Paladin (help me!!)

[Tyrolin]

OK, I know some people are here to rant on the alignment system.
please note that I DO NOT CARE

What I want to know is if anyone has or can come up with a change to the paladin's class features that will bring it up to snuff in a world where detect and smite evil will be worth the stick he's supposed to have up his bum.

Also, if anyone knows a good way to get rid of the alignment requirement FOR THE PALADIN, that would be wonderful.

[Umarth]

If your just looking to have paladins of diffrent alignments you can use:

Paladin Variants: Freedom, Slaughter, And Tyranny
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#paladinVariantsFreedom SlaughterAndTyranny

The paladin of freedom is chaotic good, dedicated to liberty and free thought.
The paladin of tyranny is the opposite, a lawful evil villain bent on dominating those weaker than she.
The paladin of slaughter is a brutal champion of chaos and evil who leaves only destruction trailing in his wake.

(If you use these versions of the paladin class, you might consider designating the standard paladin as the "paladin of honor" to differentiate it from the variants.)

[Xuincherguixe]

Eliminating the alignment requirement is easy enough. Just eliminate it. Though there are some variants (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#paladinVariantsFreedom SlaughterAndTyranny) that might be useful.

You can just take a (metaphorical please) marker to the rules and just change stuff as you want.

That said, as I see it there are four ways you can go with the detect/smite evil thing.
1) Just remove them. Probably not so great as it removes features from a class that isn't all that great.
2) Smite works on anything. No Detect Evil.
3) Detect/Smite evil works on those who disagree with the Paladins views. How strong that level of disagreement needs to be is up to you. This one may be a bit hard to manage.
4) Smite works on evil outsiders, and undead only

[Magnor Criol]

The SRD's paladin options are simple and effective, and if you're looking for a quick fix, or if you're newer and don't want to be drowned by options, go with that.

For something a little more complex, but I think well worth the small bit of extra thought, look into Fax_Celestis' most excellent Pally fix: The How-It-Should-Be Paladin, v2.0. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33551)

The class features the ability to take any of the four corner alignments and then customize your character's paladin to suit your needs, both roleplaying- and gameplay-wise, via a system of mantles. Each mantle grants abilities while imposing certain restrictions on your character's actions, but you get to choose which mantles (and thus which restrictions) you take and which you don't, meaning your pally can have that stick up his bum if he wants to, or go about things a different way.

[Xefas]

I suggest the Crusader from Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords.

Paladins...who are useful at all levels, have options in battle, and no alignment requirements.

They're WotC's "...change to the paladin's class features that will bring it up to snuff...".

[Ing]

OK, I know some people are here to rant on the alignment system.
please note that I DO NOT CARE

What I want to know is if anyone has or can come up with a change to the paladin's class features that will bring it up to snuff in a world where detect and smite evil will be worth the stick he's supposed to have up his bum.

Also, if anyone knows a good way to get rid of the alignment requirement FOR THE PALADIN, that would be wonderful.

What I do for the Paladins in my game is a house rule. We replace DETECT EVIL with DETECT SIN. Whenever a Paladin makes direct physical (flesh to flesh) contact with a person they get a brief image of that person's greatest sin. Because this may be removed of context and motive may be hard to determine it deters triggery happy smiting (as even good people can have a horrible deed they feel very bad about or an evil deed they felt they were forced to do by circumstance).

Extreamly evil individuals, IE outsiders, evil clerics, black guards, undead just give a very violent flash of various evil deeds and a sense of overwhelming darkness.

I find this helps since a) it has built in plot points, b) the direct contact clause makes it harder to determine the alignment of NPCs, and requires some grace and cleverness.

[OneWinged4ngel]

Detect Evil can easily be replaced with a Sense Motive bonus. Smite Evil can easily be replaced with Smite Whatever and not be unbalanced.

[Tyrolin]

Wow, thanks everyone! Geez, I go to sleep and look what happens....

[Triaxx]

Here's an alternative to the paladin. It's without most of the holy powers, but has a few other tricks up his sleeves. It works better for mounted Campaigns though.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34357

[elliott20]

Second on Fax_Celestis' variant paladin. Fax_Celestis, if nothing else, wrote up one damn fine paladin class.