A variant of a variant of a paladin [PrC]

By ErrantX's request.
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Prestige Paladin (Redux)
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/le...lery/86713.jpg
A glorious paladin faces the horrors of the abyss in the name of good

HD: d10

Requirements
Alignment: Lawful good
BAB: +5
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 2 ranks, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) 2 ranks, Martial Lore 2 ranks, Ride 4 ranks
Feats: Mounted Combat
Maneuvers: Ability to use 3rd level maneuvers from the Devoted Spirit Discipline, including at least one strike and one stance.

Class Skills: Balance, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Knowledge (religion), Martial Lore, Ride and Sense Motive
Skill-points per level: 4+Int modifier

{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Detect evil, smite evil 1/encounter, turn undead
2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Divine grace, lay on hands, special mount
3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Aura of courage, divine health
4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|--
5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Smite evil 2/encounter
6th|+6|+5|+2|+2|--
7th|+7|+5|+2|+2|Stance of great smiting
8th|+8|+6|+2|+2|--
9th|+9|+6|+3|+3|Strike of righteous fury
10th|+10|+7|+3|+3|Smite evil 3/encounter
11th|+11|+7|+3|+3|--
12th|+12|+8|+4|+4|Divine power stance
13th|+13|+8|+4|+4|Strike of retribution
14th|+14|+9|+4|+4|--
15th|+15|+9|+5|+5|Stance of the crusader, smite evil 4/encounter
[/table]

{table="head"]Level|Man. Known|Man. Readied|Stances Known
1st|0|1|0
2nd|1|0|0
3rd|0|0|0
4th|1|1|0
5th|0|0|1
6th|1|0|0
7th|0|1|0
8th|1|0|0
9th|0|0|0
10th|1|1|1
11th|0|0|0
12th|1|0|0
13th|0|1|0
14th|1|0|0
15th|0|0|1
[/table]

Weapon and Armor proficiencies: Prestige paladins gain proficiency with all simple and martial weapons, as well as all types of armor and shield(except tower shields).

Maneuvers: At each even level, a prestige paladin gains new maneuvers known from the Devote Spirit, Golden Saint, Iron Heart, Stone Dragon, Twin Spirit or White Raven disciplines. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. You add your full prestige paladin levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
At 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th and 13th levels, you gain additional maneuvers readied(and granted, if applicable) per day.

Stances Known: At 5th, 10th and 15th levels, you learn a new martial stance from the Devote Spirit, Golden Saint, Iron Heart, Stone Dragon, Twin Spirit or White Raven disciplines. You must meet the stances prerequisites to learn it.

Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a prestige paladin may use detect evil as a spell-like ability at will with a caster level equal to his initiator level.

Smite Evil (Su): At first level, a prestige paladin is capable of channeling divine energy through his weapon to undo evil. Once per encounter he may add his Cha modifier to his attack roll, and if it hits it deals an additional amount of damage equal to his initiator level to creatures of evil alignment. If it does not strike, the smite is still used for the encounter, and if the paladin attempts to smite a creature that is not evil, the smite is used up.
At 5th, 10th and 15th levels, they gain an additional use of their smite per encounter.

Turn Undead (Su): This ability functions just as the cleric class feature, with an effective cleric level equal to their prestige paladin level.

Divine Grace (Su): At 2nd level, a prestige paladin gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws. This does not stack with the indomitable soul class feature of the crusader.

Lay on Hands (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a prestige paladin with a Charisma score of 12 or higher can heal wounds (his own or those of others) by touch. Each day he can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to his initiator level × her Charisma bonus. A paladin may choose to divide his healing among multiple recipients, and he doesn’t have to use it all at once. Using lay on hands is a standard action.
Alternatively, a paladin 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. The paladin decides how many of her daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature.

Special Mount (Sp): At 2nd level, a paladin gains the service of a loyal mount raised in the celestial realms. This functions just as the paladin class feature, using the character's initiator level in place of the normal paladin level.

Aura of Courage (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a prestige paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects.

Divine Health (Ex): At 3rd level, a paladin gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.

Stance of Great Smiting (Su): At 7th level, a prestige paladin gains a special stance that allows them to channel greater power through their weapons to damage evil foes. You take a swift action to lose the benefits of any Devoted Spirit stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance. While in this stance, you deal more damage to foes while using your smite evil class feature, any time you make a smite attempt against an opponent, you deal an additional amount of damage 1d6 times half your initiator level. Additionally, any evil foe that takes damage from the smite must make a Will save (DC 15+Cha modifier) or be stunned for 1 round.

Strike of Righteous Fury (Su): At 9th level, you gain a unique strike that turns your hatred and zeal for corruption and wickedness into refined, tangible force capable of undoing the evil you stand against. This is treated just as a normal martial maneuver: you must ready it and expend it normally. It is a 7th level strike, and belongs to the Devoted Spirit discipline. By taking a standard action to initiate this strike, you may add your Cha bonus to your attack roll and deal an additional 10d6 points of damage to evil foes, and 4d6 to foes that are neither good or evil. Additionally, any evil foe that takes damage from this strike must make a Fort save (DC 17+Cha modifier) or take a -4 to attack rolls, damage rolls and armor class for as many rounds as your Cha modifier. Multiple uses of this ability to not stack.

Divine Power Stance (Su): At 12th level, you can channel divine powers into every fiber of your being, making you into a greater warrior in the face of evil. You take a swift action to lose the benefits of any Devoted Spirit stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance. While in this stance you're coated in a thin film of divine magic granted from the power of your god and your eyes shine with a powerful white light. You gain a bonus to your Attack rolls(which do not stack with the bonus granted from smiting, the strike of righteous fury or strike of retribution), damage rolls and armor class equal to your Cha modifier. Additionally, once per encounter while in this stance you may use dispel evil as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your initiator level.

Strike of Retribution (Su): At 13th level, you gain a unique strike that allows you to turn all the damage dealt to you into a terrible onslaught against evil. This is treated just as a normal martial maneuver: you must ready it and expend it normally. It is a 9th level strike, and belongs to the Devoted Spirit discipline. By taking a full-round action to initiate this strike, you gain a bonus to your Cha modifier to the attack and deal an additional amount of untyped damage equal to the amount of hit points equal to the difference of your current hit points and your normal full hit point total. Additionally, you are healed half the amount of damage dealt by this strike.

Stance of the Crusade (Su): At 15th level, you gain a special stance that turns you into one of the greatest divine warriors to be brought upon the earth. You take a swift action to lose the benefits of any Devoted Spirit stance you're in to gain the benefits granted by this stance. While in this stance, you gain a unique version of the true seeing spell, but unlike the normal spell it only functions to reveal anything by evil creatures. Additionally, each attack made against an evil creature you make while in this stance deals an additional 8d8 points of divine damage, this damage is increased to 15d6 if used in conjunction with smite evil. Unlike a normal stance, however, this stance can only be used a limited amount of time a day, and is only active for 1 round/initiator level per day. When the stance is finished with, the prestige paladin goes back to his former stance and is exhausted for the duration of the encounter.

Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all class abilities if she ever willingly commits an evil act. Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.
Like a member of any other class, a paladin may be a multiclass character, but multiclass paladins face a special restriction. A paladin who gains a level in any class other than paladin may never again raise her paladin level, though she retains all her paladin abilities.

all right. this could actually help me enjoy playing a paladin again. but there are some issues i have.

one, smiting stance: too good. that is a stance that deals tremendous damage on smites. i know, the smites are limited, but 4/encounter is plenty for the normal duration of a battle by level 20. i would suggest lowering damage. also, i don't much like the progression of lawful to neutral to chaotic. i would lump them all into the same category (as evil is evil), or do neutral evil 4d6, and lawful or chaotic evil 8d6 (or even 6d6), as i see neutral evil as the least evil of the three.

two, strike of righteous fury (sorry, had to do it): i think the penalty duration is too high. i would drop it to one round. at most drop it to cha modifier, but that essentially means the entire encounter for most battles.

three, divine power stance: i'm wavering in my opinion that the bonuses granted are kinda useless. i could definitely be wrong. but since a smite will be used any chance it is useable, and the two strikes are exceptionally good against evil creatures, during any battle with evil creatures, the encounter will be over before the paladin gets more than one or two attacks in that benefit from the stance. plus, i'm not sure that the remainder of the time, against nonevil, that it really works thematically. this is just a personal opinion, and i can understand its inclusion. it just feels weird to me.

four, strike of retribution: bas ass, but needs different wording. between kind of threw me-though admittedly i'm a few french fries short of a happy meal. i'd say you gain a bonus to your Cha modifier to the attack and deal an additional amount of untyped damage equal to your current hit points subtracted from your hit point total, or something similar.

five, stance of the crusade: interesting. i'm not much of a fan of per-day stuff when it comes to tob, but it works. the mechanic feels weird in my head, but the ability is very cool.

Dude, this class rocks. Many, many thanks as I will be using this in my current campaign.

Thanks again!
-X

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ErrantX

Dude, this class rocks. Many, many thanks as I will be using this in my current campaign.

Thanks again!
-X

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You're quite welcome.