Paladin Paragon Path advice needed

[Dire Human]

Hello! I'm making a series of Paragon Paths for Paladins, each one themed after a different deity to better focus the themes of their respective gods. Unfortunately I'm still a little shaky on the balance issues, so I figured I'd throw a couple of examples and see if I can't stress test them with you guys. Any comments? Too weak? Too strong?


Moradin: Ancestral Champion
“What I do is for my people, my homeland—my family.”

Prerequisite: Paladin class, channel divinity class feature, must worship Moradin

Ancestral Champion Path Features

Ancestor’s Action (11th Level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you can immediately use your channel divinity class feature as a free action without expending it, even if you’ve already used it this encounter.

Inherited Insight (11th Level): You gain a bonus to Charisma- and Intelligence-based skill checks equal to one-half your Wisdom modifier.

Selfless Shield (16th Level): Whenever an adjacent enemy attacks an adjacent ally and deals damage, you can choose to take a portion of the damage dealt equal to your Strength modifier.

Ancestral Champion Prayers

Ancestral Warding, Ancestral Champion Attack 11
Your strike marks your foe with a long-forgotten ward, making it difficult to maneuver.
Encounter * Divine, Implement, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage, and the target treats all squares adjacent to it at the start of its turn as difficult terrain (save ends).

Guidance of the Ancestors, Ancestral Champion Utility 12
Though long dead, your prayer invokes the skill of your ancestors to flow through you and your allies.
Daily * Divine, Zone
Standard Action, Close burst 5
Target: You and each ally in burst
Effect: The burst creates a zone of guiding spirits until the end of your next turn. You and allies within the zone gain a bonus to attack rolls and skill checks equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists. Each time you sustain this power, reduce the bonuses granted by this power by 1.

Fire of the Forge and Hearth, Ancestral Champion Attack 20
The flames that forged your weapons unite with the fire in your hearts, making sure that your foe knows that you are more than allies; you are family.
Daily * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3[W] + Strength modifier fire damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Miss: Half damage, and the target takes ongoing 2 fire damage (save ends).
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, attacks from your allies that deal damage to the target deal extra fire damage equal to your Strength modifier. This extra damage cannot be reduces by any resistances or immunities.


Torog: Dread Jailor
“No, friend. There will be no escape for you this day.”

Prerequisite: Paladin class, divine challenge class feature, must worship Torog

Dread Jailor Path Features

Grasp of the Jailor (11th Level): Whenever an enemy triggers your divine challenge or divine sanction, you may pull the target 1 square as a free action.

Imprisoning Action (11th Level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, each enemy adjacent to you is immobilized until the end of your next turn.

Jailor’s Reward (16th Level): Once per round, when an ally within 10 squares deals damage to an enemy that you’ve marked, or deals damage to an enemy that is slowed, immobilized, or restrained, you can grant that ally temporary hit points equal to 5 + your Wisdom modifier as a free action.

Dread Jailor Prayers

Make Them Crawl, Dread Jailor Attack 11
Just as your king crawls through the Underdark, so must the unjust crawl before you.
Encounter * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma or Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Charisma or Strength modifier damage. You knock the target prone, and it can’t stand up (save ends).

Incarcerating Aura, Dread Jailor Utility 12
Your call to Torog is answered by coils of clattering, ghostly manacles, eager to shackle those who flee.
Daily * Divine, Implement, Zone
Minor Action, Close burst 5
Effect: The burst creates a zone of astral manacles until the end of the encounter. Enemies within the zone that attempt to move or shift more than one square, or teleport, take 1d8 + Wisdom modifier force damage and are slowed until the end of their next turn at the end of their movement, whether or not they end the movement within the zone.

Chains of Dread, Dread Jailor Attack 20
You bind yourself to your foe with your very soul. Chains of divine magic slowly draw tighter as your judgment is carried out.
Daily * Divine, Force, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma or Strength vs. Will
Hit: 2[W] + Charisma or Strength modifier damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: The target is slowed (save ends).
First Failed Save: The target takes ongoing 5 force damage and is immobilized (save ends both).
Second Failed Save: The target takes ongoing 5 force damage and is restrained (save ends both).

 

[FireLance]

Guidance of the Ancestors, Ancestral Champion Utility 12
Though long dead, your prayer invokes the skill of your ancestors to flow through you and your allies.
Daily * Divine, Zone
Standard Action, Close burst 5
Target: You and each ally in burst
Effect: The burst creates a zone of guiding spirits until the end of your next turn. You and allies within the zone gain a bonus to attack rolls and skill checks equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists. Each time you sustain this power, reduce the bonuses granted by this power by 1.

This is the one that leaps out to me as being problematic. An ability score bonus to an attack roll is very potent, especially one that lasts from round to round, albeit at diminishing effectiveness. I would suggest that you consider making the bonus a power bonus to minimize stacking, and to scale down the value. The rule of thumb, from a quick sampling of 12th-level utility powers, seems to be a +2 power bonus to one person for the encounter, or a +2 power bonus to more than one person, but on an intermittent basis. I think there are a few possibilities you might consider:

1. A +1 power bonus to attack rolls, and a power bonus to damage rolls and skill checks equal to your Wisdom bonus. The power bonus to damage rolls and skill checks reduces by 1 each time the power is sustained, and the power can no longer be sustained once the bonus reaches 0.

2. A +3 power bonus to attack rolls and a +6 power bonus to skill checks, reducing by 1 and 2 respectively each time the power is sustained.

3. A power bonus to attack rolls equal to half Wisdom modifier and a power bonus to skill checks equal to Wisdom modifier, but the power cannot be sustained.

 

[the Jester]

Guidance of the Ancestors is very overpowered. I'd remove the sustain ability completely from it.

 

[Doombybbr]

Selfless Shield (16th Level): Whenever an adjacent enemy attacks an adjacent ally and deals damage, you can choose to take a portion of the damage dealt equal to your Strength modifier.

Ancestral Warding, Ancestral Champion Attack 11
Your strike marks your foe with a long-forgotten ward, making it difficult to maneuver.
Encounter * Divine, Implement, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage, and the target treats all squares adjacent to it at the start of its turn as difficult terrain (save ends).

Guidance of the Ancestors, Ancestral Champion Utility 12
Though long dead, your prayer invokes the skill of your ancestors to flow through you and your allies.
Daily * Divine, Zone
Standard Action, Close burst 5
Target: You and each ally in burst
Effect: The burst creates a zone of guiding spirits until the end of your next turn. You and allies within the zone gain a bonus to attack rolls and skill checks equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists. Each time you sustain this power, reduce the bonuses granted by this power by 1.

Fire of the Forge and Hearth, Ancestral Champion Attack 20
The flames that forged your weapons unite with the fire in your hearts, making sure that your foe knows that you are more than allies; you are family.
Daily * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3[W] + Strength modifier fire damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Miss: Half damage, and the target takes ongoing 2 fire damage (save ends).
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, attacks from your allies that deal damage to the target deal extra fire damage equal to your Strength modifier. This extra damage cannot be reduces by any resistances or immunities.


Dread Jailor Path Features


Imprisoning Action (11th Level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, each enemy adjacent to you is immobilized until the end of your next turn.

Dread Jailor Prayers

Make Them Crawl, Dread Jailor Attack 11
Just as your king crawls through the Underdark, so must the unjust crawl before you.
Encounter * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma or Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Charisma or Strength modifier damage. You knock the target prone, and it can’t stand up (save ends).

Incarcerating Aura, Dread Jailor Utility 12
Your call to Torog is answered by coils of clattering, ghostly manacles, eager to shackle those who flee.
Daily * Divine, Implement, Zone
Minor Action, Close burst 5
Effect: The burst creates a zone of astral manacles until the end of the encounter. Enemies within the zone that attempt to move or shift more than one square, or teleport, take 1d8 + Wisdom modifier force damage and are slowed until the end of their next turn at the end of their movement, whether or not they end the movement within the zone.

Chains of Dread, Dread Jailor Attack 20
You bind yourself to your foe with your very soul. Chains of divine magic slowly draw tighter as your judgment is carried out.
Daily * Divine, Force, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma or Strength vs. Will
Hit: 2[W] + Charisma or Strength modifier damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: The target is slowed (save ends).
First Failed Save: The target takes ongoing 5 force damage and is immobilized (save ends both).
Second Failed Save: The target takes ongoing 5 force damage and is restrained (save ends both).

At higher levels selfless shield is ineffectual, in fact it only helps BELOW level 10 so make it about 2 or 3 times the strengh modifier maybe even any number the paladin sees fit up to his current hp, he may take all the attacks damage but be killed because of it.
Ancestral warding needs to have a large radius(probably at least blast 3 tilll next turn or a few turns later)
with guidence of the ancestors just make it an aura where you have ut to wisdom modifier number of turns when the turns left are: 6 or more it is +6, 5 it is +5, 4 it is + 4, 3 it is + 3, 2 it is +2, 1 it is + 1 so the bonus cannot exceed 6(if it did it would be rather overpowered)
Fire of the forge of heath should be affected by resistances or be a unike flame that does non-elemental damage as a being made COMPLETELY of fire would NOT take damage from that AS IT IS VERY ODD AND UNREALISTIC.
for inprisoning action make save ends a second possibility as immobilizing enemies is almost overpowered.
make them crawl is a bit too weak as it does not affect much with prone.
incarcerating aurashould ignore teleport and instead anyone who moves takes the damage.as teleport cannot be stopped by the aura but moving can.

with chains of dread 1 save should end all associated conditions or it will take a very long time to escape

 

[Doombybbr]

alternatively for guidence of the ancesters make it sustain major so that the paladin would only sustain it if he has nothing better to do (and he probably does like using his healing abilities or standing in the enemies way)

 

[the Jester]

alternatively for guidence of the ancesters make it sustain major so that the paladin would only sustain it if he has nothing better to do (and he probably does like using his healing abilities or standing in the enemies way)

No way. It's too good to have a sustain. The bonuses are simply too high.

 

[Dire Human]

How about these? I've greatly increased the damage soak for Selfless Shield (as well as tweaking how often and how it can be used), cleaned up Ancestral Warding and Incarcerating Aura, and nailed down a compromise for Guidance of the Ancestors that I think works without being too overpowered.

Selfless Shield (16th Level): Once per round, when an enemy attacks an adjacent ally and deals damage, you can choose to take a portion of the damage dealt equal to up to three times your Strength modifier. Increase the portion to four times your Strength modifier at 26th Level.

Ancestral Warding, Ancestral Champion Attack 11
Your strike marks your foe with a long-forgotten ward, making it difficult to maneuver.
Encounter * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage, and you push the target 1 square. The target treats all squares as difficult terrain until the end of your next turn.

Guidance of the Ancestors, Ancestral Champion Utility 12
Though long dead, your prayer invokes the skill of your ancestors to flow through you and your allies.
Daily * Divine, Zone
Standard Action, Close burst 5
Target: You and each ally in burst
Effect: The burst creates a zone of guiding spirits until the end of your next turn. You and allies within the zone gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls, and a bonus to damage rolls and skill checks equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists. Each time you sustain this power, reduce the bonuses granted by this power by 1. When all of the bonuses granted by this power are 0, the power cannot be sustained.

Incarcerating Aura, Dread Jailor Utility 12
Your call to Torog is answered by coils of clattering, ghostly manacles, eager to shackle those who flee.
Daily * Divine, Implement, Zone
Minor Action, Area burst 2 within 5
Effect: The burst creates a zone of astral manacles until the end of the encounter. Enemies within the zone that attempt to move or shift more than one square take 1d6 + Strength or Charisma modifier force damage and are slowed until the end of their next turn at the end of their movement, whether or not they end the movement within the zone.