[The Paladin Project] The Holy Vassal - a Pal/Clr PrC

Hi all, I was wondering whether this PrC might be overpowered. Then I saw the Fist of Raziel, so I decided to post it. Comments welcome.

----------

HOLY VASSAL

The holy vassal focuses on bringing the holy might of his deity to the front lines of the war against evil. His spells enable him to heal and protect his allies, and smite his foes with holy power.

Requirements:
Alignment: Lawful Good
Concentration: 8 ranks.
Knowledge (religion): 8 ranks.
Feats: Combat Casting, Skill Focus: Knowledge (religion).
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells, including Divine Favor.
Special: In campaigns where the multiclassing restrictions on paladins are enforced, the character must be able to gain levels in the paladin class.

Hit Die: d8.
Class Skills: The holy vassal's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The holy vassal is proficient in the use of all simple weapons and all armor and shields (except tower shields).

Lvl. BAB . Fort Ref. Will. Spells per Day . . . Special
1 .. +0 .. +2 . +0 . +2 .. +1 level of cleric . Combined Spellcasting, Turn Undead
2 .. +1 .. +3 . +0 . +3 .. +1 level of cleric . Enhanced Spellcasting
3 .. +2 .. +3 . +1 . +3 .. +1 level of cleric . Spell Access: Bless Weapon
4 .. +3 .. +4 . +1 . +4 .. +1 level of cleric . Healing Touch
5 .. +3 .. +4 . +1 . +4 .. +1 level of cleric . Spell Access: Holy Smite, Spell Smite 1/day
6 .. +4 .. +5 . +2 . +5 .. +1 level of cleric
7 .. +5 .. +5 . +2 . +5 .. +1 level of cleric . Spell Access: Heal Mount
8 .. +6 .. +6 . +2 . +6 .. +1 level of cleric
9 .. +6 .. +6 . +3 . +6 .. +1 level of cleric . Spell Access: Holy Sword
10 . +7 .. +7 . +3 . +7 .. +1 level of cleric . Improved Spell Smite 2/day

Spells: Starting at 1st level, and at each holy vassal level thereafter, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in the cleric class. If the character had no cleric levels before becoming a 1st-level holy vassal, he gains the spellcasting ability of a 1st-level cleric (including the ability to spontaneously convert prepared spells to cure spells and access to two domains) when he takes his first holy vassal level.

Combined Spellcasting (Ex): A holy vassal's caster level for cleric or paladin spells is equal to his holy vassal level plus his cleric level plus half his paladin level. For example, a Paladin 5/Holy Vassal 2 would cast spells as a 4th-level spellcaster. If the character has another spellcasting class apart from cleric or paladin, he does not gain this benefit for the spells of that class, even if they are also on the cleric or paladin spell lists.

If the character has the combined spellcasting ability from another class, the effects stack, but levels from each class can only be counted once. For example, a Cleric 2/Paladin 5/Holy Vassal 2/Celestial Steward 2 has an effective caster level of 8 for any cleric, druid or paladin spell.

Turn Undead (Su): A holy vassal turns undead as a cleric of his level. Levels in holy vassal stack with levels in any other class with the ability to turn undead for this purpose.

Enhanced Spellcasting (Ex): At any time after achieving 2nd level, a holy vassal with paladin levels may permanently sacrifice two paladin spellcaster levels to increase his cleric spellcaster level by one. The increase to his cleric spellcaster level may not exceed half his holy vassal level, and he may not reduce his or paladin spellcaster levels to less than zero, or increase his cleric spellcaster level more than once per increase in character level. Since his cleric spellcasting level increases whenever he gains a level in cleric or holy vassal, this means he can only exercise this option when he gains a level in other classes. For example, if a Paladin 5/Holy Vassal 2 gains a level of paladin, he may choose to permanently sacrifice two paladin spellcaster levels (effectively casting spells as a 4th-level paladin) in order to cast spells as a 3rd-level cleric.

Spell Access (Ex): At 3rd level, a holy vassal adds Bless Weapon to his spell list as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, he adds Holy Smite to his spell list as a 4th-level spell. At 7th level, he adds Heal Mount to his spell list as a 4th-level spell. At 9th level, he adds Holy Sword to his spell list as a 5th-level spell.

Healing Touch (Su): At 4th level, a holy vassal with the ability to Remove Disease as a class feature may choose to trade in all his uses of the ability to increase the choice of spells into which he can spontaneously convert prepared spells. For each use of the Remove Disease ability traded in, the holy vassal gains the ability to spontaneously cast one of the following spells, in order: Remove Disease, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Neutralize Poison, Restoration. A holy vassal who can spontaneously convert prepared spells to Neutralize Poison may also convert prepared spells to Slow Poison, and one that can spontaneously convert prepared spells to Restoration may also convert prepared spells to Lesser Restoration. For example, a holy vassal that trades in three uses of his Remove Disease ability may spontaneously cast Remove Disease, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Slow Poison or Neutralize Poison by expending a prepared spell of the respective spell's level or higher. A holy vassal that trades in more than four uses of his ability does not gain any additional benefit. This benefit lasts until the holy vassal's ability to Remove Disease is renewed. The holy vassal has to make this choice when his ability is renewed, and must trade in all his uses of the ability.

Spell Smite (Su): Once per day, a 5th-level holy vassal may perform a spell smite when he casts Holy Smite to increase its effectiveness against evil opponents. He adds his Charisma bonus to all caster level checks to overcome the spell resistance of evil opponents, and adds his holy vassal level plus his paladin level to the damage dealt to evil opponents.

If he has the ability to smite evil, he may expend one of his daily uses of the ability to perform a spell smite. However, he cannot make use of his spell smite ability to smite evil.

At 10th level, he may perform a spell smite one additional time per day. In addition, the saving throw DC of evil opponents is increased by 2.

Code of Conduct: A holy vassal has a code of conduct identical to that of the paladin.

Associates: Like a paladin, a holy vassal may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, but will never knowingly associate with evil characters. He will not continue an association with someone who consistently offends his moral code, and may only hire henchmen or accept followers who are lawful good.

Ex-Holy Vassals: A holy vassal who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all special abilities and spells, including bonus feats. He also may not progress in levels as a holy vassal. He regains his abilities if he atones for his violations, as appropriate.

Multiclassing: A paladin who gains levels in holy vassal may continue advancing as a paladin.

EDIT: Thanks to brento766 for pointing out an error in the BAB and save progression, and to Philip for pointing out the missing Lawful Good alignment prerequisite.

I think your Paladin Prestige Classes are very cool. I have developed an NPC for a Forgotten Realms campaign that has levels in the Blessed Armsman PrC. Keep up the good work! Also, I was wondering if you are developing a Pladin/Druid Prc?

Thank you for your encouragement, Golem2176. I'm glad you have found my work to be useful. I was actually planning a Paladin/Ranger PrC next, but your question about a Paladin/Druid gave me inspiration for one. Give me some time to write it up and I'll post it in this forum.

overpowered or not?

This class is way overpowered. Lets look at the original classes involved: cleric and paladin. What is the main difference? The spells vs the attacks. You just gave them both. And it wasn't like you really restricted your players on getting the class either, if they plan on going divine, there is no reason why they shouldn't go this class. Therefore, you should either reduce the attack prog. or reduce the +1 cleric spell prog, or both. Just because it is a prestige class doesn't mean it is supposed to be way more powerful than the other classes. It is supposed to be pseudo balanced.

Then you have spell accesses. These are a few of the very special traits of palys. Your big payoff is when you take the paly to high levels and you get these sweet spells. But now any divine can have them.

And just because you don't think remove disease is an all around great ability doesn't mean that you should sac it for more powerful spells. It was given to palys for a reason, that reason: balance. If your pissed because you never get to use it, ask your dm to put in situations where it will be useful, not ask to cast a more powerful spell like restoration.

As far as spell smite goes, I would say that first of all, paladin is not an overall casting class, so when you go to add damage, it should go off of cleric level, not paladin level. That way, you have people that specialize in doing combat damage (more paladin than cleric) and some that specialize in spell damage (more cleric than paladin). Also, the ablitiy is not a weak one, so why should you be able to sac out regualar smites for it and not the other way around? I would just say stay with the alloted amounts. If you don't use them, poor for you.

Thanks for your comments, brento766.

brento766 said:

This class is way overpowered. Lets look at the original classes involved: cleric and paladin. What is the main difference? The spells vs the attacks. You just gave them both. And it wasn't like you really restricted your players on getting the class either, if they plan on going divine, there is no reason why they shouldn't go this class. Therefore, you should either reduce the attack prog. or reduce the +1 cleric spell prog, or both. Just because it is a prestige class doesn't mean it is supposed to be way more powerful than the other classes. It is supposed to be pseudo balanced.

Click to expand...

You're absolutely right, I put in the wrong BAB and save progression by mistake . Thanks for pointing that out. I've edited my first post to reflect the correct progression.

Then you have spell accesses. These are a few of the very special traits of palys. Your big payoff is when you take the paly to high levels and you get these sweet spells. But now any divine can have them.

Click to expand...

If figured that since I'm holding the character to the paladin code of conduct, I might as well give him the spells. It's a small bonus for a small restriction.

And just because you don't think remove disease is an all around great ability doesn't mean that you should sac it for more powerful spells. It was given to palys for a reason, that reason: balance. If your pissed because you never get to use it, ask your dm to put in situations where it will be useful, not ask to cast a more powerful spell like restoration.

Click to expand...

The design question behind the Healing Touch ability was this: Remove Disease makes sense for a paladin who has no access to the spell. But, how do you make it useful for a paladin/cleric? Well, how often would a character cast Remove Disease? Depending on the campaign, maybe less than once a week. So, instead of having that 1/week Remove Disease, swop it for the ability to spontaneously cast Remove Disease. A small benefit for a small benefit. What if he's able to Remove Disease 2/week? Maybe a slight improvement. Allow him to spontaneously cast Remove Blindness/Deafness as well. Again, how often does that come up? And so on. Balance-wise, I don't think it makes a very great difference, and game-wise it makes the character more fun to play. He has the spells on tap for the rare instances that they are useful, and he doesn't have to tie up his spell slots the rest of the time.

As far as spell smite goes, I would say that first of all, paladin is not an overall casting class, so when you go to add damage, it should go off of cleric level, not paladin level. That way, you have people that specialize in doing combat damage (more paladin than cleric) and some that specialize in spell damage (more cleric than paladin). Also, the ablitiy is not a weak one, so why should you be able to sac out regualar smites for it and not the other way around? I would just say stay with the alloted amounts. If you don't use them, poor for you.

Click to expand...

Again, this is a design issue. I wanted the Spell Smite to be the Holy Vassal's "signature move", so to speak, so I felt that it had to be useful, even when compared to the other high-level spells he could cast, and that he had to be able to use it more than twice a day. I tried to make it so that a Holy Vassal would be able to Spell Smite about as often as a paladin of the same character level could Smite Evil.

I hereby present the Holy Vassal in document format!

How about adding LG and Divine Grace to the prerequisites?

Philip said:

How about adding LG and Divine Grace to the prerequisites?

Click to expand...

I can't believe I forgot the Lawful Good alignment prerequisite, too. Thanks, Philip.

I didn't want to add Divine Grace to the prerequisites because I didn't want to require paladin levels to take the class. Both clerics and fighters could meet the prerequisites for the Holy Vassal and the Blessed Armsman respectively, although they would get less benefit than a paladin.

Golem2176 said:

I hereby present the Holy Vassal in document format!

Click to expand...

Thanks, Golem2176 . Looks like I'll have to trouble you to add the Lawful Good prerequisite, though.