Paladin
Paladins are a class from Dungeons and Dragons. They are divine warriors of a somewhat more martial bent than Clerics, receiving a variety of powers generally focused around smiting the enemies of their god. Many a ficticious maiden has benefited from a Paladin's Laying On of Hands. Until 4th Edition came out, core Paladins were required to be Lawful Good and lost their powers if they strayed from this alignment, or violated the Paladinly Code of Conduct. In 4th Edition, not only was the alignment restriction removed, but also the mechanic for power loss, instead replaced with vague threats of the other faithful of the paladin's religion seeking him out to administer chastisement for his failings.
Unfortunately, the possibility of Paladins in old editions to fall is often abused by dickish DMs, who seem to derive some sort of twisted pleasure out of forcing a player's Paladin into hideously arbitrary situations where any choice they take results in falling from grace and the stripping of powers. Even otherwise reasonable DMs seem to turn into complete dicks when presented with a chance to make a paladin player's life a misery. As a result, many avoid playing paladins entirely due to bad experiences with evil DMs.
However, fallen paladins who turn to evil had the option to multiclass into the evil prestige class Blackguard, which receives bonus abilities if the character has levels of Paladin.
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That's what paladins actually believe
