D&D 5E Should the Paladin be changed into a more generic half-caster magic knight?

[Gladius Legis]

Absolutely not.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I realize I am a dinosaur. Its ok. My kids laugh at me daily!

That out of the way…

Part of the depth of D&D for me is its historical and mythological correlates. I like clerics to devote themselves to a divine power. Generally gods but I am ok with powerful entities of other sorts at times.

I like that they had restrictions and oddities.

Not question for me—-I like a Paladin to be a knight of some kind. Regardless of alignment…

I still appreciate the notion of a holy warrior or a dark evil knight falling from grace…

 

[DammitVictor]

No. D&D classes need to be more and narrower, not broadened even further.

 

[Stormonu]

Wouldn't this be for the most part be the Fighter Eldritch Knight? All it lacks is the smite, I suppose that could be done with a 1-2 level dip into paladin (thus not needing to take the oath)?

 

[Shardstone]

I don't know who necro'd this thread or why but I curse you and I curse everyone who has posted in this long-dead place too.

 

[FarBeyondC]

I don't know who necro'd this thread or why but I curse you and I curse everyone who has posted in this long-dead place too.

Three months isn't anywhere near long enough to warrant this level of response.

Anyway, I personally feel that Warlock can better fulfill the generic half-caster magic knight shtick than Paladin.

 

[Umbran]

This sounds to me like, "Should they make the class itself less flavorful, so that other subclasses could exist?"

My first impression answer to that it wouldn't be the best idea. Leave that to someone else, rather than change the PHB class.

 

[steeldragons]

...a MORE generic half-caster magic knight???

 

[Frozen_Heart]

honestly i wouldn't mind this approach, just so long as they didn't half-ass the attempt, you could give them an infusion that just makes a weapon do [energy type] damage instead of it's BSP

(And as long as they didn't force it into being a pet class somehow)

 

[Frozen_Heart]

No, the name Paladin still has some cachet, I think 5e struck the right balance of flexibility for different settings while still feeling like a Paladin.

I do worry that the Paladin does make design of other gish-esque classes tricky because it clearly stakes out its design space, I wouldn't want a Mageknight/Swordmage class with Divine Arcane Smite spells. But, tbh, I think that's a good challenge for said designers.

Yeah this is a major problem with the design space. In prior editions and pathfinder, it's the arcane gish who applies magic damage and effects through weapon strikes. While the paladin divine smite was a lot more narrow and limited "Add X radiant damage"

But this who niche is now on the Paladin, but also that means it comes with Paladin's narrow and baked in flavour too.

Which is a huge part of why the arcane gish class topic is so contentious.