A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

[Mark Rand]

I'm considering using a female D&D-type paladin, possibly a member of the Waterdeep city guard, in my Marvel Avengers campaign. To make things a bit easier for her, whatever mechanism transferred her to the campaign city gave her knowledge of that country's language.

Is this character reasonable?

Assuming she had summoned a warhorse, would it come with her?

Attached is a black and white image of the character, who, for now, is known as Knight.

[Duke]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

Is this character from a mythical dimension or the current world of your game just back in time?

It could solve your language issues if they are actually just from the current game worlds time line. Sure there will be thee's and thou's but it at least keeps some of the cheese factor of having some translation magical device or whatever.

Maybe switch the name Knight up with Templar if you go with the game world.

Perhaps in her time she was a "witch hunter" or in other words "defender of the good people against the super villains"

 

Who knows just some thoughts, though I would for sure keep the steed with her! I mean if all her gear comes through she might as well be able to bring the horse.

[Haerandir]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

Well, given that it's a supers campaign, it's hard to rule out any characters on concept alone. The Avengers have had several medieval- and magic-themed characters on their roster, so there's certainly a precedent for it. I suppose it really boils down to whether the GM or the other players object for some reason. Some people might object to the inclusion of continuity from another game/universe, particularly if your game is set in a faithful recreation of the Marvel Universe ("Don't cross the streams!"). However, if that's a problem, you might be able to file off a few serial numbers and still do it.

 

As for the horsey, I'd say it should make the transition with the character. It's part of the paladin schtick. You can have a paladin without a magic horse, of course, but if the character ever had one, it's not unreasonable to assume the horse came across along with her, or followed later. It *is* a magic horse, after all.

 

If you have access to the 2nd edition AD&D Complete Paladin's Handbook, there's some good discussion in there about the nature of D&D Paladin Powers, which might be helpful in working out how to make your powers translate usefully into Champs/Marvel terms, especially when it comes to special effects.

[TheTemplar]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

Well, seeing as how I was once a time-displaced medieval warrior, I can relate (hence the forum ID.)

 

I would say that IF the player is open to it, it would PROBABLY be preferred in most cases if the player was a character from Earth (or perhaps some other Earth.) Not that there's anything wrong with the Forgotten Realms as a background setting, but speaking strictly from MY pov as a GM, I personally have an easier time tieing characters into a game when they've made an effort to incorporate themselves into my world.

 

With a background in FR, you may have to consider, "Is the player going to expect FR Tie-Ins in the context of the game?" "Are there OTHER displaced FR characters on this plane?" "Do I need to throw Beholders at them?"

 

And then, you have to decide if that's something you're willing to incorporate into your world. Or, make sure the player understands that their past is PROBABLY not going to be something that gets focused on much, if at all, in game. If they understand, and are cool with that, aside from the confusion caused to the other PC's every time Knight praises Helm/ Torm/ Tyr/ Lathander/ Whoever every time they roll a 3, I don't see any problems.

 

Please don't take this as a slant against characters from other dimensions/ planets/ gaming systems/ etc. Just trying to point out some potential issues that you'll need to address by running this character with your group.

 

And.. by all means, give her the Warsteed. The Templar never had a Warsteed.. Sadly, when he was magically placed in suspended animation in the 1300's, his Horse was not.

 

Long Story Short - Pretty much everything Haerandir said.. and he managed it with less smilies, to boot.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

My current Champions character is Pendragon, a WWII British flagsuit (brick in armor). As she's a _female_ descendent of King Arthur, she hides her gender behind full-plate armor and sometimes illusions. Anyway, she rides a flying horse, and I decided that this was the same warhorse -- 'Leaping Silver' -- that Arthur rode in the legends. The warhorse (a mare) has Extradimensional Movement (linked to Flight) to allow her to return to her stable in Avalon, the Isle of the Blessed. Perhaps something like that would work for your paladin's warhorse?

 

With Extradimensional Movement, your warhorse could go to the realm of your character's god when you don't need her, and be pampered and cared for by divine grooms and stablehands. Ex-D movement also means the warhorse is always just a call away, and your character won't have to worry about shelter, food or safety for the warhorse.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

I may be in the minority here, but I really do not like fantasy character transplants into modern supers games. This includes knights, barbarians, Jedi, whatever. The feel is generally very different, or the character has to be so bastardized that the translation becomes pointless. Just my opinion of course, but I advise extreme caution in the use of these characters as anything but NPCs.

[Ura-Maru]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

But if we ARE going to get one, could we get one of the women from Jacqueline Carey’s ‘Kushiel’s’ books?

 

I mean, if we’re going to get one anyway.

 

Just askin’.

 

---

What?!

[McCoy]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

I may be in the minority here' date=' but I really do not like fantasy character transplants into modern supers games. This includes knights, barbarians, Jedi, whatever. The feel is generally very different, or the character has to be so bastardized that the translation becomes pointless. Just my opinion of course, but I advise extreme caution in the use of these characters as anything but NPCs.[/quote']

As far as Avengers, the precedent boat already sailed with Thor, the Black Knight, and Herculese. Will agree that you can't take a FH equlivent of a D&D Paladin and run it as is in a 350 point Champtions game and expect the player to have much fun, but you can make an approperately powerful adaptation keeping to the spirit of the original source material.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

Good points all.

I should've mentioned before that she's an NPC member of the team.

I also should've mentioned that the game universe split from the mainstream Marvel universe just before the timeslide incident.

Three other ideas occur to me. One, she's a Pendragon from The Knights of Pendragon in the Marvel UK line. Two, she's a modern woman who found a mystical amulet somewhere and, when activated, she transforms into a female knight and gains the powers of a D&D paladin. Three, she's in the SCA or something like it and her powers activated while she was at an event.

[Brother Jim]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

or she could be a dimensionally lost character that keeps asking where the orcs and goblins live......cause they're all evil and have to be killed.

 

 

and then act all surprised when the "champions of justice" that she's hanging out with get upset when she talks about how killing evil things just makes her happy.

 

 

 

or you could play a less stereotypical D & D paladin and not do any of the things i've mentioned.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

A few years ago, in Excalibur, a Marvel UK comic, the team travels to a number of other versions of Earth. One was a combination of the 20th century and high fantasy.

In one panel, I saw a large humanoid man with a boom box, a radio tower, only horse-drawn vehicles, people in medieval armor. Additionally, the Arch-Druid was mentioned in passing.

Our lady paladin could've come from here.

[st barbara]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

Marvel have had heros with magic swords and flying horses before ("The Black Knight") and had a "villain" who had mystic weapons and armour and a "knight" motif (I think that he was called "The Crusader", he was I believe something of a fundamentalist Christian and went around challenging "flalse gods" such as Thor or some such !)

[tm80401]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

My current Champions character is Pendragon, a WWII British flagsuit (brick in armor). As she's a _female_ descendent of King Arthur, she hides her gender behind full-plate armor and sometimes illusions. Anyway, she rides a flying horse, and I decided that this was the same warhorse -- 'Leaping Silver' -- that Arthur rode in the legends. The warhorse (a mare) has Extradimensional Movement (linked to Flight) to allow her to return to her stable in Avalon, the Isle of the Blessed. Perhaps something like that would work for your paladin's warhorse?

 

With Extradimensional Movement, your warhorse could go to the realm of your character's god when you don't need her, and be pampered and cared for by divine grooms and stablehands. Ex-D movement also means the warhorse is always just a call away, and your character won't have to worry about shelter, food or safety for the warhorse.

 

Don't forget the mind-link so that you can call it. Either that or give the horse the transdimensional advantage on it's hearing, so that it can hear you call.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

Or just build it as a slavishly loyal summon or 100% altered Duplicate (points are the same) and run it like that. Mind Link is only for characters that the player does not control, like PCs, other NPCs and of course followers.

 

Hawksmoor

[Mark Rand]

Re: A D&D paladin in my Marvel Avengers campaign.

 

I think I'll simply make her a normal woman from the campaign city that finds an amulet in a thrift shop. When she activates it, she changes into a female warrior from somewhere, who can summon a winged horse when she needs to. She assumes that her heroic identy is a paladin from Waterdeep's city guard because, being a D&D player in a Forgotten Realms campaign, that's the only city she knows of that has the coat of arms that's on her shield and tabard.