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What DO you DO for... Paladins?

Jens

First Post
"arms and armour that increase in potential as the Paladin levels"... I don't have Weapons of Legacy but this makes me think of the "Ancestral Relic" feat in Book of Exalted Deeds. It basically allows the character to build a magical item of a value no greater than half suggested PC wealth (similar to buying the item). I think the cost should be lower, maybe like crafting, but something like that would fit pretty well, thanks for the idea :)

Edit: Corrected feat info
 
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Stormborn

Explorer
A Human Paladin I played, and I loved, replaced the Knowledge(nobility) skill with Survival, took Track as one of his first feats, and the took a War Dog rather than a horse as his "mount." - he was in a setting that contained a large swamp created by a black dragon his order was sworn to destroy. He would use his skills to track the dragon's minions and spawn through the swamp. He was of a dying order, villified for thier failures, and usually had a somewhat hagared and unkempt apperance. He was basically a Clint Eastwood western character as a Paladin.
 

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
PrC Spirit Champion (Savage Paladin) - The Spirit Champion is the chosen vessel of a beast spirit (Wolf, Lion, Boar, Shark, Velociraptor) whom the Champion carries into battle against others. The spirit endows their champion with power to benefit their allies and in return the Spirit is able to feed on the souls of the enemy (ie smite).
The Beast spirits are a group of Totem spirits including Wolf, Lion, Boar, Shark, Crocodile, Hawk and Velociraptor known to devour mortal life, they are often patrons of Warrior septs

Requirements
Spirit Champions must be Lawful in order to control the (usually chaotic) Spirit possessing them without going insane
BAB +4
Must have lead others into Battle
Leadership Feat (IMC Aristocrat class gets this at Lvl 1)

Class Ability changes As Paladin except:
Smite Opponent - Smite but not restricted by Alignment
Divine Boon (to replace Turn Undead*)- The Champion has a temporary +4 bonus to Str, Dex and Con which last for 3 + cha rounds
Sheild of Faith - At Level 9 the Champion gains DR 1/- rising every 2 levels to DR 5/-
Summon Totem Companion (Change Special Mount)- Summons an Animal Companion in accordance wih the Champions Totem (Wolf, Lion, Boar, Shark, Velociraptor etc)

* Corporeal undead are very rare IMC so Turn Undead isn't very useful but can be taken as a Feat (since Ghost still exist IMC)
 
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Zimbel16

First Post
Nyaricus said:
Do you use an alternative Paladin, some of the varients from UA, have your own version or alter the RAW one a bit? Gimme all you got guys and gals 'cause you know how much I love to tinker.

What DO you DO for Paladins??
I like the UA varients, but at the moment, the most popular version in my current group seems to be the Champion from Arcana Evolved. They're vaguely like a paladin with no automatic horse, no spells, and their special abilities both centered on a single cause and spread out across more levels.
 

Atreides

First Post
I have made a few changes:>

They are now a Prestige class only based on the UA rules. The requirments are generally the same, although I may change the required feats in some cases depending on the deity in question that is being followed.

All deities may have paladins, so the alignment restriction is instead of being LG, must one
match ones deities alignment exactly. The behavioral code is intact, but instead of being
LG codified, it is based on your deities beleifs/alignment instead.

Given the radical changes I made to the cleric, and Paladins are clerics in some fashion before they became Paladins, they are affected by the cleric changes as well.
 

frankthedm

First Post
The first thing I do for paladins is that I don’t drag modern morals into D&D. A Paladin is expected to show mercy to good and neutral foes, but they are also tasked with punishing the wicked. A paladin being merciful can stay his blade against a being only faintly evil, in the hopes of redeeming the lowly being, but to stay his blade against the truly wicked is a dereliction of his gods’ given duty.

House rules that help paladins indirectly

Evil Characters are not allowed: see also Disruptive PCs

Disruptive PCs: Player Characters’ behavior should not be detrimental to the party. If a character you are playing behaves in such a manner, please change their ways before the PC becomes an NPC on a permanent basis.

Dwarf: May take penalty to DEX instead of CHA.

Half orc: You may take your +2 ability score bonus to STR, DEX, or CON. You may take your -2 ability score penalties to 2 different mental stats.

Detect Evil: Aura strength is based on [mis]deeds for mortals rather than level or hit die. A truly horrible low level commoner can make some fiends jealous.

Paladin actual changes:

Mount must be sought out and is not a summon. Replacing the mount takes the 3.0 Year and a day from death or dismissal. No numeric penalty.

Using the Detect evil ability is as a supernatural ability, rather than as the spell. No components. While active it causes the Paladin’s eyes to glow with white angelic light. A paladin is expected to interpret aura strength as Urge to kill.
Faint: Proving your mercy would be for the best, but let not the wicked benefit from such.
Moderate: Enough foul deeds committed that a Merciful end is more than deserved.
Strong: Their path is chosen, Destroy without delay, but minimize the disorder that might occur in delivering justice.
Overwhelming: Cut this fiend down now! You need heed no law of the mortal world for a greater one had decreed the fiend’s fate.

Gain Guarded soul[Ex.] your soul cannot be killed through death effects or being fed upon by soul consuming entities, your body may die but your eternal reward is assured.

Can Multiclass without restriction into; the Monk order of the Platinum Fist, Cleric If deity is Lawful Good, Wizard or Sorcerer if Patron Deity Is Marduk.
 

Spatzimaus

First Post
IMC we use something very similar to the UA variant, with four "Paladin" subclasses: the Guardian (LG), Crusader (CG), Blackguard (LE), and Shadow Knight (CE). Anything saying "Paladin" refers to all four subclasses.

The differences:
1> The "Smite" and "Detect" abilites are switched to the Law/Chaos axis. We really hated how Detect Evil became carte blanche to attack things.
2> All of the disease immunity/removal abilities are removed.
3> When he first gains spellcasting ability, each Paladin selects one domain of his patron deity. He can now swap any spell for the domain spell of that level, in a manner similar to how Clerics swap.
4> The mounts were completely reworked to be more useful at high level. I posted it on these boards way back three years ago here, but we've updated it a little since then. For one thing, we now have half the abilities come at even levels and the other half come at odd levels, so you always get something at each level.
5> "Avenger" weapons come in all four varieties (Holy, Unholy, Chaotic, Axiomatic); each Paladin subclass qualifies for two based on its alignments.
6> "Fallen" Paladins can switch to one of the other three subclasses if their alignments shift far enough, using Atonement to gain the analogues of the abilities they lost.

Other than that, most of our changes were similar to those in the UA versions, so when those variants were put in the SRD we changed parts of ours to match.
 

Dog Moon

Adventurer
Meatboy said:
This has been a sore point for me too. So I had given alternate things like divine armor, sword or shield that advanced with the paladin.

Post?

IMC, there is no alignment. Also, they're based off of the Deities in my homebrewn. Atm, I only have one FULLY detailed. My variants They are the Champion of a Deity instead of the Champion of Good. Allows for a varied type of Paladin and should hopefully prevent me from dealing with the bazillion Paladin threads on EnWorld.
 

Meatboy

First Post
@ Dog Moon

Well it has been a few years so I will need to dig through a couple of binders worth of notes. Give me a day or 3 to see if I can find them.
 

Dog Moon

Adventurer
Meatboy said:
@ Dog Moon

Well it has been a few years so I will need to dig through a couple of binders worth of notes. Give me a day or 3 to see if I can find them.

Ah, cool. Looking forward to it. Was thinking about creating something similar and would be nice to have versions already created. :)
 

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