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SolkaTruesilver
2007-04-15, 06:35 AM
Personnaly, I always hated the idea that the Paladin should be a core class. Only an experience character in his field should become a true "Shining Knight", allowing this character to actually specialize in one style of combat.

The Blackguard is an Evil-Paladin, and the "Holy Liberator" (Complete Divine) is a Chaotic-Good kind of paladin. They are both prestige class in their own rights, and so should the Paladin.

(incidentely, it just maddens me that they made the Paladin a standard class in World of Warcraft. grrrrrrrrrrr)

So, for the stats provided by the Paladin-Prc, I was thinking in turning the BlackGuard's stats into "good"(celestial mount instead of skeletal, paladin spell selection instead of blackguard, etc...), and call it a day. But I stucked when I noticed the Blackguard gains Sneak Attack..

What should the Paladin-PrC gain instead of Sneak Attack?

(oh, and I though the good perequisite fear, instead of "Power Attack", should be "Combat Expertise", whatcha think?")

Closet_Skeleton
2007-04-15, 06:54 AM
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedPrestige.html

Scroll down and there's a Prestige Paladin.

matrygg
2007-04-15, 01:30 PM
The origin of the word paladin comes from the knights that served Charlemagne -- his personal guard. Because of the various Roland stories, they became cast as sort of a general "defend Christendom" type.

I think as far as fantasy and D&D goes, the logic is that there are many more evil creatures in the world, and the paladin is good's counterbalance. Your mileage may vary on that.

That said, I can make an argument for either a prestige class or a core class. I think really any of the core classes or prestige classes should be based more on the culture that the particular world has. For example, my girlfriend ran a D&D game in which I played a paladin of Tyr (the norse god, not the TSR god). Since Tyr is a lawful god with a regimented order, it made sense for people to be selected and trained nearly from birth, making the paladin as a core class something that made sense. Conversely, evil gods (with the exception of lawful evil gods, but even there it's going to be a heirarchy of schemes akin to the Empire in Star Wars) don't tend to form cooperative, regimented followings so their holy warriors are less likely to have been trained from birth.

Roderick_BR
2007-04-15, 02:17 PM
Back in first edition, Paladin was a "prestige class" of sorts. You needed to be a 9th level fighter before turning a paladin. Others options were knight (an improved fighter), Avenger (didn't see exacly what that did) or a lord (a stationary fighter with a castle. Worked better for NPCs)

Matthew
2007-04-15, 02:54 PM
Say what? First Edition D&D or (A)D&D 1.x? In (A)D&D Paladin was a Sub Class of Fighter and later of Cavalier, but you started as a Paladin at Level 1.

Anyway, it's the power levels of D&D that make it appear that a Paladin should be a Prestige Class. Fact is, a Paladin 1 is already a cut above the normal Warrior 1 types. Nothing wrong with it being a Base Class, but no reason it shouldn't be a Prestige Class either.