Will the Real Holy Warrior Please Stand Up? [Class fix+1 PrC, 3.5, PEACH]

[Godless_Paladin]

Here's the thing - cleric is tier one. Tier one means that cleric has a lot of options, such as being the healer, being the fighter, being the paladin, being the goddamn wizard and also being more powerful than the deity they worship. Balancing to Cleric isn't good balance. You wanna aim a bit lower - tier 3 or tier 2 - to actually hit the "sweet spot" at which D&D SHOULD be operating, given the power-level-of-heroes-fluff-as-written, as opposed to, say, RAW power levels.

Forget the cleric's tier. You need something with a broader concept than "Turn it!" and "Moar damage!" See a Crusader, Warblade, or Swordsage.

I'm not complaining that a cleric can be more powerful than this. I'm saying that the cleric plays the role better. Flavorwise and mechanically. And in mechanics, not just in terms of power, but in actually writing clean mechanics. It's not too hard to outdo WotC on that point, either...

Personally, I favor the Defender Tree of special abilities. If you pump Charisma, It makes you and everyone around you ridiculously tough, with high AC, free DR, A magic circle against evil and/or Chaos, and fast healing.

And yet that's all stuff that's on all the time, and thus boring. Hence poor mechanical design. You need something a bit more active, kinetic, and tactical where the player has to make meaningful in-game choices and has more than one or two courses of action worthy of consideration (or at least POSSIBLE) at any given time.