I'm the GM of a group where one PC (a greedy dwarf fighter) recently died. The player chose a new character, a human paladin. The player is new at roleplaying and after two sessions playing the paladin, he expressed that he does not like to play the new character. He loved his dwarf before, because of his quirks being greedy and all that.
The player does not want to be always lawful-good aligned, so I thought of converting the paladin to an anti-paladin who is chaotic-evil. Maybe the character has a dream at night of some evil deity, follows the deity in his dream and when waking up the next morning, the PC realizes that his shiny white armor is now pitch black, and he became an anti-paladin.
Would this be possible inside the rules of pathfinder? When regarding changing the feats etc. I guess, that I can look it up in the "Advanced Players Guide".
How would you handle this situation of converting a Paladin to an Anti-Paladin?
Best Answer
A Radically Different Idea
Your player had fun playing a greedy awesomedwarf? And now isn't having fun playing a Stop Right There! Paladin? Easy.
Have him take that in-character.
Whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?
Simple. Have the paladin start to be dissatisfied with the course he's taking. Have him start bucking authority, becoming a dangerous loose cannon. Going a bit far. Being reckless. I'm directly quoting Lethal Weapon here, because that's what you want to be. Martin Riggs is the ideal Paladin-walking-a-darker-path. He wants to be Good, and Lawful, but there's just so much darn Evil out there, and it's hurting the innocent. So many good reasons to just cut that moustache-twirling evil guy's head right off, and not give a damn.
Maybe the Captain of the Town Guard calls him in and lectures him and threatens to just stuff him in prison - maybe it's his direct superior in the paladin order. Either way, you do your part by having authority figures drive him further towards vigilantism, violence, and using evil means to defeat evil, and he can do his part by playing a conflicted, confused young man treading a path that leads to darker acts than his foes can even dream of - all in the name of Good.
And then you end up with something a bit deeper than a black suit of armour with a different flavour of boring character inside.