New NPC Class, the Squire! (3.5 Base Class, PEACH)

[NeoSeraphi]

The Squire

"One day, I'll ride into battle, right next to Sir Princeton. And we'll charge the enemy and I'll beat them all and be a hero!" "James, are you done polishing my lance yet?" "Y-Yes Sir Princeton! I'll bring it right to you!" - A squire, working hard to reach his goals

A knight is not born. He is made. Every man who wishes to become a knight must train under another, and that knight then teaches his squire what the knight he trained under taught him. It is an endless cycle of knowledge and tradition, but it changes too, as the world changes, so do the experiences of one knight, who passes on his new experiences to his squire, in addition to what his master taught him. And in the end, well...there is no end. That is the way of the knight.

A squire is a paladin-in-training. It is simple enough to make this class for a warrior instead. Simply remove the Holy Sword ability, and replace the Smite Evil progression with fighter bonus feats. (A squire who is training to be a warrior does not have an alignment restriction)

Alignment: Lawful Good - A squire's code is not as strict as a paladin's code, but he must still obey the law and be of a good heart, or his lord will abandon him.

HD: d8

Class Skills: The squire's class skills are Craft, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), Knowledge (Religion), Profession, and Ride.

Skill Points: 2+Int per level, x4 at 1st level

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

1st|+0|+2|+0|+0|Smite Evil 1/day

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+0|

3rd|+2|+3|+1|+1|

4th|+3|+4|+1|+1|Knight's Training

5th|+3|+4|+1|+1|Smite Evil 2/day, Paladin's Oath

6th|+4|+5|+2|+2|Holy Power +1

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

8th|+6/+1|+6|+2|+2|Improved Knight's Training

9th|+6/+1|+6|+3|+3|

10th|+7/+2|+7|+3|+3|Smite Evil 3/day

11th|+8/+3|+7|+3|+3|

12th|+9/+4|+8|+4|+4|Greater Knight's Training, Holy Power +2

13th|+9/+4|+8|+4|+4|

14th|+10/+5|+9|+4|+4|

15th|+11/+6/+1|+9|+5|+5|Smite Evil 4/day

16th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|Superior Knight's Training

17th|+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+5|

18th|+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+6|Holy Power +3

19th|+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+6|

20th|+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+6|Smite Evil 5/day, Master Knight's Training

[/table]

Class Features: The following are the class features of the squire:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Squires are proficient with simple weapons and with light armor, but not with shields.

Smite Evil (Su): As part of his dream to become a paladin, a squire is taught a very simple technique, the ability to Smite Evil. However, as the squire is young and eager to prove himself, this ability often is misused unless the squire's teacher is keeping a close watch on him. When the squire makes a melee attack roll, he may declare he is using this ability. He adds his Charisma bonus (minimum +1) to his attack roll, and adds his squire level to his damage roll. This effect only works if the creature he is attacking is evil. If the creature he attacks is not evil, the smite has no effect, and the use is wasted. At 5th level, and every 5 levels afterwards, the squire may Smite Evil one more time per day.

Knight's Training (Ex): Some day, the squire will be a fierce and noble warrior, just like the paladin he trains under. As part of his training, the squire receives proficiency with a single martial weapon at 4th level. This weapon must be the preferred weapon of choice of the paladin he trains under. (If the paladin the squire trains under uses a simple or exotic weapon, the squire gains proficiency with the longsword instead).

At 8th level, and every four levels after, the squire's training improves and his proficiencies expand.

At 8th level, the squire gains proficiency with medium armor.

At 12th level, the squire gains proficiency with bucklers, light, and heavy shields.

At 16th level, the squire gains proficiency with all martial weapons.

At 20th level, the squire gains proficiency with heavy armor.

Paladin's Oath (Ex): Starting at 5th level, the squire is ready to become a true paladin. He has trained hard and adventured with his lord for quite some time. As soon as his lord deems him ready (which may be immediately, or it may require more levels as a squire), the squire may graduate to the paladin class, instantly trading all his levels in squire for levels in paladin (a 5th level squire would become a 5th level paladin, with all the abilities and hit dice and BAB associated with it)

Holy Power (Su): The squire is not training to be a warrior or a knight. He will be a proud paladin like his lord, and even though he is not the strong fighter his lord is, his deity still takes notice of his prowess and devotion, and rewards him. Starting at level 6, the squire receives a +1 sacred bonus to all his attack and damage rolls. At 12th level, this improves to +2. At 18th level, it improves to +3.

[NeoSeraphi]

No love for the NPC paladin?

[Grod_The_Giant]

No love for the NPC paladin?

<hug> There there, Mr. Squire. Some day you'll be a hero.

I might drop the BAB to medium, and the HD to a d8. Apart from that... um... well, it looks like a good NPC class. Don't quite see the necessity for it-- most NPC paladins are probably worthy of having actual class levels-- but clearly you do, so... yeah. Don't see any real problems, though I'm amused to see that he's every bit as good at Smiting as the PHB paladin.

[NeoSeraphi]

<hug> There there, Mr. Squire. Some day you'll be a hero.

I might drop the BAB to medium, and the HD to a d8. Apart from that... um... well, it looks like a good NPC class. Don't quite see the necessity for it-- most NPC paladins are probably worthy of having actual class levels-- but clearly you do, so... yeah. Don't see any real problems, though I'm amused to see that he's every bit as good at Smiting as the PHB paladin.

Alright, I guess I can do that. And the necessity is really for the roleplaying value (The squire of the paladin shouldn't be as good as the paladin, but why would a squire of a paladin be a warrior with no divine fluff or power?)

"Every bit as good at Smiting as the PHB paladin" is kind of a weird term. See, you say "The NPC shouldn't be as good as the PC" where I say "The PC shouldn't have an ability that I can actually get away with putting in an NPC"

The problem with the squire's smite is that without detect evil or Sense Motive, he has a lot of hard times deciding what really constitutes "evil", which of course opens the door for actual Miko-like screw ups, though less dramatic (for obvious reasons that I will not spoil here)

[Grod_The_Giant]

"Every bit as good at Smiting as the PHB paladin" is kind of a weird term. See, you say "The NPC shouldn't be as good as the PC" where I say "The PC shouldn't have an ability that I can actually get away with putting in an NPC"

Well, that's why I-- and many others-- have homebrewed the crap out of the paladin. Good point about the lack of detect evil, though.

[NeoSeraphi]

Well, that's why I-- and many others-- have homebrewed the crap out of the paladin. Good point about the lack of detect evil, though.

Right. It's kind of funny. People can look at this class and go "Okay! It's in an NPC class! This is proof! We need to buff the paladin's smite!"

[Grod_The_Giant]

Right. It's kind of funny. People can look at this class and go "Okay! It's in an NPC class! This is proof! We need to buff the paladin's smite!"

Eh, if they can't tell that it's a weak feature on their own, they'll just start whining about your "overpowered" NPC class.

[NeoSeraphi]

Eh, if they can't tell that it's a weak feature on their own, they'll just start whining about your "overpowered" NPC class.

The ability to, once per day per 5 levels, be slightly less useless at combat, in exchange for forcing MAD because you need Charisma for NOTHING else, save the Handle Animal skill? Even if you have a decent NPC charisma for your level, it still probably only equates to balancing out what you'd get from a full BAB. As for the extra damage, that's nice. It's still only up to 5/day, while any half-hearted made paladin fix has upped it to at least 5+Cha mod/day.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The ability to, once per day per 5 levels, be slightly less useless at combat, in exchange for forcing MAD because you need Charisma for NOTHING else, save the Handle Animal skill? Even if you have a decent NPC charisma for various points, it still probably only equates to balancing out what you'd get from a full BAB. As for the extra damage, that's nice. It's still only up to 5/day, while any half-hearted made paladin fix has upped it to at least 5+Cha mod/day.

I 100% agree with you. Just saying.

[Saidoro]

Shouldn't a paladin in training just be a lower level paladin?

[Steward]

Shouldn't a paladin in training just be a lower level paladin?

I think the idea behind this class is that the NPC will take 20 levels of this class and at the completion s/he will be ready to take his or her first level of Paladin (or another warrior class).

[arguskos]

I don't dislike this class, but I do dislike that it's simply better than most of the other NPC classes (Adept notwithstanding, due to lolspells). I'd prefer to see either: A) this with less abilities, probably losing Holy Power and some of the Knight's Trainings, simply to pull it in line with the other NPC class, or B) better NPC classes.

Personally, I prefer B (and created a solid arcane NPC class myself once), but as it stands, this is just out-of-line enough with the other classes to make things slightly jarring for me. Not to say it's bad work though, don't get that impression.

[NeoSeraphi]

I don't dislike this class, but I do dislike that it's simply better than most of the other NPC classes (Adept notwithstanding, due to lolspells). I'd prefer to see either: A) this with less abilities, probably losing Holy Power and some of the Knight's Trainings, simply to pull it in line with the other NPC class, or B) better NPC classes.

Personally, I prefer B (and created a solid arcane NPC class myself once), but as it stands, this is just out-of-line enough with the other classes to make things slightly jarring for me. Not to say it's bad work though, don't get that impression.

Hey, better NPCs is fine with me. They should be interesting too, I think.

[The Witch-King]

I like this class and I certainly think that the idea of an evil squire serving a Blackguard, doing his mundane chores and dreaming of one day making his way up the evil food chain is webcomic worthy.

[Cieyrin]

I don't dislike this class, but I do dislike that it's simply better than most of the other NPC classes (Adept notwithstanding, due to lolspells). I'd prefer to see either: A) this with less abilities, probably losing Holy Power and some of the Knight's Trainings, simply to pull it in line with the other NPC class, or B) better NPC classes.

Personally, I prefer B (and created a solid arcane NPC class myself once), but as it stands, this is just out-of-line enough with the other classes to make things slightly jarring for me. Not to say it's bad work though, don't get that impression.

Aww, what do you have against Magewrights?

As for this, I think there should be some transition mechanic so that the Squire can finally graduate to Paladinhood when his master deems him worthy of it, since starting Squire and multiclassing into Paladinhood seems not quite right to me in graduating.

[Grod_The_Giant]

As for this, I think there should be some transition mechanic so that the Squire can finally graduate to Paladinhood when his master deems him worthy of it, since starting Squire and multiclassing into Paladinhood seems not quite right to me in graduating.

That's actually a really good point. I mean, you don't see a lot of high-level NPCs running around most campaign worlds, and almost all of those will have levels in PC classes. Perhaps give a option to "graduate" after, say, 5th level, and trade in all Squire levels for Paladin ones.

[NeoSeraphi]

Hmm...that's true...

[LibrarianHuntar]

Actually, Miko is Lawful Psychotic Self Centered. The law changes to match her state of mind. She can be a paladin because she thinks that she's Lawful Good, and thus the world shifts to accept her dementia.

[Larkas]

I thought it was a little sad that the poor squire could try all he wanted and never graduate into full paladinhood That's fully fixed now, though. Great class, and I mean it! I can picture a holy order's sanctum full of squires-in-training and a few graduated paladins teaching the ways of the faith, the good, the law and the sword. Not unlike a monk's monastery, but certainly more warlike (and, ehm, quite like the Jedi Academy ). Once again, great work, Neo