Knights of Solamnia

[DM Ray]

Has anyone had a player or players that have been able to play this class properly? How much leeway have you given to a player playing one?
Just wondering?

[angelicdoctor]

Yes! I would very much like to know the answers to this question as well as I deliberate on whether or not I should run a Dragonlance campaign and/or incorporate some of the material contained in the 'Adventures' supplement I have recently purchased. I am already on board with introducing the Alignment Tracker and related material into my Greyhawk campaign.

[DM Ray]

I wonder if many people stay away from it since it is close to the paladin and cavalier? Trying to follow the oath and measure may seem restricting to many players.

[angelicdoctor]

I wonder if many people stay away from it since it is close to the paladin and cavalier? Trying to follow the oath and measure may seem restricting to many players.

Only to those who don't like the challenge!

[DM Ray]

Last time I ran a game I had one pc that should have been removed from the knighthood for very questionable actions. I would see one being run in a future campaign.

[Deadlok]

I'm currently running a DL campaign and I have an experienced player who is making a very good job of playing a Knight of Crown. He admits that at times it's tough keeping to the strictures but that he is finding it a very rewarding R-P experience. At the same time, his PC is really helping to add that DL flavour to the game and the other players are really enjoying bouncing off him.

I think that be at a Paladin or a Knight of Solamnia it takes a certain type of experienced player to be able to R-P the character well.

[pharris]

I ran a Dragonlance group that had a knight in the party and she did a wonderful job of proving herself as a worthy woman in a society that I ruled was more of a patriarchy the funniest part was another PC got involved as a gnome squirer that constantly wanted to make new better ways to go on her adventurers! The banter and chemistry between the two was priceless.

[HobbitFan]

I have a buddy who likes to play knights of Solamnia. He's played one 1st, 2nd and 3rd. While he sometimes feels constrained by the Oath and the Measure so-to-speak he overall loves the role-playing potential of being in the Knighthood. For him, the bad is largely outweighed by the good.
I like to have a mix of traditional and and few unorthodox knights in the campaign for realism.

[Deadlok]

I like to have a mix of traditional and and few unorthodox knights in the campaign for realism.

I quite agree. You need to be a bit flexible in the interpretation of the Oath and the Measure so that you can get incorporate different personalities, other wise you run the risk of cookie-cutter characters. I like to include NPC knights who don't fit the ideal of Knights as they are actually quite unpleasant and power hungry, like Derek Crownguard, but who keep within rules as this makes the Order more believable.

This issue is similar to my take on Alignment and religion in any AD&D game (as well as the Order of High Sorcery in DL). I take a relaxed attitude as I want my game world to be believable. If I ran the Clerics/Priests by the book then every priest of a good aligned deity (or white robed wizard) would be honorable and trustworthy. Yet, we are all aware that any institution, no matter how noble, will attract people who are vain, greedy, selfish, cowardly and/or power hungry, and who will try to operate within the boundaries of that institution's strictures but to their own benefit. Not only is this more believable, but it makes the game world more interesting, as the PCs cannot rely on the notion that every temple of a good aligned deity will be a sanctuary, or that just because someone follows a god of good that they're going to be nice and kind.

[Papercut/Teazia]

I think it is really cool that the knights are despised by the general public (depending on the era). An interesting twist in the setting, with lots of rp potential.

What you really need is SpellJammer Solomnic Knights! Oh hell yeah!