Lord Pendragon said:
Isn't the epic version of the paladin...just more of the same? I'm not too familiar with the epic rules.
While it's true that many paladin abilities increase with level, many of them are also unimpressive. By 20th-level an extra five or six points of lay on hands and another 1 point of smite damage are simply underwhelming.
I don't know... It's a 5th smite per day and 1 point on all the other smites. So that's really 24 points of smite damage per day--or 72 points of smite damage per day if you're spirited charging. However, I think you're right that the one level of paladin's smite, lay on hands, etc isn't that impressive. However, there's not much more impressive that the paladin could grab with just one level, so the proper comparison is Pal 20 to Pal 20-X/Something else X. (And I think that the Pal 20 stands up pretty well for most Xes.) The bigger X is, the less effective smiting usually is.
I'd take a PrC with my current pally, but I haven't found any PrCs that are a good fit for the pally, mechanically or flavorwise.
Paladin (and really every class except fighter, sorcerer, and maybe wizard) is a package deal mechanically. Paladins are a full BAB, d10 class plus smite, lay on hands, mount progression, turn undead, and spells. There are prestige classes that give three or four out of that list, but no prestige class that advances the whole package. For instance, a pious templar gets the d10hp, full BAB, (slightly better) smite progression, and (slightly better) spell progression but misses out on mount progression, turn undead, and lay on hands. Hospitaller gets full BAB, and lay on hands, partial turning progression (IIRC) and partial spell progression but misses out on smite progression and mount progression. Cavalier, Halfling Outrider, and Wild Plains Outrider all give mount progression but miss out on spells, smites, lay on hands, and turn undead. Taking a prestige class with a paladin is really picking a part of the package to focus on and losing the rest for some other package. If you want the full paladin package, you need to play a paladin.
Interestingly, it's the same for a rogue. There are classes that advance sneak attack, classes with disable device and search as class skills and classes with 8 skill points a level. If there are any classes with the full rogue package though, I didn't see them when I was looking for a prestige class for my cohort. She would have had to give up sneak attack for skill focussed abilities or skills for combat abilities to take any of the prestige classes I saw.
