A Different Paladin

[Kaji]

Make sure you're looking at the Champion class from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved. It's easy to mixup that title with WotC's Unearthed Arcana. The Champion class is extremely flexible compared to the Paladin. I think it's a great Paladin replacement.

--sam

Ah, I don't have that title, and was not going to purchase it. (Although I can always be swayed...). Can anyone post a few more details on this if they have it handy?

 

[EricNoah]

You can also just homebrew some substitutions.

Remove the paladin's mount and replace with ... the ability to turn undead as a cleric of the same level (instead of level - 3)?

Or take Turn Undead and replace with Turn Outsider for more of a demon/devil slaying type of paladin?

Or modify Lay on Hands so maybe the paladin can swap out, say, 8 hp of healing for 1 point of ability damage healing?

 

[Kaji]

One Idea

Taking Hong's idea and putting a feat in every 4 levels, here's is one proposal:

(The feats listed below are, to the best of my knowledge, Open Content. In case they are not, I've hacked them down to the minimum required to make my point, the full rules and text contained in their respective sources...)

1st Devout Faith [Blessed]
No more than once per day, for up to 10 rounds, you gain the effects of a bless spell...
--A paladin in good standing should have no problem here.

4th A paladin must take on of the following Vows:
Vow of Chastity [Blessed]
You pledge not to engage in any kind of sexual activity, and in return you gain resistance to disease and poison, for there is purity in chastity.

Vow of Fidelity [Blessed]
You pledge to be true to your allies, and in return you gain a resistance to charms and compulsions that might otherwise cause you to be untrue.

Vow of Obedience [Blessed]
You pledge to obey any superior figure in your church, and in return gain renewed vigor, for there is solace in obedience.

Vow of Poverty [Blessed]
You pledge not to own very much property, and in return you gain new insight into the ways of people.

Vow of Silence [Blessed]
You pledge not to make a sound, and in return you gain new insight, for there is wisdom in silence.

8th Level
Choose one of the following feats:
Divine Cleansing [Divine]
You can channel energy to improve your allies' ability to resist poison and curses.

Divine Resistance [Divine]
You can channel energy to temporarily reduce damage you and your allies take from some sources.

Divine Might [Divine]
You can channel energy to increase the damage you deal in combat.

Divine Shield [Divine]
You can channel energy to make your shield more effective for either offense or defense.

Divine Vengeance [Divine]
You can channel energy to deal additional damage against undead in melee.

Divine Vigor [Divine]
You can channel energy to increase your speed and Constitution.

12th Level
Choose One of the Follwoing Feats:
Call Down Divine Wrath [Blessed]
You ask for your deity’s intervention, and she responds with retribution upon your enemies.

Redeeming Grace [Blessed]
You ask for your deity’s intervention, and he responds with cleansing power.

Empower Turning [Special]
You can turn or rebuke more undead with a single turning attempt.

Extra Smiting [Special]
You can make more smite attacks.

Heighten Turning [Special]
You can affect more powerful undead with your turning or rebuking attempts.

Quicken Turning [Special]
You can turn or rebuke undead with a moment’s thought.

16th Level
You gain the Swear an Oath feat for free. You make now take one of the follwoing feats:
Oath of Combat [Oath]
You swear an oath to accomplish a task, and you gain prowess in combat while undertaking that task.

Oath of Fealty [Oath]
You swear an oath to serve a particular individual.

20th Level
I ran out of cool option. Maybe any lower level ability that has not yet been taken?

Does this allow for enough variety while still keeping a certain "feel" for the holiness of the paladin?

 

[Whimsical]

Here's some more info on the Champion:

From Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed design diary: Build a Better Fighter

The Champion: This is the archetypal hero. Every champion has a cause, and they gain supernatural abilities when defending or forwarding that cause. Every champion is different, however, since their abilities depend in part on their cause. There are champions of life, champions of death, champions of freedom, and so on. Some have far more specific causes, championing a certain race, locale, or even a person. The king's champion, for example, gains abilities in furthering the king's wishes, protecting the king, and so on.

 

[Voadam]

That might work in a general way, but I'd like to maintain the "holy" factor, and this approach seems to create a fighter with detect evil, cure disease, and smite evil. Maybe if I create a list of feats to choose from, and not just any old feats? There's a ton of great stuff for this in BoXD, maybe Book of Hallowed Might from Malhavoc. I'll start looking around and post any results I divine (ha ha, clever pun. I hate puns.)

Instead of fighter feats have them required to be divine feats (that use a turning use) exalted feats (for the good aspect) or anything that interacts with the paladin class abilities.

Forgotten Heros Paladins and Call of Duty (3rd party pdf paladin products) both have great paladin appropriate feats in them.

 

[Runesong42]

IIRC, there was some sort of 10-level prestige class in the back of Deities and Demigods that was your typical Champion of Light. Not sure if they got Divine spells or not, but they got the ability to Turn Undead and channel that into special evil-smiting abilities. You could try modelling your Hero after that.

Also, you COULD just change their Divine spell list into Arcane spells. Just hand-pick a few that matches the theme of the Hero you're trying to create. Limit the spells to one school, perhaps...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

IIRC, there was some sort of 10-level prestige class in the back of Deities and Demigods that was your typical Champion of Light.

Yup, it is in there...page 208.

 

[FireLance]

Check out the Oathsworn Paladin in my sig. It ties paladin abilities to various oaths, and you can get very different paladins by selecting different oaths. If you don't want a spellcasting paladin, don't take the Oath of Faith.