The Combatant and Templar [Multi-class and Paladin replacements] (3.5)(Peach)

[TuggyNE]

Hmm, spellcheck is your friend. ;)

Attributes: A Combatant benefits from Strength, which increases their melee damage, Dexterity, which increases their ranged accuracy, armor, and ranged dexterity, Constitution which increases the duration of their combat stances, Intelligence and Wisdom benefit them for feat prerequisites.

Str benefits melee attack also, obviously; Dex increases initiative, and Con increases HP as for anyone.

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: 1d12

The post-table entries are redundant.

Class Skills: All except Autohypnosis, Iaijutsu Focus, Psicraft, and Use Magical Device.
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Really? Open Lock, Spellcraft, Disable Device, Lucid Dreaming, Use Psionic Device (to name five of the remaining worst offenders)?
Use a list that includes only the ones you want, not a list that excludes those you don't want.

At 12th level, the bonuses from defensive stance increase by 2 each.

[...]

At 13th level, the combatant's rage gains the effects of Greater Rage.
At 19th level, the combatant's rage gains the effects of Mighty Rage.

These should be synchronized, I think, as a matter of symmetry. Also, am I correct in deducing that an ethically Neutral Combatant gains neither defensive stance nor rage?

Honor or Deceit: Combatants fight with honor or subtlety. You must choose either Honor or Deceit, and can not change which you choose

Combatants who choose honor gain the Knight's Challenge Ability a number of times a day equal to 3+ the combatants charisma modifier.

Combatants who choose deceit gain +2d6 sneak attack damage and +1 attack bonus on sneak attacks for each instance of this ability they have.

Honor does not appear at first glance to gain any scaling benefits. Deceit is strictly superior to Rogue's ability, obviously (2d6 and +1 attack/3 levels vs 1d6/2 levels), which seems a little odd for a more generic class, especially one with full BAB.

Also, this and other scaling abilities should ideally mention the rate at which they scale in the text, rather than relying solely on the table.

Combat Style
[...]
Dual Wield: Two Weapon Fighting, Improved TWF, GTWF, Two Weapon Rend, Sweeping Strikes

Spelling out Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting is probably preferable, just as a minor point.

Archery: Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Improved Point blank shot, Far Shot, Swarm of Arrows

Where's Improved PBS/Swarm of Arrows from?

Unarmed Combat: Unarmed Strikes and Improved unarmed Strike, Unarmed Strikes and Flurry of Blows, Unarmed strikes, Unarmed Strikes, unarmed Strikes

I suspect the repetitive "unarmed strikes" entries are intended to indicate scaling at the appropriate levels, but it's not entirely clear.

Two Handed Fighting: Power attack, Cleave, Sweeping Strikes, Pounce, Great Cleave.

Just to be on the safe side, you should spell out the exact Pounce version you mean. Also, Pounce at 14th? Seems ... unpleasantly late.

Bonus Feats: At third level, and every third level afterwards, a Combatant gains a bonus feat from the Fighter Bonus Feat list, so long as they qualify for the feat.

Note that as written this does not allow them to qualify for Fighter-only feats.

If a creature who has had the Field medicine ability used on them does not receive magical healing or surgery in one weeks time, they take 2 permanant and irreversible damage to their constitution score. This damage increases by 1 for every 10 points of damage healed.

Ouch. Irreversible, as in miracle/wish fail? That is seriously painful (in all senses of the word). I would have trouble justifying using this in play. Although... what qualifies as "surgery"?

Phalanx or Freelance: at 4th level, Phalanx combatants gain the benefits of the Mettle ability, while Freelance combatants gain the benefits of the Evasion ability.

Improved Phalanx or Freelance: at 16th level, a combatant's choice of Mettle or evasion is replaced with improved mettle or improved evasion respectively.

Evasion itself isn't all that awesome (ring of, anyone?), but mettle, and even more so improved mettle, are quite sought-after. So this is pretty impressive, but hopefully not out of scale.

Legion or Slayer: By the time the Combatant is 18th level, they are legendary for their abilities.

Minor nitpick: any character is technically "legendary" at 11.
Maybe refer to them as "living characters from ancient epics", or something similar?

Slayer combatants derise magic. Spells bounce harmlessly off of them without issue. The combatant gains spell resistance equal to 15+their combatant levels, and this spell resistance stacks with any other spell resistance they have. Spellcasters always provoke attacks of opportunity against the combatant when they cast spells, and they must take 1 on their concentration check roll when struck by the combatant.

Ow, this is ... no, please don't stack SR like this. Forcing a 1 on skill checks is a fairly powerful ability in its own right, granting Mage Slayer is also impressive, but stacking SR like this is torture to the d20-RNG. (It's like doubling up on total AC.) If you must put all three of these in, give them SR equal to 15+class level or 4+existing, whichever is higher. (Standard SR is nominally 11+ECL/CR.)

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Divine Blow (Su): A Templar may once per day, channel the might of an ideal she does not oppose through her weapon. This blow gains the Templar's charisma modifier to her attack bonus, and deals additional damage against creatures that oppose the conviction equal to her Templar level. This strike gains an additional +4 to attack bonus, and bypasses aligned Damage Reduction if the Templar uses a blow of of an Alignment sharing her convictions. The Divine Blows are Smite Evil (Good aligned), Smite Good (Evil aligned), Axiomatic Strike (Law aligned), Anarchic Strike (Chaotic Aligned). The Templar may use this ability one additional time per day at every fifth level.

So a True Neutral Templar can Smite anything not also True Neutral?

Lay on Hands (Su): Starting at level 2, a Templar can heal or inflict 1d6+her charisma modifier damage per day.

Should say "once per day".

For every 2 Templar levels afterwards, Lay on hands deals an additional 1d6 damage and can be used an additional time per day. Good aligned Templar channel Positive energy and use Lay on Hands to heal their allies, and to inflict damage against undead and evil outsiders. Evil Templar channel negative energy and use Lay on Hands to directly damage their enemies, or to heal undead and evil outsiders. Neutral Templar may choose to use Lay on Hands as either a positive or negative energy effect.

I believe morally Neutral Templars should be forced to choose once, and not change it, like Neutral Clerics. The same applies to all other choices through this class.

Aura of Courage/Aura of Terror (Su): Beginning at third level a Templar becomes immune to fear, and a Good aligned Templar inspires courage in her allies, while an Evil aligned Templar causes her opponents to quake in fear. Aura of Courage grants to allies within 10 feet of the Templar a +2 Moral bonus to attack rolls. Aura of Terror causes allies within 10 feet of the Templar to take a +2 Moral bonus to armor class. The bonus from a Templar's arua increases by +1 every 2 Templar levels afterwards.
The Templar can manifest their aura for 1 minute per 2 Templar levels a day, although the duration the aura is manifested need not be one consecutive period.
Neutral Templar select one aura to use, and only through miraculous intervention may change their presence.

... like this. Shouldn't aura of terror apply to enemies as a penalty? (Also, those should be morale bonuses.)

Neutral Templar may take a Mercy or Cruelty at every fourth level, but they can not take both a mercy and a cruelty.

They may not take mercy and cruelty at the same level, or they may only ever choose mercies or cruelties?

(Mercies and Cruelties are spells or metamagics that are combined into Lay on Hands. In order to create one, a beneficial or harmful non-healing, non-dirrect-damage spell is chosen. The spell must be equal to or below the highest spell level a Templar knows of, although the Templar does not need to know the spell. Any metamagic used can not use a spell slot modifier greater then Highest spell level - 1. If a spell used this way has a duration, that duration is applied as cast by a caster of half the Templar's level, rounded down.)

I call true strike! This has basically the same problem an Archivist has: access to all divine lists, however obscure or restricted they were intended to be. Except this is worse in some ways, covering arcane lists as well.

Templar wordcasting: The Templar uses Wordcasting to cast spells.

I don't feel like mastering another variant system of magic right now, so I'll skip over this.

Divine Charge (Ex): The Templar can focus their conviction into a mighty charge. When making an attack during a charge, a Templar may expend a use of their Divine blow ability, and instead adds 3 times their Templar level to damage. The divine blow is not expended if the attack misses.

Does this combine with Measure of Conviction on a pounce or similar?

Divine Edge: The weapons a templar wields are conduits of divine power. The weapons a templar holds gain a +5 enhancement bonus, and deal 2d6 damage of holy, unholy, axiomatic, or anarchic damage, and 2d6 damage of another alignment, so long as both alignments do not conflict with the alignment of the templar. The weapons of the templar emit continuous magic circles against the alignments opposed to the alignments channeled through the weapons.

I believe that should be "as long as neither alignment conflicts with the templar's". Also, it's probably preferable to give full examples of the magic circle effects, broken out by alignment.

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On the whole, these look largely OK, although there are some specific trouble spots. When fixed, they'll probably be somewhere between T3 and T4, which should be fine.