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View Full Version : [3.5 Prestige Class] Paladin of Mysteries (Paladin/Shadowcaster PrC)[PEACH]



Xuldarinar
2013-02-21, 05:55 PM
As far as I've seen and heard, the paladin and shadow caster classes aren't particularly powerful but each hold a certain amount of flavor. Good flavor. So, I had an idea for a PrC to mix them. Im not aiming for making a tier 1 or even a tier 2. Just, something that can hold its own in a fight. Please give me some advice for it for balance, where needed, and enjoy. Feel free to use of course if you see fit, with or without the Mouseferatu fixes to Shadowcaster.


Paladin of Mysteries


Clad in ebon armor and with a blade enveloped in righteous darkness, the Paladin of Mysteries is considered by most an enigma at best and at worst, a heretic. Wielders of divine might and shadow magic, there are almost as many trained as there are those who simply find this path on their own. Those who start along this path seldom leave it. Those that take this path alone, often remain alone. Those that are trained formerly in this art seldom find their allies far from their side.

Hit Die: d10.

Requirements
Alignment: Any good
Base Attack Bonus: +4
Skills: Concentration 4, Knowledge (the planes) 2, Knowledge (religion) 2,
Special: Must have Smite Evil 1/day
Special: Must have access to Apprentice Mysteries

Class Skills
The Paladin of Mysteries’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Cha)
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Mysteries

1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+0|Smite Evil 1/day, Mysteries of Light|-

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+0|Lay on Hands, Turn Undead|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+1|Special mount, Shadowborne Smite 1/day|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+1|Remove disease 1/week|-

5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+1|-|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

6th|
+6|
+5|
+2|
+2|Smite Evil 2/day, Shadowborne Smite 2/day|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

7th|
+7|
+5|
+2|
+2|-|-

8th|
+8|
+6|
+2|
+2|Remove disease 2/week|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

9th|
+9|
+6|
+3|
+3|Shadowborne Smite 3/day|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

10th|
+10|
+7|
+3|
+3|Smite Evil 3/day|- [/table]


Class Features:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: a Paladin of Mysteries gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.
Mysteries: At every level, excluding 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th, a Paladin of Mysteries advances the casting of one mystery using class. This includes advancing ‘spells’ to spell-like abilities, and spell-like abilities to supernatural abilities. This includes no other feature.
Smite Evil: At 1st, 6th, and 10th, a Paladin of Mysteries gains an additional use of smite evil. This is in all other ways identical to the paladin ability of the same name.
Mysteries of Light: A Paladin of Mysteries, upon taking first level, loses the ability to cast paladin spells. Instead, their paladin spells are converted to mysteries, put on their mystery casting class’s list of known mysteries. Treat all paladin spells of any given level as a single mystery for the purposes of uses per day. For example, a Paladin of Mysteries upon entering may cast any 1st level paladin spell once per day as a spell. When apprentice mysteries advance to spell-like abilities, so do 1st-3rd paladin spells, allowing a Paladin of Mysteries to cast 2 per day of each level. 4th level paladin spells are treated as 4th level initiate mysteries, and advance accordingly.
Lay on hands: at 2nd level, a Paladin of Mysteries’s class levels stack with their paladin levels for the purpose of using lay on hands.
Turn Undead: at 2nd level, a Paladin of Mysteries’s class levels stack with their paladin levels for the purpose of using Turn Undead.
Special mount: at 3rd level a Paladin of Mysteries gains the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed. For the purpose of determining the stats of the steed, add up the charicter’s paladin and Paladin of Mysteries levels. If the Paladin of Mysteries has the shadow familiar feat, their mount gains the Dark creature template in place of a familiar and their shadowcaster levels are added to their Paladin of Mysteries levels and paladin levels for the purpose of determining their mount’s statistics.
Shadowborne Smite: When a Paladin of Mysteries reaches 3rd level, they gain the ability to use smite with any damage dealing mystery they know once per day. Upon acquiring 6th level and again at 9th, they gain an additional use of shadowborne smite.
Remove disease: At levels 4, and 8, a Paladin of Mysteries gains one additional use of remove disease per week.
Code of Conduct: A Paladin of Mysteries must be of good alignment and loses all class abilities if they ever willingly commit an evil act. They no longer are bound by their code of conduct in terms of behavior between law or chaos.

Ex-Paladins of Mysteries
A Paladin of Mysteries who violates their code of conduct loses all paladin abilities, and access to paladin mysteries. They do not however lose access to their accumulated levels in a mystery using class.

Note: -IF- you entered this class without using the paladin class, treat the spells of class you used instead as you would the spells of the paladin. Each level of spells counts as a single mystery for the purposes of UpMpD, and for determining their form ('Spell', Spell-Like, or Supernatural). This ability only functions on spells that are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level and only for one class.

UpMpD Analysis


I decided to take the time to show what the result is if you purely use 10 levels of this class, and any combination of levels of Paladin and Shadowcaster.

{table=head]Levels|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8
Paladin 1/ Shadowcaster 9/ PoM 10 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1
Paladin 2/ Shadowcaster 8/ PoM 10 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1
Paladin 3/ Shadowcaster 7/ PoM 10 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1
Paladin 4/ Shadowcaster 6/ PoM 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1
Paladin 5/ Shadowcaster 5/ PoM 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1
Paladin 6/ Shadowcaster 4/ PoM 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1
Paladin 7/ Shadowcaster 3/ PoM 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1
Paladin 8/ Shadowcaster 2/ PoM 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1
Paladin 9/ Shadowcaster 1/ PoM 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1

[/table]

So, in the most paladin heavy combination, your base UpMpD is equal to SpD of a 10th level blackguard or a 17th level Paladin

BaB and Saves Analysis

Same principle as above

{table=head]Level|BaB|Fort|Ref|Will|
Paladin 1/ Shadowcaster 9/ PoM 10 | +15 | +15 | +6 | +9
Paladin 2/ Shadowcaster 8/ PoM 10 | +16 | +16 | +5 | +9
Paladin 3/ Shadowcaster 7/ PoM 10 | +16 | +15 | +6 | +9
Paladin 4/ Shadowcaster 6/ PoM 10 | +17 | +16 | +6 | +9
Paladin 5/ Shadowcaster 5/ PoM 10 | +17 | +15 | +5 | +8
Paladin 6/ Shadowcaster 4/ PoM 10 | +18 | +16 | +6 | +9
Paladin 7/ Shadowcaster 3/ PoM 10 | +18 | +15 | +6 | +8
Paladin 8/ Shadowcaster 2/ PoM 10 | +19 | +16 | +5 | +8
Paladin 9/ Shadowcaster 1/ PoM 10 | +19 | +15 | +6 | +8
[/table]

Note: At Paladin 2 onward, they benefit from Divine Grace, which adds your Charisma modifier to your saves. Because of this I strongly advise against doing this combo with just a one level dip in paladin.

How MAD is this?
Some of you may wonder that. Well, lets break this down.
Paladin: Str, Con, Cha, Wis
Shadowcaster: Cha, Int, Dex, Con*

Paladin of Mysteries: Str, Dex, Con, Cha, Int, Wis? No.

Before we decide this combo is extremely mad, lets look this over. Dex is needed for defenses for the Shadowcaster, and for at least (maybe) the Arrow of Dusk Fundamental. With still mystery (Feat from ToM), and the heavy armor prof from paladin, we can for the most part throw this out. Wisdom is thrown out as its no longer needed for casting paladin spells. Now we are down to Str, Con, Cha, Int. Unless you are planning on mostly being Shadowcaster, you don't need that much int, since it decides highest level mysteries. a minimum of 14, and on your SC heavy builds up to 17 (I feel a one level dip in paladin is a waste for this build so 18 int isn't needed). Split in half, a 16.
Strength, Charisma, Constitution are your main stats, with intellect pending at a min-max of 14-17. Strength for melee damage, Charisma for defenses and mysteries, Constitution for health, Intellect just for max level of mysteries.
In conclusion a paladin of mysteries is as MAD or less MAD than either class alone, pending on approach. If you feel that SC qualifies for the feat Lost tradition (Bastards and Bloodlines), we can drop intellect entirely.
Paladin of Mysteries: Str, Cha, Con, Int*

Entry Methods besides Paladin (Paladin of honor).

Without using other homebrew, one of the classes involved has to be shadow caster. But what of the other? Well, lets look at who all gives Smite good, besides the paladin we all know from the player's handbook.

Prestige Paladin (UA)
Paladin of Freedom (UA)
Various Paladin variants (Dragon mag and Homebrew)
Fist of Raziel (BoED) [Requires Divine favor, a divine spell on the cleric/paladin lists]
Holy Liberator (CD)
Any Generic Class (UA)

The following you can make an argument for being viable as they are all smites.

Shadowbane Inquisitor (CA) (Smite)
Pious Templar (CD) (Good/Neutral Deity) (Smite)
Vigilante (CA) (Smite the Guilty)
Purifier of the Hallowed Doctrine (HoH) (Smite Taint)
Various Paladin variants (Dragon mag and Homebrew)

If you want to house rule it, you can change the requirements to being evil, Code of conduct to evil, and swap out smite evil with smite good. If you do this then the following are permitted

Blackguard (DMG)
Paladin of Tyranny (UA)
Paladin of Slaughter (UA)
Various Paladin variants (Dragon mag and Homebrew)

This is by no means a complete list, just a list of what I'm currently aware of.


Links to other shadow based creations of mine.
Shadowknife [Soulknife/Shadowsmith PrC and Soulknife PrC based on Shadowsmith] (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=278453)
Psi-Shade [Psionic Shadowcaster] (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277925)
Prestige Shadowcaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277221)

Holocron Coder
2013-02-21, 06:10 PM
Guide to Table-Making (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205677)

As for the class itself, I've no experience with the mystery mechanic, so... :smallredface:

Deviston
2013-02-21, 06:57 PM
I second the Guide to Table Making, also in my sig is a utility to making tables.

As for the class, seeing the lack of table, I didn't even read the first ability.

Edit: Proper presentation shows care for your creation. Just sayin.

Xuldarinar
2013-02-21, 08:53 PM
Thank you for the link, I have now cleaned up the table.

As for the mysteries mechanics, for those of you who are not familiar, heres how I can best describe it.


Instead of spells per day, you have uses per mystery per day. When you naturally would have 1 UpMpD, each one is cast as an arcane spell though doesn't count as one for the purpose of metamagic nor for qualifying for classes.

When you naturally would have 2 UpMpD, they are cast as spell-like abilities.

When you would naturally have 3 UpMpD, they are cast as Supernatural abilities.

In the case of the Shadowcaster, it breaks down as follows:

1st-3rd "Arcane Spell"

1st-3rd Spell-Like, 4th-6th "Arcane Spell"

1st-3rd Supernatural, 4th-6th Spell-like, 7th-9th "Arcane Spell"

Fundamentals are their equivalent to 0 level spells, and have 3 UpMpD until level 14, where it becomes infinite. They are always supernatural.

You may learn a mystery more than once, allowing additional uses. If you know a 1st level mystery twice, you'd be able to use it 2/4/6 times per day.

in place of metamagic you have metashadow feats. all of which grant the ability to apply one 1/day per times the feat is taken. With exception to Still Mystery which is able to be applied to all mysteries, removing arcane spell failure.

Mysteries, without the fix, do not benefit from high ability score in terms of UpMpD. So a shadow caster at best wants a 19 int, then as high of a cha as possible for DCs.

For the purpose of qualifying for prestige classes, they can be applied where the type of spell is not specified (Arcane vs Divine), and advanced accordingly. With exception of mystic theurge, where it can be applied to one side (Not both).


How would this prestige class would apply to that? one ability removes paladin spell casting, but adds the spells over as mysteries to the shadow caster. With the following exception. All paladin spells of a given level count as one mystery. So, if you have 1 UpMpD for 1st level mysteries, you can cast a paladin spell once per day as a spell. if you have 2 UpMpD for 1st level mysteries, you may cast any 2 1st level paladin spells per day as spell-like abilities. So on. In effect you can get about the same number of casts for 4th level spells, but an additional cast of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells. However without the fix, you can't benefit from high ability score to increase spells per day.