Paladin rewrite (PEACH)

[imp_fireball]

Here's an idea -

Ability to customize code of honor according to alignment at GM/player discretion (its the GM's fault if the player creates any loop holes). In this way some LG paladins might be celibate while others are highly promiscuous but both believe in order being required to bring peace and happiness, etc.

Also consider that some paladins might 'fall' by failing to live up to their church's ideals rather than their deity (or angel).

Must be of Good alignment.

Yah... this is an old grudge that has already been fixed in the SRD to allow for champions of other alignments with slightly varied abilities.

Change 'smite evil' to 'smite infidel' and then give them a 'divine justice' ability later on.

Smite Heretic (Su) - The paladin may attempt to smite anyone she declares a heretic (verbal declaration as a free action) with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level.

This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to the Paladin's Charisma Modifier +1.

This pretty much indicates that the paladin can smite anyone as long as they're 'mostly good... mostly'.

Here's an alternative: 'Smite Heretic' works if the church or deity declares that a certain creature is 'a heretic' by nature. In this way, it works like 'smite abomination'. Great for racist paladins.

EDIT: Also, my 'smite infidel' (which is, as you worded 'smite heretic'), should apply to those that are genuinely heretics as defined by the paladin's association (church, deity, cult, etc.). Declaring someone a 'heretic' is pure roleplay. Not all paladins need to be up front. Perhaps a paladin's code of honor allows them to take rogue levels?

Which is why I like my code of honor ruling. It allows for a more flexible variety of paladins.

Divine Justice
- Say, they pray to their deity or church (the church might have telepathic 'prayer receivers') for justification as to their actions. If whoever they smite was justifiable, in the sense that they opposed every ideal of the paladin's association down to the fundamentals (their alignment is evil if the paladin is good, ie.), than that victim becomes divinely cursed - or suffers an additional 1d6 damage for every level of the paladin after each smite. Or perhaps the paladin can use smite against that opponent whenever they wish. Essentially, the victim becomes marked in this way (call it 'mark of the heretic'). Praying (the process of stating your conviction and then waiting for an answer) is a 1 round action. Note that the victim already needs to have been smote at least once.

Once the paladin is 'granted permission' to give their victim the mark, giving it can be performed as a glare attack of sorts (Free action, and then move or standard action for every 'try again' or however glare rules normally work).

- Change 'detect evil' to 'detect non-believer'. Also, gives a +4 to sense motive checks against whoever they have successfully performed a detection against. Finally they receive a +4 to diplomacy checks to interact with those of the same faith as themselves.