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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2010032" data-attributes="member: 9860">This is not a playtest review.The Quintessential Guide To Paladins is the twelfth in Mongoose's class guides covering standard and new core classes.The Quintessential Guide To Paladins is a 128-page mono softcover product costing $19.95. Margins, font size and space usage are all fairly standard. Art runs from average to good, but does seem particularly gloomy when depicting paladins - they all look like blackguards to me. Writing style is good, as is editing.Chapter 1: Character ConceptsCharacter concepts begin every Quintessential guide and this one is no different with a variety of basic roleplaying hooks for paladins with some minor game effects:* Appointed - visions give this paladin holy missions and signs from her god point her in the right direction at the cost of a small temporary penalty to Will saves.* Avenger - having suffered at the hands of evil, this paladin seeks vengeance gaining a bonus against the creature type who caused her original suffering but is also plagued by nightmares which interfere with regaining spells and abilities on occasions.* Child Of Legend - destined for greatness, gains Leadership at 1st level, but suffers in combat until he wields a magical or holy weapon and cannot heal himself with lay on hands ability.* Crusader - crusading paladin who benefits and suffers from a permanent detct evil ability that can cause paranoia.* Emissary - celestial born into mortal flesh with advantages and disadvantages to match.* Idealist - strong belief in good that affects smite ability* Innocent - pure of heart, stronger in spellcasting but weak in reading others* Knight-Errant - archetypal adventuring knight with help from folk of the land bu lesser spellcasting ability.* Mystery - physical embodiment of an ideal or saviour of the people with domain access and have limited charismatic bonuses.* Paragon - righteous idealist with extended aura of courage abilities but less healing abilities.* Penitent - a dark past gives this paldin zeal and knowledge when fighting evil, at the cost of some of his paladin sacred abilities.* Questor - devotion to a quest gives this paldin bonuses to follow her oath but penalties when not pursuing the quest.* Former Squire - worked for paladin as a squire and gained advantages from this learning but has temporary penalty to initiative for first few levels when strikes out on own.Chapter 2: The Prestige PaladinThis chapter offers a number of prestige classes that can be taken by paladins without restricting their advancement as paladins:* Arcane Champion - 5-level PrC using arcane spells and wielding an arcane weapon.* Champion Of The Deep - 5-level underground fighting specialist* Demon Hunter - 10-level hunter of outsiders with ability to turn outsiders, advanced smite evil abilities, banishment ability, and holy weapon.* Justicar - 5-level royal keeper of the peace with judging abilities.* Knight Templar - 10-level secret paladin/priesthood order with knowledge abilities and own spell list.* Lord Protector - noble who concentrates on protecting his lands. 5-level PrC.* Martyr - 5-level PrC with the ability to take others pain and stay standing below 0 hit points.* Revolutionary - 5-level PrC who rallies the populace against an evil ruler.* Sacred Smith - 5-level PrC who makes holy weapons.* Shadow Champion - fights evil with guerilla tactics and has own spell list. 10-level PrC.* Sovereign King - archetypal king at one with his land and people. 5-level PrC.* Zealot - 5-level PrC holy warriors dedicated to a cause.Chapter 3: Tricks Of The TradeThis chapter begins with a detailed look at mounted combat with some DCs for various riding tasks, and a number of mounted combat manoeuvres such as rearing attack and unseat rider (these have feat prerequisites and ride check DCs). Rules for expanding the uses of the paladin's detect evil ability come next, with ideas to use this ability to discern lies, pin-point location, and tracking evil. A section entitled 'The Power Of Faith' gives a simple set of rules for gaining Faith Points, which can then be used to call for divine intervention or to utter a combat prayer. The sections on divine intervention and combat prayers defines the extent to which the use of Faith Points can affect the game - these include deducting from the GM's rolls, divine protection to AC, and various new additional paladin abilities such as 'Bless My Blade' (+1 sacred bonus to damage rolls for the duration of the prayer) and 'Reveal My Enemies' (5% reduction on miss chance).  The next section looks at the oaths of paladins, with various severities and durations as well as consequences of breaking oaths. Bizarrely, some of the example oaths could actually cause undeath, something which I think most paladins would be fairly unhappy about. A simple 'until death' at the end of the oath would avoid this fate to my mind. Each oath has certain game advantages and disadvantages listed with it and includes such oaths as the Oath of Friendship, and the Oath Of Guardianship. Oaths also incur an XP cost dependent on their severity. Vows on the other hand are less game rule-related and more character-orientated, giving guidelines on how a paladin charcater might behave, such as the vow of mercy, vow of poverty, and vow of silence.Chapter 4: Paladin Feats25 new feats for paladins are included in this chapter, including various feats enhacing the use of armour and shields, and a few improved smiting feats.Chapter 5: Tools Of The PaladinContains some new ideas for weapons (e.g. barbed lance), weapon extras (e.g. ornate sword handle), armour and shields (e.g. jousting shield), armour extras (e.g. surcoat), piecemeal plate (for poor paladins), and equipment (e.g. banners, pennants and scabbards). Reliquaries are special holders for holy items that do not take up a limited space for magical items and can channel the effects of a magical item contained within. Paladins can also create Tokens of their vows and oaths that give them bonuses to die rolls or a re-roll on a dice by expending XP merged previously into the token. The chapter ends with some discussion on barding and saddles.Chapter 6: Holy WeaponsThis chapter begins with a discussion on creating items with Locked Power - item powers available only to certain classes, alignments, race, spellcasting ability, etc. Bonded weapons are weapons that the paladin has imbued with his own Wisdom, and can continue to develop this spark of soul in the weapon as he gains experience. The bonding increases the weapon's potency and there is a discussion regarding losing the weapon and severing the bond. The further development of the weapon can continue along three paths:* Relics are magical items that grow in power with the paladin, fueled by the paladin's XP.* A Bond Companion is a divine comrade imbued into the weapon, with a personality and limited intelligence.    * A custos is a weapon inhabited by a celestial with its own agenda (i.e. ego) and individuality, even gaining experience separately from the paladin. Various examples of custos are given, such as the Crusader custos and Fiendslayer custos, each with their own class features, skills, mental abilities, hit die, and goals.The chapter ends with some weapon special abilities, such as turning, parrying, and spellshatter (counters incoming spells).Chapter 7: Special MountsThe chapter begins by looking at advancing a paladin's special mount, before giving ideas for exotic mounts such as fey, constructs, dragons, and celestial creatures. There is a discussion of the roles that some mounts may take to aid the paladin combat, quests, or training - each mount develops varying abilities to suit their role.Chapter 8: Codes Of HonourThis chapter offers some guidelines on building a code of honour for a paladin or paladins in a game world, using tenets as a basis (such as 'Be generous', 'Be humble', etc. There is some discussion on different consequences if these tenets are broken and atoning for these acts. Four sample codes are given at the end of the chapter  - a code of piety, chivalry, the code of bushido, and the code of knightly virtue.Chapter 9: Champion Of A CauseThe paladin's aim is to fight evil and this makes a great basis for quests - the role of the quest in the life of a paladin is discussed in this chapter, and it uses Joseph Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' template to give guidelines for creating an effective quest. Various ideas for types of quests are also given. Another important aspect of a paladin's life might be adopting and following a cause, and various causes based on upholding the Law or fighting for Good are discussed. The chapter ends with some different takes on a paladin's patron, from deity to abstract forces such as justice.Chapter 10: Paladin MagicEleven new paladin spells such as hold evil, haste mount, and summon holy weapon.Chapter 11: ChapterhousesLooks at paladin orders and their bases, in terms of recruitment and authority levels, construction and structures of the chapterhouse itself, and staff. The chapter includes tables listing cost of construction and staff wages.After the designer's notes, the book finishes with tables of rules summaries, an index, and an extended paladin character sheet. Conclusion:The Quintessential Guide To Paladins is filled with plenty of creative ideas for detailing paladins, their role in a game world, and the items and powers that they use in their fight against evil. On the negative side, I ended up being a bit overwhelmed with all the impressively powerful additions this book offers to a paladin's armoury and GMs should beware adding  any more than one or two ideas into their game world from the book, at the risk of unbalancing the class. Where the book shines for me is in the concepts - a few of the character concepts (minus their in-game rules), one or two of the prestige classes (the demon hunter and knight templar), vows, a cut-down version of the bonded weapons, and the ideas for quests and causes. The numerous enhancements in terms of game rules to the power of the paladin (locked power weapons, divine intervention, combat prayers, oaths, and the feats and prestige classes that give a paladin the powers of other core classes without the restrictions inherent in the concept of the paladin) concerned me somewhat. Overall, a mixture of some interesting ideas with some over-powered game rules. Food for thought, but GMs beware.</blockquote>

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