Paladin of Shadows prestige class

This is a prestige class that I have ben using for my players for a long time now, but I would like to get some feedback on balancing issues and such. so please tell me what you think.


PALADIN OF SHADOWS
The Paladin of Shadows are worshipers of "Dyne" the god of judgment. Most think it strange that
paladins of a half demon god could be judges, but Dyne believes that it is his place to bring final judgment to all condemed souls, and he instructs all his paladins to do so as well. These divine warriors scour the land to find all condemed souls s othey may face thier final judgment.
Paladins, clerics, and fighters are the most common Paladin of Shadows. Of course, anyone who wishes to bring judgment to and become a blessed of Dyne seek out this class.
NPC Paladin of Shadows are usually found wherever wrong doings need to be acounted for. Acting as judges and investigators to seek out the truth.
Hit Die: d12
Requirements
To qualify to become a Paladin of Shadows, a character must meet the following criteria.
Alignment: LN
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Deitie: Dyne Shadowblood
Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Exotic Weapon Proficiency " 2-bladed Sythe"*
Skills: Diplomancy 4 ranks, Knowledge (Undead) 4 ranks, Knowledge (Demons) 4 ranks, Sence Motive 4 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks
Special: The player must travel to a temple of shadows and meet all the requirements and then pass all the tests to be inducted into the shadow guild.

Class Skills
The Paladin of Shadows class skills are Concentration, Diplomacy,Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge ( Demons, Laws, Undead), Ride, Sense Motive.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2+Int modifier

Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Paladin of Shadows by his code of laws is only allowed to use his 2-Bladed Scythe, and is proficient with all armor types.

Paladin Of Shadows
Class BAB F R W Special
Level
1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Detect Condemed, Shadow Jump
2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Weapon Focus 2-Bladed Scythe
3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Blades Of Blood 1xday
4th +4 +4 +1 +4 Weapon Specialization 2-Bladed Scythe
5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Will of Shadows
6th +6 +5 +2 +5 Improved Weapon Focus 2-Bladed Scythe
7th +7 +5 +2 +5 Shadow Cleave
8th +8 +6 +2 +6 Improved Weapon Specialization 2-Bladed
Scythe
9th +9 +6 +3 +6 Dark Vortex 3xday
10th +10 +7 +3 +7 Blessing Of Dyne

Detect Condemed: At will, the Paladin of Shadowscan detect any condemed sould within a 100 ft rad. Keep in mind that not only evil beaings are condemed and neutral or even good aligned souls may be condemed.
Shadow Jump: as a free action the Paladin of Shadows may enter any shadow big enough for him to hide in and jump to another.
The Paladin of Shadows can jump up to a maximum of 30 ft per Paladin of Shadows Level.
Blades Of Blood: when using this skill the Paladin of Shadows weapon begins to drip blood, now for the next 3 rounds half of all damage delt by his weapon is converted to his HP. However he may not excede his max HP.
Will Of Shadows: At will, The Paladin of Shadows can sacrafice 5 of his hit points to restore 30 feet of his shadow jump for the remainder of the day.
Shadow Cleave: When the Paladin of Shadows drops a target in melee combat he may shadow jump to another target and get an attack on it at his highest attack bonus, and may continue to do this up to a maximum of 1 time per Paladin of Shadows Level. When using this ability it uses up the Paladin of Shadows shadow jump total for the day equil to how far you teleport to the next target. The target is also concitered flat footed for the attack.
Dark Vortex: as a full round action the Paladin of Shadows begin to channel energy, now until the begining of his next turn the Paladin of Shadows may re-direct any attack to another area within a 100 ft rad. of him. when using this skill he opens a rift in space/time and "folds" space. this can re-direct ranged attacks/spells, melee attacks (in which the attacker rolls v.s. the new target, all AC bonus of the defender still apply)
Blessing Of Dyne: When the Paladin of Shadows reaches the pinicale of his power, Dyne enhances 2 of the player stats by 2 and gives his weapon up to a +5 bonus of his choice ( like flaming, keen, etc.)

Requirements for Entry
The player must have average combat skills, Knowledge of Dynes dogma and beliefs. and must be occumptied by his "Beloved" (Wife). One of you must enter to become a Paladin of Shadows and the other to become a Master of Shadows.

Tests
Body: the player is to train in the courtyard with Paladin of Shadows to hone his skills for 3 days with no rest, then he must face another potential inductie and win to advance to the next trial.
Spirit: the player is to be placed on a nearby mountain and have a blindness spaell casted on him (he must fail the save) and must make his way back to the temple after 3 days on the mountain.
Mind: the player must recite the hym of shadows that he learned on the first day of his trials.
If the player fails any of these trials he must wait one year to try agan, and all trials must be done agan.

After the Final Trial is complete the player is inducted into the shadow guild, however if his beloved fails his/her trials he is concitered to fail his trials as well, and vice versa.

If both pass thier tests then they are both inducted into the guild. After the cermonie the Paladin of Shadows it given his +3 2-Bladed Scythe.

Two-Bladed Scythe
Damage: 2d4/2d4
Critical: x3
Range: -
Weight:30 lbs.
Type: Slashing
Size: Large

A two-bladed scythe is a double weapon. You can fight with it as fighting with two weapons, but if you do, you incur all the normal attack penalties associated with fighting with two weapons, as if you were wielding a one-handed weapon and a light weapon.
The two-bladed scythe looks like a normal scythe but on the other end it has another scythe blade facing the opposong direction.
The special powers of the Paladin of Shadows only work if he/she is using thier 2-bladed scythe, and only it.

All in all, excluding Blessing of Dyne, I'd consider it a potent but reasonably fair prestige class. But Blessing of Dyne is far too potent after all the other boons they get. They're basically a fighter with predetermined bonus feats, a strong will save to boot, and some minor/moderate magical traits that aren't over the top.

As a limited prestige class, and considering the fighter's general weakness compared to other classes, I'm pretty much fine with the magical powers and the higher will save. Kinda neat all in all, but the Blessing of Dyne ought to be changed to something useable 1/day, lasting 1 round per level of the prestige class. In that case they could probably change the magic weapon qualities and ability scores boosted each time they activate the Blessing of Dyne.

As for other stuff, I saw you mentioned something about their 'beloved' passing the trials as well, and was wondering if that was some typo or just some unexplained odd quirk of the trials.....? Anyway, for skills I'd add one or two more to the list of class skills, like Handle Animal (it just kinda goes with Ride...) and perhaps Gather Information. Lastly, you should probably note what happens to them if they violate their oath to wield only a two-bladed scythe. At the very least, does it bar them from using armor spikes, shield spikes, a gauntlet, or a spiked gauntlet?

good input. about thier "Beloved" thier beloved is thier wife that must travel with them and join the guild as well but, must enter to become the classes sister class the Master of Shadows. it has to do with Dyne and his wife whom is Siliquie nallio ( dyne in life was a Paladin of Shadows and siliquie was a Master of Shadows, another one of my classes I made) and in combat together they give bonuses to eachother.

and when both enter it makes a better "Bond" between the chars. later I will post that class as well.

What no more Input.......

As for alignment I would require them to be LN. instead of any N.

And due to alignment conflicts I would not allow "true paladins" this prestige class.

Well LN seems like a good choice....ya I think that I will go with that

Blades Of Blood: when using this skill the Paladin of Shadows weapon begins to drip blood, now for the next 3 rounds half of all damage delt by his weapon is converted to his HP. However he may not excede his max HP.

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This is formulated in a very confusing way. In fact I have no idea, what you're trying to say ... ?

Dakkareth said:

This is formulated in a very confusing way. In fact I have no idea, what you're trying to say ... ?

Click to expand...

Get 50% of the damage you deal added to your hp (if you aren't at your maximum already)

Just based on flavor, I wonder if the Hide ability should at least be a class skill if not a required skill for entry into the class.

Ohh, another one for the Class Construction Guide.

Paladin of shadows; Hit dice d10 (25), 2 skill points per level (5), 8 class skills (4), Good BAB (30), Two good saves (17), no weapons (0), All armor (6), Detect condemmed (2.5), shadow jump (2), Weapon focus (2), Blades of Blood (2), Weapon Specialization (2), Will of shadows (2), Improved weapons focus (2), Shadow Cleave (2), Improved weapon specialization (2), Dark Vortex (6)[4th level spell, 3x per day], Blessing of Dyne (8) [+2 to two abilities, +5 to one ability], requires BAB 7th level (-4), requires single alignment (LN Only) (-1), requires 5 feats (-5), requires 5 skills at 2nd level (-5), Requires significant quest (-4). Total: 100.5

The significant limitations to get into this class make it worth much less than the powers it is given would indicate. The 10 level prestige class average is around 117, this falls short by a standard deviation. But instead of adding more powers to it, I would consider removing some of the limitations instead.