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Paladin

2021-06-30T00:38:25Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* 5th Edition */

[[Image:Colbert paladin.jpg|thumb|The typical Paladin, note the colors, and the symbol of the eagle, an important core of their faith]]

'''Paladins''' are a class from [[D&D|Dungeons and Dragons]], inspired by a mixture of the idealistic views of the Crusades in late 70s/early 80s Western culture (never forget, [[Gary Gygax]] was a devout Jehova's witness) and the "Knight in Shining Armor" archetype of Chivalric Romances and the Arthurian Mythos. They are divine warriors of a somewhat more martial bent than [[Cleric]]s, receiving a variety of powers generally focused around smiting the enemies of their god, and tend to have high Charisma scores to fuel their holy powers. Many a fictitious maiden that hasn't been seduced by the party's [[bard]] has benefited from a Paladin's Laying On of Hands. (Purely to heal their injuries, you understand. Unless they're into that sort of thing, of course. Not every god demands chastity of their warriors, after all.)

In addition to consistently being little different from a cleric/fighter multiclass character, they have earned a rather unfair reputation as a "troublemaker" class in D&D circles, the kind of class that must be watched because [[That Guy]] tends to be drawn to them. Rather like the [[Xaositect]] or the [[Kender]]... except, of course, the Paladin actually has numerous saving graces, so it has earned defenders, unlike either of the aforementioned troublemakers.

The cause? Simple: in the 1st through 3rd editions of the game, due to their "holy knight" origins, Paladins were game-mandated to uphold a Lawful Good alignment (which makes no sense, since any god would have use for paladins, not just LG ones). If they failed, they lost the bulk of their special abilities, leaving them as at-best a sub-par version of the [[Fighter]] until and unless they either Atoned - a process that could be very painful and often railroady - or changed classes entirely.

Now, this wouldn't be so bad in and of itself - alignment restrictions are hardly unique in any of those editions, even if most of them moved to much broader requirements under 3e and Pathfinder. However, for some reason, Paladins just seem to bring out [[That Guy]] in [[DM]]s. Why? Nobody really knows. The most logical reasons are a three-part combination; the "Fall from Grace" angle is a pretty well-worn story-angle, especially for more lackluster DMs, it makes a handy hook for railroading the party on, and most importantly of all: "Old School DMing". See, back in OD&D's day, D&D hadn't come far from its wargame roots, and so there was still a pretty strong "competitive" mindset in the culture. DM vs. Players was very common, if not the norm, with players trying to get all the loot and power they wanted and DMs trying to stop them. Thusly, the Paladin's "you must do what the DM thinks is Lawful Good behavior or lose all your power" ruleset was a built-in weakness. Of course, none of these may be true; some DM's are simply put, for the lack of a better word, little Cartmans who want "their authoritah to be respected", and likes to abuse and make people squirm because their lives were miserable.

This magnet for "moral dilemmas" and similar bullshit was bad enough, but on top of that, you had players who overplayed themselves, often for sheer fear that if they ''didn't'' act [[Lawful Stupid]], the DM would strip them of their power. And whereas the "I drop my pants and piss on the King!" Chaotic Neutral, the "of course I steal from the party too!" klepto-[[Rogue]] or the fireball-happy [[Wizard]] were purely a player using fluff to be a dick, in this case, the Paladin had actual mechanical enforcement to make it ''be'' a dick.

And from these roots, their reputation grew.

Eventually, after two decades of it, WoTC made the decision to try and fix this undeserved reputation - first by dropping the alignment restriction requirement entirely in 4e, and then switching from the annoyingly vague and open to interpretation "Must be Lawful Good" to "must follow this specific oath, which requires you to do X, Y and Z" in 5e. Although this has been met with the usual amount of [[rage]] and [[skub]], and hasn't completely shaken off the stigma yet, it has opened up the Paladin and attracted a lot more players than it's ever enjoyed before.

==Dragonladieshere and Beldak_Serpenthelm tell it like it is==
[[File:Doing it Wrong.jpg|250px|right|thumb|We said SLAY the dragon, not LAY the dragon!]]
<blockquote>
''There is none of that, "Oh well if you're truly sorry, there's nothing I can do." horseshit. No, he coup de graces your ass because he's a goddamn paladin. His job is killing evil. You know what his job doesn't entail? Being a sympathetic ear for every whiny NE or CN or LE douchebag who's only being evil because the world is unfair to him or every punk that lets his own dislikes or laziness overcome his own personality. You know what unfair is? Being able to know what kind of person everyone is before you even talk to them. Smelling evil so potent on a motherfucker that you want to sink your fingers in his chest and pull that tar out until the screaming stops. Having the psychotic urge to murder people that you've never even met, for the sole reason that your God decided that you ought to be his right hand without your choice in the matter, that's unfair.

''But unlike Evil McBlacknails over there, that Paladin puts on his helmet, sharpens his sword, and then continues walking through crowds of people day by day, resisting the urge. Seeing evidence of injustice so black it makes him sick. Seeing murderers and rapists walk the street, watching good men hang as evil ones pull the lever. Saving his righteous violence for when the situation exactly, specifically, precisely calls for it. Surgically removing that which is most evil. Because he's a Paladin. And if he gave in to the urge, what would he be? Who will right the true wrongs if not he? It's not about not falling as a Paladin. It's about falling so fucking hard you crash through the planet and stand up on the other side.'  - '''Dragonladieshere'''
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
''Some of the misconceptions that I am aware of some people having are: self-righteously throws fights by using the word "dirty" to refer to "realistic fighting", doesn't care about murderous tyrants as long as they gave themselves legal permission, believes that strategic retreats are always "cowardly", doesn't believe in letting the other people fight when "talking" would be more "right" in a "fighting" game."
 
''Counter: A paladin’s code of honor is not about throwing fights; it’s about not starting them. If someone is as evil and dangerous as you think they are, then they will have no problem throwing the first blow, and if they do not do so, then perhaps they are not as dangerous as you think. How many have been killed in fights that they picked with somebody whom they FALSELY believed would’ve attacked them first, but who in fact had no intention of doing so until he himself was attacked and had to defend himself? And yet, how many people have killed in self-defense in the same circumstance, when they in fact could’ve simply incapacitated their attacker and learned that his only real crime was stupidity?''
 
''More importantly, a paladin learns to pick her battles, but BEFORE the battle actually starts. If you attack something that you know to be dangerous, and then run off without planning to finish the job, then you have put others in danger by angering the enemy you attacked and encouraging him to lash out. If you plan to help people by deposing a tyrant, and you don’t bother gathering enough allies to ensure that you actually defeat him when you engage him, then the tyrant needs to know that when – not if – he defeats you, his quarrel with you will be finished, and he needs not burn entire villages to the ground looking for where you fled to and who helped you. If he was not the kind of ruler who would do that after a half-assed assassination attempt, then you would not have needed to depose him in the first place, and thus, if you are stupid enough not to bring enough allies to ABSOLUTELY guarantee victory, then you would need him to know that you acted alone and never had a chance worth him getting worried about after you are dead.'  - '''Beldak_Serpenthelm'''
</blockquote>

For a player who understands what a paladin is like, see also [[Powder Keg of Justice]].

==Paladins in different editions of D&D==
{{dnd-stub}}

===BECMI===
Introduced in the Companons Set for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], the Paladin in this iteration of D&D is a kind of proto-prestige class. A [[Fighter]] with a Lawful alignment who reaches 9th level can choose to swear fealty to a Lawful church to be inducted into their order. This causes them to gain certain abilities as if they were a [[Cleric]] of much lower level, namely casting clerical magic and turning undead, as well as an innate ability to detect evil. Their only restrictions are that they must obey their churchly superiors (unless commanded to do evil), and they must offer what assistance they can to non-evil people in need of help, unless already on a mission for a higher authority.

This same edition introduced the [[Avenger]] as the Chaotic counterpart to the Paladin, essential a proto-[[Blackguard]].

===AD&D 1st Edition===
[[Alignment|Lawful Good]]. If you fuck up at being Lawful Good, you're busted down to Fighter at the same level, and your church shuns you. The controversial [[Unearthed Arcana]] book adds the chance to play Paladin-[[Cavalier]]s, who are incredibly ridiculous in power level (can stay conscious and retreat at negative hit points, can boost Str, Con, Dex, and Cha a little bit each level up, immunity to fear, etc).

Only humans can become Paladins in this edition.

===AD&D 2nd Edition===
A sub-class of Warrior, 2e Paladins are notable primarily by their potential to use Holy Avenger swords, which inflict an additional +10 damage versus Chaotic Evil foes (which is a lot for 2e), and create a circle of power that is a selective antimagic field versus lower level magical effects (so all enemy buffs and enemy magic items created by a level 12 wizard power down when a level 13 paladin walks up). The Paladin's [[kits]] have their own brands of notoriety. Most notably, the [[Cavalier]] kit recreates about half of the abilities they used to have for a Paladin; in fact, the 3e Paladin actually takes its Fear Immunity trait from this kit, rather than the core AD&D Paladin. Meanwhile, the Inquisitor was probably pound-for-pound the best anti-mage fighter in the game, with a redonkulous amount of Dispel Magic spells per day so potent [[Monte Cook]] ''still'' has bitch-fits at the thought of adapting the Inquisitor to 3.X. A straight Paladin probably does not have a good chance of being worthwhile compared to a fighter if they cannot expect to find their holy sword, however.

As in 1e, Paladin is ''the'' most racially restricted class, only being open to humans, for the most part. However, certain other races were also able to become Paladins:
* [[Rakasta]] could be Paladins in Basic, but in AD&D, only the Sibasta strain from Dragon #247 retained this trait.
* [[Lupin]]s could be Paladins in Basic, and the Maremma, Golden Retriever, Zvornikian Sentinel strains and "Mongrel" breeds from Dragon #237 were Paladin-capable for AD&D.
* [[Saurial]]s of the Finhead strain had a special "pseudo-paladin" [[fighter]] [[kits|kit]] available to them, called the Saurial Paladin.
* [[Aasimar]] could become straight-up paladins, as you'd expect given they are the children of [[angel]]s.
* [[Bariaur]] males could become paladins since their introduction in the [[Planescape]] campaign setting - surprisingly, given the race's association with the Chaotic side of the [[Upper Planes]].
* Earth [[Genasi]], at the DM's discretion, could be paladins - ironically, they could reach 15th level, whilst the aasimar could only reach level 14!
* [[Irda]] could be Paladins when they came out in AD&D.
* Black [[Swanmay]]s (Dragon #266) can be Paladins, Clerics or Crusaders, whilst the White Swanmays can only be Druids or Rangers.
* Daergar, Hylar and Theiwar dwarves could be Paladins in the Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium.
* Silvanesti elves could be Paladins in the Tales of the Lance boxed set and in the Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium.
* Dargonesti and Dimernesti sea elves could be Paladins in the Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium.

===3rd Edition===
[[Alignment|Lawful Good]], with an explicit Code of Conduct, in exchange gains a number of immunities to various status effects, their famous ability to Smite Evil, and the service of an intelligent and useful mount. Splatbooks introduced various alternative-alignment variants. The first and most well-known is the Blackguard prestige class from the DMG, which could be any flavor of evil and could gain additional abilities for every level of Paladin that the player had prior to becoming a Blackguard. Later, [[Complete Divine]] introduced the Holy Liberator prestige class as a Chaotic Good version of a Paladin. There are also options to make the Paladin more cleric-like in Dungeonscape, or completely remove spells such as in Complete Warrior.

3rd Edition Paladins are [[Tier System|tier 4]]: Good (but not amazing) at destroying evil creatures, competent at diplomacy and good at pretty much nothing else. They also suffer from a severe case of [[MAD]], relying on Strength and Constitution to be decent in combat, and Wisdom and Charisma for spellcasting.

===D20 Modern===
[[Urban Arcana]] adds the (Un)Holy Knight prestige class which requires one have Good or Evil allegiance. As a prestige class, it's fairly late to qualify for (8 BAB in a system where full BAB is rare) but it packs the main Paladin abilities into five levels. Since it gives Divine Grace at first level, it's a good way to finish off a Sorcerer or Telepath build and is still solid for any combat brute.

===Pathfinder===
[[File:Seelah.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Seelah, Pathfinder's Iconic Paladin/Champion]]
[[Pathfinder]] made a number of mechanical improvements (''beefy'' ones, Pathfinder paladins are ''badass''), but mostly left them alone conceptually. Now they cast spells off charisma rather than wisdom ([[MAD|and praise Saerenrae for that]]. One unusual consequence of this is that thanks to high natural will save and adding charisma to all saves, Paladins are now free to [[Stupid Good|dump wisdom]] as low as it can go.), and their Smites, on top of granting better defensive and offensive bonuses, ''keep Smiting'' until they either Smite something else or the Smitee is dead. (Sure, it can ''theoretically'' run out in twenty-four hours, but almost nothing suffering from a Smite is going to live that long). The Code of Conduct was also softened a little to allow paladins to more easily be team players and not 100% stick-in-the-mud party cops. One problem, if you can call it that, is that the paladin is ''too'' specialized (even with Pathfinder's improvements he still won't break tier 4): If the DM keeps throwing evil outsiders or undead into the campaign as [[BBEG]]s a modestly-well-prepared paladin will be able tear through them like a holy-powered buzzsaw without a lot of effort, since he deals better "burst" damage than almost any of them and has great saves and immunity to shit like ''mummy rot'', so he won't be afraid to charge in and [[rip and tear]] when another class would be adverse to taking risks around one. If the final boss keeps getting one-shotted by a well-timed Smite Evil ''litany of righteousness'' power attack/deadly aim combo, it may very well be time to invest in "moral complexity." (Read: throw some constructs or wild animals at him.). Despite this the Paladin still struggles to be worthwhile outside his niche. A major reason for this is that Paladins have only 2+int skill points per level, being the only player class in the system aside from Fighter to have only 2 skill points without getting at least 6th level spells. Their class list is at least much better than the Fighter’s, and they do have some spellcasting and healing for out of combat utility.

Thanks to their variety of class abilities that can be traded away, a Paladin has some of the most varied archetypes in the game, second only to [[Monk]]. These range from simple (Divine Hunter, which trades melee abilities for ranged ones) to "free planar ally and more casting" (Sacred Servant, which can shoot a Paladin up to tier 2 if they worship a deity that gives a good planar allies and tier 3 even if they give something lame like elementals).

===Pathfinder 2nd Edition===
[[Pathfinder Second Edition]] decided to drastically change the class, with the least of these being its name: Yes, the Paladin is now called the '''''Champion'''''. This along with the option for any good alignment (evil later featured in Advanced player's guide and neutral is TBD) rather than the explicit Always Lawful Good nonsense. The limited spellcasting has also been condensed into Focus Casting (meaning you have spells that you cast using limited points, but you recover them with a 10 minute rest). Smite has been removed and replaced with a counter-attack based on the Champion's specific alignment (Either a flat counter-attack while protecting an ally, force the enemy to choose between dealing no damage or dealing less damage and being weakened, or giving an ally a chance to break free of a restraining condition and escaping with protection. The evil versions spin on this by making it revenge whenever the champion takes damage, either forcing them to kneel lest they take mental damage, extra damage resistance or taking bonus damage that's reflected onto the enemy). Like the 1E Paladin, you also get a Divine Bond, though you also have the option to use it on a shield (to make it capable of absorbing more damage than normal) instead of a weapon or summoning a steed.

All in all, the Champion focuses on being a defender/striker (depending on alignment) and supporter type, with spells being a minor feature that's not quite as hamstringing thanks to how Focus Points and how some feats grant more of them (Especially when taking from a Cleric Domain) and how the class itself is practically divorced from needing any spellcasting stat.

===4th Edition===
In 4th Edition, the paladin must be the same alignment as their deity; no more [[Lawful Stupid]] out of fear of falling. The slightest deviation from one's alignment no longer results in a DM bitchslap and losing class features; instead, you get vague threats that the other faithful of the paladin's religion will seek you out to administer chastisement for your failings. You would ''think'' that since this removes one of the oldest mechanical complaints about the class, fans would be happy, but "Paladins must be Lawful Good!" is such a sacred cow that people were bitching over its loss even as they bemoan the Lawful Stupid Paladins and Orc Baby Dilemmas of old editions. Because of this beloved sacred cow, /tg/ likes to joke that this applies literally, making a [[meme]] out of 4e-paladins taking no falling damage.

As they were mechanically slotted to the role of Divine Defender, Paladin abilities are more focused on being a meat-shield than being a holy avenger; for more smite-evil action, you want the [[Avenger]] class from Player's Handbook 2. What this enabled, though, was the ability to focus your paladin into two different styles: either the full Str-meathead attacking tank pally and the Cha-based casting-and-curing paladin. Regardless of which path you picked, Paladins have two features by default: Divine Challenge (Your alignment-neutral Smite Evil that now forces an enemy to fight you or suffer damage that scaled by tier) and Channel Divinity (Your 1/fight special powers weren't part of your leveling scheme that you only get more of by getting feats). There is ultimately one way paladins can differentiate yourself, and it was only realized with the advent of the ''Divine Power'' [[splatbook]]:
* '''Lay on Hands''': That old staple that the PHB held onto. You spend one of your Healing Surges to heal an ally as if they spent it.
* '''Ardent Vow''': A damage-focused power that dealt extra damage the next time a paladin hit the designated enemy as well as designating them to the newly-made Divine Sanction (A challenge-lite that also hurt an enemy when they don't target a paladin but has far less restrictions on usage).
* '''Virtue's Touch''': Not quite as strong as Lay on Hands, but this allowed a paladin to cure various conditions they might run into.

The ''Essentials'' books later gave the Paladin two variant classes: The Cavalier (a very simplified paladin that pretty much exemplified the stereotypical "Essentials Class") and the [[Blackguard]] (A sort of bizarro-paladin that went more offensive and gained powers from their vices without becoming completely evil).

===5th Edition===
Mechanically speaking, 5th ed paladins have a few minor differences; their "detect evil" is now 1+Cha mod uses per day, and can no longer be used on the same turn as a smite because move actions no longer exist. Additionally, it has changed from detecting alignment to detecting Celestials, Fiends, and Undead, as well as if areas have been consecrated or desecrated, meaning that the paladin can now be caught by surprise by mundane evil (Which makes sense, since Alignment is now strictly for roleplaying purposes, and has little to no mechanical backing). Smiting now uses spell slots, with higher spell slots dealing more damage. They also get different types of Smite spells as they level up, with additional effects. And their "lay on hands" power taps into a reservoir of hitpoints-per-day that expands with each level, rather than healing for a fixed value a fixed number of times per day, and, taking a page from ''Pathfinder'', removes diseases and poisons. This new setup sacrifices raw healing power for flexibility of use to let them fill in a different niche from, say, a Life domain [[Cleric]].

Really got the shaft, like the [[ranger| other half-caster this edition]], with [[Fail|"dead levels"]] where they literally gain nothing but hitpoints, proficiency, and a single spell slot, are heavily-reliant on a ''very'' limited resource pool that only ever recharges on a long rest, and generally suffer, like the [[bard]] of previous editions, from being not quite good enough at any one thing to outshine the specialists, but at least, unlike the ranger, they have ''some'' abilities that scale naturally with their level, and they get a better version of the ranger's third-level Nature Sense power at level one, that ''also'' doesn't eat a spell slot to use. [[Troll| And ''their'' animal companion is summoned via a re-castable spell rather than an archetype feature, so they don't have to spend their own actions getting the damn thing to move and attack]].

However. The best Paladin in 5th edition is not actually a paladin, but a Hexblade, Sorcerer, or Bard with some levels of Paladin. Because spell failure is no longer a thing, a Paladin who soon multiclasses into a normally squishy arcane caster class will still be rocking heavy armor and a shield. To start with, a single level dip into Warlock lets the Paladin pick the Hexblade feature, making her melee attack and damage scale off of charisma rather than strength or dexterity. This has the tremendous benefit of making them highly single-attribute dependent as they literally cut people in half with their sexiness-boosted melee attacks. Levels of Bard and Sorcerer, apart from the obvious benefit of giving the Paladin access to powerful charisma-based arcane spells, increase their smiting ability much faster than actual Paladin levels... meaning a "Paladin" who has six levels in Paladin and eight in Sorcerer is going to be laying sown hugely damaging smites all day long. While giving the party huge boosts to saving throws. And they can use sorcery points to supercharge their spells while also having massive single-damage melee capability.

In 5th Edition, paladins no longer must adhere to any alignment (though the fluff still talks like they're all Lawful Good and are effective against fiends and undead regardless of alignment). However, when they reach 3rd level they swear their Paladin Oath, which gives him a code of conduct for him to follow. Also, since paladins have their codes of conduct clearly stated in the PH, rather than leaving it up to the nebulous personal decisions of a DM as to what actually ''constitutes'' "Lawful Good" and its required behavior, it's a lot harder for DMs to force a paladin to fall on grey area moralities. A paladin that breaks his oath must seek atonement and absolution. An unrepentant paladin, a paladin who abandons their quest for justice, or a paladin whose repeated oathbreaking demonstrates an unwillingness to follow their chosen path may become an Oathbreaker (see [[Blackguard]]).

If you want to add more complexity to the Paladin Oath, maybe because you want to push it more towards the flavor of the elder editions, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide gives an example of "general oaths" for Paladins. No mechanical crunch is enforced, so you don't have to uphold everything, but they offer great examples for more ways of fleshing out paladins in your setting, with tenets like "be honest and keep promises" or "be generous and tolerant".

There are three oaths in the corebook: the Oaths of Devotion, the Ancients, and Vengeance, each of which requires behaving a specific way and which gives specific powers.

* '''Oath of Devotion''' Paladin is the closest to the iconic Paladin archetype. This Oath requires you uphold the principles of Honesty (don't lie or cheat, let your word be your promise), Courage ("Never fear to act, though caution is wise" in the book proper, which basically means "don't be a coward, but don't be [[Leeroy Jenkins]]ing dat shit either"), Compassion (Aid others, protect the weak and punish those who threaten them, show mercy to your foes but temper mercy with wisdom), Honor (treat others fairly, do as much good as possible with as little harm as possible, be an example to others) and Duty (be responsible for your actions and their consequences, protect those entrusted to your care, obey those who have '''just''' authority over you, so you don't have to [[Lawful Stupid| obey the local tyrant because s/he is technically the ruler now]]).
:In exchange for all that, you get iconic Paladin type spells like protection from evil, lesser restoration, beacon of hope, etc, the Sacred Weapon (you can charge up a weapon to become a glowing magical weapon) and Turn the Unholy (make undead and fiends flee from you) uses of Channel Divinity, the Aura of Devotion feature (immunity to charm and give this to close-by allies), the Purity of Spirit feature (constant Protection From Evil on self) and the Holy Nimbus (create an aura of radiant damage-dealing, fiend & undead spell-weakening light once per day).
* '''Oath of the Ancients''' Paladin is a bit of an oddity, and possibly owes its origins to the [[Warden]] of 4th edition. Basically, this is a paladin who sides with the light due to their appreciation for beautiful, life-giving things of the world, making them allies of more benevolent druids, wilderness fae like [[dryad]]s and nature deities. In theory. In reality, this is a class people take because it has by the far the best defensive aura in the game, halving the damage from all spells taken by allies in their aura. Between passively boosting saves and passively cutting incoming spell damage in half, Ancients Paladins are one of the most potent anti-magic classes in the game. An Ancients Paladin with levels in Bard for counterspell purposes will make your DM cry any time he tries to throw casters at your party.
:They're frankly kind of hippyish, with the tenets of "Kindle the Light" (promote hope in others with mercy, kindness and forgiveness), "Shelter the Light" (protect beauty, love, good and laughter), "Preserve Your Own Light" (try to avoid turning into a bitter cuss) and "Be the Light" (serve as an example of why hope and joy are important to believe in).
:If you take this Oath, you get druidic spells like ensnaring strike, speak with animals, moonbeam and tree stride. Your Channel Divinity can be used to create entangling vines with Nature's Wrath, or to Turn the Faithless and so repel fiends and fey. Your Aura of Warding grants you and nearby allies resistance to damaging spells. Undying Sentinel lets you cheat death once per day and makes you immune to aging. Finally, the Elder Champion is a nature spirit-like form you can assume once per day for a number of benefits, including regeneration and more potent paladin spells.
* '''Oath of Vengeance''' Paladin is similar to the Grey Guard of 3rd edition, and probably best fits characterization like [[Batman]] or [[Judge Dredd]]. It's all about punishing the wicked and the sanctity of vengeance. Of course, you don't have to portray this guy as a total asshole - in fact, the 3rd edition [[Greyhawk]] Knights of the Chase are pretty applicable examples for a Vengeance Paladin.
:The tenets of this creed are "Fight the Greater Evil" (basically, measure the evil you see vs. the evil your sworn enemy would do; if the guy you really have a hate-on for is less of a threat, then focus on stopping this douchebag first, otherwise focus on your sworn enemy), "No Mercy for the Wicked" (you can spare lesser foes, but sworn enemies need to die or otherwise be punished), "By Any Means Necessary", and "Restitution" (it's your fault that your enemies hurt people, so you have the responsibility of helping those that they hurt).
:A Vengeance Paladin's spells, as you might expect, focus on impeding the ability of enemies to escape and enhancing the paladin's ability to go after them - hold person, dimension door, scrying, etc. They can Channel Divinity to Abjure Enemy (frighten an enemy so bad they can't move) or declare a Vow of Enmity (make it easier to kick that creature's ass), gain the Relentless Avenger feature (free move if you score an attack of opportunity), gain the Soul of Vengeance feature (Vow of Enmity lets you get free attacks if the target tries attacking), and culminate with the Avenging Angel feature (transform into an angelic form once per day).
* '''Oath of the Crown''' essentially more fully embraces the [[knight]] archetype of the Paladin's history, with the paladin's devotion being given specifically to society and the laws that built it up from the wilderness. You could alternatively flavor it as a hyper-patriotic (or nationalistic, depending on alignment) character like Stephen Colbert in the picture up top.
:This is a breed of paladin that focuses more on Law than on Good, with its tenets being Law (respect the law and hold it paramount), Loyalty (your word is your bond), Courage (do what needs to be done for the sake of order, no matter the odds) and Responsibility (the shit you do is all on you, so keep that in mind - also, you have duties & obligations, so you better damn will fill them). This means that Crown Paladins are the most likely archetype to fall back into the [[Lawful Stupid]] behavior feared and condemned of old, but they can also be sources of old-school Lawful douchebag character themes (i.e. "you lie, cheat and steal; you are scum and I must punish you!") and arrogant prick character themes (e.g. hating [[druid]]s, [[barbarian]]s, and nature [[cleric]]s for being primitives that don't appreciate the value of civilization).
:Because the Crown Paladin's focus is on the sanctity of law and society, with the specific ideology that the paladin is an Agent of Authority, their spells all fit into that theme, from the likes of zone of truth to outright mind-control spells like command and geas. They can use their Channel Divinity to issue a Champion Challenge (compel a creature to try and fight you) or to Turn the Tide (mass heal for allies). Divine Allegiance lets them soak up hits for nearby allies, Unyielding Spirit makes them harder to paralyze or stun, and their Exalted Champion feature means that, for an hour once per day, they can gain damage resistance vs. mundane weapons and grant advantage on death saving throws and Wisdom saving throws to themselves and allies.
:A comment on using Crown Paladins in homemade worlds in the back of the SCAG admits their magical powers don't quite mesh with the knightly archetype, but notes they make excellent examples of theocratic knightly orders - or even mystic ones, if one simply changes their flavor from "divine" to "arcane".
* '''Oath of Conquest''' is at best a fairly [[Lawful Stupid]] themed Oath and at worst goes all the way to Lawful Evil levels of tyranny; it dictates that its adherents should Douse The Flame Of Hope (use fear to intimidate defeated foes so badly they will never dare oppose you again), Rule With An Iron Fist (brook no dissent from those you have conquered) and to hold Strength Above All (what goes around comes around; if you can't beat someone, then either get stronger or be crushed in turn- there's no place for weakness in this Oath).
:Because Conquest Paladins are often allied to arch-devils, their bonus spells have a fairly [[Warlock]]ish feel to them, with spells like Armor of Agathys, Hold Person and Bestow Curse. Their Channel Divinity can be used to deliver a Conquering Strike (inflict fear with your weapon attack) or Guided Strike (big bonus to your To Hit roll), they exude an Aura of Conquest (disadvantage on saves vs. fear) at 7th level, they gain immunity to charming from their Implacable Spirit at 15th level, and at 20th level they become the Invincible Conqueror. This lets them buff themselves up for 1 minute once per day, during which time they Resist all damage, gain a bonus attack each turn, and deal critical hits on a 19-20 when making melee attacks.
* '''Oath of Redemption''', in stark contrast to the Oath of Conquest, is an oath dedicated to personal redemption for past misdeeds, using combat as a last resort. Of course, some morons might see this as an excuse to be [[That Guy]] and try to not help their allies in combat. However, the subclass is very good for support. They have shielding abilities and have an emphasis on rebuking those who attack first.

* '''Oath of Glory''', first printed in ''Mythic Odysseys of Theros'' and later reprinted in ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', focuses on emulating legendary semi-divine heroes, such as Gilgamesh, Hercules, and Achilles. Its tenants are '''Actions Over Words''' (gain renown by actually ''doing'' awesome things, not just boasting), '''Challenges Are But Tests''' (don't get discouraged by hardship), '''Hone the Body''' (be swole), and '''Discipline the Soul''' (work to overcome your flaws).
:Oath of Glory paladins get spells related to buffing themselves and others, like ''Heroism'', ''Enhance Ability'', and ''Haste'', with a few 'ask the gods for help' spells thrown in. Their Channel Divinity can make them a Peerless Athlete (you're extra swole for a while) or deliver an Inspiring Smite (heals allies after you hit an enemy really hard). At 7th level, they gain an Aura of Alacrity, which increases the speed of anyone in its area of effect. At 15th level, they can mount a Glorious Defense, which makes an enemy attack more likely to miss, and allows the paladin to counter-attack if that happens. At level 20, they become a Living Legend, allowing them to draw upon the stories told about them to buff themselves, granting them boosts to charisma checks and saving throws, plus allowing them to hit an attack they would have missed.
* '''Oath of the Watchers''' is Men In Black Paladin or maybe [[HFY]] Paladin sworn to protect mortal realm from extraplanar beings - this includes the obvious culprits like fiends, aberrations, genies, slaadi and elementals, as well as less malicious types, such as fey and celestials. Because they're dicks to mortals too, using us as pawns in their games. Their oath requires them to be vigilant to the point of paranoia and beyond and put the interest of mortals above all.
:Watchers get a set of spells best suited for locating, protecting from and BTFOing outsiders back to their planes, can turn all kinds of extrapanar creatures like priests turn undead, or give their allies advantages for most common saving throws used by outsiders. Their aura gives bonus initiative which is always nice, they can retaliate with force damage when someone casts spells around them and as a capstone get to channel the power of HFY to get truesight, advantage on attacks against outsiders, banishing them on a successful hit.

Also, got several new fighting styles with the new Expanded Class Features UA, namely a sweet new fighting style to let them poach two cleric cantrips for a ranged combat option and some extra utility, as well as the fighting styles everyone else got, namely 1)Blind fighting, which lets you effectively fight a creature you can't see as long as it's not hidden from you; 2)Interception, which works like the protection fighting style except that it a] reduces damage by 1d10 plus your proficiency bonus instead of imposing disadvantage, and b] works with either a shield ''or'' a weapon instead of just a shield; 3)Thrown weapon fighting, which lets you draw a thrown weapon as part of the attack you make with the weapon, and grants you a +1 to the damage roll; and 4)unarmed fighting, which changes your fists to 1d6 plus strength (1d8 if both your hands are free) instead of the flat 1 plus strength, although <s>[[What| it isn't clear if divine smite even works on your fists]]</s> [[FAIL| it has been stated that RAI you can't smite enemies using your fists]]; RAW however smite merely requires you to make a attack in melee with something other than spells so it works.

==See Also==
*[[Story:Holy Opposites|Holy Opposites]], a lengthy novel about two Paladins.
*[[Sameo]], a short story about a Paladin who dies awesomely.
*[[Lawful stupid]], a particularly annoying way to play a Paladin.
*[[Space Marines]], who are like [[grimdark]] Paladins '''[[Warhammer 40,000 | IIIIN SPAAAACE]]'''.
*[[Grey Knights]], who are like the above, but even more so.
*[[Detect Evil]], about a common problem with that spell/ability.
*[[Detect Evil Storytime]], a short story about what Detect Evil feels like to the Paladin.
*[[Powder Keg of Justice]], a short story about a Paladin who explains why his order has so many rules.
*[[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], a topic of much debate amongst /tg/ regarding how a paladin falls
*[[Gideon Jura]] and [[Elspeth Tirel]], [[Magic the Gathering]] characters based on the paladin archetype with [[skub|varying degrees of success]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Cleveandsmiteevil.jpg|No John, you are the smiteings
Image:Paladin_x_Giant.png|Detect and smite paladin hard at work.
Image:Paladin_button.png|PRO DM SKILLZ
Image:Paladins.jpg|Intelligence and wisdom are sadly frequent [[Dump Stat|dump stats]] for Paladins.
Image:Miko_ready_to_smite.png|Nothing says "fallen paladin" like smiting your teammates. Though murdering her boss was what actually did the trick.
File:Paladin demo.jpg|Evildoers, prepare your anus. [[Order of the Stick|That eighteen charisma is ''crazy'' "under the hood."]]
</gallery>

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Paladin

2021-06-30T00:36:44Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* 5th Edition */

[[Image:Colbert paladin.jpg|thumb|The typical Paladin, note the colors, and the symbol of the eagle, an important core of their faith]]

'''Paladins''' are a class from [[D&D|Dungeons and Dragons]], inspired by a mixture of the idealistic views of the Crusades in late 70s/early 80s Western culture (never forget, [[Gary Gygax]] was a devout Jehova's witness) and the "Knight in Shining Armor" archetype of Chivalric Romances and the Arthurian Mythos. They are divine warriors of a somewhat more martial bent than [[Cleric]]s, receiving a variety of powers generally focused around smiting the enemies of their god, and tend to have high Charisma scores to fuel their holy powers. Many a fictitious maiden that hasn't been seduced by the party's [[bard]] has benefited from a Paladin's Laying On of Hands. (Purely to heal their injuries, you understand. Unless they're into that sort of thing, of course. Not every god demands chastity of their warriors, after all.)

In addition to consistently being little different from a cleric/fighter multiclass character, they have earned a rather unfair reputation as a "troublemaker" class in D&D circles, the kind of class that must be watched because [[That Guy]] tends to be drawn to them. Rather like the [[Xaositect]] or the [[Kender]]... except, of course, the Paladin actually has numerous saving graces, so it has earned defenders, unlike either of the aforementioned troublemakers.

The cause? Simple: in the 1st through 3rd editions of the game, due to their "holy knight" origins, Paladins were game-mandated to uphold a Lawful Good alignment (which makes no sense, since any god would have use for paladins, not just LG ones). If they failed, they lost the bulk of their special abilities, leaving them as at-best a sub-par version of the [[Fighter]] until and unless they either Atoned - a process that could be very painful and often railroady - or changed classes entirely.

Now, this wouldn't be so bad in and of itself - alignment restrictions are hardly unique in any of those editions, even if most of them moved to much broader requirements under 3e and Pathfinder. However, for some reason, Paladins just seem to bring out [[That Guy]] in [[DM]]s. Why? Nobody really knows. The most logical reasons are a three-part combination; the "Fall from Grace" angle is a pretty well-worn story-angle, especially for more lackluster DMs, it makes a handy hook for railroading the party on, and most importantly of all: "Old School DMing". See, back in OD&D's day, D&D hadn't come far from its wargame roots, and so there was still a pretty strong "competitive" mindset in the culture. DM vs. Players was very common, if not the norm, with players trying to get all the loot and power they wanted and DMs trying to stop them. Thusly, the Paladin's "you must do what the DM thinks is Lawful Good behavior or lose all your power" ruleset was a built-in weakness. Of course, none of these may be true; some DM's are simply put, for the lack of a better word, little Cartmans who want "their authoritah to be respected", and likes to abuse and make people squirm because their lives were miserable.

This magnet for "moral dilemmas" and similar bullshit was bad enough, but on top of that, you had players who overplayed themselves, often for sheer fear that if they ''didn't'' act [[Lawful Stupid]], the DM would strip them of their power. And whereas the "I drop my pants and piss on the King!" Chaotic Neutral, the "of course I steal from the party too!" klepto-[[Rogue]] or the fireball-happy [[Wizard]] were purely a player using fluff to be a dick, in this case, the Paladin had actual mechanical enforcement to make it ''be'' a dick.

And from these roots, their reputation grew.

Eventually, after two decades of it, WoTC made the decision to try and fix this undeserved reputation - first by dropping the alignment restriction requirement entirely in 4e, and then switching from the annoyingly vague and open to interpretation "Must be Lawful Good" to "must follow this specific oath, which requires you to do X, Y and Z" in 5e. Although this has been met with the usual amount of [[rage]] and [[skub]], and hasn't completely shaken off the stigma yet, it has opened up the Paladin and attracted a lot more players than it's ever enjoyed before.

==Dragonladieshere and Beldak_Serpenthelm tell it like it is==
[[File:Doing it Wrong.jpg|250px|right|thumb|We said SLAY the dragon, not LAY the dragon!]]
<blockquote>
''There is none of that, "Oh well if you're truly sorry, there's nothing I can do." horseshit. No, he coup de graces your ass because he's a goddamn paladin. His job is killing evil. You know what his job doesn't entail? Being a sympathetic ear for every whiny NE or CN or LE douchebag who's only being evil because the world is unfair to him or every punk that lets his own dislikes or laziness overcome his own personality. You know what unfair is? Being able to know what kind of person everyone is before you even talk to them. Smelling evil so potent on a motherfucker that you want to sink your fingers in his chest and pull that tar out until the screaming stops. Having the psychotic urge to murder people that you've never even met, for the sole reason that your God decided that you ought to be his right hand without your choice in the matter, that's unfair.

''But unlike Evil McBlacknails over there, that Paladin puts on his helmet, sharpens his sword, and then continues walking through crowds of people day by day, resisting the urge. Seeing evidence of injustice so black it makes him sick. Seeing murderers and rapists walk the street, watching good men hang as evil ones pull the lever. Saving his righteous violence for when the situation exactly, specifically, precisely calls for it. Surgically removing that which is most evil. Because he's a Paladin. And if he gave in to the urge, what would he be? Who will right the true wrongs if not he? It's not about not falling as a Paladin. It's about falling so fucking hard you crash through the planet and stand up on the other side.'  - '''Dragonladieshere'''
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
''Some of the misconceptions that I am aware of some people having are: self-righteously throws fights by using the word "dirty" to refer to "realistic fighting", doesn't care about murderous tyrants as long as they gave themselves legal permission, believes that strategic retreats are always "cowardly", doesn't believe in letting the other people fight when "talking" would be more "right" in a "fighting" game."
 
''Counter: A paladin’s code of honor is not about throwing fights; it’s about not starting them. If someone is as evil and dangerous as you think they are, then they will have no problem throwing the first blow, and if they do not do so, then perhaps they are not as dangerous as you think. How many have been killed in fights that they picked with somebody whom they FALSELY believed would’ve attacked them first, but who in fact had no intention of doing so until he himself was attacked and had to defend himself? And yet, how many people have killed in self-defense in the same circumstance, when they in fact could’ve simply incapacitated their attacker and learned that his only real crime was stupidity?''
 
''More importantly, a paladin learns to pick her battles, but BEFORE the battle actually starts. If you attack something that you know to be dangerous, and then run off without planning to finish the job, then you have put others in danger by angering the enemy you attacked and encouraging him to lash out. If you plan to help people by deposing a tyrant, and you don’t bother gathering enough allies to ensure that you actually defeat him when you engage him, then the tyrant needs to know that when – not if – he defeats you, his quarrel with you will be finished, and he needs not burn entire villages to the ground looking for where you fled to and who helped you. If he was not the kind of ruler who would do that after a half-assed assassination attempt, then you would not have needed to depose him in the first place, and thus, if you are stupid enough not to bring enough allies to ABSOLUTELY guarantee victory, then you would need him to know that you acted alone and never had a chance worth him getting worried about after you are dead.'  - '''Beldak_Serpenthelm'''
</blockquote>

For a player who understands what a paladin is like, see also [[Powder Keg of Justice]].

==Paladins in different editions of D&D==
{{dnd-stub}}

===BECMI===
Introduced in the Companons Set for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], the Paladin in this iteration of D&D is a kind of proto-prestige class. A [[Fighter]] with a Lawful alignment who reaches 9th level can choose to swear fealty to a Lawful church to be inducted into their order. This causes them to gain certain abilities as if they were a [[Cleric]] of much lower level, namely casting clerical magic and turning undead, as well as an innate ability to detect evil. Their only restrictions are that they must obey their churchly superiors (unless commanded to do evil), and they must offer what assistance they can to non-evil people in need of help, unless already on a mission for a higher authority.

This same edition introduced the [[Avenger]] as the Chaotic counterpart to the Paladin, essential a proto-[[Blackguard]].

===AD&D 1st Edition===
[[Alignment|Lawful Good]]. If you fuck up at being Lawful Good, you're busted down to Fighter at the same level, and your church shuns you. The controversial [[Unearthed Arcana]] book adds the chance to play Paladin-[[Cavalier]]s, who are incredibly ridiculous in power level (can stay conscious and retreat at negative hit points, can boost Str, Con, Dex, and Cha a little bit each level up, immunity to fear, etc).

Only humans can become Paladins in this edition.

===AD&D 2nd Edition===
A sub-class of Warrior, 2e Paladins are notable primarily by their potential to use Holy Avenger swords, which inflict an additional +10 damage versus Chaotic Evil foes (which is a lot for 2e), and create a circle of power that is a selective antimagic field versus lower level magical effects (so all enemy buffs and enemy magic items created by a level 12 wizard power down when a level 13 paladin walks up). The Paladin's [[kits]] have their own brands of notoriety. Most notably, the [[Cavalier]] kit recreates about half of the abilities they used to have for a Paladin; in fact, the 3e Paladin actually takes its Fear Immunity trait from this kit, rather than the core AD&D Paladin. Meanwhile, the Inquisitor was probably pound-for-pound the best anti-mage fighter in the game, with a redonkulous amount of Dispel Magic spells per day so potent [[Monte Cook]] ''still'' has bitch-fits at the thought of adapting the Inquisitor to 3.X. A straight Paladin probably does not have a good chance of being worthwhile compared to a fighter if they cannot expect to find their holy sword, however.

As in 1e, Paladin is ''the'' most racially restricted class, only being open to humans, for the most part. However, certain other races were also able to become Paladins:
* [[Rakasta]] could be Paladins in Basic, but in AD&D, only the Sibasta strain from Dragon #247 retained this trait.
* [[Lupin]]s could be Paladins in Basic, and the Maremma, Golden Retriever, Zvornikian Sentinel strains and "Mongrel" breeds from Dragon #237 were Paladin-capable for AD&D.
* [[Saurial]]s of the Finhead strain had a special "pseudo-paladin" [[fighter]] [[kits|kit]] available to them, called the Saurial Paladin.
* [[Aasimar]] could become straight-up paladins, as you'd expect given they are the children of [[angel]]s.
* [[Bariaur]] males could become paladins since their introduction in the [[Planescape]] campaign setting - surprisingly, given the race's association with the Chaotic side of the [[Upper Planes]].
* Earth [[Genasi]], at the DM's discretion, could be paladins - ironically, they could reach 15th level, whilst the aasimar could only reach level 14!
* [[Irda]] could be Paladins when they came out in AD&D.
* Black [[Swanmay]]s (Dragon #266) can be Paladins, Clerics or Crusaders, whilst the White Swanmays can only be Druids or Rangers.
* Daergar, Hylar and Theiwar dwarves could be Paladins in the Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium.
* Silvanesti elves could be Paladins in the Tales of the Lance boxed set and in the Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium.
* Dargonesti and Dimernesti sea elves could be Paladins in the Dragonlance Monstrous Compendium.

===3rd Edition===
[[Alignment|Lawful Good]], with an explicit Code of Conduct, in exchange gains a number of immunities to various status effects, their famous ability to Smite Evil, and the service of an intelligent and useful mount. Splatbooks introduced various alternative-alignment variants. The first and most well-known is the Blackguard prestige class from the DMG, which could be any flavor of evil and could gain additional abilities for every level of Paladin that the player had prior to becoming a Blackguard. Later, [[Complete Divine]] introduced the Holy Liberator prestige class as a Chaotic Good version of a Paladin. There are also options to make the Paladin more cleric-like in Dungeonscape, or completely remove spells such as in Complete Warrior.

3rd Edition Paladins are [[Tier System|tier 4]]: Good (but not amazing) at destroying evil creatures, competent at diplomacy and good at pretty much nothing else. They also suffer from a severe case of [[MAD]], relying on Strength and Constitution to be decent in combat, and Wisdom and Charisma for spellcasting.

===D20 Modern===
[[Urban Arcana]] adds the (Un)Holy Knight prestige class which requires one have Good or Evil allegiance. As a prestige class, it's fairly late to qualify for (8 BAB in a system where full BAB is rare) but it packs the main Paladin abilities into five levels. Since it gives Divine Grace at first level, it's a good way to finish off a Sorcerer or Telepath build and is still solid for any combat brute.

===Pathfinder===
[[File:Seelah.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Seelah, Pathfinder's Iconic Paladin/Champion]]
[[Pathfinder]] made a number of mechanical improvements (''beefy'' ones, Pathfinder paladins are ''badass''), but mostly left them alone conceptually. Now they cast spells off charisma rather than wisdom ([[MAD|and praise Saerenrae for that]]. One unusual consequence of this is that thanks to high natural will save and adding charisma to all saves, Paladins are now free to [[Stupid Good|dump wisdom]] as low as it can go.), and their Smites, on top of granting better defensive and offensive bonuses, ''keep Smiting'' until they either Smite something else or the Smitee is dead. (Sure, it can ''theoretically'' run out in twenty-four hours, but almost nothing suffering from a Smite is going to live that long). The Code of Conduct was also softened a little to allow paladins to more easily be team players and not 100% stick-in-the-mud party cops. One problem, if you can call it that, is that the paladin is ''too'' specialized (even with Pathfinder's improvements he still won't break tier 4): If the DM keeps throwing evil outsiders or undead into the campaign as [[BBEG]]s a modestly-well-prepared paladin will be able tear through them like a holy-powered buzzsaw without a lot of effort, since he deals better "burst" damage than almost any of them and has great saves and immunity to shit like ''mummy rot'', so he won't be afraid to charge in and [[rip and tear]] when another class would be adverse to taking risks around one. If the final boss keeps getting one-shotted by a well-timed Smite Evil ''litany of righteousness'' power attack/deadly aim combo, it may very well be time to invest in "moral complexity." (Read: throw some constructs or wild animals at him.). Despite this the Paladin still struggles to be worthwhile outside his niche. A major reason for this is that Paladins have only 2+int skill points per level, being the only player class in the system aside from Fighter to have only 2 skill points without getting at least 6th level spells. Their class list is at least much better than the Fighter’s, and they do have some spellcasting and healing for out of combat utility.

Thanks to their variety of class abilities that can be traded away, a Paladin has some of the most varied archetypes in the game, second only to [[Monk]]. These range from simple (Divine Hunter, which trades melee abilities for ranged ones) to "free planar ally and more casting" (Sacred Servant, which can shoot a Paladin up to tier 2 if they worship a deity that gives a good planar allies and tier 3 even if they give something lame like elementals).

===Pathfinder 2nd Edition===
[[Pathfinder Second Edition]] decided to drastically change the class, with the least of these being its name: Yes, the Paladin is now called the '''''Champion'''''. This along with the option for any good alignment (evil later featured in Advanced player's guide and neutral is TBD) rather than the explicit Always Lawful Good nonsense. The limited spellcasting has also been condensed into Focus Casting (meaning you have spells that you cast using limited points, but you recover them with a 10 minute rest). Smite has been removed and replaced with a counter-attack based on the Champion's specific alignment (Either a flat counter-attack while protecting an ally, force the enemy to choose between dealing no damage or dealing less damage and being weakened, or giving an ally a chance to break free of a restraining condition and escaping with protection. The evil versions spin on this by making it revenge whenever the champion takes damage, either forcing them to kneel lest they take mental damage, extra damage resistance or taking bonus damage that's reflected onto the enemy). Like the 1E Paladin, you also get a Divine Bond, though you also have the option to use it on a shield (to make it capable of absorbing more damage than normal) instead of a weapon or summoning a steed.

All in all, the Champion focuses on being a defender/striker (depending on alignment) and supporter type, with spells being a minor feature that's not quite as hamstringing thanks to how Focus Points and how some feats grant more of them (Especially when taking from a Cleric Domain) and how the class itself is practically divorced from needing any spellcasting stat.

===4th Edition===
In 4th Edition, the paladin must be the same alignment as their deity; no more [[Lawful Stupid]] out of fear of falling. The slightest deviation from one's alignment no longer results in a DM bitchslap and losing class features; instead, you get vague threats that the other faithful of the paladin's religion will seek you out to administer chastisement for your failings. You would ''think'' that since this removes one of the oldest mechanical complaints about the class, fans would be happy, but "Paladins must be Lawful Good!" is such a sacred cow that people were bitching over its loss even as they bemoan the Lawful Stupid Paladins and Orc Baby Dilemmas of old editions. Because of this beloved sacred cow, /tg/ likes to joke that this applies literally, making a [[meme]] out of 4e-paladins taking no falling damage.

As they were mechanically slotted to the role of Divine Defender, Paladin abilities are more focused on being a meat-shield than being a holy avenger; for more smite-evil action, you want the [[Avenger]] class from Player's Handbook 2. What this enabled, though, was the ability to focus your paladin into two different styles: either the full Str-meathead attacking tank pally and the Cha-based casting-and-curing paladin. Regardless of which path you picked, Paladins have two features by default: Divine Challenge (Your alignment-neutral Smite Evil that now forces an enemy to fight you or suffer damage that scaled by tier) and Channel Divinity (Your 1/fight special powers weren't part of your leveling scheme that you only get more of by getting feats). There is ultimately one way paladins can differentiate yourself, and it was only realized with the advent of the ''Divine Power'' [[splatbook]]:
* '''Lay on Hands''': That old staple that the PHB held onto. You spend one of your Healing Surges to heal an ally as if they spent it.
* '''Ardent Vow''': A damage-focused power that dealt extra damage the next time a paladin hit the designated enemy as well as designating them to the newly-made Divine Sanction (A challenge-lite that also hurt an enemy when they don't target a paladin but has far less restrictions on usage).
* '''Virtue's Touch''': Not quite as strong as Lay on Hands, but this allowed a paladin to cure various conditions they might run into.

The ''Essentials'' books later gave the Paladin two variant classes: The Cavalier (a very simplified paladin that pretty much exemplified the stereotypical "Essentials Class") and the [[Blackguard]] (A sort of bizarro-paladin that went more offensive and gained powers from their vices without becoming completely evil).

===5th Edition===
Mechanically speaking, 5th ed paladins have a few minor differences; their "detect evil" is now 1+Cha mod uses per day, and can no longer be used on the same turn as a smite because move actions no longer exist. Additionally, it has changed from detecting alignment to detecting Celestials, Fiends, and Undead, as well as if areas have been consecrated or desecrated, meaning that the paladin can now be caught by surprise by mundane evil (Which makes sense, since Alignment is now strictly for roleplaying purposes, and has little to no mechanical backing). Smiting now uses spell slots, with higher spell slots dealing more damage. They also get different types of Smite spells as they level up, with additional effects. And their "lay on hands" power taps into a reservoir of hitpoints-per-day that expands with each level, rather than healing for a fixed value a fixed number of times per day, and, taking a page from ''Pathfinder'', removes diseases and poisons. This new setup sacrifices raw healing power for flexibility of use to let them fill in a different niche from, say, a Life domain [[Cleric]].

Really got the shaft, like the [[ranger| other half-caster this edition]], with [[Fail|"dead levels"]] where they literally gain nothing but hitpoints, proficiency, and a single spell slot, are heavily-reliant on a ''very'' limited resource pool that only ever recharges on a long rest, and generally suffer, like the [[bard]] of previous editions, from being not quite good enough at any one thing to outshine the specialists, but at least, unlike the ranger, they have ''some'' abilities that scale naturally with their level, and they get a better version of the ranger's third-level Nature Sense power at level one, that ''also'' doesn't eat a spell slot to use. [[Troll| And ''their'' animal companion is summoned via a re-castable spell rather than an archetype feature, so they don't have to spend their own actions getting the damn thing to move and attack]].

However. The best Paladin in 5th edition is not actually a paladin, but a Hexblade, Sorcerer, or Bard with some levels of Paladin. Because spell failure is no longer a thing, a Paladin who soon multiclasses into a normally squishy arcane caster class will still be rocking heavy armor and a shield. To start with, a single level dip into Warlock lets the Paladin pick the Hexblade feature, making her melee attack and damage scale off of charisma rather than strength or dexterity. This has the tremendous benefit of making them highly single-attribute dependent as they literally cut people in half with their sexiness-boosted melee attacks. Levels of Bard and Sorcerer, apart from the obvious benefit of giving the Paladin access to powerful charisma-based arcane spells, increase their smiting ability much faster than actual Paladin levels... meaning a "Paladin" who has six levels in Paladin and eight in Sorcerer is going to be laying sown hugely damaging smites all day long. While giving the party huge boosts to saving throws. And they can use sorcery points to supercharge their spells while also having massive single-damage melee capability.

In 5th Edition, paladins no longer must adhere to any alignment (though the fluff still talks like they're all Lawful Good and are effective against fiends and undead regardless of alignment). However, when they reach 3rd level they swear their Paladin Oath, which gives him a code of conduct for him to follow. Also, since paladins have their codes of conduct clearly stated in the PH, rather than leaving it up to the nebulous personal decisions of a DM as to what actually ''constitutes'' "Lawful Good" and its required behavior, it's a lot harder for DMs to force a paladin to fall on grey area moralities. A paladin that breaks his oath must seek atonement and absolution. An unrepentant paladin, a paladin who abandons their quest for justice, or a paladin whose repeated oathbreaking demonstrates an unwillingness to follow their chosen path may become an Oathbreaker (see [[Blackguard]]).

If you want to add more complexity to the Paladin Oath, maybe because you want to push it more towards the flavor of the elder editions, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide gives an example of "general oaths" for Paladins. No mechanical crunch is enforced, so you don't have to uphold everything, but they offer great examples for more ways of fleshing out paladins in your setting, with tenets like "be honest and keep promises" or "be generous and tolerant".

There are three oaths in the corebook: the Oaths of Devotion, the Ancients, and Vengeance, each of which requires behaving a specific way and which gives specific powers.

* '''Oath of Devotion''' Paladin is the closest to the iconic Paladin archetype. This Oath requires you uphold the principles of Honesty (don't lie or cheat, let your word be your promise), Courage ("Never fear to act, though caution is wise" in the book proper, which basically means "don't be a coward, but don't be [[Leeroy Jenkins]]ing dat shit either"), Compassion (Aid others, protect the weak and punish those who threaten them, show mercy to your foes but temper mercy with wisdom), Honor (treat others fairly, do as much good as possible with as little harm as possible, be an example to others) and Duty (be responsible for your actions and their consequences, protect those entrusted to your care, obey those who have '''just''' authority over you, so you don't have to [[Lawful Stupid| obey the local tyrant because s/he is technically the ruler now]]).
:In exchange for all that, you get iconic Paladin type spells like protection from evil, lesser restoration, beacon of hope, etc, the Sacred Weapon (you can charge up a weapon to become a glowing magical weapon) and Turn the Unholy (make undead and fiends flee from you) uses of Channel Divinity, the Aura of Devotion feature (immunity to charm and give this to close-by allies), the Purity of Spirit feature (constant Protection From Evil on self) and the Holy Nimbus (create an aura of radiant damage-dealing, fiend & undead spell-weakening light once per day).
* '''Oath of the Ancients''' Paladin is a bit of an oddity, and possibly owes its origins to the [[Warden]] of 4th edition. Basically, this is a paladin who sides with the light due to their appreciation for beautiful, life-giving things of the world, making them allies of more benevolent druids, wilderness fae like [[dryad]]s and nature deities. In theory. In reality, this is a class people take because it has by the far the best defensive aura in the game, halving the damage from all spells taken by allies in their aura. Between passively boosting saves and passively cutting incoming spell damage in half, Ancients Paladins are one of the most potent anti-magic classes in the game. An Ancients Paladin with levels in Bard for counterspell purposes will make your DM cry any time he tries to throw casters at your party.
:They're frankly kind of hippyish, with the tenets of "Kindle the Light" (promote hope in others with mercy, kindness and forgiveness), "Shelter the Light" (protect beauty, love, good and laughter), "Preserve Your Own Light" (try to avoid turning into a bitter cuss) and "Be the Light" (serve as an example of why hope and joy are important to believe in).
:If you take this Oath, you get druidic spells like ensnaring strike, speak with animals, moonbeam and tree stride. Your Channel Divinity can be used to create entangling vines with Nature's Wrath, or to Turn the Faithless and so repel fiends and fey. Your Aura of Warding grants you and nearby allies resistance to damaging spells. Undying Sentinel lets you cheat death once per day and makes you immune to aging. Finally, the Elder Champion is a nature spirit-like form you can assume once per day for a number of benefits, including regeneration and more potent paladin spells.
* '''Oath of Vengeance''' Paladin is similar to the Grey Guard of 3rd edition, and probably best fits characterization like [[Batman]] or [[Judge Dredd]]. It's all about punishing the wicked and the sanctity of vengeance. Of course, you don't have to portray this guy as a total asshole - in fact, the 3rd edition [[Greyhawk]] Knights of the Chase are pretty applicable examples for a Vengeance Paladin.
:The tenets of this creed are "Fight the Greater Evil" (basically, measure the evil you see vs. the evil your sworn enemy would do; if the guy you really have a hate-on for is less of a threat, then focus on stopping this douchebag first, otherwise focus on your sworn enemy), "No Mercy for the Wicked" (you can spare lesser foes, but sworn enemies need to die or otherwise be punished), "By Any Means Necessary", and "Restitution" (it's your fault that your enemies hurt people, so you have the responsibility of helping those that they hurt).
:A Vengeance Paladin's spells, as you might expect, focus on impeding the ability of enemies to escape and enhancing the paladin's ability to go after them - hold person, dimension door, scrying, etc. They can Channel Divinity to Abjure Enemy (frighten an enemy so bad they can't move) or declare a Vow of Enmity (make it easier to kick that creature's ass), gain the Relentless Avenger feature (free move if you score an attack of opportunity), gain the Soul of Vengeance feature (Vow of Enmity lets you get free attacks if the target tries attacking), and culminate with the Avenging Angel feature (transform into an angelic form once per day).
* '''Oath of the Crown''' essentially more fully embraces the [[knight]] archetype of the Paladin's history, with the paladin's devotion being given specifically to society and the laws that built it up from the wilderness. You could alternatively flavor it as a hyper-patriotic (or nationalistic, depending on alignment) character like Stephen Colbert in the picture up top.
:This is a breed of paladin that focuses more on Law than on Good, with its tenets being Law (respect the law and hold it paramount), Loyalty (your word is your bond), Courage (do what needs to be done for the sake of order, no matter the odds) and Responsibility (the shit you do is all on you, so keep that in mind - also, you have duties & obligations, so you better damn will fill them). This means that Crown Paladins are the most likely archetype to fall back into the [[Lawful Stupid]] behavior feared and condemned of old, but they can also be sources of old-school Lawful douchebag character themes (i.e. "you lie, cheat and steal; you are scum and I must punish you!") and arrogant prick character themes (e.g. hating [[druid]]s, [[barbarian]]s, and nature [[cleric]]s for being primitives that don't appreciate the value of civilization).
:Because the Crown Paladin's focus is on the sanctity of law and society, with the specific ideology that the paladin is an Agent of Authority, their spells all fit into that theme, from the likes of zone of truth to outright mind-control spells like command and geas. They can use their Channel Divinity to issue a Champion Challenge (compel a creature to try and fight you) or to Turn the Tide (mass heal for allies). Divine Allegiance lets them soak up hits for nearby allies, Unyielding Spirit makes them harder to paralyze or stun, and their Exalted Champion feature means that, for an hour once per day, they can gain damage resistance vs. mundane weapons and grant advantage on death saving throws and Wisdom saving throws to themselves and allies.
:A comment on using Crown Paladins in homemade worlds in the back of the SCAG admits their magical powers don't quite mesh with the knightly archetype, but notes they make excellent examples of theocratic knightly orders - or even mystic ones, if one simply changes their flavor from "divine" to "arcane".
* '''Oath of Conquest''' is at best a fairly [[Lawful Stupid]] themed Oath and at worst goes all the way to Lawful Evil levels of tyranny; it dictates that its adherents should Douse The Flame Of Hope (use fear to intimidate defeated foes so badly they will never dare oppose you again), Rule With An Iron Fist (brook no dissent from those you have conquered) and to hold Strength Above All (what goes around comes around; if you can't beat someone, then either get stronger or be crushed in turn- there's no place for weakness in this Oath).
:Because Conquest Paladins are often allied to arch-devils, their bonus spells have a fairly [[Warlock]]ish feel to them, with spells like Armor of Agathys, Hold Person and Bestow Curse. Their Channel Divinity can be used to deliver a Conquering Strike (inflict fear with your weapon attack) or Guided Strike (big bonus to your To Hit roll), they exude an Aura of Conquest (disadvantage on saves vs. fear) at 7th level, they gain immunity to charming from their Implacable Spirit at 15th level, and at 20th level they become the Invincible Conqueror. This lets them buff themselves up for 1 minute once per day, during which time they Resist all damage, gain a bonus attack each turn, and deal critical hits on a 19-20 when making melee attacks.
* '''Oath of Redemption''', in stark contrast to the Oath of Conquest, is an oath dedicated to personal redemption for past misdeeds, using combat as a last resort. Of course, some morons might see this as an excuse to be [[That Guy]] and try to not help their allies in combat. However, the subclass is very good for support. They have shielding abilities and have an emphasis on rebuking those who attack first.

* The '''Oath of Glory''', first printed in ''Mythic Odysseys of Theros'' and later reprinted in ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', focuses on emulating legendary semi-divine heroes, such as Gilgamesh, Hercules, and Achilles. Its tenants are '''Actions Over Words''' (gain renown by actually ''doing'' awesome things, not just boasting), '''Challenges Are But Tests''' (don't get discouraged by hardship), '''Hone the Body''' (be swole), and '''Discipline the Soul''' (work to overcome your flaws).
:Oath of Glory paladins get spells related to buffing themselves and others, like ''Heroism'', ''Enhance Ability'', and ''Haste'', with a few 'ask the gods for help' spells thrown in. Their Channel Divinity can make them a Peerless Athlete (you're extra swole for a while) or deliver an Inspiring Smite (heals allies after you hit an enemy really hard). At 7th level, they gain an Aura of Alacrity, which increases the speed of anyone in its area of effect. At 15th level, they can mount a Glorious Defense, which makes an enemy attack more likely to miss, and allows the paladin to counter-attack if that happens. At level 20, they become a Living Legend, allowing them to draw upon the stories told about them to buff themselves, granting them boosts to charisma checks and saving throws, plus allowing them to hit an attack they would have missed.
* '''Oath of the Watchers''' is Men In Black Paladin or maybe [[HFY]] Paladin sworn to protect mortal realm from extraplanar beings - this includes the obvious culprits like fiends, aberrations, genies, slaadi and elementals, as well as less malicious types, such as fey and celestials. Because they're dicks to mortals too, using us as pawns in their games. Their oath requires them to be vigilant to the point of paranoia and beyond and put the interest of mortals above all.
:Watchers get a set of spells best suited for locating, protecting from and BTFOing outsiders back to their planes, can turn all kinds of extrapanar creatures like priests turn undead, or give their allies advantages for most common saving throws used by outsiders. Their aura gives bonus initiative which is always nice, they can retaliate with force damage when someone casts spells around them and as a capstone get to channel the power of HFY to get truesight, advantage on attacks against outsiders, banishing them on a successful hit.

Also, got several new fighting styles with the new Expanded Class Features UA, namely a sweet new fighting style to let them poach two cleric cantrips for a ranged combat option and some extra utility, as well as the fighting styles everyone else got, namely 1)Blind fighting, which lets you effectively fight a creature you can't see as long as it's not hidden from you; 2)Interception, which works like the protection fighting style except that it a] reduces damage by 1d10 plus your proficiency bonus instead of imposing disadvantage, and b] works with either a shield ''or'' a weapon instead of just a shield; 3)Thrown weapon fighting, which lets you draw a thrown weapon as part of the attack you make with the weapon, and grants you a +1 to the damage roll; and 4)unarmed fighting, which changes your fists to 1d6 plus strength (1d8 if both your hands are free) instead of the flat 1 plus strength, although <s>[[What| it isn't clear if divine smite even works on your fists]]</s> [[FAIL| it has been stated that RAI you can't smite enemies using your fists]]; RAW however smite merely requires you to make a attack in melee with something other than spells so it works.

==See Also==
*[[Story:Holy Opposites|Holy Opposites]], a lengthy novel about two Paladins.
*[[Sameo]], a short story about a Paladin who dies awesomely.
*[[Lawful stupid]], a particularly annoying way to play a Paladin.
*[[Space Marines]], who are like [[grimdark]] Paladins '''[[Warhammer 40,000 | IIIIN SPAAAACE]]'''.
*[[Grey Knights]], who are like the above, but even more so.
*[[Detect Evil]], about a common problem with that spell/ability.
*[[Detect Evil Storytime]], a short story about what Detect Evil feels like to the Paladin.
*[[Powder Keg of Justice]], a short story about a Paladin who explains why his order has so many rules.
*[[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], a topic of much debate amongst /tg/ regarding how a paladin falls
*[[Gideon Jura]] and [[Elspeth Tirel]], [[Magic the Gathering]] characters based on the paladin archetype with [[skub|varying degrees of success]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Cleveandsmiteevil.jpg|No John, you are the smiteings
Image:Paladin_x_Giant.png|Detect and smite paladin hard at work.
Image:Paladin_button.png|PRO DM SKILLZ
Image:Paladins.jpg|Intelligence and wisdom are sadly frequent [[Dump Stat|dump stats]] for Paladins.
Image:Miko_ready_to_smite.png|Nothing says "fallen paladin" like smiting your teammates. Though murdering her boss was what actually did the trick.
File:Paladin demo.jpg|Evildoers, prepare your anus. [[Order of the Stick|That eighteen charisma is ''crazy'' "under the hood."]]
</gallery>

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{{Pathfinder-1st-Edition-Classes}}
{{Pathfinder-2nd-Edition-Classes}}
{{Pathfinder-2nd-Edition-Archetypes}}

Van Richten's Guide

2021-06-29T18:56:10Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft */

{{NeedsImages}}
'''The Van Richten's Guides''' are a series of monster-related sourcebooks written for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and connected to the setting of [[Ravenloft]].

From an in-universe perspective, the Guides are, as their title says, treatises on monster-hunting written by the esteemed Dr. [[Van Richten]], the most prolific and well-educated monster hunter in all of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]. At some point, Van Richten disappeared, after which his legacy was taken up by the [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]. In addition to completing and publishing his own unfinished notes - the Guides to the Fiend, Vistani and Witch - they went on to create their own guides, which they published under the same name for legacy purposes and to ensure they would reach their target audience.

On the meta-level, each Guidebook examines a single creature type and expands upon it to make it both a better fit for Ravenloft's purported "Gothic Horror" goal (even if, in practice, it leans closer to [[Castlevania]] amongst most people who actually play it), providing an exhaustive examination of tactics that can be used to run that monster or fight that monster, variant "salient abilities", unique weaknesses, lore, and other aspects that flesh them out.

Van Richten wrote and published on his own the following books for the [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] system:
* Guide to [[Vampire]]s
* Guide to [[Lich]]es
* Guide to [[Ghost]]s
* Guide to [[Therianthrope|Werebeasts]]
* Guide to [[Fiend]]s
* Guide to the [[Mummy|Ancient Dead]]
* Guide to the [[Golem|Created]]
* Guide to the [[Vistani]]

These books were later reprinted in "collected editions" by the Weathermay Twins, known as the Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendiums. The third and last of these volumes also included the otherwise unprinted "Van Richten's Guide to [[Witch]]es", which, as the name suggests, examines [[Witch]]es, [[Warlock]]s and [[Hag]]s.

The Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins wrote two guides completely of their own for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 3rd edition which saw print; one for the [[Walking Dead]] and a second for the [[Shadow Fey]]. A third guidebook, dedicated to "The Mists", which focused on anomalous and eerie entities born from the reality-binding vapors that wreathe the land, in addition to covering Outlanders (humanoids from other worlds brought amongst the ignorant natives of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]) and anomalous reality-zones that one might encounter whilst enveloped by the Mists, was completely written up... but, [[White Wolf]] lost the license before they could officially print and sell it. The PDF was set free onto the internet, and is now hosted on, amongst other things, the [[Fraternity of Shadows]] website.

Looking into adapting content found in these guides to later editions? Note that not everything written by White Wolf & Sword&Sorcery for 3-3.5e was converted entirely everything from the 2nd Edition, and- more intriguingly, the powers Liches are privy to in Guide to the Lich are still, 3.5 canon, such as the salient abilities Liches gain are in Monsters of Faerun, though only a small excerpt. Please note, that these make both liches and vampires essentially epic-level threats, whom are more dangerous depending on their personal holdings and age- a vampire patriarch for example, is essentially a demigod immune to sunlight, and probably only beatable if they gained additional weaknesses over their long-term existence, they can even fully heal themselves once per day through the use of their alternate form ability, which has an additional form of their choosing- essentially their second Castlevania Dracula Form- limited to no CR or cap or anything. They can even cheat themselves into becoming this strong. If you've ever heard of the epic-questline, the Quicksilver Hourglass in 3.5, a quest where you have to stop members of the Union of Eclipses using a deific artifact to age the world to death and rule the remainder, then failure would result in vampires like this popping up all over the material plane. Bullet dodged.

==Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft==
A book titled "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" released on 18th May 2021, serving as the complete [[Ravenloft]] setting book for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]].

For players, this book offers mechanics for [[Dhampir]], [[Hexblood]] and [[Reborn]] "races", new "horror-themed" Trinkets, tips on altering backgrounds to a more horror motif, the new (or possibly reprinted from [[Curse of Strahd]]) Haunted One and Investigator backgrounds, the [[Occultist|College of Spirits]] subclass for [[bard]]s and the [[Undead]] patron for [[warlock]]s. A new mechanic in the form of "Dark Gifts" is also offered, replacing the [[Powers Check]]s of old.

Most of the book is dedicated to DMs, however. The second chapter is devoted to the topic of ''Creating Domains of Dread'', and provides advice on building darklords and their domains, and discusses the major genres of horror useful to a Ravenloft 5e game, which it breaks down as ''Body Horror'', ''Cosmic Horror'', ''Dark Fantasy'', ''Folk Horror'', ''Ghost Story'', ''Gothic Horror'' and ''Other''.

Chapter 3 is devoted to providing details on '''Domains of Ravenloft'''. Most of this is devoted to domains; seventeen of which are about four pages long, with most of that being [[Darklord]] related, and another dozen or so that are only a single paragraph long.

Still in chapter 3, it then provides major Ravenloft organizations (with particular emphasis on the [[Keepers of the Feather]] and the [[Vistani]]) and prominent NPCs native to the Demiplane of Dread:
* [[Alanik Ray]] & Arthur Sedgwick (the Ravenloftian Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson)
* The Caller (obviously the [[Incubus]] known as the [[Gentleman Caller]])
* Erasmus van Richten (Dr. van Richten's previously dead [[vampire]] son, now a ghost)
* [[Ez d'Avenir]]
* [[Firan Zal'honan]]
* [[Jander Sunstar]] (heroic [[elf]] [[vampire]])
* [[Larissa Snowmane]]
* Dr. Rudolph [[van Richten]] (the iconic van Helsing expy)
* The [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]

Chapter 4 is short again, and is full of basic DM tricks, hence its title of '''Horror Adventures'''. Most of interest are new mechanics for curses, fear, stress, haunted traps, and survivors. There's also a short adventure set in the infamous House of Lament.

Finally, chapter 5 is all about the '''Monsters of Ravenloft'''. Whilst there are some new critters, most of these are actually returning beasties from old! A major detail, however, is that [[FAIL|none of the entries bother to list the creature's alignments]], so for all we know, that [[Berserker|Relentless Killer]] [[Trap|could just be a Neutral Good softie]]!
* [[Doppelganger Plant|Bodytaker Plant]] (originally called the Doppelganger Plant, an expy of the pods from Invasion of the body Snatchers)
* [[Boneless]]
* [[Brain in a Jar]]
* [[Carrion Stalker]]
* [[Carrionette]]
* [[Death's Head]]
* [[Dullahan]]
* [[Gallows Speaker]]
* [[Gremishka]]
* [[Jiangshi]]
* [[Loup-garou|Loup Garou]]
* [[Necrichor]]
* [[Nosferatu]]
* Priests of [[Osybus]]
* [[Relentless Killer]]
* [[Star Spawn]] Emissary
* [[Strigoi]]
* Swarms (Maggots, Scarabs)
* Ulmist Inquisitors
* [[Unspeakable Horror]]s
* [[Vampire|Vampiric]] [[Mind Flayer]]
* [[Wereraven]]
* [[Zombie]]s (swarm of zombie limbs, zombie clot, zombie plague spreader)

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Ravenloft]] [[Category: Game Books]]

Dullahan

2021-06-29T18:34:44Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* D&d */

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The '''Dullahan''' is a monster originating from the Irish branch of Celtic mythology, a malevolent psychopomp that takes the form of a decapitated human horseman who carries his (or her, female dullahans have also been reported) hideously ugly head in one hand. Sometimes it takes the form of a coachman, driving a twisted wagon adorned with funeral objects: it has candles in skulls to light the way, the spokes of the wheels are made from thigh bones, and the wagon's covering is made from a worm-chewed pall or dried human skin. Both versions are known to wield whips made from human spines.

Like its close cousin, the [[Banshee]], the Dullahan is a pyschopomp - an emissary of death that rides out to encounter people at the moment of their death, either splashing them with human blood or calling out their names to signal that they have been fated to perish. Also like the banshee, whilst considered a [[fey]] of the Unseelie Court in its native mythology, in /tg/ circles, it is often changed to an [[undead]] creature, due to its visual similarities with the "Headless Horseman" [[ghost]].

It also has monstergirls, because of course it does.

==D&D==
in 5e's Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, Dullahan are powerful undead of decapitated villains who let vengeance consume them. They a stronger version to [[wight]]s, usually hunting for head-related objects when not on a general murder-revenge spree, Either looking its old skull or finding a new one (Decapitation if often involved).
stats wise, a Dullahan is if you want to throw a [[Death Knight]] at a lower level party but still just as dangerous, able to Decapitat a PC and a failed Constitution save, on top of getting legendary actions, Legendary Resistances, and has a phase 2 where it summons 3 [[Death’s Head]]s.
[[Category: Monsters]] [[Category: Undead]] [[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Monsters]]

Chromatic Dragon

2021-06-29T09:13:16Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* White Dragon */

'''Chromatic Dragons''' are one of the many specific breeds of [[dragon]] native to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and [[Pathfinder]]. They are one of the two most iconic family groupings of D&D dragons, alongside the [[Metallic Dragon]]s. Lesser D&D dragon families have include the [[Catastrophic Dragon]]s, [[Ferrous Dragon]]s, [[Gem Dragon]]s, [[Oriental Dragon]]s (or "Imperial Dragons", for [[Pathfinder]]) [[Planar Dragon]]s, and [[Epic Dragon]]s.

In an expansion of the [[alignment]] mechanic, chromatics helped define what our frenemies on TVTropes calls "Color Coded For Your Convenience", where the general color-scheme of a dragon immediately helps you figure out what they are as a general rule.

Chromatic Dragons are always based on "plain" colors, and are usually portrayed as Evil aligned in various different ways depending on the precise breed. Their associated patron goddess is [[Tiamat]], who materializes as a gargantuan she-dragon with five heads, corresponding to the five most iconic breeds of Chromatic Dragon.

They uniquely unlike metallics are more likely to breed between species(of chromatics) and create mules as shown in dragon magazine #65 and #248 which have mixtures between the breathtypes when its chromatics.
and a light mention in 3e draconomicon as crossbreeds.
And.. dragons can crossbreed with pretty much anything heck there was a bear dragon in an ashardalon campaign.
Now i know your wondering does this mean dragons can crossbreed with other dragon types(i.e chromatic+metallic)
The answer is yes but the child is usually viewed as an abbaration and hunted down.But it is possible for a dragon to care for it but thats extremely rare each dragon is unique after all.

Chromatic dragons can learn polymorph if they work for it unlike the metallics who get it naturally or any spell really heck even dragons have their own spells they can learn.

==The Original 5==
===Black Dragon===
Black Dragons favor swampy lairs where they can lie in ambush crocodile-style, since they can breath underwater. They are also known as "skull dragons" for their skeletal facial features. They tend to be described as particularly cruel and sadistic, even by dragon standards. They wield gouts of acid slime as a breath weapon.
<gallery>
Black dragon MM 1e.jpg
Black dragon Monster card.jpg
Black dragon MCV1.jpg
Black dragon MM 2e.png
Black dragon 3e.jpg
Black dragon 4e.jpg
Black dragon 5e.jpg
</gallery>

===Blue Dragon===
Blue Dragons are iconic for their single enormous snout-tip horn, like a rhino's. Using powerful blasts of lightning breath to vaporize foes, they are traditionally considered denizens of the desert - which many fans find a little weird, given they are, y'know, ''bright freaking blue''. They have the ability to flat out destroy water. Unusually this ability is exclusive to them, yet the ability to create indefinitely lasting water from nothing is ''everywhere''. 4th edition made them prefer coastal regions and other places where storms are common, instead. They are traditionally portrayed as amongst the most reasonable and least malevolent of the Chromatics; show them respect, and they'll usually leave you alone. In 5th edition, they're back to living in deserts and dry steppes.
<gallery>
Blue dragon MM 1e.png
Blue dragon MCV1.jpg
Blue dragon MM 2e.png
Blue dragon 3e.jpg
Blue dragon 4e.jpg
Blue dragon.jpg
</gallery>

===Green Dragon===
Favoring forest environments, Green Dragons are characterized as manipulators and head-gamers par excellence. These dragons had it kind of rough in 3rd edition; with the change to poison rules in that edition, their traditional breath weapon, a gout of poisonous vapor, no longer worked, so they were forced to use corrosive fumes and do acid damage instead. They went back to poison after 3rd edition.

In Pathfinder they're actually decently likely (possibly 1 in 10, but likely lower) to be neutrally aligned. This is largely a result of them being too lost in their books to care about being evil.
<gallery>
Green dragon MM 1e.png
Green dragon MCV1.jpg
Green dragon MM 2e.png
Green dragon 3e.jpg
Green dragon 4e.jpg
Green dragon.jpg
</gallery>

===Red Dragon===
The most iconic and traditional of all D&D dragons, Red Dragons are arrogant, greedy, hot-tempered, flame-spewing, power-hungry, malevolent brutes who enjoy eating maidens.
<gallery>
Red dragon MM 1e.png
Red dragon Monster card.jpg
Red dragon MCV1.jpg
Red dragon MM 2e.png
Red dragon 3e.jpg
Red dragon 4e.jpg
Red Dragon.jpg
</gallery>

===White Dragon===
Smallest and weakest of their kind, White Dragons are feral and savage, notably inferior in intelligence to the other Chromatic breeds (that doesn't mean they are stupid though, they just don't like to use their brains that much). Their icy breath weapon is nothing to sneeze at, though. They even use it to encase their hoard and trophies in ice so that they can decorate their lair. It also makes it pretty difficult for potential thieves to come and grab something, as they first have to break the ice to get to the stuff, at risk of having the dragon return and add the said thieves to its frozen collection. Crystal dragons are known to take their eggs and raise them to make them less evil; this may result in a white dragon that uses its brain more and defies the stereotype.
<gallery>
White dragon MM 1e.png
White Dragon MM 2e.png
Dragon MCV1.jpg
White dragon MCV1.jpg
White dragon 3e.jpg
White dragon 4e.jpg
White dragon.jpg
</gallery>

==Other Chromatic Dragons==
===Brown Dragon===
Introduced in the Forgotten Realms in AD&D, Brown Dragons are desert-dwelling burrowers who have changed markedly over the editions. Rising to prominence in 4e as part of the Chromatic Draconomicon, they were given back limited flight (traditionally not available to them) and were given the strange trait of being gourmet epicures; they love food and prize unique flavors and cooking skills. Brown Dragons use high-velocity gouts of sand to scour flesh from bone.
<gallery>
Brown dragon MM 2e.png
Brown dragon MoF.png
Brown dragon.jpg
</gallery>

===Gray Dragon===
Gray Dragons didn't exist until 4th edition adapted them from the minor "outcast" dragons of Faerun known as Fang Dragons, giving them caustic, petrifying slime as a breath weapon, petrifying claw and bite attacks, and an obsession with hunting. Prior to that, the only claimant to the name "Gray Dragon" was a breed of [[linnorm]].
<gallery>
Fang dragon MoF.jpg
Grey dragon.jpg
</gallery>

===Purple Dragon===
Like Brown Dragons, Purple Dragons were adapted from a Forgotten Realms dragon of AD&D, the Deep Dragon. These slender, serpentine Chromatics are the primary draconic denizens of the [[Underdark]], using their psychotropic venom breath and power to turn into insubstantial shadows to sate their wanderlust by roaming the ever-changing depths of the world.
The most epic purple dragon was the simply named "Dragon", in the first Heroes of Might and Magic [[Video Games|vidya]]
(there actually are two different purple dragons one is the deep dragon and another in the dragon magazine 65 248 which had energy breath and was a crossbreed between red and blue and was really really strong)
<gallery>
Deep dragon MCFR.png
Deep dragon MM 2e.png
Deep dragon MoF.jpg
</gallery>

===Yellow Dragon===
Yellow Dragons haven't been seen since 2nd edition(well besides the dragon magazine 248). Like blue dragons, they prefer deserts and have the ability to destroy water. Their favorite method of capturing prey is to dig a pit in the sand and bury themselves in the center, acting like a giant antlion. Their breath weapon is a blast of scorching hot air mixed with sand.
<gallery>
Yellow dragon MM 2e.png
</gallery>

===Orange dragon===
First revealed in dragon magazine 65 and expanded in 248 updated to 3.5 in dragon compendium vol 1 along with yellow and the original hybrid/energy using purple dragon
Their breath is that of liquid sodium with an oil covering which can explode when in contact with water and they are really sadistic
They really love lairing in waters not just swamps if you want a lake dragon that is a normal one heres your guy. their natural enemies are bronze dragons.

<gallery>
orange dragon.png
</gallery>

{{D&D-Dragons}}

[[Category:Pathfinder]]

Maerorus

2021-06-29T07:07:34Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54:

'''Maerorus''' is an [[Assassin]] temple of the [[Officio Assassinorum]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]], although only a single assassin from this temple is known. Mentioned in the book ''Seventh Retribution'', Legienstrasse was created at the behest of the [[Officio Assassinorum]] around M40 with the aid of [[Heretek]]s (as even the promise of an STC wasn't enough to convince the Adeptus Mechanicus to help out) and forbidden sciences, crossbreeding and xeno hybrids (likely [[Kroot]]) were used to make Legienstrasse. In her creation the ultimate [[heresy]] was committed: purposeful violation of the holy [[Human]] form. The purpose of this experiment was to create the ultimate assassin who would not need to rely on fallible technology, sending the agent in to [[Rip and Tear|beat everyone to death with their bare goddamn hands]]. While this seems as the Officio Assassinorum tried to weaponize [[Fist of the North Star|Hokuto Shinken]], the truth is far, far [[Grimdark|worse]]. She was able to absorb the biomass of a target upon touch, completely removing the target whole. She could use this new biomass to mutate at will or to create more Maerorus assassins by laying eggs (with a single clutch being able to kill an entire Imperial Guard company shortly after hatching), making her prime material for [[/d/]]. So in order to create the ultimate assassin, the Officio Assassinorum created an expy of Alex Mercer from Prototype or John Carpenter's version of The Thing, only a billion times <s>worse</s>better because it's 40K.

It does not need to be said that this was not going to end well.

Legienstrasse figured that, as the most [[Powergamer|OP PLZ NERF]] person to walk the Imperium since the [[Emperor]] himself, she didn't want to follow orders and escaped. The Officio Assassinorum tried to cover it up the same way they do everything (IE: kill everyone involved) and they began to chase her. Roughly a millennium later they cornered her on the planet Opis. [[Extra Heresy|Corrupting the planet's ruling class and collaborating with the]] [[World Eaters]] and [[Daemons]] to attack the planet, the Assassinorum figured that the ensuing war would force her out in the open, allowing them to confirm a definite kill, along with the likely [[Exterminatus]] removing all evidence. Most alarmingly, she was able to take control of the both the daemonic and World Eater forces, seemingly without being corrupted by Chaos along the way. Predictably, an [[Inquisitor]] and his gang rolled in to check the situation out. Afraid that their scheme would be uncovered, the [[Dark Heresy|Inquisitor and his posse]] suddenly died to [[Berzerker]] [[Celestial Lions|snipers]] who were totally not [[Vindicare]] operatives.

Eventually a liberation fleet consisting of [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Imperial Fists]] lead by [[Brother-Captain]] [[Darnath Lysander]] and a fuckton of Assassins (including two Grand Masters) dropped in. Sure enough, during their first encounter she managed to dodge sniper fire from Imperial Fists [[Scout]]s and a Grand Master of the Vindicare temple while fighting Lysander, a combination of [[Assault Squad|Assault]] and [[Veteran Squad|Veteran]] Marines, the Chapter's [[Emperor's Champion]] and the Grand Master of the [[Culexus]], Lady Syncella. Legienstrasse killed a number of the Imperial Fists and the Culexus operative.

During their second encounter (this time with [[Terminator]]s, an [[Librarian|Epistolary]], an [[Eversor]] operative and once again the Emperor's Champion), the Grand Master of the Eversor temple and Lysander took the fight to Legienstrasse. She killed pretty much everyone but Lysander, but when she mortally wounded the Eversor, Lysander [[rogue|backstabbed]] him with the Black Sword of the Emperor's Champion, drove the blade through the rogue assassin and pinned both of them to a pillar. The Eversor exploded, severely wounding Legienstrasse and giving Lysander the opening to cut her head off with the (still intact) Black Sword without uttering a one-liner (because he's an Imperial Fist, and they don't have any jokes). Somehow this did not do the job so Lysander took his [[Power weapon|Thunder Hammer]] and wailed on the headless body like he just picked up the Hammer item in [[Video games|Super Smash Brothers]] until [[Thousand Sons|all was dust]].

Luckily the Officio Assassinorum learned their lesson and stopped all development of the Maerorus (or more likely they drew up plans for Maerorus 2.0 and said "okay, ''this'' time we ''don't'' give it free will, we put in that remote self-destruct, and everything will be fiiiine", which would probably only work for a time then end [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HDlr44qeHY like this]). But nobody's entirely sure if ALL of Leigenstrasse's eggs were destroyed...

{{Imperium}}

Maerorus

2021-06-29T07:05:12Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54:

'''Maerorus''' is an [[Assassin]] temple of the [[Officio Assassinorum]] in [[Warhammer 40,000]], although only a single assassin from this temple is known. Mentioned in the book ''Seventh Retribution'', Legienstrasse was created at the behest of the [[Officio Assassinorum]] around M40 with the aid of [[Heretek]]s (as even the promise of an STC wasn't enough to convince the Adeptus Mechanicus to help out) and forbidden sciences, crossbreeding and xeno hybrids (likely [[Kroot]]) were used to make Legienstrasse. In her creation the ultimate [[heresy]] was committed: purposeful violation of the holy [[Human]] form. The purpose of this experiment was to create the ultimate assassin who would not need to rely on fallible technology, sending the agent in to [[Rip and Tear|beat everyone to death with their bare goddamn hands]]. While this seems as the Officio Assassinorum tried to weaponize [[Fist of the North Star|Hokuto Shinken]], the truth is far, far [[Grimdark|worse]]. She was able to absorb the biomass of a target upon touch, completely removing the target whole. She could use this new biomass to mutate at will or to create more Maerorus assassins by laying eggs (with a single clutch being able to kill an entire Imperial Guard company shortly after hatching), making her prime material for [[/d/]]. So in order to create the ultimate assassin, the Officio Assassinorum created an expy of Alex Mercer from Prototype or John Carpenter's version of The Thing, only a billion times <s>worse</s>better because it's 40K.

It does not need to be said that this was not going to end well.

Legienstrasse figured that, as the most [[Powergamer|OP PLZ NERF]] person to walk the Imperium since the [[Emperor]] himself, she didn't want to follow orders and escaped. The Officio Assassinorum tried to cover it up the same way they do everything (IE: kill everyone involved) and they began to chase her. Roughly a millennium later they cornered her on the planet Opis. [[Extra Heresy|Corrupting the planet's ruling class and collaborating with the]] [[World Eaters]] and [[Daemons]] to attack the planet, the Assassinorum figured that the ensuing war would force her out in the open, allowing them to confirm a definite kill, along with the likely [[Exterminatus]] removing all evidence. Most alarmingly, she was able to take control of the both the daemonic and World Eater forces, seemingly without being corrupted by Chaos along the way. Sure enough, an [[Inquisitor]] and his gang rolled in to check the situation out. Afraid that their scheme would be uncovered, the [[Dark Heresy|Inquisitor and his posse]] suddenly died to [[Berzerker]] [[Celestial Lions|snipers]] who were totally not [[Vindicare]] operatives.

Eventually a liberation fleet consisting of [[Imperial Guard]], the [[Imperial Fists]] lead by [[Brother-Captain]] [[Darnath Lysander]] and a fuckton of Assassins (including two Grand Masters) dropped in. Sure enough, during their first encounter she managed to dodge sniper fire from Imperial Fists [[Scout]]s and a Grand Master of the Vindicare temple while fighting Lysander, a combination of [[Assault Squad|Assault]] and [[Veteran Squad|Veteran]] Marines, the Chapter's [[Emperor's Champion]] and the Grand Master of the [[Culexus]], Lady Syncella. Legienstrasse killed a number of the Imperial Fists and the Culexus operative.

During their second encounter (this time with [[Terminator]]s, an [[Librarian|Epistolary]], an [[Eversor]] operative and once again the Emperor's Champion), the Grand Master of the Eversor temple and Lysander took the fight to Legienstrasse. She killed pretty much everyone but Lysander, but when she mortally wounded the Eversor, Lysander [[rogue|backstabbed]] him with the Black Sword of the Emperor's Champion, drove the blade through the rogue assassin and pinned both of them to a pillar. The Eversor exploded, severely wounding Legienstrasse and giving Lysander the opening to cut her head off with the (still intact) Black Sword without uttering a one-liner (because he's an Imperial Fist, and they don't have any jokes). Somehow this did not do the job so Lysander took his [[Power weapon|Thunder Hammer]] and wailed on the headless body like he just picked up the Hammer item in [[Video games|Super Smash Brothers]] until [[Thousand Sons|all was dust]].

Luckily the Officio Assassinorum learned their lesson and stopped all development of the Maerorus (or more likely they drew up plans for Maerorus 2.0 and said "okay, ''this'' time we ''don't'' give it free will, we put in that remote self-destruct, and everything will be fiiiine", which would probably only work for a time then end [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HDlr44qeHY like this]). But nobody's entirely sure if ALL of Leigenstrasse's eggs were destroyed...

{{Imperium}}

Eversor

2021-06-29T06:57:17Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* The Eversor's dynamic entry */

[[Image:Eversor CUNT PUNT.png|thumb|350px|right|WRYYYY <s>(don’t worry, she liked it)</s> NO THE FUCK SHE DIDN’T!]]
{{Topquote|Fear me, for I am your apocalypse|Eversor Temple Mondus Executus}}
{{Topquote|I am no man, I am dynamite.|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Topquote|RIP AND TEAR YOUR GUTS! YOU ARE HUGE! THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS! RIP AND TEAR!|Doomguy}}
'''Eversors''' (Latin: "destroyer". Truth in advertising, oh ''yeah'') are one of the varieties of [[Assassin|assassin]] utilised by the [[Officio Assassinorum]] in the [[Warhammer 40k]] universe. They are psychotic nutters implanted with extensive cybernetics and drugged up to the eyeballs on military grade bath salts then put to cold sleep, only warmed up and awake during missions, making them near-perfect killing machines. While the Eversor would theoretically be bad as an "assassin" with his nonexistent stealth skills, he compensates with his [[Murder|nonexistent witnesses]]. The official purpose of Eversors is when taking out just the high value target [[Dimachaeron|isn't enough and everyone around the target needs to die too]], namely cults like Chaos and Genestealers where even the survival of one member can cause a revival of the cult.

On /tg/, Eversor assassins are known for their tendency to smash through walls and scream "WRYYYYY", shamelessly ripping off both the Kool-Aid man and [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure|Dio Brando]], before slaughtering everything unfortunate enough to be in the room. Think "Chelios" from the Crank Films + Unlimited Adrenaline, this guy 360 noscopes everyone despite not having a Rifle and is pretty much batshit crazy with rage.

Oh, and the Assassinorum has one that they've been training and sending out since the Heresy, which they don't so much give a specific target but send into a region of space and let them kill until it eventually stops. Apparently, not even power armor can save you from these lunatics.

That said, they can function just fine in an Execution Force and utilize teamwork with, well, a team. There's also a Grandmaster of the Eversor Temple (who is an Eversor). So how crazy they really are until they actually start the fight is questionable. More or less. Or it's been subtly retconned to be that they use stasis because they are incapable of sleeping or coming down from their combat rush perhaps. Maybe only those with sufficient fortitude are permitted to take part in administrative and leadership duties in the Temple and oversee training. Who knows, 40k is contradictory and the Imperium is [[Malal|the Chaos God of contradiction]].

==Overview==
As a short summary of the Eversor, think of your neighborhood drug-addict and/or serial killer, give him a [[Chainsword|chainsaw]], a [[Storm Bolter|storm-bolter]], [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Neuro Gauntlet|neuro gauntlets]], a [[Executioner Pistol]] and power armor. And just for extra insurance, strap a nuke to his back. Then inject him full of morphine, meth, and whatever else you can find into him in quantities that could kill a horse, hypnotize him to kill <s>anyone</s> everyone and everything he sees, and put him in stasis until you need him. That's a good idea of what an Eversor is. Any and every time an Eversor shows up it means that shit will hit the fan, in fact it will hit the fan so hard that the fan flies off its socket and decapitates the [[Tau|weeaboo communist]] that's waiting outside.

All Imperial Assassins are augmented to some degree or another, usually to increase agility and reaction times at the very least. However Eversors undergo a more rigorous regime of physical augmentation and organ implantation, representing the fact that they are intended to be one-man strike teams rather than elegant instruments of death. The processes used to make an Eversor are long and arduous, and much like Astartes they typically require the candidates to start their initiation at a young age. Though exactly how necessary that candidates be young may be up for debate, as ''Esad Wire'' made the transition ( more accurately, was forced to) from the Venenum Temple to the Eversor temple well after he was an established veteran in M32. Though it could feasibly be said that processes changed over time so that youth became necessary, or that Assassins from other Temples already have the groundwork in place to make the transition more easily.

In any case, the additional augmentations unique to the Eversor Assassins are as follows:
*'''Endoskeletal Restructuring:''' This supposedly increases stamina and aerobic performance, allowing them to fight well past human limitations. While this sounds iffy at first glance, the skeleton does play a huge role in homeostasis both in the manufacture of blood cells (for aerobic circulation) and the distribution of calcium and other nutrients to body tissues. Meaning that a restructure of the skeleton could certainly have a big impact on stamina if performed correctly, ''especially'' if you are going to upset the body's natural chemical balance later by adding more organs and stimms.
**Part of the limitations on human strength are that the limit is hit when the nerves tell the body the skeletal structure cannot contain the amount of force required, nor the stress the tendons take out in their attachment to the bone. When you hear about stuff like housewives lifting an overturned pickup off their child its because the amount of adrenaline and instinct has shut their bodies' natural limitations to "Oh shit this stress is going to shear my tendons right off the bone and cause massive muscle tears, permanently injuring me" off temporarily. By strengthening the skeletons and its ability to maintain the attachment of the tendons to the bone, thereby giving the muscles extreme leverage, the amount of force exerted by the body (through acceleration, deceleration/impact, lifting, other kinds of explosive motions) could be greatly upped safely. Coupling this with the drugs given to the Eversor actively disabling their not-destroying-themselves safety "off" switch, it allows the strength factor of an Eversor to compete with that of the metahumans of the setting, despite a more compact frame.
***TL;DR humans are so superior that our own bodies cannot contain our incredible strength.
*'''Muscular Hypertrophy:''' Increasing muscle mass through stimulation of tissues. Whether this is done electrically, chemically (steroids), or simply by training a lot, Eversor assassins will have more muscle tissue than normal, creating a corresponding increase in strength.
*'''Secondary Heart:''' much like Astartes, Eversors have two hearts, meaning they can really push themselves beyond human limits of endurance and adds to their survivability if they happen to lose one to trauma.
*'''Lobo Chips & Cortex Upgrades''' brain implants that alter an Eversor's state of mind, elevating hatred of the enemy to magnificent states of unadulterated rage and determination, meaning that if you are the target of an Eversor then they will spend every thinking moment of their existence hunting you down and killing you dead. The cortex upgrades also allow the Eversor to manage their metabolisms themselves.
*'''Adrenal Ducts:''' Naturally, Eversor assassins have more adrenal glands than the average person, meaning their fight <s>or flight</s> response is increased, so their reaction times are much improved. Adrenaline also improves higher brain functions; while in universe this allows them to perform complex mental tasks in short timespans, realistically adrenaline does improve long term memory and recall so this is certainly feasible if they have all the information they require hypnotically implanted beforehand (which they do) or if the Lobo Chips and Cortex Upgrades alter how adrenaline affects their minds.
*'''Counter Glands:''' several of the other upgrades, plus the cocktail of stimms that the Eversor imbibes combine to create fatal or debilitating side effects, and need to be managed. Therefore Eversors are implanted with detox glands simply to maintain their own physiology without crashing.
*'''Terminus Gland:''' Last but not least, this insane cocktail of drugs masquerading as a living being is implanted with a specialized organ. At the moment the body suffers terminal damage, the gland releases a new drug into the Eversor's body that renders the blood both acidic and combustible, meaning the Eversor ''explodes'' when you kill it. So even if you do gain the upper hand and kill it, an Eversor has the last laugh. A jittery, overly loud and creepy as fuck laugh.

This is all on top of the additional combat stimms that flood the Eversor's body whenever they need from their auto-injectors as part of their standard wargear. Allowing them to rapidly coagulate wounds, increase their metabolisms, super-caffeinate their brains to remove fatigue or simply add in some Berserker-Slaught to give them one aggressive push.

Put together means that Eversors constantly live in a state of metabolic agitation and [[Rage]], meaning that the only way to safely transport them without their bodies breaking down or them deciding that they need to murder everybody is to keep them in suspended animation until you actually require their services. Meaning their lives are spent in short bursts of pure carnage when they aren't sleeping between missions.

Implants and drugs combined, this ''empirically makes the Eversor the most 40K thing in 40K,'' closely followed by the skull-faced patron saint of always being angry, Chaplain [[Lemartes]]. It is a superhuman zealot barely held together with drugs, fueled by rage, wearing a skull helmet, and it fucking explodes when you kill it. We ''FUCKING'' DARE YOU to think of something that better embodies all that is Warhammer 40,000.

==On the Tabletop==
On the tabletop, Eversor assassins began life as near-invincible monstrosities; Melta Bombs made them the only assassin that could really threaten vehicles, while their combat drugs gave them the ability to do a triple-length charge or even not die until the end of the turn regardless of damage. The Neuro-Gauntlet's original incarnation halved the entire stat line of anything it wounded, including their remaining wounds, leading to combat best summarised as "oh hello Abaddon" *splat* "hello guardsman" *splat* "hello Grot."

These days, they are of debatable usefulness. With a lucky roll, they can cause incredible damage on a charge, but because of this the enemy tends to [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|concentrate quite heavily on shooting the screaming rage-junkies before they have a chance to kill everything]]. If you're in a large battle, consider using one as a distraction. If the enemy kills it before it can do its thing, they've not been shooting at your other units with several heavy-hitters; if it gets into combat, enjoy rolling the most dice for a single model you'll probably ever roll. Just remember to use it to justify its points cost - whatever it does, it's an expensive piece that probably won't see the end of the battle.

The assassins have all got rapey statlines, and the Eversor is no different:

WS8 BS8 S4 T4 W3 I7 A4 Ld10

He gets the standard Infiltrate, Fearless, Move Through Cover, No Escape (-2 to enemy Look out, sir! attempts) and Lightning Reflexes (4++ and no penalty to I for charging through terrain) all other Assassins get. His standard wargear are a Power Sword (to be used along with his Executioner Pistol for that extra attack in CC) and Melta bombs in case he encounters MC or vehicles (against monstrous creatures he may get more mileage from using his other wargear but it is an amazing knockout punch against MC).

Now what sets him apart are his unique wargear.

First, he has Furious Charge so he's S5 (and AP3 with Power Sword) on the charge. He also has Feel No Pain, meaning he is less vulnerable to small arms fire next to some of the other assassins. Which makes sense given its horde-shredding duty.

His sentinel array grants him the fast shot special rule (he can fire his Executioner Pistol 4 times), and lets him overwatch at full BS (So he hits on 2s and if he rolls 1s, re-rolls and hits on 4+). Also, he can fire his Executioner Pistol's parts in any combo, but if your Eversor is getting assaulted, you've fucked up royally. Though don't forget it if it ever happens, taking out enough of a squad to cause a failed charge is often the difference between survival and death with lone operatives.

His Frenzon allows him to charge 3D6, and grants him 3 extra attacks on the charge. So, yes. A potential 18" charge range, and 8 S5 attacks on the charge.

Next is the Bio-meltdown. If he dies, all units in D6" take a S5 hit. So even if the enemy gangs up on him in CC, he still gets the last laugh.

Next is his actual Executioner Pistol. The first part is a classic Bolt Pistol while the other is the Needle Pistol which has Poison, but sadly no AP. So he can choose between shooting some average mooks or putting a high-toughness opponent in his place.

Finally, there's his Neuro Gauntlet. A weapon which is only S:User AP-, but is Fleshbane and Shred, just in case you happened to roll a 1. Used if you're up against a horde and want to go for quantity over quality of the Power Sword, or if the enemy has a 2+ or a good invulnerable save and you want to watch them try and tank saves.

Overall the Eversor is perhaps the most versatile of the four assassins. It can mow down hordes and MEQ's without too much trouble with FC and AP3 (though he can get AP3 the Gauntlet is perhaps the better option against low armour units as quantity will probably be better than quality against Armour 6+/5+). With its four shot pistol with a mixture of poison/bolt ammunition he has reasonable ranged capabilities. Can hurt vehicles and Monstrous creatures with Melta bombs and Fleshbane attacks. While also being capable of giving 2+ save and high invulnerable save opponents reasonable trouble (there is only so many saves you can make when you are throwing out 8 attacks that will almost always hit on 3's and with each hit having virtually guaranteed wounds), with this in mind the Eversor is for just plain killing but given how badly Assault has been nerfed over the past 2 Editions, placement during Infiltration is key, otherwise a 4++ and T4 isn't going to save you. He can go down to 1 turn of boltgun fire (average of 18 boltgun shots at BS4, or 36 lasgun shots at BS3 will down him), unless of course you manage to get lucky with his invul save and Feel No Pain and tank them all. So keep him out of line of sight, and make use of that triple charge range to get stuck in. Another potion is to outflank him as there will be no danger of him getting shot down due to charging as soon as he comes on, just watch out for reserve rolls and entering from a random board edge.

<s>Now that any Armies of the Imperium are allies with each other, this guy in a Drop Pod is just... disgusting.</s> The 7th Edition FAQ Draft put the kibosh on Battle Brothers starting the game in allied transports. Oh well, time for you to actually get creative with deployment and infiltration rather than abusing allies. THE FAQs from GW are all marked as drafts work in progress, so most TO's are not using them yet.

===8th Edition===
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts/PL || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Eversor Assassin:''' || 95/5 || 7" || 2+ || 2+ || 4 || 4 || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6+/4++
|}

Yeah baby, this guy's almost 50% cheaper than he used to be! Coming with the same Lightning Reflexes ability that gives him a 4++, the Eversor's still a versatile assassin who benefits from the new 8th Edition mechanics. For starters, he can charge the turn he reveals himself from concealment (basically infiltrate/outflank by a new name), and he charges 3D6 as well thanks to his ''Frenzon'' ability. Said ability also gives him 2 extra attacks when he charges in the proceeding fight phase. Finally, that one rule you know and love is back! When he is reduced to 0 wounds he undergoes a ''Bio-meltdown!'', where you roll a D6 for each enemy unit within 6" of him when he goes down. On a 4+, they suffer D3 mortal wounds.

For starters he has Melta Bombs (a S8 AP-4 grenade which re-rolls all failed wound rolls when targeting {{W40kKeyword|VEHICLES}}), and a Power Sword (S:User AP-3). His Executioner Pistol is a 12" S4 AP-1 D D1 Pistol 4 that re-rolls all failed wound rolls against {{W40kKeyword|INFANTRY}}. Did I mention he re-rolls all failed hit rolls when he fires Overwatch? I mean that's interesting but if your Eversor's getting charged instead of charging you've royally fucked up. His Neuro Gauntlet is also amazing, being a S+1 AP-1 D D1 Melee weapon which straight up re-rolls all failed wounds.

As with all assassins, he got cheaper while basically staying the same as last edition.

With the March 2019 White Dwarf, he's got some new tricks available to him thanks to the Officio Assassinorum mini-dex. First, [[Rape|he can now make an extra attack for every model that he kills in Close Combat]] (naturally, these exploding attacks can't themselves generate new attacks). Next, he can now consolidate 6" instead of the usual 3", making him able to force a close enemy unit to fall back and prevent them from shooting! The mini-dex also gave him some unique stratagems to use; he can pay 1CP to shrug any non-mortal wound on a 4+ for a phase, or pay 1CP to fight again at the end of the fight phase with a 50/50 chance of taking a mortal wound afterward ([[Games Workshop|and that's why the first stratagem doesn't let you shrug mortal wounds]]).

==The Eversor's dynamic entry==
[[Image:LCB Eversor badend.jpg|Dynamic entry in action.|thumb|right|150px]]
1. [http://youtu.be/nBeUGqeYsQg?t=9s Scream: Oh yeah! While destroying point of entry.]
 
2. Commence Pelvic thrust
 
3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOqNRGhlH-4 Wryyyyyy...]
 
4. Kill...KIIIIIILLLLL!!!!!!
 
5. ?????
 
6. [[Profit]]!
 

N.B: If nearby when said events are happening, say your prayers tough guy, as your skull be beaten with your own ass and pierced by the heavens.

{{Story}}

==Kýrie Eléison==
'''Chapter One'''

Sick. The Officio Assassinorum drone always felt sick whenever he entered ‘the hive’. A long catwalk suspended in the middle of a cavernous hexagonal hall, the putrid green glow of endless status monitors and stasis tubes radiated an aura of death and decay. Not so unfitting for the legendary storage vaults of the Eversor Temple.

Despite his many trips to the hive, Nicolas Gilbo could never suppress the shiver in his spine that always snuck up on him when he least expected it. Shaking off his unease, he moved slowly to monitor station #4432 to finish the rites of rearming and release. He stared up into the face of death, suspended in a foetal position within its fluid tomb. The irony was not lost on him. A skeletal, barely human husk gazed vacantly back at him, its augmentics continually twitching despite being comatose. Out of curiosity, he flipped through this unit’s combat history. Unit service life three years. Number of sorties, two hundred and sixty. Estimated enemy casualties inflicted, eight thousand five hundred and twelve, half of those from a planetary governor’s dirigible brought down in the center of Falchion hive.

Biological age, twelve standard years.

But it was the list of wounds sustained in action that horrified him the most.

T3-T9 thoracic vertebrae shattered from an Ork Warboss, left arm amputated after close combat with World Eater Champion, fifty seven separate stubber and lasgun wounds. Three cardiac arrests and automated restarts, and it didn’t stop there. By the Emperor, what did it take to kill one of these things? With great trepidation, Gilbo keyed through the unit’s start up routine and assigned unit #4432 its next mission.

“What kind of dreams does a monster like you have?” Gilbo wondered.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:FFFFFFF.jpg| Someone has a case of the Mondays.
Image:Eversor teaparty.jpg|Eversor Assassins are also known for appearing doing peaceful things
Image:Wryyyversor.jpg|This is a sketch, a more detailed picture would show the Eversor on top of a mound of corpses.
Image:Eversor female.jpg| Nothing is sacred, especially when made [[PROMOTIONS|fappable]].
Image:1207366449886.png‎|WRYYY!
Image:GET_IN_THE_BRONCO.png| Turn signals are for ''pussies''.
Image:Eversor1.jpg|The last thing you will ever see, heretic.
Image:FemaleEversor.jpg|Just as capable as their male counterpart, especially on their period.
</gallery>

==See Also==
* [[Core of Brutality]]
* [[Praise the Emperor]], in which we see into the mind of an Eversor assassin.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywjdJ7P-7o&feature=gp-n-y&google_comment_id=z121drpitzyber0nr22bjd0rgojscrbx004 Eversor Assassin in action]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK95lWHl7js Eversor`s day off]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jiizfl9exHM This song sums pretty much everything seen and linked above]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhOnX8qt3I One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask...] This can be considered pretty much canon. Eversors are high on narcotics and are constantly bombarded by religious hymnals. Just imagine it has more skulls and gothic architecture.
{{Inquisition}}
{{Template:Imperium}}
[[Category:Stories/Warhammer 40,000]]

Gland War Veteran

2021-06-29T06:46:57Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:25B5:83AE:D410:DC54: /* Origin & Development */

[[File:Gland_Warrior_Stone.png|500px|right|thumb|Sergeant Stone, the ''canonical'' Gland Warrior. [[Awesome|A roided up Tyranid Hunter and absolute Badass.]]]]
Gland War Veterans (Called Glandies or Gland Warriors for short by some in [[/tg/]], or if you're being scientific, ''Homo sapiens auctus glandulae'' which literally means wise man with increased adrenal glands) were a specialized, genetically modified force of [[Militarum Veteran Squad|Imperial Guard Veteran]] designed to battle the [[Tyranids]]. They are considered by the [[Mechanicus]] as a far more successful and stable substitute compared to the [[Afriel Strain|Afriel Strains]].

==Origin & Development==
After the Forge World of Dantris III became heavily infested and polluted by Tyranid forces, the Techpriests of the planet, under orders from radical Inquisitor-Lord Varius, modified several companies of the Lostock 23rd to fight in the hellish conditions.

They had many organs and drug-secreting glands implanted in their bodies so that they could survive unprotected in hazardous environments. New additions such as organs that would secrete stims, painkillers, and various medical drugs; more powerful natural air filters via a modified lung; enhanced bio-musculature structure for increased strength and reflexes. Their genetic tempering and augmentation has made them a distinct [[Abhuman]], although whether they can breed and successfully pass on their genetic coding and new augmented organs is unknown. Their combat abilities and aggressiveness were also further increased in order to deal with the myriad of threats from the varied Tyranid forces.

Heck, the Gland War Veterans were so successful and super-anal retentive that even the [[Hive Mind]] thought they were crazy as fuck. Despite the heavy losses the veterans took, they were able to ensure the successful defence of Dantis III. Only three Gland Warriors are believed to have survived, which were taken by the Inquisition for study and "debriefing".

At least one of them ended up in an Inquisitor's retinue so apparently "debriefing" doesn't always mean "dissected" or "killed with fire." Not all that surprising since they exist with the sanction of an Inquisitor Lord and the Mechanicus knows how to make them so dissection would be pointless. So, they got to experience one of the rare, honest-to-Emperor, Inquisition debriefings.

With that being said, the original pioneer for Glandies, Inquisitor-Lord Varius, has been placed under investigation by the [[Ordo Hereticus]] for exceeding his Inquisitorial mandate by intentionally sabotaging a Tyranid research facility, and then allowing the force sent to investigate to suffer heavy losses and (with the exception of the [[Red Scorpions]]) be entirely wiped out just to demonstrate how powerful/intelligent the Tyranids could be [[Grimdark|(don't worry, he performed]] [[Exterminatus]] [[Grimdark|afterwards to wipe them out).]] The data on Gland Warriors is held as evidence of his own damnation; however while they've drawn it up, his death warrant remains unsigned because the Glandies are so useful to the Imperium (in effect, until the Tyranids are wiped out they're not going to do a thing to hinder him). Still, the Inquisition probably found it couldn’t use the Gland Warriors as evidence against him when they tried him because it was made by the Adeptus Mechanicus. He merely ordered enhanced Guardsmen, which is not heretical at all.

Gland War Veterans look almost indistinguishable from the average Human (especially if in armour), though they may be differentiated by increased muscle mass, heavier skeletal structure or a constantly heightened state of agitation or hyper-aggression.

However the augmentations that they receive can often have drawbacks. The early Lostok Gland Warriors could push their bodies significantly higher in feats of endurance than normal humans, but occasionally were at constant risk of metabolic breakdown; other Glandies risked temporarily shorting out their secretion glands if they were overused, but without any fatal flaws. Thankfully later developments in the D-99 regiment had no drawbacks at all.

Later refinements to the Gland Warriors capabilities attempted to increase their effectiveness against other xenos breeds such as Orks, Tau or Eldar, but never had the same successes as those Gland Warriors sanctioned by Inquisitor Varius against the Tyranids. These new Glandies would always have some kind of drawback. They could increase muscle mass and aggressiveness at a cost of over-calcifying their bones and joints (making it difficult for them to move), or increase their levels of aggression but make it nearly impossible for them to follow complex orders in battle. A shame the Imperium is too pants-on-head to realize that warriors capable of squishing a Tyranid invasion are perfectly good enough for fighting any other enemy. Heck, with some Commissariate sponsored discipline, tactics training and improved wargear, the aggression enhancements could be removed to make for more reliable, skillful soldiers to improve their effectiveness even further. Or just lobotomize them and stick in some control cybernetics instead. Not like they're ever going to be allowed to live past their service anyway.

==Difference between Gland Warriors and Space Marines==
You may wonder what makes Glandies so different from Space Marines despite sharing what appears to be similar biological enhancements. The answer could be that Space Marines use artificial organs to help "augment" their body in new and interesting ways that are simply not possible without them. However, Space Marines are still considered Human due to very little genetic tempering and if you somehow removed those organs ''(without causing utter biological system failure to the patient)'' there would be little to differentiate between what was left and a regular human with a bad attitude. Their size and such is mostly due to increased growth hormone production over a longer period than natural and a bit of gene-therapy to smooth it all together and generally improve what already exists.

On the other hand, Glandies are not only supplemented with new organs, but draw from a completely altered DNA strand that may completely alter the genetic make up of the original owner. This is because they have no Progenoid and so the genetic alterations are heavy to prevent implant rejection. However, in every incarnation of the rules, whether it be on the tabletop or in RPGs, Gland Warriors retain an ultimately "human" statline with only a few minor alterations; typically higher Weapon Skill and Initiative. This is because their biological upgrades are somewhat more subtle, with the actual "glands" of their Lostok Augmentations secreting drugs and hormones into their bloodstreams, increasing the strength and agility of their natural-born muscles and then filtering these chemicals before they become a drawback and cause the body to crash, while also making them resistant to many external chemicals and pathogens too.

With that being said, the procedures undertaken to become a Gland Warrior are not as time intensive as with an Astartes, who by necessity have to take their candidates at a very young age ''(usually early-mid teens)'' with the process of implantation taking about a decade or more as the applicant passes through his Chapter's 10th company. By contrast, the surgeries that gland warriors get are considered "somewhat short, it takes many months for the recipient to learn how to properly utilize their new biological additions", meaning the Imperium can generate gland warrior super-soldiers much more quickly. If talented tithe recruits are scouted, their training to adjust to their implants could easily be covered during their mandatory Imperial Guard training months for maximum efficiency.

And that's not to say that Gland Warriors cannot be further augmented with any of a variety of commonplace military upgrades such as vat-grown muscle fibres, subdermal armour and minor cybernetic enhancements, because if you're going to the extent of [[Heresy|introducing foreign DNA to the human genome]], you might as well protect your investment. And yes, commonplace. Because lore says that augmetics are extremely common and finding someone without at least a few is unlikely. Which makes everything more horrifying when you realize this means the poor cannon fodder Guardsmen are supersoldiers by any other setting's standards.

Glandies are not non-human or inhuman, though. They still are genetically descended from ''H. sapiens'' and so still scientifically human. That's pretty much where it stops, though. Interesting thought is: can Glandies become Space Marines? Considering that Astartes recruit from a very young age by necessity and are incredibly selective regarding genetic compatibility, this seems unlikely; an adult Gland Warrior with foreign DNA undoubtedly fails the process at every hurdle, not least without either incorporating some ''additional'' technology that we are unaware of, or by contaminating the gene-seed, which is something considered extremely heretical.

However the better question is whether a Space Marine can become a Gland Warrior? This is potentially more likely since there are [[Emperor's Children|established]] [[Marneus Calgar|precedents]] [[21st Founding|for interfering]] with existing Astartes by adding additional implants on top of the Space Marine organs, it doesn't stretch the bounds of imagination to conceive of Astartes receiving something akin to Gland Warrior implants. The next issue becomes whether the Lostok Augmentations are compatible with Astartes physiology, considering whatever superhuman chemicals and enzymes that the actual "glands" secrete into their bodies may simply get neutralised by the Oolitic kidney; or may not have any effect on a individual already enhanced ''(there is no guarantee that these things "stack")''; or whether it would just be easier to attempt something else entirely, seeing as the '''Magnificat''' organ does essentially the same thing for [[Primaris Marines]] without worrying about unstable drawbacks or issues of xenos-contamination.

==Stable Sub-Species==
While we may not have enough evidence of this in fluff, in order for the Glandies to become a sub-species of the mainstay Human, they must:
#have a different but stable DNA code
#have conditions that enable them to adapt to a particular scenario
#be able to procreate with their own kind and breed true.

For the Glandies, they were given special organs to better adapt in fighting Tyranids which is far more specialized than the average 'Jack-Of-All-Trades' [[gene-seed]] enhancements given to the Space Marines. Although, whatever helps fight Tyranids would be useful in fighting anything else, too. It does, however, only have usefulness in combat which is fine for 40K but if you win the Eternal War then the augmentations would be pretty much useless outside of settling Death Worlds.

The high specialization and the complete overhaul to make these men more able to compete with a Tyranid organism would be enough to classify them as distinct from Humans. Furthermore, Gland Warriors have their DNA mixed with a Mechanicus improved DNA base which will be replicated through cell division. This further elevates the Glandies from conventional Humans and further differentiate themselves from the Astartes who do not directly undergo DNA tempering to their human genome, but have it swimming through their blood symbiotically. The DNA in question is still human, though, so might simply be removing the natural limits of human bodies and bringing out the potential of human genetics in general. Though probably only as much as needed to withstand the strain of the implants' effects.

The subject of being a stable "sub-species" is never really broached by GW, even though they usually lump Gland Warriors in to the "Abhuman" category along with other human strains like [[Ratlings]] and [[Ogryn]]s. This might be because GW failed at high school levels of biology ''(especially when they continually insist that Astartes are genetically modified)''. Having different and stable DNA is one thing; being able to procreate and pass on those genetic traits is another. Since most of the organs are surgically implanted rather than being grown within the body, it is uncertain whether a mommy and a daddy glandie could have a baby glandie or if they would produce a whole new type of human being with the genetic markers of a gland warrior, but without any of the implants. At the very least their children, if they can have children, would most likely inherit the improve DNA base the glandies are given as part of the subjects' preparation.

What is known is that small communities of Gland Warriors ''do exist'' both within and without the Imperium, though the level of tolerance towards these communities appears to be the same as the tolerance of any other mutants or abhumans populations, for example, the '''Red Night Brotherhood''' was destroyed by the [[Ordo Hereticus]]. Other warrior lodges exist, either as the forgotten remnants of older wars, or the subject of experiments from roving Mechanicus Genetors; both authorised and [[Heresy|renegade]], meaning that the loyalties of those Gland Warriors can be as varied as any other human. Loose Glandies often hire themselves out as mercenaries or bodyguards, but need to be watched in case their killing urges override their loyalty.

In any case, "Official fluff" ''(i.e excluding FFG)'' puts their creation alongside the invasion of [[Hive Fleet Kraken]], which means that they are only a few decades old at best, so the Imperium might not have had enough time to properly categorize them, or for a sufficiently large population to arise before it actually becomes a cause for concern. And given their youth we can probably ignore any claims of glandies outside of strict Imperial control or rather view those others as not actual gland warriors but simply has modified humans in the same vein.

==On The Tabletop==
Due to their success, Gland War Veterans are getting increasing attention to the Imperial Guard and has been nagging the Mechanicus like a housewife to give them some of these augmented Abhumans.

The original [[Chapter Approved]] rules for them "upgrade" a guard infantry squad for 15 points to give them the ''Fleet'' special rule, however this came with the drawback where if you ever rolled a 6 on the fleet (run) move, you lost a model in the squad. Suffice to say this was shit.

If you want to field them today and be entirely legal, use the D-99 Army List in the Imperial Armour 4: The Anphelion Project, who are a further refined version of Gland Warriors after being inducted into the service of the Inquisition and used against Tyranids. Giving them all +1 WS and I, as well as ''Preferred Enemy (Tyranids)'' and ''Stubborn''. Though the army list could also be used to represent "experimental detachments" geno-enhanced to combat other xenos species at a risk of creating unstable gland warriors.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/D-99(7E)]] - The Tyrannic War Veterans of Elysian 99th Regiment, gene-augmented and inducted into the Inquisition.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Imperial Guard]]
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