Essentials Paladin/Cavalier??

[FreeTheSlaves]

Hi all,

The one big thing I want to hear is all about the upcoming Paladin/Cavalier. What do we know (or guess) about this??

My hope is a str/cha build with the bad case of MAD finally cured. Seriously, the Paladin has been needing stats stretched everywhere since go. Beats me how they're going to distinguish from the Knight though... Maybe they'll be an iron wall tag team?

 

[mkill]

I'm not aware of any official scoops. However, we can infer a few things from cleric, fighter and the published material.

It's clear that Divine Challenge will see a rewrite. I'd prefer to see Defender Aura rather than a mark on the Cavalier, that way Essentials DMs don't have to worry about different Defender mechanisms.

It's possible that we see "Smite Evil" (w/o alignment rules) as a default encounter power.

No implement powers.

No split main stat. I'm not sure what stat pair they'll go for, but with the Dragonborn in the book Str primary Cha secondary is possible.

Lay on Hands is hopefully an Encounter power.

No Divine Channeling.

 

[AngryMojo]

I think it'll be a defender version of the Warpriest build. Most likely it'll have the at-will/encounter/daily structure we all know and love, but encounters will depend on your domain, similar to clerics.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I guess the paladin will have a marking mechanism like divine challenge.

Noone complained about the paladin´s mark... only the fighter one was not received very well...

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I'm really looking forward to this, too. I'm hoping it'll be Cha Primary, Str (or Con) secondary.

I don't know what they'll do regarding paladin marking, but it it's anything like the knight it'll be a "mark without marking" thing. Perhaps, once per turn, paladins can apply divine sanction damage to enemies within a close burst 1 that attack the paladin's allies?

 

[Ahrimon]

My money is on Str primary. Essentials is more old school, so it makes sense.

It would be cool to get another heavily armored striker, but it'll probably be a defender.

 

[AngryMojo]

It would be cool to get another heavily armored striker, but it'll probably be a defender.

It was stated as a defender in the first Heroes book IIRC.

 

[drothgery]

My money is on Str primary. Essentials is more old school, so it makes sense.

Huh? Old-school Paladins had to have a 17 Cha. The dice had to be really with you for that not to be your best stat.

 

[Ahrimon]

Huh? Old-school Paladins had to have a 17 Cha. The dice had to be really with you for that not to be your best stat.

True, but cha didn't affect your attacks. That was all str. I don't remember cha having much more of an affect on the character besides the #hp for LoH in 3.X. Which would support Str primary and Cha secondary for 4e.

 

[Shazbot79]

I could see a version that looks a lot like the Knight class, without dailies or what have you.

Maybe the Cavalier will have an encounter-based damage booster, similar to the martial classes called "smite foe" or something. They might tie this to domains and such. Maybe have a thundering smite for storm domain and a radiant smite for sun.

One thing I don't want to see is a mount dependent class...I know that the shining knight mounted on a charger is a standard archetype of the fantasy genre and D&D, but still I don't want to see any classes that can't use their main schtick if they're on a pirate ship or in a dungeon.

Having a daily or encounter utility where the paladin summons a celestial mount? Awesome!

Making all of their class features based upon riding a horse? Not so much.