Reworking the Paladin - Modified

[Cactot]

PALADIN
Alignment: Lawful good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good.
Hit Die: d10.

Class Skills

The paladin’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: The Paladin

Lvl BaB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Special Ability
2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Divine grace
3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Aura of courage, divine health
4th +4 +4 +1 +4 Special Ability
5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Special mount, Bonded Weapon
6th +6/+1 +5 +2 +5 Leadership Feat
7th +7/+2 +5 +2 +5
8th +8/+3 +6 +2 +6 Special Ability
9th +9/+4 +6 +3 +6
10th +10/+5 +7 +3 +7
11th +11/+6/+1 +7 +3 +7
12th +12/+7/+2 +8 +4 +8 Special Ability
13th +13/+8/+3 +8 +4 +8
14th +14/+9/+4 +9 +4 +9
15th +15/+10/+5 +9 +5 +9
16th +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +5 +10 Special Ability
17th +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10
18th +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +11
19th +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +11
20th +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +12 Special Ability

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the paladin.

Bonded Weapon: See “The Quintessential Paladin”

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Paladins are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Divine Grace (Su): At 2nd level, a paladin gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws.

Special Abilities:
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Armor Agility :
A Paladin reduces the negative effects of wearing armor, and regains her full unarmored movement rate while in armor, and reduces all penalties for wearing armor by 1 (raises dex modifier cap, reduces skill check modifiers)

Master of Mounted Combat:
When a paladin chooses this Special ability, they effectively gain the Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, and Ride By Attack

Lay on Hands (Su):
Each day she can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her paladin level x (two + her Charisma bonus). A paladin may choose to divide her healing among multiple recipients, and she doesn’t have to use it all at once. Using lay on hands is a standard action.

Alternatively, a paladin can use any or all of this healing power to deal damage to undead creatures. Using lay on hands in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The paladin decides how many of her daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature.

Improved Lay on Hands (Req. Lay on Hands):
"Heal" once per day on one person, or the paladin can divide (lvl x (cha bonus + 4)) in HP among multiple recipients
Paladin can also cure poison or disease lvl/2 per week.

Resistant Aura:
All allies within 10' of paladin share her cha bonuses to resist.

Imp Resistant Aura:
Same as Resistant Aura, but to 30'

Knightly Skills:
+2 to Diplomacy, Ride, Heal, and Sense Motive Checks

Turn Undead:
Turn Undead as a cleric - 2 lvls

Imp Turn Undead:
Turn undead as a cleric + 2 lvls

Bonus Feat:
The paladin recieves a bonus feat when taking this ability

Favorite Enemy:
Paladin gets +2atk and +4dmg to two classes of enemies with this special ability and ignores 10 pts of dmg resistance from them.

Imp Favorite Enemy:
Paladin gets +4atk and +8 dmg to the classes of enemies chosen with the Favorite Enemy special ability. Ignores 20 points of their damage resistance.
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Aura of Courage (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects.
This ability functions while the paladin is conscious, but not if she is unconscious or dead.

Divine Health (Ex): At 3rd level, a paladin gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.

Special Mount (Sp): Upon reaching 5th level, a paladin gains the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve her in her crusade against evil (see below). This mount is usually a heavy warhorse (for a Medium paladin) or a warpony (for a Small paladin).

Once per day, as a full-round action, a paladin may magically call her mount from the celestial realms in which it resides. The mount immediately appears adjacent to the paladin and remains for 2 hours per paladin level; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The mount is the same creature each time it is summoned, though the paladin may release a particular mount from service.

Each time the mount is called, it appears in full health, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. The mount also appears wearing or carrying any gear it had when it was last dismissed. Calling a mount is a conjuration (calling) effect.

Should the paladin’s mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. The paladin may not summon another mount for thirty days or until she gains a paladin level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow returned from the dead. During this thirty-day period, the paladin takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.

Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of good alignment and loses all class abilities if she ever willingly commits an evil act.
Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.
Associates: While she may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, a paladin will never knowingly associate with evil characters, nor will she continue an association with someone who consistently offends her moral code. A paladin may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are good.

(RECOMMENDED)Alternative: The paladin/knight may create a code using the tenets from “The Quintessential Paladin”

Table: Paladin Favored Enemies

Type (Subtype)

Aberration
Humanoid (reptilian)
Magical beast
Construct
Monstrous humanoid
Dragon Ooze
Elemental
Outsider (air)
Fey
Outsider (chaotic)
Giant
Outsider (earth)
Humanoid (aquatic)
Outsider (evil)
Humanoid (dwarf)
Outsider (fire)
Humanoid (elf)
Humanoid (goblinoid)
Outsider (lawful)
Humanoid (gnoll)
Outsider (native)
Humanoid (gnome)
Outsider (water)
Humanoid (halfling)
Humanoid (human)
Undead
Humanoid (orc)

 

[Technik4]

I think giving them some armor abilities muddles the concept a little. I mean, in order to be a paladin you must already be:

-Lawful Good
-Follow the Code

Further restricting it (and giving a bonus to a particular armor type but not others does restrict it) narrows its scope so that every paladin will be even more similar. Things like Favored Enemy reek too much of the Ranger, and personally Toughness at 14th level seems comedic (no offense though).

I think if you want slightly buffed paladins a "Special Ability" not unlike the rogue may fit the bill. This encourages diversity among paladins (especially higher level ones) and also gives them some higher level buffs to look forward to.



Special Abilities: Starting at 8th level and every 4 levels afterwards a paladin gains a special ability of his choice from among the following options.

Aura of Dedication (Su): A paladin with a devout heart becomes immune to death effects. Each ally within 10 ft. gains a +4 morale bonus against death effects. This ability functions while the paladin is conscious, but not if he is unconscious or dead.

Divine Intuition (Su): A paladin gains a bonus equal to her Wisdom bonus (if any) on all saving throws. This ability stacks with Divine Grace.

Domain Power: A paladin gains 1 domain as a cleric. It grants him a domain power which functions according to his paladin level, as well as an additional spell per spell level which must be a domain spell. A paladin can only choose a domain from the list of domains his god offers, as a cleric. A paladin may gain this ability up to two times.

Improved Lay on Hands (Su): A paladin gains the ability to heal not only hit point damage, but ability damage (or penalties). For every 5 points of damage that would be healed, a paladin may choose to heal 1 point of ability damage instead. If it is only an ability penalty, the exchange is 1 hit point for 1 point of ability penalty.

Improved Spellcasting: A paladin's caster level becomes equal to his paladin level instead of half his paladin level. The paladin gains 1 bonus spell for each spell level he has. He also gains the ability to cast a number of cantrips per day equal to 2 + the number of 1st level spells he can cast (unmodified by bonus or domain spells, but modified by this ability).

Greater Aura (Su): A paladin with this ability extends one aura to each ally within 30 ft. instead of 10 ft.

Feat: A paladin may gain a bonus feat in place of a special ability.

I think this gives more power to the paladins at higher levels, and allows them to be more diverse among themselves (less paladins will look alike). In all other regards I would keep it as the 3.5 paladin.

Technik

 

[reapersaurus]

Favored Enemy is a really crappy mechanic IMO to simulate someone being good against some things, and not against others.
Favored Enemy is so granular, you could go 10 combats and use it on 2 rolls.
And the bonus is really weak even if you get to use it.
Paladins kinda have a favored enemy: EVil currently....