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skycycle blues
2011-09-05, 08:22 PM
Nature’s Champion- Some champions against evil learn that the desecration of the natural world is the greatest treachery of them all. These warriors are blessed by the Gods of nature with more powerful spell casting than they are accustomed to, as well as the companionship of animals and the ability to change form.

Requirements:

Alignment: Any Good.
Skills: Knowledge (religion) 6, Handle Animal 8
Special: Must have a special mount.
Must worship one of the following deities: Ehlonna, Pelor + any other Nature based Good deity.
If a Paladin enters this class, they do not lose Paladin abilities if their alignment changes to Neutral Good. If they remain Lawful Good(or Chaotic Good for Paladin of Freedom), they are free to multiclass between Nature’s Champion and Paladin.

Class features:

HP d10, 4+ int skill points,
Class Skills- Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (religion), Listen Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival, Swim.

{table=head] Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special
1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Animal Companion/Special Mount, Aura Of Good, Turn Undead
2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Wild Shape (1/day)
3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Nature's Smite (1/day), Bonus Domain
4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 |
5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Wild Shape (2/day)
6th | +6 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Nature's Smite (2/day)
7th | +7 | +5 | +2 | +5 |
8th | +8 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Wild Shape (3/day)
9th | +9 | +6 | +3 | +6 |Nature's Smite (3/day), Bonus Domain
10th | +10 | +7 |+3 |+7 | Wild Shape (Large) [/table]

{table=head]Spells Per-Day
{table=head]Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
1st | 4+1 | - | - | - | -
2nd | 5+1 | - | - | - | -
3rd | 5+1 | 1+1 | - | - | -
4th | 6+1 | 2+1 | - | - | -
5th | 6+1 | 2+1 | 1+1 | - | -
6th | 7+1 | 3+1 | 2+1 | - | -
7th | 7+1 | 3+1 | 2+1 | 1+1 | -
8th | 8+1 | 3+1 | 3+1 | 2+1 | -
9th | 8+1 | 4+1 | 3+1 | 2+1 | 1+1
10th | 9+1 | 4+1 | 3+1 | 3+1 | 2+1 [/table][/table]

Armor Restriction- A Nature's Champion is restricted to wearing only armor that is not made from metal, as a Druid. A Nature's Champion that wears metal armor loses the ability to cast spells, as well as use Nature's Smite or Wild Shape for 24 hours.

Animal Companion/Special Mount- Upon entering this class, your Special Mount must be dismissed. In it's place you acquire an Animal Companion as if you were a Druid with a level equal to your Paladin level + Nature's Champion level. This Animal Companion is treated as a Magical Beast except that you may treat it as an animal for spells or abilities that only affect animals. If you would gain an Animal Companion in virtue of levels in another class, those class levels instead stack to determine the abilities of your Animal Companion.

Aura Of Good- Nature's Champion levels stack with Paladin levels to determine power of Aura Of Good. If you did not previously have this ability, you gain an Aura Of Good equal to a Paladin of your Nature's Champion level.

Turn Undead- Levels of Nature's Champion stack with levels of any class that grants the Turn Undead feature. You do not gain Turn Undead if you do not already possess it.

Spell casting- At each level of Nature's Champion, you gain spells per day as according to the chart shown. You must prepare spells as a Druid or Cleric and your spell list is the Druid spell list (except all level-0 Druid spells are considered level 1 Nature's Champion spells.) Saves are equal to 10+Spell Level+ Wisdom modifier. Bonus spells per day are awarded based on Wisdom modifier. To cast any spell, you must have a Wisdom score of at least 10+spell level.

Wild Shape- At second level, you gain Wild Shape as the Druid ability, once per day. At levels 5 and 8, you gain one additional use of Wild Shape per day. At level 10, you can Wild Shape into a large animal.

Nature's Smite- Beginning at 3rd level, a Nature's Champion may perform a smite attack once per day against any of the following creature types: aberrations, constructs, humanoids, oozes, outsiders, and undead.
Add your CHA modifier to the attack roll and Nature's Champion level + levels of other classes that grant a Smite ability to the damage roll. At level 6 and again at level 9, this smite may be used one additional time per day. If a Nature's Blessed has a smite ability from another class, they may use either type of smite interchangeably, however, they are still limited to a total number of smite attempts per day based on those classes.

Bonus Domain- At level 3 and again at level 9, gain access to one of any of the following domains: Animal, Good, Healing Plant, Sun. Cleric level for any granted domain is equal Nature's Champion level+Cleric Level (if any). A Nature's Champion cannot regain a Domain that they have given up in order to gain access to a Devotion Feat.

NeoSeraphi
2011-09-05, 08:31 PM
Granting Domains seems...underwhelming if you're not providing the class with Domain spell slots. Otherwise, this looks good. A Paladin can get in at 5th level with the Education feat, and ending with 2 5th level spell slots is really nice for a paladin at level 15.

skycycle blues
2011-09-05, 08:38 PM
Granting Domains seems...underwhelming if you're not providing the class with Domain spell slots. Otherwise, this looks good. A Paladin can get in at 5th level with the Education feat, and ending with 2 5th level spell slots is really nice for a paladin at level 15.

That's a good point. I'll add domain spell slots to grant a few more spells altogether.

NeoSeraphi
2011-09-05, 08:55 PM
If you want a good capstone, you should grant the Nature's Champion the ability to cast one of his 9th level domain spells as a spell-like ability once per day at 10th level. (It seems powerful, but an actual cleric would be gaining access to them only 2 levels later, and you're not giving the NC 4 of its 9 domain spells, so I think it's pretty fair)

skycycle blues
2011-09-06, 10:12 AM
So, does this seem fine? No major power problems?

I'm going to add the Druid armor restriction though, forgot about it before.


Also, bump.

paddyfool
2011-09-07, 06:05 AM
This seems fine and fun, and well balanced at around Tier 3. It might not hurt to specify how the spellcasting would stack with existing Druid spellcasting.

silver spectre
2011-09-07, 06:25 AM
I like this. I might actually play a paladin with this.

I have a question on nature's smite...

Beginning at 3rd level, a Nature's Champion may perform a smite attack once per day against any of the following creature types: aberrations, constructs, humanoids, oozes, outsiders, and undead.
Humanoids is a rather large category, did you intend it to be monstrous humanoids? What about dragons and deathless?

If your intent is to list all "unnatural" things then my suggestion would be to let the class smite anything that is not animal, plant, or fey.
I would say dragons as well, but their "natural" status is largely world dependant.

skycycle blues
2011-09-07, 07:59 AM
I like this. I might actually play a paladin with this.

I have a question on nature's smite...

Humanoids is a rather large category, did you intend it to be monstrous humanoids? What about dragons and deathless?

If your intent is to list all "unnatural" things then my suggestion would be to let the class smite anything that is not animal, plant, or fey.
I would say dragons as well, but their "natural" status is largely world dependant.

It is intended to be all humanoids. No to Dragons (unless in whatever setting it is, Dragons tend to destroy parts of the natural world.) And I don't know what Deathless are, but probably yes to them, just from the name.

Ashtagon
2011-09-07, 12:01 PM
As written, only a paladin could ever qualify for this class. Is this intentional?

YouLostMe
2011-09-07, 12:30 PM
This is not a smooth class. From what I see, you're taking the Paladin's strengths (lots of armor, high BAB, mount) and throwing them away. Then you're handing them a druid chassis--a cohort, wildshape, and then a spell list (nerfed as it is).

It's OK, but you change the entire paladin's tactic. He doesn't charge anymore on his mount, and he doesn't take feats for using a mount, doesn't want to improve his lay-on-hands, doesn't need the high BAB that he relied on from his first five levels. With all of this, why not just play a nerfed Druid? You'll probably get better spells, and earlier wildshape, and your feat choices will be relevant from level 1 onward.

So it's not terrible, but I don't like it. It seems like a trap, getting players to invest 2 or so feats in their paladin strategies and then tossing those strategies out the window.

I recommend changing the class from the ground up--you want to support what the Paladin does as well as adding abilities, instead of eliminating those abilities. For example, if you're giving wildshape (and thus making armor obsolete) there needs to be some good compensation or a way to get around that.

skycycle blues
2011-09-07, 02:25 PM
As written, only a paladin could ever qualify for this class. Is this intentional?

Kind of. I wasn't sure if there were any classes that I'm not aware of that grant Special Mounts.

skycycle blues
2011-09-07, 02:30 PM
This is not a smooth class. From what I see, you're taking the Paladin's strengths (lots of armor, high BAB, mount) and throwing them away. Then you're handing them a druid chassis--a cohort, wildshape, and then a spell list (nerfed as it is).

It's OK, but you change the entire paladin's tactic. He doesn't charge anymore on his mount, and he doesn't take feats for using a mount, doesn't want to improve his lay-on-hands, doesn't need the high BAB that he relied on from his first five levels. With all of this, why not just play a nerfed Druid? You'll probably get better spells, and earlier wildshape, and your feat choices will be relevant from level 1 onward.

So it's not terrible, but I don't like it. It seems like a trap, getting players to invest 2 or so feats in their paladin strategies and then tossing those strategies out the window.

I recommend changing the class from the ground up--you want to support what the Paladin does as well as adding abilities, instead of eliminating those abilities. For example, if you're giving wildshape (and thus making armor obsolete) there needs to be some good compensation or a way to get around that.

Wild Shape doesn't make armor obsolete. When you transform, your armor turns into part of your new form. There are also armor modifications that allow your armor bonus to apply while Wild Shaped.

Also, you can have large Animal Companions. So charging on a mount is still viable.

YouLostMe
2011-09-07, 04:00 PM
Wild Shape doesn't make armor obsolete. When you transform, your armor turns into part of your new form. There are also armor modifications that allow your armor bonus to apply while Wild Shaped.

Also, you can have large Animal Companions. So charging on a mount is still viable.

That brings up another large problem: Saving up or being useless as a Paladin until you hit Nature's Champion. That armor enhancement is +3. With the requirements for enchantment, my look in the DMG prospects that the enhancement alone would cost 16,000gp (about 85% of a 7th-level characters WBL, and more than any character beforehand). Now your armor is devoid of +3 bonuses worth of special abilities or simple AC bonuses that would have been nice to have.

And your strategy is to turn into an animal... A tiger riding a bear is funny, but probably not useful. The new charging mount strategy is certainly opposed to the "turn into an animal" strategy. It'll only really happen at level 1, when you are without wildshape.

So considering that, and (let me reiterate) the loss of BAB useage, lay on hands, and requiring the player to not take paladin-esque feats in preparation for their sixth level, I would conclude that my problem here still stays strong. There have to be better options for the common paladin tactics.

skycycle blues
2011-09-07, 07:59 PM
I don't think I know what you mean by loss of BAB usage. Also, you don't have to turn into a Bear all the time. Armor loss is the same as what would happen to a Druid, and they seem to manage pretty fine. Paladins don't need to be Chargers and they don't really need Lay on Hands to be viable. It's just a nice thing to have. This class is full of fun options and that's what I was going for, if somebody was looking into taking it, they would pick feats beforehand accordingly.

Ashtagon
2011-09-08, 12:31 AM
Wild Shape doesn't make armor obsolete. When you transform, your armor turns into part of your new form. There are also armor modifications that allow your armor bonus to apply while Wild Shaped.

Under raw, when you wild shape, your armour melds into your new form, but stops functioning until you return to your original form. There are certain magical armour enhancements that allow it to continue functioning while wildshaped.

I am fairly certain this was written in to avoid the "naked druid" syndrome.