D&D 5E Class Design Poll: the Paladin

[mlund]

Give the Paladin "Faith Points" he can use to invoke blessings that perform various functions outside of "I hit it with my longsword for 1d8 + Expertise Dice damage." Faith Points could power Smite, Lay On Hands, and the various Divine Powers a Paladin might receive.

Everyone could get "Smite Infidel" and the general expanding laundry list of immunity abilities that sack up over the levels (fear, charm, disease, etc.). Then each of the other powers could be associated with one or more virtues. For example, Lay On Hands could associate with Justice and Sacrifice, while something like Crippling Touch might stem from Pain or Tyranny. You could have a power like Subjugating Smite (perhaps dominate or stun the one who was smote) that's tied to Justice and Tyranny, and something like Shared Burden (dividing damage suffered in half between yourself an another) for Sacrifice and Pain.

I'd really like to see a mechanical system where what a paladin believes in manifests itself in what he does as a character. Also, "fallen" kind of goes hand-in-hand with this. If a Paladin breaks faith with his Code he has nothing to drive his powers. He's a Fighter without the cool maneuvers - which is also a D&D Tradition, come to think about it.

"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2:26

- Marty Lund

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Interesting results so far - looks like a majority actually prefer the "expertise + spells + extra stuff" approach the designers are taking, rather than a more unified mechanic. And very few people seem to want JUST spells or JUST maneuvers.

I wonder how those paladin spells will play out... none until 5th level or so, like 3e? I'd hope not. Spell points? Vancian? Adjustable (like mainline casters)?

 

[Loonook]

Interesting results so far - looks like a majority actually prefer the "expertise + spells + extra stuff" approach the designers are taking, rather than a more unified mechanic. And very few people seem to want JUST spells or JUST maneuvers.

I wonder how those paladin spells will play out... none until 5th level or so, like 3e? I'd hope not. Spell points? Vancian? Adjustable (like mainline casters)?

I just want a Paladin who can walk in and slay for their beliefs or deity. I don't need a mount, I don't need to cast a bunch of meh effective spells. I want to be able to speak a prayer, then kick in a door and cause problems.

Of course, my favorite Paladin was a Barbarian... So I guess that may be the translation error.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I'd like a paladin distinct enough from both the fighter and the cleric that a multiclass fighter-paladin or paladin-cleric or fighter-cleric are all at least somewhat different from each other and the three antecedents. That is, the flavor and concept can overlap, but there should be at least a narrow sweet spot of concepts where you say, "If you want that, you need to do this mix here."

There are a bunch of ways to do that, not least by how you separate the three classes. I think that a paladin that casts no spells and a cleric that is rarely all that hot at melee is a good and obvious way to reserve room for the inbetween concepts as multiclasses, but there are other ways to skin that cat. It's the results that matter to me, not the particular method.

 

[Starfox]

Bottom line is that this is a class-design problem. Because we have a class system, each of us cannot create our own preferred mix of saint and warrior.

My thought here is that a good multiclass system would make the Paladin obsolete - just mix desired quantities of holy (cleric/divine) and badass (fighter/martial).