[Alt. Paladin] The Oathsworn Paladin

[FireLance]

Wrathamon, Stalker0 and Sravoff, thank you for the positive comments . Yes, one of the ideas behind this was to make the paladin more customizable. If you don't want a special mount, for example, don't swear an Oath of Service and pick another oath instead. It isn't explicitly stated, but a paladin under this system should pick four oaths. The four oaths in the initial post do make up the standard PHB paladin's abilities, and the virtues (righteousness, mercy, service and faith) are loosely based on the standard paladin's code of conduct.

The difficultly I have in developing new oaths is in coming up with cool abilities for a paladin that are roughly comparable with the abilities granted by other oaths, and tying the abilities thematically to a virtue and specific conduct. If you have any ideas, please feel free to post them in this thread.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I like this idea.. and think fleshing it out could be a good thing.

A thought on building new Oaths:
from the base 4 above, you get either:
A> A per day SU ability, minor defensive ablity, and an improvement on the SU ability
B> Ability that advances with levels and a detection capability
C> A major SU ability

Formualting this into a 2nd level, 4th level, 6th level gains, while not exactly matching the PHB class, would make it easier to come up with proper abilities for Oaths.

Also this could give a built in Atonement, as the benefits of the oath only start applying after you have proven to have lived it, falling from grace can be atoned by seeking forgiveness and then proving true again, regaining the abilities after you have earned the proper amount of XP....as if you had restarted at 1st level.


off the cuff thought:
Oath of the Protector
Conduct: The palidon swears to act in defense of a community, with actions based on what threat that community is facing. Perhaps prepare the militia and stand on the village ground against violent invaders. Perhaps hunt down the dark force or being that haunts the towns streets at night. Perhaps representing a minority group to the cities mayor. Perhaps leading the Kings army to stop the spread of the Barbarian Hordes. He must never accept more payment than common room and board. He may be without a community to defend for no more than a month.. a month which needs to be spent seeking out a community to protect.

Benefit:
Starting at second level, the palidon can exude an aura of Inspire Courage (as the Bard song ) once per day per level. This effect lasts as long as his allies can view him weilding his dietied favored weapon and 5 rounds thereafter. An affected ally receives a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 morale bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. At 8th level, and every six bard levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1 (+2 at 8th, +3 at 14th, and +4 at 20th). Inspire courage is a mind-affecting ability.
{for ease of ruling, if mounted.. within 120 feet, if on higher ground.within 90 feet, if on foot in melee combat.. 30 feet, assuming normal vision conditions.}
Starting at 4th level, the palidon gains A +4 insight bonus to Sense Motive, Spot, Search, Diplomancy, Survival, and Investigate* when the check is in support of defeating the threat to the protected community.

anywho..