Paladin

One thing nearly all servers lack is a stock of proper paladins (mechanically, many will take a single level of paladin and fills the rest in with cleric and still call themselves a paladin).

I think we can see a lot more real holy warriors if a few simple changes are made to make them on par with clerics and such.

I think Paladins should be available to all alignments. Paladins of Law, Evil, Chaos, Madness - just like with clerics being people who are allowed to draw power from aspects and ideas to proselytize, spread influence, etc, a paladin is just more narrow minded in their approach.

That being said - this still doesn't fix that a paladin is just a really bad fighter, and a really bad cleric. Because a paladin is in dire need of a stat spread, I propose that single class paladins get a few bonuses to make sure their path of purity (or corruption) is made stronger if they "stay the course".

Divine Might/Shield: give it twice the power and length. 14 charisma? you get 4 rounds and 4 extra damage instead of 2 rounds and 2 damage. Same with shield - 4 rounds with 4 ac. To overpowered? Okay - what about just doubling the duration and leaving the damage/ac the same?

This single change would make a paladin far more likely to be seen in play, but I have one more idea that might make it more alluring, and that is to grant a free fighting feat (not weapon specialization, however) every 5 levels.

These two changes, or something close to them, would make a paladin seem just like they ought to be: a holy warrior.

Skibbles wrote:I think we can see a lot more real holy warriors if a few simple changes are made to make them on par with clerics and such.

Lorewise, paladins are not "holy warriors", they are "soldiers of dogma". They follow a code of conduct/dogma and not necessarily a deity. They are empowered by Faith, but their Faith doesn't necessarily have to be in -something- as much as an idea or prospect.

Skibbles wrote:I think Paladins should be available to all alignments. Paladins of Law, Evil, Chaos, Madness - just like with clerics being people who are allowed to draw power from aspects and ideas to proselytize, spread influence, etc, a paladin is just more narrow minded in their approach.

Paladins are restricted to any Lawful alignment. FR supports things like paladins of chaos, but this is not present in our lore. A paladin of Chaos would be a Blackguard, which encompasses anything unholy or evil.

Skibbles wrote:That being said - this still doesn't fix that a paladin is just a really bad fighter, and a really bad cleric. Because a paladin is in dire need of a stat spread, I propose that single class paladins get a few bonuses to make sure their path of purity (or corruption) is made stronger if they "stay the course".

Divine Might/Shield: give it twice the power and length. 14 charisma? you get 4 rounds and 4 extra damage instead of 2 rounds and 2 damage. Same with shield - 4 rounds with 4 ac. To overpowered? Okay - what about just doubling the duration and leaving the damage/ac the same?

This single change would make a paladin far more likely to be seen in play, but I have one more idea that might make it more alluring, and that is to grant a free fighting feat (not weapon specialization, however) every 5 levels.

These two changes, or something close to them, would make a paladin seem just like they ought to be: a holy warrior.

I don't know, paladin's already pretty strong. We'll have to see how they page out in the actual game, but they're way better than fighters on a 20 cap server. Either way, I'll keep these in mind, and see what I can do.

Paladins are quite strong, only weak if you compare them with clerics. Maybe it would be cool to compensate them for having their summon mount desactivated with some summon/buff. And the smite and turn undead could recharge over time, to be more on pair with the mana sistem.

Working on making those use mana, too.