POLL: Help me pick a deity for my paladins ;)

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@guildmaster: Thanks. In a certain sense, my paladin is more lawful than many of the classic Torm & Greatsword ones. Consider the Ilmater dialogue, how he points out the Plea of Rest. The fact that he has some very strict morals and is very tense about the material truth. That when religious dogma is concerned, he allows no well-meant but worse-grounded interpretations and he reacts allergically to twisting the letter of the law (a law may be unjust and even thus entirely unbinding, so you may be entitled to disregard it, but you're never entitled to use wordcraft to make a mockery of what the lawmaker really wanted to say). Or the way he doesn't believe ends justify means (didn't include this in the dialogues, I think). The fact that he would rather incur disfavour with his overlords than violate his moral code can be interpreted both ways, but since deities have a higher command than kings... I believe the Tyr dialogues fit very well into the lawful alignment, except that many DMs would prefer to lump it with NG or CG - but that's the same as saying lawful characters have clean rooms and no sense of humour. In fact, notice how he seems to remember to return the price of that loaf of bread, even though the merchant's in for quite serious trouble with more money at stake, or how he initially offers to reimburse the merchant instead of outright pulling the thief out if it on the grounds that he stole out of hunger. Of course, a DM can always say that my paladin follows a code of mores different from the society's, which is a core CG identifier, but I guess you can't really say NG. More like either CG or LG depending on how you place your priorities. Among Earth's doctrines, I suppose he would be the closest to thomism, with the idea that the law is extremely important, except the most important law comes from the deity, followed by natural laws (which all come down to "do good, avoid evil"), then by ius gentium aka man-made laws common to all men and following quite closely from natural law (e.g. diplomatic immunity of messengers), then only by laws made by temporal authorities.

@The Magister: LN. She doesn't care so much about goodness. She could be good for a paladin first lawful, then good, but not for a goodie one.

 

I say Selune. Go nuts at Shar followers and werewolves Plus she's the "mother" of Mystra, so she can't be half bad

 

Can't pick Selune because she's CG. No CGs except Sune, so my bad for including Lliira - don't know what keeps giving me the idea she has paladins.

I've taken Ilmater and played some - what do you think of my choice?

 

The best choice I think, considering your motives.

Ulutiu was also an option, though perhaps hard to play considering the environment. (He's a LN god of glaciers, polar environs etc. )

Or maybe Milil? NG, poetry, song, eloquence.. But he might be too chaotic...

Have you given any thought to a dwarven paladin? Some of their deities would make excellent choices as well...

 

The Red Knight would have been a passable choice if your paladin were actively interested/involved in warfare. Actually it's mentioned in her FP entry that she somewhat leans towards good, but let's be honest: she's a war deity, and these often have a small problem with goodness as defined in the D&D frame.

Chev, I must say your paladin is quite lawful, no worries there. Chaotics I would associate either with a very adaptable frame of mind or (if they get organized) with a somewhat anarchistic one. Of course, there are other possibilities, but these would be the iconic ones. IMO Ilmater would be ok, as I've mentioned before, and if you have a problem with it I guess it's not exactly a tragedy if a paladin in good standing becomes disillusioned with his order and petitions another.

I wonder about your preoccupation with loose morals though. Given the position of quite a few deities in the pantheon (and whatever little I know about the culture of the Realms) I'd say Faerun in most of its regions is quite permissive for a pseudo-medieval setting. It's not as if paladins get "smite chaos" anyway

 

I'd say Illmater or Lathander, and from the examples given, I chose Illmater.

But yes, Red Knight is a viable choice, IMO, but if ya want more goodness than that, it's a bit complex.