Paladin Variants

[majustismp15]

I am playing a paladin in our new campaign and I posed a question to my DM. The question: "how's the variant paladin in Complete Warrior look to you?"
He okayed with a wary tone. He feels that the loss of spell casting isn't worth the benefits of the variant (pp 13 of CW).
I never play spell casters and am not used to how they work, but my DM thinks that I am short cahnging myself by giving up spellcasting abilities.
What do you all think? is it underpowered, overpoered, etc.

 

[DerianCypher]

I would have to agree with your DM on this one. For all the things you're able to do with paladin spells- as limited as they may be- what you get in return is entirely not worth it.

 

[Question]

All the non-spellcasting variants are HORRIBLY underpowered. Maybe modify them a bit, give them a bit more oomph.

 

[Klaus]

Those variants have one advantage: they lessen the MAD (Multiple Ability Dependency). If you take the paladin variant, you can get by with nothing more than a 10 on Wisdom, focusing on your Str and Cha.

This is less true for the ranger, since at least one of the ranger's core skils, Survival, is based off Wisdom.

 

[Vurt]

Paladin spells may seem irrelevant, but they can come in handy. My favourite that I've used so far is rhino's rush, which is a first level paladin spell from Spell Compendium. In a nutshell, it's a swift action to cast, lasts for 1 round, and lets you charge for double damage.

If you layer that with Power attack, Divine Might and Charging Smite from PHB2, you can get in some really good damage once or twice per game day (or more, with some cheap pearls of power).

Don't think of paladin spells as spells per se, think of them as a limited but versatile set of special abilities you can choose on a day-by-day basis. Find a couple that you like and will likely employ, and stick with them. Unless there's some burning need otherwise (like the party cleric just got baked), you probably won't need to switch them out on a regular basis.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[pressedcat]

Thought rhino's rush allowed you to do max damage as opposed to double damage

 

[majustismp15]

Thanks alot,
I talked to my DM/roommate and he was wondering what you add to the variant to balance the loss of spells, mostly out of curiosity...
I've also looked at some spells from other sources (CW, CD, CA, and PHB II) and found some spells worth time... so all is not lost, and since I've got 4 levels to play out to make a decision there's no rush...

 

[Vurt]

Thought rhino's rush allowed you to do max damage as opposed to double damage

Perhaps the Spell Compendium version is different from whatever version of the spell was published earlier? SC definitely says double damage, I just flipped open my copy and double-checked.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[moritheil]

Lesser restoration alone can be invaluable.

 

[pressedcat]

Perhaps the Spell Compendium version is different from whatever version of the spell was published earlier? SC definitely says double damage, I just flipped open my copy and double-checked.

Cheers,
Vurt

Nope you're right, i just remembered it wrong. Had briefly borrowed SC off someone else, and ended up using the wrath domain in my own campaign. Somewhere along the way, the cleric pc (or me) got rhino rush confused. Best tell the 18 str basher cleric of my mistake and hope he's not too miffed