Essentials Paladin (Sentinel) is up

[captainspud]

Sure, but at that point in his training/career, he's not a cavalier.

 

[tuxgeo]

Here's the Compendium Entry:
PALADINS AND DEITIES
As fervent crusaders in their chosen cause, paladins must choose a deity. Paladins choose a specific faith to serve, as well as an alignment. You must choose an alignment identical to the alignment of your patron deity; a paladin of a good deity must be good, a paladin of a lawful good deity must be lawful good, and a paladin of an unaligned deity must be unaligned. Evil and chaotic evil paladins do exist in the world, but they are almost always villains, not player characters.

And now the new Cavalier departs from that:

A cavalier is a paladin who has embraced one of the heroic virtues, such as Compassion, Justice, Sacrifice, or Valor. His or her belief in this virtue is so strong that it manifests as divine magic. Although many cavaliers pledge their faith to the gods, others follow no specific religion. Regardless of one’s divine affiliation (or lack thereof), a cavalier’s virtue stands paramount.

So, suddenly, we can have a Paladin of an impersonal concept again.

And they no longer are required to take training in the Religion skill, either.

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

BTW the cavalier seems to be missing encounters power and gains special powers instead (Holy smite, Righteous shield) and probably one of the other powers is similar to a daily power

furthermore each Cavalier of Valor can fall in its opposite Vice and became a blackguard (a Cavalier of Justice will become a Blackguard of Tyranny, a cavalier of Sacrifice a Blackguard of greed....

compassion -> fury
justice -> tyranny
sacrifice -> greed
valor -> terror

I am liking it

 

[FireLance]

Was anybody else surprised to see his class features not including a mount by default (even if it popped up at a later level)? The word "cavalier" kind of implies cavalry, no?

Perhaps the original meaning of the word was cavalierly ignored?

In any case, I've heard that all you need to be a cavalier is a nifty magic shield of invulnerability.

 

[Alabast]

Why isn't the cavalier Martial and Divine, like we saw for the essentials ranger? I was sure it would be both especially after reading "Paladins are well trained with their weapons and armor, but they augment that skill with divine powers that allow them to shield their allies and smite their enemies." Well, on second thought, 'well trained with their weapons and armor' could be said of nearly any class regardless of power source, but I figured the Primal/Martial 'hybrid' ranger was going to set a precedent for the paladin.

Also, we don't know how Paladins punish enemies violating the Defender's Aura, right?

If I'm remembering right, the Essentials Ranger's attack powers are simply Martial, they don't have any Supernatural quality, at least in the fluff. It's their utilities (some of them, at least) that seem to be invocations of primal magic.

I would guess that every Paladin power has some sort of holy radiance/divine energy fluff attached to it, so that none of his powers are strictly martial. That's why he's stritcly a divine character. Plus, If he did have a strictly martial power, then there's no good reason a Knight couldn't use it.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I do think the cavalier pops more than the 4e paladin, but I will need some time to come to a decision on whether or not I like it.

One thing that does make me go "bwuh?" is that paladins of sacrifice must be lawful good. Does Ilmater, the "merely" Good Forgotten Realms god of suffering, freedom, and hope - the poster boy for ascetic living and sacrifice - lack the requisite level of honor?

I can buy unaligned cavaliers not being so selfless, but why not Good deities? Do Pelor and Avandra not have the chutzpah to sacrifice themselves for goodness and/or freedom?

 

[Jack99]

I do think the cavalier pops more than the 4e paladin, but I will need some time to come to a decision on whether or not I like it.

One thing that does make me go "bwuh?" is that paladins of sacrifice must be lawful good. Does Ilmater, the "merely" Good Forgotten Realms god of suffering, freedom, and hope - the poster boy for ascetic living and sacrifice - lack the requisite level of honor?

I can buy unaligned cavaliers not being so selfless, but why not Good deities? Do Pelor and Avandra not have the chutzpah to sacrifice themselves for goodness and/or freedom?

It's simple. Ilmater should have been LG.. Wait, now that I think of it, wasn't Ilmater LG originally?

 

[Pseudopsyche]

One thing that does make me go "bwuh?" is that paladins of sacrifice must be lawful good. Does Ilmater, the "merely" Good Forgotten Realms god of suffering, freedom, and hope - the poster boy for ascetic living and sacrifice - lack the requisite level of honor?

Interesting point. It makes me curious about the historic rationale for requiring all paladins to be lawful good. Why must a hero and champion be lawful?

But to be honest, the requirement never struck me as odd back then, so I don't see why it should strike me as so odd now. And I don't see why a paladin with the virtue of sacrifice can't pray to Ilmater and also be lawful good.

 

[Shin Okada]

It seems that not just Fighter (Knight) but other Essentials defenders have Defender Aura instead of marking. I think this is a good move.

What will be the "method of punishment" of Cavalier, then?

Will they be some kind of automatic damage like Divine Challenge/Sanction?

 

[the Jester]

Interesting point. It makes me curious about the historic rationale for requiring all paladins to be lawful good. Why must a hero and champion be lawful?

The model for the traditional D&D paladin is Sir Galahad, whose purity and devotion to God let him heal at a touch and remove disease.