Paladin variants

[arscott]

iirc there are some paladin variants in unearthed arcana, although i dont have the book so I cant tell anything other than maybe take a glance next time you're at the book store.

In addition to the alignment variants Li mentions above, UA has a 15 level paladin prestige class. Unfortunately, it's just as top heavy, it just delays min/maxing till level 6. Even Worse, rather than having it's own spells it continues cleric advancement at every other level, so not only do you have the problem of fighters taking a few levels of paladin, now clerics can do it too. The best paladin variant I've seen (although admittedly I don't seek them out) is the Paladin Warrior, a ten level PrC from the Warcraft RPG by Sword and Sorcery. It's a little setting specific (both in the requirements and in the fact that it's abilities function against undead and outsiders specifically rather than evil in general), but that can be modified without much fuss. Here's the ability breakdown:

1st: Lay on hands, detect outsiders, detect undead, turn outsiders/undead
2nd: Aura of courage
3rd: Smite Undead/Outsider
4th: Divine Health, remove disease 1/day
5th: Divine Grace
6th: Greater Turning, smite 2/day
7th: Extra Turning
8th: Banishing Strike 1/day
9th: Smite 3/day
10th: Power turning

edit. Oops, I initially omitted the word other in the third sentence.

 

[Li Shenron]

So, any good links or tips of what to replace spells and remove disease with?

Making a Paladin class without the spells is actually much much easier than making one MORE oriented to spells.

In the thread about a spell-less Ranger I suggested the Rokugan version, which I think can be just as well used for the Paladin: at each level the Ranger/Paladin would get a new level of spells, he instead gets a bonus feat.

That means a total of 4 bonus feats in the span of 20 levels.

For flavor I would restrict the bonus feats to either combat feats (as the fighter list, minus the fighter-only ones) or divine feats including Extra Turning. If you prefer something slightly more complicated, you can write your favourite bonus feats list.

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Remove Disease is very hard to replace. Basically it's a less-than-1/day ability which later turns into a more-than-1/day ability (once it gets to 2+/week you're more likely to use it on multiple targets). But diseases are typically less common than most of the other threats. I think it's more there for flavor or occasional circumstances.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

In addition to the alignment variants Li mentions above, UA has a 15 level paladin prestige class. Unfortunately, it's just as top heavy, it just delays min/maxing till level 6. Even Worse, rather than having it's own spells it continues cleric advancement at every level, so not only do you have the problem of fighters taking a few levels of paladin, now clerics can do it too.

Yep, that's a seriously broken PrC after taking 6 straight cleric levels (instead of the Ftr-Clr multiclass it's really designed for). And even though the spellcasting increase is every other class level, it's every odd-numbered level (1st, 3rd, 5th etc.). And don't forget the PrC grants turn undead from 1st level - which stacks with your cleric levels. Nope, just fix the paladin base class (I personally like my fixes, but then I would, wouldn't I?).

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Szatany]

Does anyone know of a good variant paladin, because I think the one in the core book (3.5) is too frontloaded. I am looking for something with more abilities throughout, maybe less Remove Disease and no spells?

So, any good links or tips of what to replace spells and remove disease with?

I am also interested in any house rules, or similar classes like a Knight or Cavalier.

I know a few:
New revised paladin by Jaerom Darkwind
Ultimate paladin by me
Ultimate knight also by me

Have fun.

 

[kolvar]

And than there are
- Call of Duty (I am not sure here) (pdf)
- Book of Hallowed Might (one variant)
- Forgotten Heroes: Paladin (I think somewhere around 10 variants)(pdf)
- Quintessential Paladin II (Multiclassing ideas)
- Take a look at Character Customization (pdf). should be easy to create one.