D&D 5E Should the Paladin be changed into a more generic half-caster magic knight?

[DarkCrisis]

I'd love to tell you how dumb I think a Paladin is just a guy who can super serious mean what he says and get powers from thin air BUT TSR already did that with Clerics an eon ago. So, I can't.

 

[WanderingMystic]

So I could see some type of arcane path for your paladin. I don't particularly feel like they are tied with divine thematically anymore just with their spell selection.

 

[Yaarel]

The Paladin is a versatile class that can handle many character concepts.

At the same time, the Paladin remains highly Celestial, Astral.

The magic of the oath is linguistic, drawing from the paradigms, ideals, concepts, structures, symbols, and archetypes that the thoughtstuff of the Astral Plane is made out of.

 

[Krachek]

I think the class is already that.
Oath of vengeance and conquest are far from the round table.

 

[Charlaquin]

Is D&D supposed to be super generic or is it supposed to have an identity of some sort?

It has to walk a fine line, because part of maintaining D&D’s market dominance is selling the promise of a big tent system that can handle whatever you might want to use it for, but it also needs to “feel like D&D,” or the general reception to 4e happens. So, it needs to have enough of an identity to keep that nebulous D&D feel, but also be generic enough that you can easily file the serial numbers off of it if you want to.

 

[Vael]

No, the name Paladin still has some cachet, I think 5e struck the right balance of flexibility for different settings while still feeling like a Paladin.

I do worry that the Paladin does make design of other gish-esque classes tricky because it clearly stakes out its design space, I wouldn't want a Mageknight/Swordmage class with Divine Arcane Smite spells. But, tbh, I think that's a good challenge for said designers.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Honestly I could see artificer pulling it off if the class wasn't basically abandoned. Its subclasses are perhaps the most impactful in the game, and each almost feels like a different class.

An artificer which crafts a magical weapon, and then has a series of 'strikes' as its signature ability (like the arcane archer shots), would feel more like a proper swordmage than anything currently in game.

honestly i wouldn't mind this approach, just so long as they didn't half-ass the attempt, you could give them an infusion that just makes a weapon do [energy type] damage instead of it's BSP

 

[MGibster]

It has to walk a fine line, because part of maintaining D&D’s market dominance is selling the promise of a big tent system that can handle whatever you might want to use it for, but it also needs to “feel like D&D,” or the general reception to 4e happens. So, it needs to have enough of an identity to keep that nebulous D&D feel, but also be generic enough that you can easily file the serial numbers off of it if you want to.

Has D&D ever promised players the game could handle whatever we might want to use it for? I came to the conclusion back in 1990-1991 that AD&D couldn't handle whatever I might want to use it for after I tried to adapt Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I gave it some thought and marveled at how unlike almost every fantasy book or movie I had ever read up until that time D&D was. D&D has always been distinctly D&D.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I think the class is already that.
Oath of vengeance and conquest are far from the round table.

but not from the will of the divine.
arcane would be less a warrior of god than a magic soldier

No, the name Paladin still has some cachet, I think 5e struck the right balance of flexibility for different settings while still feeling like a Paladin.

I do worry that the Paladin does make design of other gish-esque classes tricky because it clearly stakes out its design space, I wouldn't want a Mageknight/Swordmage class with Divine Arcane Smite spells. But, tbh, I think that's a good challenge for said designers.

you make it have something to replace the healing and be more strategic than the paladin that can nova really fast, a fight smarter not harder version.
thematics is the hard part

 

[Charlaquin]

Has D&D ever promised players the game could handle whatever we might want to use it for?

Explicitly promised? No. Heavily implied? I think the official Rick and Morty tie-in product speaks for itself there.