Paladin

Details

Category: RPG Classes

Published on Friday, 19 February 2010 05:00

Written by Charles Wenzler

Alignment: The paladin's alignment must be lawful good. Characters that select the Heretic of the Faith Feat at 1st level and take their first level in paladin may choose to be Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good.

Hit Die: d10

Class Skills

Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks Per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

		Fort	Ref	Will
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Save	Save	Save	Special Abilities
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Holy Warrior
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Divine Grace, Smite Evil 1/Day
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Aura of Courage, Divine Health
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Channel Domain, Divine Resolve
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Divine Radiance, Seraphic Strike
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Divine Tools, Smite Evil 2/Day
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5	Inspired Strike, Mercy
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Aura of Justice
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Mercy
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Smite Evil 3/Day
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7	Familiarity With Magic
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Mercy
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8	Sacrosanct Spirit
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Smite Evil 4/Day
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Mercy
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Aura of Righteousness
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Aura of Penance
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Mercy
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Aura of Negation
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Holy Champion

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Paladins are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Aura of Good (Ex): The power of a paladin’s aura of good (see the detect good spell) is equal to her paladin level.

Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a paladin can use detect evil, as the spell. A paladin can, as a move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet and determine if it is evil, learning the strength of its aura as if having studied it for 3 rounds. While focusing on one individual or object, the paladin does not detect evil in any other object or individual within range.

Holy Warrior (Su): At 1st level the paladin is proficient with her deity's favored weapon. In addition, whenever the paladin wields her deity's favored weapon it is treated as if it were made of cold iron.

Divine Grace (Su): At 2nd level, a paladin gains a sacred bonus equal to her Charisma modifier on all saving throws.

Smite Evil (Su): At 2nd level the paladin can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil once per day. As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.

The smite evil effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the paladin rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 6th level and at every four levels thereafter the paladin may smite evil one additional time per day.

Spells: Beginning at 6th level, a paladin gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells which are drawn from the paladin spell list presented in Chapter 10 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. A paladin must choose and prepare her spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, a paladin must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a paladin’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the paladin’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a paladin can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on her class table below. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table 1–3 in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook).

The paladin must spend 1 hour each day in quiet prayer and meditation to regain her daily allotment of spells. A paladin may prepare and cast any spell on the paladin spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.

Through 5th level, a paladin has no caster level. At 6th level and higher, her caster level is equal to her paladin level - 5.

	Spells Per Day
Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1st	-	-	-	-
2nd	-	-	-	-
3rd	-	-	-	-
4th	-	-	-	-
5th	-	-	-	-
6th	2	-	-	-
7th	3	-	-	-
8th	3	-	-	-
9th	4	2	-	-
10th	4	3	-	-
11th	4	3	-	-
12th	5	4	2	-
13th	5	4	3	-
14th	5	4	3	-
15th	5	5	4	2
16th	6	5	4	3
17th	6	5	4	3
18th	6	5	5	4
19th	6	6	5	4
20th	6	6	5	5

Aura of Courage (Su): At 3rd level the paladin is immune to all fear effects (magical or otherwise). Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. This ability functions only while the paladin is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.

Divine Health (Ex): At 3rd level, a paladin is immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.

Channel Domain (Su): At 4th level the paladin chooses one domain from the deity she venerates. She gains all the powers associated with the domain and when she gains the ability to cast spells she adds the domains spells to her spell list. The paladin's effective cleric level for determining the effects of the powers associated with the domain is equal to her paladin level -3.

Divine Resolve (Ex): At 4th level the paladin becomes immune to charm spells and spell-like abilities.

Divine Radiance (Su): At 4th level the paladin can imbue her weapon with divine light, having it emit a radiance equal to a torch. Upon reaching 13th level the light shed is equivalent to a daylight spell. There is no limitation to the amount of times this ability can be used and it can be activated or deactivated as an immediate action.

Seraphic Strike (Su): When wielding your deitys' favored weapon it is treated as if it has the holy magic weapon special ability (see the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Chapter 15).

Divine Tools: At 6th level the paladin gains Divine Channeling and Healing Touch as bonus feats.

Inspired Strike (Su): As a free action the paladin can expend one of her daily uses of divine channeling to imbue her weapon with divine power. The weapon gains an magical enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls equal to the highest level spell she can cast + her Wisdom modifier +1.

Mercy: At 7th level and again at 9th and then every three levels thereafter, the paladin gains Mercy as a bonus feat.

Aura of Justice (Su): At 8th level, a paladin can expend two uses of her smite evil ability to grant the ability to smite evil to all allies within 10 feet, using her bonuses. Allies must use this smite evil ability by the start of the paladin’s next turn and the bonuses last for 1 minute. Using this ability is a free action. Evil creatures gain no benefit from this ability.

Familiarity With Magic (Ex): At 11th level the paladin gains a +2 competence bonus to all saving throws against spells, spell-like and supernatural abilities (including magic items). Further, she gains a +2 competence bonus to her AC against spells requiring attack rolls.

Sacrosanct Spirit (Su): At 13th level the paladin gains spell resistance equal to her class level +10.

Aura of Righteousness (Su): At 16th level the paladin gains DR 5/evil and immunity to compulsion spells and spell-like abilities. Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against compulsion effects. This ability functions only while the paladin is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.

Aura of Penance (Su): At 17th level the paladin can make other creatures pay for past misdeeds regardless of their alignment once per day; as a swift or immediate action she can choose to make all opponents within 10 feet of her evil for purposes of smite evil and other effects that affect evil creatures. This aura lasts for a number of rounds equal to the paladin’s level. This ability functions only while the paladin is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.

Aura of Negation (Su): At 19th level the paladin can create an anti-magic aura as per the spell anti-magic field to a range of 10 feet that negates all evil spells and effects, and spell-like and supernatural abilities of evil creatures for a number of rounds equal to her class level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Activating this ability is a free action. This ability functions only while the paladin is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.

Holy Champion (Su): At 20th level, a paladin becomes a conduit for the power of her deity. Her DR increases to 10/ evil. Whenever she uses smite evil and successfully strikes an evil outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment, using her paladin level as the caster level (her weapon and holy symbol automatically count as objects that the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. In addition as long as the paladin is conscious she can never be disarmed if she wields her deity's favored weapon. Also, this weapon can't be damaged or affected by dispel magic as long as it is on her person.

Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment (unless she has the Heretic of the Faith feat) and loses all class features except proficiencies if she ever willingly commits an evil act.

Additionally, a paladin’s code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth), help those in need (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those who harm or threaten innocents.

Associates: While she may adventure with good or neutral allies, a paladin avoids working with evil characters or with anyone who consistently offends her moral code. Under exceptional circumstances, a paladin can ally with evil associates, but only to defeat what she believes to be a greater evil. A paladin should seek an atonement spell periodically during such an unusual alliance, and should end the alliance immediately should she feel it is doing more harm than good. A paladin may only accept henchmen, followers, or cohorts that are lawful good unless they have the Heretic of the Faith feat; these paladins must have followers that match their alignment.

Ex-Paladins

A paladin that strays from their alignment, willfully commits an evil act, or that violates the code of conduct loses all paladin spells and class features (but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She may not progress any further in levels as a paladin. She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she atones for her violations (see the atonement spell description in Chapter 10 of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook), as appropriate.

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