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View Full Version : [3.5 PEACH] Half-Caster Rebuild Project Part 2: Incarnum Paladin



Warclam
2010-12-07, 06:28 PM
Part 2 of my attempt to rebuild half-casting classes as full-something else classes (part 1, the ranger, can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174397)). This time, the paladin. Since paladins are so alignment-focused, it seemed natural to give them access to incarnum instead of spells. To my surprise, nobody seemed to have done it yet, so I did. I also added some new abilities to fill the paladin's many dead levels and to try to maintain some of the capability that is lost by removing spells. Credit to Fax Celestis for the Transformation ability. The meldshaping progression is my own, based on a weaker version of the totemist's. If that's too feeble, even with the various other class features, it can probably be changed to a totemist's progression.

Incarnum Paladin

Hit Die: d10
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Soulmelds|Essentia|Chakra Binds

1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+0|Aura of good, detect evil, smite evil 1/day|1|0|0

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+0|Divine grace, lay on hands (hit points)|2|1|0

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+1|Aura of courage, divine health|2|1|0

4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+1|Turn undead, lay on hands (ability damage, fatigue), smite evil 2/day|3|2|0

5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+1|Aura of consecration (0th, 1st), special mount|3|2|0

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+2|
+2|Chakra binds (crown, feet, hands), lay on hands (disease, exhaustion)|3|3|1

7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+2|
+2|Smite evil 3/day, aura of courage (20')|4|4|1

8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+2|
+2|Lay on hands (poison, paralysis)|4|4|1

9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+3|
+3|Aura of consecration (2nd)|4|5|1

10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+3|
+3|Smite evil 4/day|4|5|1

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+3|
+3|Lay on hands (blindness/deafness)|5|6|1

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+4|
+4|Chakra binds (arms, brow, shoulders)|5|7|2

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+4|
+4|Aura of consecration (shrine to good, 3rd), smite evil 5/day|5|7|2

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+9|
+4|
+4|Lay on hands (negative levels, ability drain)|5|8|2

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+5|
+5|Timeless body, aura of courage (30')|5|9|2

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+10|
+5|
+5|Smite evil 6/day|6|10|2

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+5|
+5|Aura of consecration (4th)|6|11|2

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+6|
+6|Chakra binds (throat, waist)|6|12|3

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+6|
+6|Smite evil 7/day|6|13|3

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+6|
+6|Transformation|6|14|3[/table]
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, x4 at 1st level): Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcraft.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Meldshaping: You shape soulmelds and uses essentia as a totemist (p. 29-30 of Magic of Incarnum), except you draw from the soulborn list of soulmelds and use the progression in the table above for how many soulmelds and essentia you gain at each level. Your meldshaper level is equal to your incarnum paladin level.

Chakra Binds: You can bind soulmelds to your chakras in the same manner as a totemist (p. 30 of Magic of Incarnum), except you use the progression in the table above for how many and what kind of chakra binds you gain at each level.

Aligned Soulmelds: You cannot shape soulmelds with an alignment descriptor that does not match your own, meaning you may not shape soulmelds with the chaotic or evil descriptors.

Aura of Good (Ex): As the paladin ability.

Detect Evil (Sp): As the paladin ability.

Smite Evil (Su): As the paladin ability, except you gain 1 use per day at first level and 1 additional use every 3 levels thereafter.

Divine Grace (Su): As the paladin ability, but maximum your incarnum paladin level.

Lay on Hands (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can heal wounds (your own or those of others) by touch. You gain a pool of healing, which allows you to heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to your incarnum paladin level × your Cha modifier (minimum 1). You may choose to divide your healing among multiple recipients, and you don't have to use it all at once. You may fill this pool with a full minute (10 rounds) of concentration and prayer. Refreshing the pool brings your pool of healing back up to the maximum. You may fill your healing pool a number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier. Using lay on hands is a standard action.

Alternatively, you can use any or all of this healing power to deal damage to undead creatures. Using lay on hands in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. You decides how many of your daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature. An undead creature subjected to this attack can make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 incarnum paladin level + incarnum paladin's Cha modifier) to halve the damage dealt.

Additionally, at higher levels, you are able to cure ailments other than simple wounds. At 4th level, any time you heal at least 5 hit points with lay on hands, you may remove the fatigued condition from the recipient, or 1 point of ability damage per 5 points of healing. At 6th level, you may remove the exhausted condition or a disease whenever you heal at least 10 hit points. At 8th level, you may remove poison or paralysis whenever you heal at least 10 hit points. At 11th level, you may remove blindness or deafness whenever you heal at least 15 hit points. At 14th level, you may remove 1 negative level or point of ability drain per 20 hit points healed.

If you heal enough to qualify for several of these additional effects, you may choose as many as you want, in addition to the hit points healed. For example, if you are an 11th-level incarnum paladin and you heal a blinded, diseased, fatigued character 15 hit points, you may remove all three conditions.

Aura of Courage (Su): As the paladin ability, except that the radius increases as you level, becoming 20' at 7th level and 30' at 15th level.

Divine Health (Ex): As the paladin ability.

Turn Undead (Su): As the paladin ability, except your effective cleric level is equal to your paladin level.

Aura of Consecration (Su): At 5th level, your aura of good is so strong that the very air you breathe and earth you tread are sacred. You are permanently at the center of a consecrate effect, except that the radius is equal to the radius of your aura of courage. At 13th level, your aura of consecration becomes so strong that you count as a shrine to goodness, doubling the effect of the consecration.

In addition, you may fix a single spell to your aura of consecration, as the hallow spell. You may choose any 0th- or 1st-level spell from the list of allowable spells (use the level of the spell for a paladin if applicable, otherwise cleric). You choose the spell each day when you shape your soulmelds for the day. You may choose whether the spell affects allies, enemies, or all creatures within your aura. The level of spell you can fix to your aura of consecration grows over time: you may fix a 2nd-level spell at 9th level, 3rd-level at 13th, and 4th-level at 17th.

Special Mount (Sp): As the paladin ability.

Timeless Body (Ex): Upon attaining 15th level, the presence of incarnum within your body becomes so prevalent that your aging process changes dramatically. You no longer take penalties to your ability scores and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that you have already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, penalties continue to apply, and you still die of old age when your time is up.

Transformation (Su): Your devotion to good is so great that you gain extraplanar characteristics of an avatar of Good. At 20th level, you gain the ability to sprout great, translucent and intangible wings at will. These grant you the ability to fly at a speed of 60 feet (good maneuverability) and persist until you decide to retract them. The wings resemble those of an astral deva. In addition, you gain damage reduction 10/evil and your type changes to Outsider with the Native and Good subtypes. Sprouting or retracting wings is a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but you cannot fly on the same turn in which you sprout them.

Alternatively, your special mount may sprout wings with the same statistics.

Altenative-Alignment Incarnum Paladins

The above information is for the lawful good "incarnum paladin of honour". Other alignments are possible, as per Unearthed Arcana. This has the effects noted, as well as changing the soulmelds to which you have access. The effect of the transformation class feature are also different for differenct alignments: chaotic incarnum paladins (freedom and slaughter) gain damage reduction 10/good instead of 10/evil, and evil incarnum paladins (slaughter and tyranny, called incarnum anti-paladins) gain wings resemble those of a nycaloth rather than an astral deva. Additionally, incarnum anti-paladins gain an aura of desecration rather than consecration, and their deadly touch ability is modified as follows:

Deadly Touch (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can cause wounds by touch. You gain a pool of wounding, which allows you to deal a total number of hit points of damage equal to your incarnum anti-paladin level × your Cha modifier (minimum 1). You may choose to divide your damage among multiple recipients, and you don't have to use it all at once. An opponent subjected to this attack can make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 incarnum anti-paladin level + incarnum paladin's Cha modifier) to halve the damage dealt. You may fill this pool with a full minute (10 rounds) of concentration and prayer. Refreshing the pool brings your pool of damage back up to the maximum. You may fill your wounding pool a number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier. Using deadly touch is a standard action.

Alternatively, you can use any or all of this power to cure damage to undead creatures, just as an inflict wounds spell does. This power otherwise functions identically to the paladin's lay on hands ability.

Additionally, at higher levels, you are able to cause ailments other than simple wounds. At 4th level, any time you deal at least 5 hit points with deadly touch, you may duplicate the effects of a touch of fatigue spell, except the duration is a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). At 6th level, you may duplicate the effects of a contagion spell whenever you deal at least 10 hit points. At 8th level, you may duplicate the effects of a poison spell whenever you deal at least 10 hit points. At 11th level, you may duplicate the effects of a blindness/deafness spell whenever you deal at least 15 hit points. At 14th level, you may bestow 1 negative level per 20 hit points dealt.

You may cause a combination of these effects with a single touch, but only if you deal enough damage for all of them. For example, if you are an 11th level incarnum anti-paladin and touch a target for 15 damage, you may blind them (15), or you may poison and fatigue them (10+5=15), but you may not poison them and infect them with a disease (10+10=20). If the target passes their save for half damage, they are immune to any of these effects. Any effect which requires a fortitude save (all effects other than negative levels) has DC 10 + 1/2 incarnum anti-paladin level + incarnum paladin's Cha modifier.

Draz74
2010-12-07, 06:36 PM
Since paladins are so alignment-focused, it seemed natural to give them access to incarnum instead of spells. To my surprise, nobody seemed to have done it yet, so I did.

Oh, it's been done before for sure. It just usually is entitled "A Soulborn Fix" instead of "Paladin." :smallwink:

Warclam
2010-12-07, 06:43 PM
Oh, it's been done before for sure. It just usually is entitled "A Soulborn Fix" instead of "Paladin." :smallwink:

Aw, hey, they're not totally the same. Paladins get a pony! :smallwink:

But yeah, my original idea for this was just to gestalt paladin and soulborn together. Then I took a look at that and it was still laughably feeble, so I did this instead. I'd be inclined to use my meldshaping progression for the soulborn as well, and probably some additional features if I was really serious about it.

Warclam
2010-12-13, 01:09 PM
Nobody wants to comment on this? I'm mostly wondering about the variant lay on hands rules and the meldshaping progression, but any advice would be welcome. That includes advice on how better to get feedback, if I'm doing something wrong.