For the Gods! [3.5 Base Class] PEACH

[GFawkes]

The Crusader
"For the Glory of Pelor!" -- Thavnen Golun, crusader of Pelor

A crusader is the mortal hand of his deity. The deity's power flows through him, and he knows it.

Alignment: Any, but must match deity's

Skills: Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Listen, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive
Skill Points: 4 + INT Modifier

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Abilities	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	+1	+2	+0	+2	Deity's Aura, detect alignment, Smite Opposing 1/day	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	+2	+3	+0	+3	Channel Energy, Divine Grace	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	+3	+3	+1	+3	Aura of Power	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	+4	+4	+1	+4	Affect Undead	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	+5	+4	+1	+4	Smite Opposing 2/day, Mount	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5		-	-	-	-	-	-
7	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5		-	-	-	-	-	-
8	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2		-	-	-	-	-	-
9	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Deity Domains	1	-	-	-	-	-
10	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Smite Difference 3/day	2	-	-	-	-	-
11	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7		3	1	-	-	-	-
12	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Deific Age	4	2	-	-	-	-
13	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8		5	3	1	-	-	-
14	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9		5	4	2	-	-	-
15	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Smite Difference 4/day	5	5	3	1	-	-
16	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10		5	5	4	2	-	-
17	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Deific Youth	5	5	5	3	1	-
18	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11		5	5	5	4	2	-
19	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11		5	5	5	5	3	1
20	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Smite Difference 5/day	5	5	5	5	4	2

Deity's Aura: When using detect spells, the crusader's aura of alignment is equal to his crusader level

Detect alignment: As detect good, but any alignment. Only one alignment can be searched for at a time (lawful, chaotic, good, evil, or neutral)

Smite Opposing: Starting at level 1, crusaders can smite creatures with an alignment that is opposite on at least one axis (law/chaos or good/evil). The crusader adds his CHA modifier to the attack roll, and his crusader level to the damage. If the smote creature is opposing on both axes, the bonus does not apply twice.

Channel Energy: Crusaders can channel divine energy through them, up to (Crusader level x CHA Modifier) points per day. Crusaders of a good deity channel positive energy, crusaders of an evil deity channel negative energy, and crusaders of a neutral deity can choose which type whenever they channel. Regardless of energy type, this energy can always heal the crusader.

Divine Grace: At level 2, a crusader adds his CHA modifier to all saving throws.

Aura of Power: Starting at Level 3, a crusader radiates an aura of power that comes from his deity. The aura depends on the alignment of the deity
Lawful: Crusader is immune to fear, allies within 10 ft gain a +4 bonus against fear

Chaotic: Crusader is immune to confusion, allies within 10 ft gain a +4 bonus against confusion

Good: All allies within 10 ft of the crusader gain a +2 morale bonus to AC

Evil: The crusader gains a +1 morale bonus to AC, all enemies within 10 ft take a -1 morale penalty to AC

Neutral: The crusader and all allies within 10 ft gain a +2 bonus on skill checks. This doubles for crusaders of true neutral deities.

Affect Undead: Similar to a paladin's ability to turn undead, except it affects undead in the manner a cleric of the same alignment would. Neutral crusaders can choose, but this choice cannot be changed.

Mount: At level 5, a crusader gains the service of a special mount, similarly to a paladin. The mount can be a horse, a pony, a warhorse, or a warpony. The table below lists the full differences.

Deity Domains: At level 9, a crusader gains some spellcasting ability. He selects three of his deity's domains; these are where he draws his spellcasting from. Crusaders do not need to prepare their spells ahead of time, like a cleric must. A crusader can cast any spell that has a level less than or equal to (CHA score - 10). A crusader can cast any spell from the selected domains a number of times per day according to the above table, provided he is of a high enough level.

Smite Difference: Starting at level 10, a crusader's ability to smite improves. If the smote target is one step away on either the law/chaos or good/evil axis, the attack functions like a basic smite attack. If the target is opposing on either axis, then the effects are doubled. This does not stack if there is difference on both axes: only the largest modifier applies.

Deific Age: At level 12, a crusader's age categories are doubled. This cannot lower his current age category.

Deific Youth: Starting at level 17, a crusader no longer takes penalties for aging. He still dies when his time is up.

Crusader level	INT	Bonus HD	Special
5-7	6	2	Empathetic Link, Improved Evasion, Share Saving Throws
8-10	7	4	Improved Speed
11-14	8	6	See Through Eyes
15-20	9	8	Deific Mount

Empathetic Link: As the paladin mount ability

Improved Evasion: As the rogue ability

Share Saving Throws: As the paladin mount ability

See Through Eyes: By concentrating, a crusader can see through the eyes of his mount, as long as they are on the same plane of existence

Deific Mount: The deity's power flows through the paladin's mount. If the crusader turns undead, the mount gains the Half-Celestial template. If the crusader rebukes undead, the mount gains the Half-Fiend template.

Spoiler

This started out as a paladin fix. It took off from there. I'm still trying to figure out what a good level 20-ish feature would be. Something along the lines of tapping directly into the deity.

[Dralnu]

Have you seen Pathfinder's Paladin? It's a really good fix and addresses so many of its problems, which makes me wonder why so many people still want to "redo" the paladin. At the very least, there's a bunch of good ideas there that you can copy.

If you really want to go ahead and do this though, you really need things to fill up those dead levels. My suggestion is to use the search engine, homebrew section, "paladin fix" and browse through some of those, take pathfinder's fix, copy some of that, look at tome of battle's crusader, copy copy.

Also no idea why you delayed his spellcasting so much, or what spells he can cast, but 1st spells at level 9 is pretty underwhelming.

[jiriku]

This nicely generalizes the basic paladin, and is a good base for building a paladin of any alignment. If you intended to "fix" it, what, in your estimation, is broken? Power-wise, your variant is about the same, although the higher-level spells and mount improvements will help a little in the 15-20 range.

Note: you need to define the crusader's caster level somewhere.