3rd Tier Paladin (PEACH)

[dangerprawn]

Primary thoughts on Tier 3 comparison: (not complete, just initial notes)

There are 11 classes in the Tier 3. Of these 11, 6 have access to 9th level Spells or Maneuvers. Let's call these 9th level abilities. That right there tells us something important, a warning sign perhaps, which is that we are going to rewrite a class that does not have access to 9th level abilities to compete on the same level with classes that do. These are the classes that I feel are the most powerful in Tier 3.

Of the classes that don't have 9th level abilities, the Bard has 6th level spells and Buffs as a class ability. The Duskblade has 5th level spells that complement it's full bab, favored fort and will, and other magic/combat related class abilities. The Wild Shape Ranger gets limited Wild Shape, 4th level spells, good skills, full bab, favored fort and reflex, and other abilities (good skills, evasion, etc). I'm not that familiar with the Factotum, but my understanding is that it can use a limited per encounter resource to duplicate other classes abilities.

For the purposes of the evaluation I'm going to leave the Factotum out because 1) I don't fully understand it, and 2) From what I do understand I don't know how you'd compare it to the standard classes. Last, I'm not sure what the Psionic Warrior is. Is that supposed to be the Psychic Warrior?

Another way to break down the grouping of Tier 3 is to place them in categories, such as Combat, Magic, & Support. I would place the Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade, Ranger, and Duskblade in the Combat category. Beguiler, Binder, and Dread Necromancer are in the Magic category. Bard and Factotum are Support.

I think the revised Paladin would fit in a combination Combat/Support role. A lot of the new abilities provide protection to other characters, and this would fall into the Support classification. However, some of them are strictly offensive, like the Blade of Virtue and Scouring Light. These abilities, along with the standard combat prowess of the Paladin, place it in the Combat category.

So we can evaluate the defensive and supportive aspects of the revision according to the abilities of the Bard and Factotum, and the offensive aspects of the revision according to the abilities of Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade, Ranger, and Duskblade.

These are just my initial thoughts on how to evaluate the abilities. What follows next will be an examination of the abilities themselves, looking for comparisons between these classes, and at similar abilities using the same mechanics (lay on hands healing, burning turn undeads for X ability, etc).

edit:
Addendum: It appears that an understanding of the Factotum will be necessary, so I'll have to research that. If someone is already familiar with that class and wants to help, that would be nice.

Also, it occurred to me that some of the Devoted Spirit and White Raven maneuvers/stances could be considered Support, so the Paladins support abilities will have to be compared to those as well.