Paladins and granted powers

[Jhaelen]

I don't recalling anyone saying that paladins will have to select a deity at all.

Yup. I'd strongly dislike if choice of a deity (if the paladin chooses to choose one) affected any abilities.
For me that's one of the best ways to draw a line between clerics and paladins: Let clerics be strongly affected by their choice of deity and paladins not at all. Imho, Paladins work better if they represent a moral codex of some kind that is not bound to a particular faith.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Do you think paladin's will now differ according to the deity they select?

No, I don't think they will. Essentially it would be likely to be hardcoding class features against a set of deities (and what happens when you want to integrate paladins into FR, Eberron or your favourite homebrew with a different deity set?)

OTOH I imagine it could prove fertile ground for cheap PDF published supplements by third parties...

 

[Stogoe]

I would actually like it if Divine power source classes had to, you know, choose a Deity to get its powers from. Divine-powered champions without a Divine patron seem, well, silly to me. Nonmagical codes of honor shouldn't grant Divine power.

 

[JohnSnow]

No, I don't think they will. Essentially it would be likely to be hardcoding class features against a set of deities (and what happens when you want to integrate paladins into FR, Eberron or your favourite homebrew with a different deity set?)

OTOH I imagine it could prove fertile ground for cheap PDF published supplements by third parties...

I imagine it will be entirely possible to flavor your paladin differently by choosing the appropriate at-will, per-encounter, and per-day powers. Different abilities will carry a different flavor, such that perhaps the paladin dedicated to a protective deity takes more healing or shielding powers, whereas the paladin dedicated to the god of war might take more offensive ones.

I seriously doubt your abilities will be strictly determined by your choice of deity, but I'm pretty sure it'll be possible for you to choose powers that better reflect that choice.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I agree that giving powers out to clerics or paladins iaw deity would tie in too much with the POL campaign.
But I really like the idea that each faith is different and if you are of a faith you should get the same spell list no matter what class you are, these are powers granted by your god. So I think that all of a priestly type spell casters powers and spells should come from the 4E equivalent of domains. domains can carry across to any campaign and they make different churches/faiths etc much more flavourful. I am not talking the small lists of spells in 3E but dividing up all powers that any divine pwer source user can get into domain areas. For example this should include turning undead, why should a priest of a god of agriculture or romance turn undead?
Obviously this system works best in campaigns where there are only a few gods, unless you want to make lots of domains so the priest are differentiated; not really for FR!

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I think that paladins will differentiate themselves primarily in the talents and feats that they select. In theory, a paladin's player could select his talents (and feats) to reflect his choice of deity (assuming that paladins do or can serve a specific deity).

later
silver

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I think the idea has alot of merit, and I did not particularly like the generic clerics or paladins. What I would like to see is to tie both classes to a concept like domains that provide a different mechanical flavour.

By using domain granted powers, you can provide setting specific ties to pantheons/dieties. without cluttering up the core rules with setting specific fluff.

Preferably the domains would also heavily influence the clerics spell list, but thats another thread

 

[Sitara]

No, I don't think they will. Essentially it would be likely to be hardcoding class features against a set of deities (and what happens when you want to integrate paladins into FR, Eberron or your favourite homebrew with a different deity set?)

OTOH I imagine it could prove fertile ground for cheap PDF published supplements by third parties...

Umm how did you integrate 3E clerics and their domains into FR, eberron, your faveorite homebrew etc?

Well thats you answer. It would work the same way. Heck for homebrew's you could pick and choose whichever powers you like and tack them onto the deities in your homebrew.

So for example, Tiamat's 'Scorching Steel' could now be a granted power of Hades in your campaign world.

Basically I don't want hardocded or anything, just a set of powers that are domain/portfolio (or their equivalent) and/or deity specific. i want a paladin of bahamut and a paladin of tiamat to be mechanically different* damnit, and I want that difference to be kickass cool and ultra-awesome!

*By different I don't mean choosing different feats/talents/maneuvers. I mean different because of the deity/domain/porfolio/ethos of that paladin.


Lastly I think my earlier suggestion is not a bad idea; that is, Clerics get different spells (aka powers and rituals) depending on the domain/deity/ethos they select. Kind of like 2E spheres, and 3E domain spells. They don't get granted powers however (power refers to the 3E domain powers like destruction, strength, etc) paladin OTOH don't get spells/rituals or their equivalent (they can multiclass if they want 'em) but instead they get the granted powers, and these powers are much improved and funner versions of 3E. (in 3E doain powers were pretty weak in that most were usable only once per day. The clerics got so much else so it did not really mater though)