This illustration by Mark Zug of a half-orc paladin has always stuck in my memory. Serving as the cover image for Dragon Magazine #275 (September 2000), it brought together an already amazing issue with content that is still useful for DMs, and presented it with a powerful, moving face.
While a lot of that was lost due to how the image was edited onto the cover, and the magazine format demanding attention-grabbing headlines to sell more 3rd edition D&D to the potential reader, the full image was reprinted inside the magazine and given a moving description.
At the time, the idea of playing a half-orc—let alone a full orc—as anything other than a bloody-minded brute was a tough sell, going not only against the popular image but against the idea that anyone would want to play a half-orc at all. More than a few third-party d20 system settings quietly swept half-orcs out of their game, feeling they weren’t appropriate to the games they wanted to play. They’d been left out of the core rulebooks for 2nd edition AD&D, so bringing them back as a starting option in 3rd edition ruffled some feathers (as did many other choices, but that’s to be expected). Half-orcs were written into the rules on both a mechanical and setting level as ugly, mean, and unintelligent, penalized on both Intelligence and Charisma. So, Zug was making some very deliberate choices to present one as a Paladin, one of the most Charisma-focused classes of the game.
There’s a stereotype of Paladins among gamers, born more of the media tropes of the Knight in Shining Armor and knee-jerk negative reactions to the idea of a Lawful Good alignment, often played more as “Lawful Stupid” rules-obsessed pricks who constantly spoil everyone else’s fun. The characters that inspired D&D in the first place were like Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, Aragorn as Strider rather than the ascendant king of Gondor, Conan and Red Sonja, and so forth. And since the rules mandated that Paladins who deviated from their alignment lost their class powers, D&D players had (and still often do have) a hard time reconciling the idea of being not only Lawful but strictly so with having an enjoyable play experience, though i’d argue this is most often born of a tendency to mistake “Lawful” for “Ethically Conservative, Obedient To Authority” instead of its broader possibilities.
Zug’s cover art paladin defies expectations of both ancestry and character class by combining the two. But even more so, he defies the idea of the Paladin who adheres to strict rules and keeps everything in tight order. It starts at his eyes, which are so far unfocused on what is around him that he’s gone wall-eyed, his mind on his deity in a moment of spiritual devotion. It continues to his equipment. His armor, clothing, and sword are suited for battle and have clearly seen it; he keeps his reliable sword in spite of its irreparable nicks, dings, and a half-busted crossguard. His surcoat, likely once a blazing crimson, is stained, faded, wrinkled, and tattered at the hem. His facial hair is neither well-maintained nor clean-shaven, wispy whiskers peeking from his chin and upper lip in more than what might be excused by having prioritized prayer over shaving on this morning.
And in the full image, we see his horse and squire, both hale and clean, looking themselves almost ready for parade. The scene conveys a paladin who prioritizes others over himself, even (perhaps especially) his mount; he keeps his armor and sword untarnished but not unworn, valuing its utility over any show of grandeur. He presents a figure of nobility through humility, while the decorative knees of his greaves suggest perhaps some sense of humor about his own facial features.
He’s the kind of paladin i’d dearly love to see more of, in media.
Never let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t play a character because its not optimal or the traits “don’t match.”
