[Variant]Paladin of Enforcement

[mikeejimbo]

"I am the Law"

This is an alignment variant of the standard paladin. It has the same hit dice, weapon and armor proficiencies, spells per day, and skill list. Spellcasting works exactly the same, except the spell list is slightly different.

Paladin of Enforcement
{table=head]Level|Ability
1st|Aura of Law, Detect Chaos, Smite Chaos 1/day
2nd|Divine Grace, Lawful Touch
3rd|Imposing Aura, Divine Health
4th|-
5th|Smite Chaos 2/day, special mount
6th|Hold Person 1/day
7th|-
8th|Bonus Feat
9th|Hold Person 2/day
10th|Smite Chaos 3/day
11th|-
12th|Hold Person 3/day
13th|-
14th|Hold Person 4/day, Smite Chaos 4/day
15th|-
16th|Bonus Feat
17th|-
18th|Hold Person 5/day
19th|-
20th|Smite Chaos 5/day [/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies
The Paladin of Enforcement is proficient with everything a standard Paladin is. Additionally, a Paladin of Enforcement is proficient at dealing non-lethal damage, and thus does not take the usual -4 to hit when attempting to deal non-lethal damage. Additionally, he receives a +2 when using a weapon that normally deals non-lethal damage, including his fist.

Class Skills
Add Use Rope (Dex) to the list of class skills for a Paladin of Enforcement. (Used mainly for tying up unruly prisoners)

Aura of Law (Ex)
The power of a Paladin of Enforcement's Aura of Law is equal to his Paladin of Enforcement level.

Detect Chaos (Sp)
At will, a Paladin of Enforcement can use detect chaos, as per the spell.

Smite Chaos (Su)
The Paladin of Enforcement may attempt to smite chaos with one normal melee attack. The ability is otherwise identical to the standard paladin's ability to smite evil.'

Special Mount (Sp)
At 5th level, a Paladin of Enforcement gains the ability to summon a mount. This works like the standard Paladin's ability.

Lawful Touch (Su)
This works like the standard paladin's lay on hands, but rather heals Lawful creatures and damages Chaotic Creatures. Neutral creatures are unaffected.

Imposing Aura (Su)
Beginning at 3rd level, a Paladin of Enforcement is immune to compulsion effects. All chaotic creatures within 10 ft are subject to the effects of the fear spell, with the caster level equal to the number of levels in Paladin of Enforcement.

Hold Person (Sp)
Beginning at 6th level, a Paladin of Enforcement may use hold person, as the spell, once per day. This improves as his Paladin of Enforcement level increases. There is one caveat to this hold person spell: If the target is dealt lethal damage, the spell is broken.

The effective caster level is equal to half the Paladin's levels in Paladin of Enforcement, rounded down. The save DC is 10 + 1/2 the Paladin's levels in Paladin of Enforcement + the Paladin's Wisdom Modifier.

Bonus Feat
At 8th and 16th level, a Paladin of Enforcement gets a bonus feat. This may be any feat for which they qualify.

Spellcasting

1st—bless, bane, cause fear, command, create water, cure light wounds, detect poison, divine favor, endure elements, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, protection from chaos, read magic, remove fear, resistance, sanctuary, virtue; 2nd—align weapon, bull's strength, calm emotions, cure moderate wounds, darkness, delay poison, eagle's splendor, inflict moderate wounds, owl's wisdom, resist energy, zone of truth; 3rd—blindness/deafness, cure serious wounds, deeper darkness, dispel magic, greater magic weapon, heal mount, prayer, inflict serious wounds, magic circle against chaos, remove blindness/deafness, remove curse; 4th—break enchantment, cure critical wounds, death ward, dispel chaos, inflict critical wounds, mark of justice, neutralize poison, break enchantment

Code of Conduct
A Paladin of Enforcement must be of Lawful Neutral alignment and loses all class abilities if he evil willingly commits an unlawful act. Additionally, a Paladin of Enforcement's code of conduct requires that he respect legitimate authority and uphold the law, as well as punish those who break the law.

Associates
A Paladin of Enforcement may adventure with characters of any alignment, provided that he metes out the proper punishment if he catches any of them breaking the Law. He may only accept henchmen, followers or cohorts who are Lawful.

A note on the Law: The particular Law the Paladin of Enforcement enforces may vary. It is either decided by the god(s) he gets his powers from, or a government.

Edit: Whoops, I meant to say chaotic creatures are affected by Imposing Aura.

[Indon]

Does "Turn Chaos" work on anything with a chaotic alignment, or anything with the chaotic _subtype_? Because, it strikes me that turning anything that is chaotic is _really_ powerful, and turning only things with the chaotic subtype is _really_ circumstancial.

So, I'd propose chaotic outsiders and abberations. Are there chaotic elementals?

[Orzel]

I like it.

I asked a DM if I could play a character like this once. He denied with a flying pizza. It's not my fault 3/4 of the remaining bad guys were chaotic.

Kopper Shieldson was never born.

The associate part made me laugh.

[MandibleBones]

Personally, I'd just say Abberations, actually. Good Paladins can't turn Evil Outsiders, why should Law Paladins turn Chaotics?

LPs turn Abberations, and should someone create a Chaos Paladin, let them rebuke/command Abberations.

[dead_but_dreaming]

Interesting. It seems to me that a paladin thought-virus is raging on the boards lately. I like the class but I really think that there should be a generic class for warriors devoted to an ideal or alignment, like that guy from Arcana Unearthed.

[mikeejimbo]

Does "Turn Chaos" work on anything with a chaotic alignment, or anything with the chaotic _subtype_? Because, it strikes me that turning anything that is chaotic is _really_ powerful, and turning only things with the chaotic subtype is _really_ circumstancial.

So, I'd propose chaotic outsiders and abberations. Are there chaotic elementals?

I actually was not happy with the idea of Turn Chaos in general, as you said. But wouldn't chaotic outsiders and abberations also be too circumstantial?

[Roderick_BR]

Nice. I like how you changed enough powers so it doesn't look like just a chaos based paladin. Hmm... Maybe you should change the turn power to something else.

[mikeejimbo]

Nice. I like how you changed enough powers so it doesn't look like just a chaos based paladin. Hmm... Maybe you should change the turn power to something else.

Also something I'm willing to do, but what would you suggest?

Wait, I had an idea! I was going to add this anyway. I was thinking an ability that effectively gives them proficiency in dealing non-lethal damage. They wouldn't get the -4 for trying it, and if they were using a weapon that normally does it, they get a +2 or something.

[mikeejimbo]

For some more fluff, I thought I would post examples of how this Paladin can still have a personality and be Lawful Neutral. Let's say your kingdom has a law that you have to put coin into a meter to park your horse downtown, and you have two minutes left. A nice Paladin of Enforcement might pop in a silver piece and then find you and charge you one silver, while a cruel one would simply wait and then give you a 50 gold fine. This doesn't necessarily make them good or evil, although they are good and evil acts. That's because I envision the same two Paladins acting similarly upholding an evil law. Assume there's a law that says you have to sacrifice 10 children a year, and it's the last day of the year and you've only sacrificed nine. The first Paladin, who plugged the meter for you, would find you a child for you to sacrifice, while the second Paladin, who fined you, would wait a day and then dish out whatever punishment was necessary.

[Indon]

What do LN paladins do in a civil war?

[Scorpina]

Fight for whichever side the established government is on, in most cases, I would think.

[Roderick_BR]

I guess you can imagine him as some sort of military person. He upholds the law, even if sometimes it causes not-as-good effects. He may even not like it, but he "believes in the system". With the default deities from Player's Handbook, he'd follow St. Cuthbert.

[Serenity]

Can you say Rorschach, anybody?

[Roderick_BR]

Or Judge Dreed :p

[Kish]

Personally, I'd just say Abberations, actually. Good Paladins can't turn Evil Outsiders, why should Law Paladins turn Chaotics?

LPs turn Abberations, and should someone create a Chaos Paladin, let them rebuke/command Abberations.

That would create the weird situation where the obsessively lawful ones turn or destroy illithids while the chaotic ones rebuke or command them. There's nothing particularly chaotic (or linked to any alignment except maybe evil) about aberrations.

[Dawnstrider_Moogle]

Also something I'm willing to do, but what would you suggest?

Wait, I had an idea! I was going to add this anyway. I was thinking an ability that effectively gives them proficiency in dealing non-lethal damage. They wouldn't get the -4 for trying it, and if they were using a weapon that normally does it, they get a +2 or something.

That'd be a pretty good idea, since presumably they want to turn in criminals to the proper authorities or agencies or whatever for sentencing.

Something to think about is, what motivation would these guys have for doing the traditional dungeon crawl? I can imagine that they would be interesting in converting your typical monster-infested hole into a prison because those of nearby cities are overflowing with criminals, or something. Hey, maybe that would be this character's dream - some PCs get their own castles and fiefdoms to reign over and use as a base for adventures. Instead of wanting to become a lord, he'd want to be a warden of a D&D version of Alcatraz or something.

[mikeejimbo]

I've decided I'm going to get rid of the Turn Chaos, replace it with proficiency in dealing non-lethal damage, and up the Hold Person uses to daily. Any objections?

Or Judge Dreed :p

And yes, this was pretty much the inspiration. As you surely guessed.

[Proven_Paradox]

That many daily Hold Persons might be a bit much, I think. I have no problem with daily uses of it, but I think if you do you should slow the progression somewhat.

And wow, look at all those dead levels after sixth. I might start with this class, but as is I would PrC out of it ASAP. I'd say either spread out the low-level abilities a little more and/or add some more class features. I kinda think the latter already, as I think he seems underpowered. Maybe not if you left a whole bunch of hold persons in, but really I'd rather play an arcane caster if I wanted to cast that spell a lot. Also, if you ever want people to take this guy to level 20, you're going to have to come up with a better cap than "extra smite/day."

[mikeejimbo]

That many daily Hold Persons might be a bit much, I think. I have no problem with daily uses of it, but I think if you do you should slow the progression somewhat.

And wow, look at all those dead levels after sixth. I might start with this class, but as is I would PrC out of it ASAP. I'd say either spread out the low-level abilities a little more and/or add some more class features. I kinda think the latter already, as I think he seems underpowered. Maybe not if you left a whole bunch of hold persons in, but really I'd rather play an arcane caster if I wanted to cast that spell a lot. Also, if you ever want people to take this guy to level 20, you're going to have to come up with a better cap than "extra smite/day."

Well, bear in mind that this is based directly off of the Paladin and Paladin variants. They have just as many dead levels, and I'm not sure I care if they don't take it up to level 20.

Anyway, I updated a bit.

[mikeejimbo]

That many daily Hold Persons might be a bit much, I think. I have no problem with daily uses of it, but I think if you do you should slow the progression somewhat.

And wow, look at all those dead levels after sixth. I might start with this class, but as is I would PrC out of it ASAP. I'd say either spread out the low-level abilities a little more and/or add some more class features. I kinda think the latter already, as I think he seems underpowered. Maybe not if you left a whole bunch of hold persons in, but really I'd rather play an arcane caster if I wanted to cast that spell a lot. Also, if you ever want people to take this guy to level 20, you're going to have to come up with a better cap than "extra smite/day."

Haven't come up with a good capstone and haven't changed the Hold Person usage progression (instead I changed the Hold Person effect: It acts like the spell except if you deal lethal damage to them, which ends it. Still plenty of time to go tie them up, beat them with non-lethal damage, or Coup de Grace them, though.)

To get rid of all those dead levels, I added in Bonus Feats at 8th and 16th. That way, there are no two dead levels in a row. Also, it sets the precedent that if you go into epic levels, you get another at 24th.

[Captain van der Decken]

You haven't added in a description of Special Mount.

Pretty good. I like Imposing Aura.

[Mewtarthio]

What's Hold Person's caster level? DC?

[mikeejimbo]

You haven't added in a description of Special Mount..

What's Hold Person's caster level? DC?

Oh yes, haha, I did forget those details, thank you for reminding me.

[Mewtarthio]

Wow. That's a low DC. 10 + Wis? Shouldn't you at least include a "+ 1/2 class level" or something in there?

[mikeejimbo]

Wow. That's a low DC. 10 + Wis? Shouldn't you at least include a "+ 1/2 class level" or something in there?

Yeah, I was thinking of that, but then, isn't a Paladin's spellcasting only half her class level? So shouldn't it be 10 + Wis + 1/4 class level? Or would the balance be fine if it was 10 + Wis + 1/2 class level?

[Proven_Paradox]

I'd say the original paladin could use some work too, but we've already got a thread for that. Regardless, the bonus feats help the class look a bit more appealing.

Anyway, with the newly added and very flavorful limit to the Hold Person feature, I think 1/2 class level would be okay. With just wisdom, the DC is far too low to ever be any use. 1/4 class level might be okay, but with the no-lethal-damage limit you've placed on it, I think you can add a bit more power to it.

[Balesirion]

I really like this idea, though what I would eventually like to see would be someone making a NG paladin variant.

[mikeejimbo]

I really like this idea, though what I would eventually like to see would be someone making a NG paladin variant.

Go for it!

Also, anyone think this needs anything added?

[Wardog]

What do LN paladins do in a civil war?

All else being equal, probably side with the government.

An exception would probably be if it was the excessive corruption (or general disorganisation and incompetance) of the government that had triggered the civil war, and the "rebellion" was an attempt to creat a properly ordered society.

[mikeejimbo]

Pretty much that's what I was thinking.

Other than that, any questions?