Mystic Knight [Paladin/Sorcerer Prestige Class][PEACH]

[Amoren]

Spoiler: Goal/Design Intentions

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This really stemmed out from me trying to find a way to gain a bit more paladin flavor on top of the typical paladin 2/Sorcerer gish build, and so I decided to try and make a Prestige class that properly combines these two facets together, rather than be just a slightly different, typical gish.

The main spirit I took from Paladin is that of an indomitable holy warrior that can stand to evil threats, protected by divine power so that he can dispense justice (particularly through Divine Grace, Divine Health, etc). Blending it with a sorcerer, the Mystic Knight should thus be a Paladin who blends his natural talent for spellcasting with this noble goal, and gains capabilities to help him resist the strength of magic - particularly evil magic.

I'm still on the fence on if it should have a way of blending spellcasting and melee in some respects (spell channeling? Quickened spells after striking?). But for the moment, I didn't want to make anything too over the top and be the Gish to rule them all. Maybe tie it into the Smiting Spell Metamagic feat somehow to make it slightly more usable.

Also, I'm not sure if this class should drop spellcasting progression. However, it already costs 4 caster levels to qualify for, and given that its meant to be used with a sorcerer that already puts it at barely gaining 8th level spells. If its thought to be a bit too much, dropping one or two caster levels is probably the best means of balancing.

Hit Die
1d8

Requirements

Base Attack Bonus: +4
Alignment: Any Good
Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 2 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 2 ranks.
Feats: Combat Casting
Spellcasting: Ability to spontaneously cast 1st-level arcane spells.
Special: Divine Grace
Special: Turn Undead

Class Skills
The Mystic Knight's class skills, and the key ability for each skill, are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Profession (wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points per Level
2 + Int modifier.

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special Abilities	Spellcasting
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Enspelled Smite 1/day, Expanded Knowledge (Spells), Advancement	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Mystic Defense, Detect Magic	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Expanded Knowledge (1st Level)	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Enspelled Smite 2/day, Divine Dweomer	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Improved Mystic Defense, Expanded Knowledge (2nd Level)	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
6th	+6	+5	+2	+5	Divine Defiance	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
7th	+7	+5	+2	+5	Enspelled Smite 3/day, Expanded Knowledge (3rd Level)	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
8th	+8	+6	+2	+6	Improved Divine Defiance, Arcane Sight	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
9th	+9	+6	+3	+6	Expanded Knowledge (4th Level)	+1 Spontaneous Arcane
10th	+10	+7	+3	+7	Rebuke Spell, Enspelled Smite 4/day,	+1 Spontaneous Arcane

Special Abilities

Weapon and Armor Familiarity
The Mystic Knight gains no proficiency with weapons or armor.

Spells per Day/Spells Known
At 1st level, and each level thereafter, a Mystic Knight gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in the spontaneous arcane spellcaster class he used to qualify for being a Mystic Knight. He does not, however, gain any other benefits a character of that class would have gained (familiar, metamagic or item creation feats, and so on), except for an increased effective level of spellcasting. If the Mystic Knight had more than one spontaneous arcane spellcasting class by the time he takes his 1st level in Mystic Knight, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day.

Advancement
Upon taking this prestige class the Mystic Knight can freely multiclass between Paladin, Mystic Knight and the arcane caster class he used to qualify for Mystic Knight. This ability does not recover paladin abilities that may have been lost due to failing to uphold the paladin’s code, and if the paladin falls after becoming a Mystic Knight he still loses these abilities as normal.

Enspelled Smite (Su)
Once per day, a Mystic Knight can attempt to smite an opponent with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if positive) to his attack roll and deals additional damage equal to one half the Caster Level in the spontaneous casting class he used to qualify as a Mystic Knight, to a maximum of one-half his total character level. If he uses Enspelled Smite against an evil target, the bonus damage is doubled (equal to his spontaneous arcane caster level, up to a maximum of his character level). Damage dealt by Enspelled Smite is treated as magic damage for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction. At levels 4, 7, and 10, he gains one additional usage of Enspelled Smite.

The Mystic Knight may, if he has any paladin levels, decide to convert usages of Smite Evil from his Paladin class levels to additional uses of Enspelled Smite instead. Additionally, feats and special abilities that can be applied to Smite Evil can also be applied to Enspelled Smite. He uses his caster level in place of his paladin class level for all such abilities, feats, and other effects which modify or can be used with smite evil if they are instead used on his Enspelled Smite.

Detect Magic (Sp)
At will, a Mystic Knight can use Detect Magic, as the spell. Additionally, a Mystic Knight can benefit from his Detect Evil paladin special ability, if he has it, and Detect Magic at the same time, using the same actions and concentration for both effects.

Expanded Knowledge
At 1st level, the Mystic Knight's divine task gives him insights to help use his arcane power to protect from and defeat the machination of evil spellcasters. The Mystic Knight adds the following spells at the indicated spell level to the spell list of the spontaneous arcane casting class he used to qualify for Mystic Knight. If the spontaneous arcane spellcasting class the Mystic Knight used to qualify for this class has to select known spells from its spell list he adds these spells to his list of spells known without normally using a spell known slot.

Additionally, at third level, the Mystic Knight adds the 1st level spells on the Paladin’s spell list to the spell list of the spontaneous arcane casting class that he used to qualify for this prestige class. If this class requires spells to be selected as spells known, he must still use a spell known slot to use and cast one of these 1st level Paladin spells. He casts these spells as arcane spells, and in every other way like they were normal spells on his spell list.

At 5th level, and every two levels beyond up to 9th, the Mystic Knight adds the next level of paladin spells to his class’ spell list (2nd level spells at 5, 3rd level at 7, and 4th at 9th).

1st—Protection From Evil; 2nd—Obscure Object; 3rd—Dispel Magic; 4th—Minor Globe of Invulnerability; 5th—Break Enchantment; 6th—Greater Dispel Magic; 7th—Spell Turning; 8th—Protection From Spells; 9th—Mage's Disjunction.

Mystic Defense (Su)
At second level, the Mystic Knight gains Spell Resistance equal to 12 + his spellcaster level for the spontaneous arcane spellcasting class he used to qualify for Mystic Knight. This effect is treated as being from the Abjuration school of magic, and any relevant modifiers to the Mystic Knight's spellcaster levels for the school of Abjuration applies to determine the strength of the Mystic Knight's Spell Resistance. In addition, against the effects of spells with the evil type, or spell-like effects cast by an evil Outsider, the Mystic Knight's Spell Resistance from this class feature improves by plus five.

Divine Dweomer
The Mystic Knight learns to blend her divine power and arcane magic. He may qualify for Divine feats that require a divine caster level or divine spell level cast with the arcane caster level or arcane spell level cast of the class used to qualify for the Mystic Knight instead. Additionally, your Divine feats function and work with your arcane spells, even if they could previously only be used for divine spells or for a class that granted turn undead. For example, a Mystic Knight with the Retrieve Spell Divine feat would be able to spend Turn Undead attempts on retrieving his arcane spell slots. Or he may qualify for the Divine Spell Power feat, and then apply the benefit of the modified caster level to an arcane spell, rather than a divine spell.

Improved Mystic Defense (Su)
The Mystic Knight gains greater control over his mystical defenses. He may choose to lower his Spell Resistance as a free action, rather than a standard, even outside of his turn. In addition, he can raise his spell resistance after its lowered at any time, also as a free action, rather than having to wait until the start of his next turn for it to raise again.

Divine Defiance
The Mystic Knight gains Divine Defiance (Fiendish Codex II) as a bonus feat. If he already has Divine Defiance, the Mystic Knight may instead select another divine feat that he qualifies for.

Arcane Sight (Sp)
The Mystic Knight gains the benefit of the Arcane Sight spell as a permanent effect. In addition, the Mystic Knight may concentrate on a specific creature (as per the Arcane Sight benefits) as a swift action, rather than a standard. If the Mystic Knight should lose the benefit of his Arcane Sight for any reason, it is immediately restored afterwards (however, it is repressed as normal within the confines of an Anti-Magic Field).

Improved Divine Defiance
When the Mystic Knight uses his Divine Defiance feat to counterspell a spell, he does not need to use a spell to counterspell the spell. He is treated as if he used a Greater Dispel Magic to counterspell the spell (requiring a caster level check as per normal). He may decide to not take advantage of this benefit at the time of using Divine Defiance, if he so wishes.

Rebuke Spell (Ex)
When the Mystic Knight successfully counterspells a spell with his Divine Defiance feat, or a single target spell fails to penetrate his spell resistance, he can seize control and redirect the magical energies as a free action. The Mystic Knight can choose to redirect the spell to any target or area within range of the spell's original casting range. The spell retains the same saving throw modifier, caster level, and other relevant details that it had when it was cast (or would have been cast) by the original spellcaster. A Mystic Knight must be aware of a spell or effect at its time of casting to take advantage of this effect (thus a hidden opponent who fails to penetrate the Mystic Knight's spell resistance cannot have his spell Rebuked against himself).

Spoiler: Change Log/Revision History

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• Changed Paladin Advancement to work with any spontaneous arcane caster that enters this class, not just sorcerer.
• Remembered to add Divine Dweomer, an ability that allows many spell-focused divine spells to be used with the Mystic Knight's arcane casting.
• Made Enspelled Smite attacks count as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction, because it made sense.
  13th of August, 2014;
• Mystic Spell renamed to Expanded Knowledge in line with similar effects from other classes.
• Divine Dweomer moved to level 4 in place of Turn Spell.
• Turn Spell tweaked. Turn Spell is now replaced by granting the Divine Defiance feat (FCII) as a bonus feat, as it is similar to the intent of the ability.
• Improved Turn Spell has become Improved Divine Defiance, and improves the effects of the Divine Defiance feat.
• Prerequisite changed to requiring Divine Grace, rather than Divine Health, as Divine Grace is more thematic of the paladin class, especially its resilience against 'arcane' threats, which is a major focus of this class. Now a Mystic Knight could technically qualify with only two paladin levels, allowing builds that could potentially retain 9th level spells (Paladin 2|Sorcerer X|Sacred Exorcist 1, for example), which may make balancing trickier, but shouldn't be too far out of hand (hopefully).
• Arcane Sight granted by the class gains the ability to study a creature with Arcane Sight as a swift, rather than standard action.
• Advancement dropped, save for allowing the character to freely multi-class (the Mystic Knight is given plenty of abilities to help blend the idea of a Paladin and Spellcaster together now without relying upon advancing paladin features on top of those).
• Modeled Mystic Defense after the Spell Resistance spell (since most of the Mystic Knight's class features advance by spellcaster level, and it fit). Additionally, Improved Mystic Defense allows the Mystic Knight to drop and raise his spell resistance as a free action, even outside of his turn.
• The former benefits of Improved Turn Spell have been rolled into the new Rebuke Spell capstone ability.

[Thealtruistorc]

This is quite frankly really cool, and I would definitely play this in a game. However, it needs something that allows it to cast in armor, as I've never met a paladin with anything less than a breastplate.

[Adam1949]

A couple of concerns.

First, as the other person mentioned, there's no effective way to cast in armor.
Secondly, the current prerequisites allow Warmages and Beguilers to enter as well. Granted, it obviously wouldn't be as effective with them as opposed to the sorcerer, but the fact remains that the class ability that lets you staple Mystic Knight, Paladin, and Sorcerer together does nothing for the alternate routes of entering.

[Amoren]

That was a good catch, changed Paladin Advancement to tie together Paladin, Mystic Knight, and the spontaneous arcane caster class used to qualify instead. Its mainly intended for sorcerer, but battle mage could be an effective and flavorful substitute (and I suppose beguilers could make for an interesting concept as well!).

I'm on the fence about adding the arcane spellcasting in armor. On one hand, I definitely agree that heavy shield and heavy armor is a typical paladin motiff, but on the other most other gish prestige classes lack such an ability, and going into battle relying upon spells to protect them is also a very flavorful aspect. I'll think about it and then try to find some way to flavorfully add it in if a big enough demand and/or inspiration hits me.

[toapat]

This is quite frankly really cool, and I would definitely play this in a game. However, it needs something that allows it to cast in armor, as I've never met a paladin with anything less than a breastplate.

If Miko was optimized, shes running the base for Wisadin. The build that Keys off wisdom in combat except for Damage and HP. (Ascetic Knight + Serenity makes an interesting class. too bad you cant use one of those as a Monk bonus feat)

This is a rather interesting class, but actually completing a build with it is quite difficult. i think id personally Combine it with Swiftblade

[Amoren]

Hey everyone, I've made a... not so small list of changes to this prestige class after some distance and additional thought. A hopefully full list of which should be in the change log at the bottom.

Particularly, Spell Resistance was change from 15 + Mystic Knight class level to 12 + (Abjuration) arcane spellcasting at its base, as many of the class' benefits scaled with the spontaneous spellcasting level (that and it now mimics the Spell Resistance spell, neat). In addition, an ability gained later on ensures that the Mystic Knight's spell resistance will not prevent his allies from aiding him, if he so wished.

The old Turn Spell abilities were scrapped, and instead the Mystic Knight gains the Divine Defiance feat (Fiendish Codex II), since it described quite well the intent for the ability before. Improved Divine Deviance now improves the feat at a later level to allow the Mystic Knight to not use a spell to counterspell, and instead treat it as if he was counterspelling the spell with Improved Dispel Magic, if he so wished. The capstone was changed to Rebuke Spell, and mirrors what Improved Turn Spell did; allowing a Mystic Knight to freely redirect a spell he successfully counterspelled to where he wishes (and now also works with his spell resistance!).

Paladin class feature advancement was dropped, in light of fleshing out the Mystic Knight levels (and since Aura of Good and Lay on Hands didn't quite flush with the idea of a paladin-mage who defends against magic, in specific). Smite Evil may still be traded in for Enspell Smite, as per normal.

Mystic Spell Knowledge renamed to Expanded Knowledge (like most other class features that grant additional spells). In addition to incrementally adding the paladin spell list to the spontaneous arcane spell caster used, it now also grants spells to the enterer's arcane spell list, or in the case of the Sorcerer (and other 'know spell' casters), adds those spells for free to their spell known list. I figure this will be fun for other spontaneous arcane caster Mystic Knights to retain much of the prestige class' focus on fighting magic, even if they don't have some of the iconic abjuration spells to fulfill this focus (and be a nice boon for Sorcerors).

A few other touch ups were allowing the Mystic Knight to use the study action of Arcane Sight as a swift, rather than standard, action, and changing the prerequisite from Lawful Good to Good (so Paladin of Freedoms may qualify), and Divine Health to Divine Grace (as Divine Grace focused on the protection from magic/evil aspect of the concept more, although it does now allow for builds with 9th level spellcasting... I'm hoping that wouldn't make things too out of line, but it would be easy enough to remove a spellcaster level gained to compensate if it proved too much.

Anyway, always welcome for additional input and recommendations for tweaking this prestige class around!

[jiriku]

It's nicely constructed, and very thematic. I do worry that losing a mere two caster levels is an insufficient price, considering the bonus spells known, d8 hit die, full base attack, two good saves, and large array of new class features.

[Amoren]

It's nicely constructed, and very thematic. I do worry that losing a mere two caster levels is an insufficient price, considering the bonus spells known, d8 hit die, full base attack, two good saves, and large array of new class features.

That's what I'm thinking as well. The sort of point I was balancing for was the assumption that 4 spell levels were lost (Going paladin 4/Sorcerer 1, which is the most straight forward entry). The two levels lost belongs to using Paladin 2/Sorcerer 10/Sacred Exorcist 1 as an entry method.

Actually, that may be alright. You need 10 levels of sorcerer casting to qualify for Sacred Exorcist (because of the dismissal spell requirement), and two levels of Paladin. Which means that that entry method would only be able to attain 8 levels of Mystic Knight, and do so late in its progression. Either way, it'll miss arguably the class' best ability (Rebuke Spells) and fourth level paladin spells. I'm not exactly sure if that would be balanced or not still.

I wonder if ninth level spells would be worth it compared to a, say, Paladin 4/Sorcerer 1/Mystic Knight 10/Abjurant Champion 5?

[Darkweave31]

I understand you have a specific class combination in mind, but why not expand it to any arcane caster. While less common due to MAD issues, why couldn't a wizard become a mystic knight?

[Amoren]

I understand you have a specific class combination in mind, but why not expand it to any arcane caster. While less common due to MAD issues, why couldn't a wizard become a mystic knight?

Possible, the original idea revolved around the idea of someone combining a paladin's duty and drive with the innate power of a sorcerer behind him, but then it was expanded to allow other spontaneous arcane casters who, at least if I recall for the Warmage and Beguiler, represent something more along the lines of narrow focus and specialized training.

I'll keep it in mind for the future, at least. :)

[AttilaTheGeek]

I love the concept, but some of the class features don't seem to make sense with the concept. Why, for example, give Spell Resistance and permanent Arcane Sight instead of, say, permanent Protection from Evil or advancing Lay on Hands?

[Dyhmas]

I love the concept, but some of the class features don't seem to make sense with the concept. Why, for example, give Spell Resistance and permanent Arcane Sight instead of, say, permanent Protection from Evil or advancing Lay on Hands?

Well, I suppose it may be because none of those abilities are specially good against Evil Casters? I mean, try and picture this class as a Paladin of Mystra, hunting evil sorcerers and whatnot. Altough Lay on Hands and PfE can be usefull, I think the abilities given are much better and more versatile.

[Amoren]

I love the concept, but some of the class features don't seem to make sense with the concept. Why, for example, give Spell Resistance and permanent Arcane Sight instead of, say, permanent Protection from Evil or advancing Lay on Hands?

Until the edit a few days ago, the prestige class did advance the progression of lay on hands, aura of good, and, if the paladin had it before entering, Special Mount. But as I tweaked things, added things, and moved things around, I felt more like it was tacked on, as the class moved more from an arcane-paladin mixture, into a spell-blessed paladin equipped to protect and fight those who abuse and use magic to harm others. That, and given the wealth of abilities on top, I felt that advancing the abilities of the paladin may have been a bit too much on top of that.

I could give it a thought,though. Maybe perhaps shift or change some class features to rely upon lay on hands in some thought. But it'll be on the back burner, as this class is already pretty full of features.

In the mean time though, I think I'm going to write up some sample NPCs for use with this class, and sort of sketch out how it performs. Probably one at level 10, another at 15, and finally one at 20.