantasy Trip. It has enough flexibility to play any sort of fantasy game you want to. Pretty much like Traveller, despite it getting deeply entrenched into the 3rd Imperium setting. The original rules, like those of the Fantasy Trip, were enough of a sandbox you can do what you want to.
Opinion piece coming up Seems like DnD keeps rehashing the old adventures, just like Mongoose is doing with Traveller. There is so much more that could be done. Just like Traveller 5.10 reboots the Imperium and allows for even higher technology than the Classic but has not really given any real details to the environment. The exception there being the XBoat zine I backed on Kickstarter [and now available in DriveThru I think] that does a bit more explanation of the Galaxiad. Except via fan zines, and that is where the gold is for new adventures and ideas. And why I back way too many of those zines on Kickstarter - to get ideas. And hopefully use some of them! The Lamia adventure I've been working on is using parts from close to a dozen things, some for other games systems as well as a lot of system neutral stuff. Anyway, people need to work on their own worlds and let their imaginations soar beyond what is written. How many times has Ravencroft been done? I made the mistake of getting Mongoose's Travellers Aid magazines: fully 75% or so was stuff I already had, though changed a bit (usually for the worse) to fit in with the Mongoose current version of Traveller. It is the fan zines where real imagination is taking place. End of opinion piece.
Okay, so we really need to create two paladins, one that followed the healing path and the other that followed the creature path. If we assume we're getting a new paladin just off their training circuit, we can also add a few more points as this is no longer the kid just off the turnip truck. I'll work on the warrior version first, then another post for the cleric style paladin.
Sir Jenlak Layne of Reysandoyal, Guardian of Tona
ST 14 DX 14 (10) IQ 9
Fine Mace 2d (enchanted: summon wolf, animal control)
Long Bow 1d+2
Dagger1d-1
Fine Plate stops 6 points, -4DX
Skills Knife, Ax/Mace, Bow, Horsemanship, Literacy, Running, Alertness, Priest
Spells Animal Control (though the mace also has this as an enchantment)
Rides a large horse, Cylof, well suited for the plains with long legs and great endurance. Not a war horse but a fine steed none the less.
Entering his 3rd decade, Sir Jenlak came from one of the many nomads drifting across the vast grasslands. His sister was injured by a charging boar, and the family, hearing of the Temple, got there. His sister was healed and, as the family was both impressed and felt gratitude, stayed on to help work the Temple's fields. His sister Dascia was more attuned to the medical arts and studied to become a Paladin of Tona. Jenlak, both more brash and feeling stifled from the family's shift to a settled life, pursued the path of weapons. Just back from his first training circuit, he has been knighted by the Temple as a full paladin. His training is not complete - he needs more experience to fully embrace his path. As he gets more experience, he will learn the naturalist and cleric skills eventually.
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