putting a new spin on the ol'Paladin

[Bean 2.0]

OK

What if the paladin was ditched as a class and replaced with the fighter/shaman (the oriental adventures version). The way i see this means you could get more customization of paladin characters and you could get interesting twists on the theme.

Of course you might want to replace the Shamans improved unarmed strike with mounted combat and say instead of unarmed fighting feats he can get bonus mounted feats

 

[las]

bean you and your ideas.

 

[Bean 2.0]

at least its not another race still working on the arathan

how about some real feed back

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

I've personally always been in favor of doing away with the paladin class.

Most people choose to replace it with a PrC though.

I suppose that making it a class combo of Fighter and a Divine class could also possibly, in some campaigns,be acceptable.

Of course my group has a different philosophy on the issue entirely. We left the paladin class alone, but whenever a player joins our group and wants to play one we go ahead and kick him (or her) out for unsportsman like conduct. (We found that it just saves time in the long run. Who wants to play with the kind of person that can enjoy playing a paladin anyway?)

 

[Bean 2.0]

do you at least warn them what if their new to the game?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

The warning is usually, "But wouldn't it be fun if your character could [insert class ability from any non-paladin class]."

After all, the problem that we have isn't that Paladin class, or even people playing Paladins. The problem we have is with the kind of person who enjoys playing a paladin.

Even mild interest in playing a paladin is acceptable, it's a player thoroughly enjoying a character that goes against everything that the rest of the party stands for that bothers us.

(For reference, out entire group plays just like a bunch of Rogues. We will frequently run from fights simply so we can ambush the stuff that attacked us... even if we could have taken them head on. 2/3 of the group has max ranks in Hide and MS, and 3/4 of the party has at least one level of Rogue.)

 

[Geoff Watson]

What's wrong with Paladins being sneaky?

IMC one of the past PCs was a Rogue/Paladin.

If you and your players are idiots who think that all paladins are stupid Dudley Do-Rights, that's their problem.

Geoff.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

If you and your players are idiots who think that all paladins are stupid Dudley Do-Rights, that's their problem.

That doesn't describe my group, and that isn't what I was trying to imply.

What I was trying to say was that, in every case that I have personally seen, whenever a player desperately wants to play a Paladin they end up playing a "stupid Dudley Do-Right." This is something that we can't stand as a group, and try to discourage in the strongest possible manner.

 

[Bean 2.0]

ok we're getting a little off topic here

i'd like to know is if this multiclass could take the place of paladins/blackguards and various other classes/prestige classes

1.) they would have better spells

2.) more feats

3.) easily customized (you could switch out the acceptable shaman bonus feats depending on the role such charachters play archer feats, defensive feats, fighting feats, etc.

also with the domains you could customize their spellcasting and get more and better spells

with different alignments, spells, abilities, domains, and skills you could have the same classes be protectes of temples to Immalter or the dark assasins of lolth

cool huh

 

[SylverFlame]

Personally, I'm in favor of keeping the class (even though I dispise it with a brutal passion that exceeds all bounds of reason and physics... but I digress).

My reasoning is this. Remove the alignment requirement, throw in a few "alterable abilities" (positive energy vs. negative energy, etc.) and boom, you have an all purpose holy warrior ready to pledge fealty and fanatacism to any deity you can put on the table.

In the campaign world I'm designing all paladins HAVE to have a god. They're holy warriors with divine powers for a reason. I feel that saying they "follow a philosophy of good" cheapens the class and limits them. Why can't an evil god have specialized warriors just like the goody too shoes out there? Limiting bad guys to evil priests, fighters and blackguards (a bloody PrC) is annoying.

Stick with the class and just make it a "Package" thing. Like a priest choosing positive or negative energy. If you want, you could even throw in a balancing power for those neutral fence-sitters (no offence, neutral is in fact one of my favorite alignments. So many possibilities); a few extra skills or something.

Well, that's my two cents. Of course, since I gave away those two cents I can't afford bus fare. Ew... guess I'm stuck in Crazy-ville.