In over 30 years of gaming, and having been involved in either a D&D or D&D-descendended game for most of that time, I've never seen anyone play a paladin.  It's situations like that that make me feel as if I'd had a much different experience than most D&D players.

I always liked the stat requirements in the older editions but that point of view simply got outvoted overtime. People  want to be able to play the class they want to play.  And stats still matter. Making a low CHR paladin does not seem like a good idea in 5E. But I don't really see an issue there.They are trying to appeal to their audience with each edition. As far as I can tell, the current edition is doing a pretty good job in that respect. In terms of flavor changes to the paladin, I have not really played much 5e, but looking at the entry, I like what they did with it. The different oaths allow for a variety of paladins, which I think as a good thing. I like the classic paladin, but it is quite specific, in the way the monk is often quite specific. The different oaths look like they give some flexibility that can be handy for fitting them to settings. I definitely don't see an issue other races being able to play paladins. Back in the day, I played with tons of groups that ignored those kinds of limits (and pretty sure this has been allowed since either late 2E or early 3E, so it is hardly new).

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1066547I always liked the stat requirements in the older editions but that point of view simply got outvoted overtime. People  want to be able to play the class they want to play.  And stats still matter. Making a low CHR paladin does not seem like a good idea in 5E.

Less so than a lot of other prime requisites. Consider a Paladin with Oath of Vengeance, very high Strength, who uses spell slots only for Divine Smite; that's an impressive tank, especially with the right feats. Low Charisma costs this Paladin some uses of Divine Sense and Cleansing Touch, and weakens Aura of Protection. Saving slots for smiting, the spell DC/attack bonus and preparing extra spells are not too important, and the Oath of Vengeance brings with it Haste, which does not depend on spell attack bonus or save DC, which works well with the combat approach. Aura of Protection is probably the most painful to weaken with low Charisma; Cleansing Touch seems nice but I have yet to see a 14th level Paladin in a fair amount of higher level play, and it's only 5 uses per long rest with a 20 Charisma. Probably the biggest thing you give up is the ability to multiclass; the main reason I never see 14th level Paladins is that they tend to switch over to Bard or Sorcerer to get spell slots faster for smiting, and Charisma has to be at least 13 for that.

QuoteBut I don't really see an issue there.They are trying to appeal to their audience with each edition. As far as I can tell, the current edition is doing a pretty good job in that respect. In terms of flavor changes to the paladin, I have not really played much 5e, but looking at the entry, I like what they did with it. The different oaths allow for a variety of paladins, which I think as a good thing. I like the classic paladin, but it is quite specific, in the way the monk is often quite specific. The different oaths look like they give some flexibility that can be handy for fitting them to settings. I definitely don't see an issue other races being able to play paladins. Back in the day, I played with tons of groups that ignored those kinds of limits (and pretty sure this has been allowed since either late 2E or early 3E, so it is hardly new).

As written, paladins of other races were in Greyhawk in 1975. The big problem with the traditional paladin is that it's a terrible character, on top of entangling game mechanics with roleplaying. It's an archetype with a surprisingly small number of exemplars, and so rigid there's really nowhere for the character to develop, except to become a fallen paladin.

I think it's pretty hard to ignore the Christianity of the original Paladins.

Of course, unless you're playing a Medieval-Authentic game of D&D (like Lion & Dragon) or a medieval-authentic setting (like Dark Albion), it's unlikely that the setting will be monotheistic, or even that it will have a faith equivalent to that of Christianity. Which is one of the reasons why honestly most Paladins end up feeling anachronistic.

Also, while you could have paladin-like groups in a fantasy setting full of multiple gods and religions (none of which end up appearing very much like Christianity, or with the same moral paradigm), the further away you get from Christianity the less what you have seems like a Paladin at all.