Paladin

HP Per Level: 10.

Keywords: Paladin, Martial, Holy.

Paladins are warriors who fight against corruption and unholy beings in all their forms. The nobility of their purpose supernaturally empowers their actions. They are paragons who seek to decrease suffering in the world, even if that means smiting a few sinners along the way.

• Weapons
  • All Simple Weapons (Professional)
  • All Martial Weapons (Professional)
• Defense: Exceptional
  • Armors: Light, Medium, Heavy
• Saves
  • Fortitude Save (Professional)
  • Reflex Save (Skilled)
  • Will Save (Skilled)
• Option: You may change your Will Save to Professional. In exchange your Fortitude Save changes to Skilled.
• Bonus Language: Exalted.
• Oaths: You must additionally swear to follow “The Canticles”, a chivalric text that dictates how an honorable person should act.

You are Professional in 1 of the following skills: Animal Husbandry, Athletics, Investigation, Medicine, or Politique. Additionally, you are Professional with Religion.

The Canticles are the written form of an ancient hymn. It lays out how an honorable warrior should conduct themselves. They are a moral parable that describes the journey of Sir Silmadil, an ancient knight who encounters many challenges at the hands of their king who is testing their loyalty. Some of the most important aspects are:

• Give up your life before your honor.
• Suffer no unholy abominations to live and, with pity, lay the undead back to rest.
• Honor, then victory. (HOW you win is more important than IF you win.)
• Honor your oaths once they’ve been made.
• Honor your rightful rulers, their laws, and their peace. Suffer not tyrants or the corrupt to rule.
• Honor your heart’s true morality.
• Find your calling in life and follow it with all your passion.
• Respect your peers, offer charity to your lessers, and venerate your betters.
• A fast resolution to a fight is more noble than protracted suffering.

Morality is only black and white to the fools.

Benefit: Once per short rest, you may designate a creature that is not a valid target for your smite class feature to become a valid target for smite for 1 minute. This ability implies some level of discretion and if you abuse it you may find yourself violating the oath to follow The Canticles.

Divine wrath, the power of the Divine Tempest focused by your will, is channeling into your every blow. Woe to those with wicked hearts, for they shall fall before you.

Benefit: When you hit a single target with the Unholy and/or Corrupt keyword, you can choose to gain a bonus on that damage roll equal to your level. This bonus damage is divine damage. Striking such a foe causes a small burst of holy light.

• Boost: You can spend a Hero Dice upon successfully hitting a valid target of your smite to deal Absolute Damage instead of your normal damage.

• “Hit”: Hitting a target means any effect that involves an attack roll, including spells that require a Spellcasting roll to hit.
• Single Target: This is a single target effect and does not work in conjunction with area of effects, even if they normally involve an attack roll.

Benefit: You select your paladin order at 1st level.

The Knight-Errant is a great choice for those who do not want to be tied to a specific order.

“The wicked cannot hide from my sight.”

Benefit: You gain Pinpoint (Unholy) and Detect (Corrupt). This offers no special insight into what they are suffering from or if they are simply Unholy and/or Corrupt.

“Hands that destroy must be equally skilled at healing if one wants to walk a just path.”

Benefit: Once per short rest, you may take an action to touch an adjacent ally or yourself. This restores them to 1/2 their total hit points value (rounded up) if they were below that.

• Boost: You can spend a Hero Dice to use Lay on Hands additional times per short rest.

Your dedication and the power of the divine shield you from mortal ailments.

Benefit: You are immune to poisons, diseases, and corruption effects.

“I walk in the light and fear not the darkness.”

Benefit: You have an Absolute AC against attacks made by valid targets of your smite.

Holy and unholy creatures are beings conceived for a specific purpose by the universe: angels, devils, etc. They lack the free will mortals enjoy and are thus slavishly tied to a certain morality and have a specific purpose, even if that purpose is simply to follow the commands of a specific part of the divine tempest. While a dwarf can choose to do good or evil deeds, a devil cannot as they are beings literally the physical manifestation of evil. Such creatures that are good-aligned are known as “holy” creatures while those conceived of evil are “unholy” creatures. Such beings are often jealous and resentful of the free will being a mortal brings and this has been the subject of more than one poem or epic song. Mechanically this means creatures with the “holy” or “unholy” keyword.

The danger of corruption is great, and even the purest soul may tarnish and corrode to reveal the darkest heart. The Grey Guardian are the ones who watch the watchmen; waiting to see if good men fail in their moral duties, and striking down those who hide behind a shield of false purity. Some churches will employ Grey Guardians as inquisitors to police the faithful, and not even the Grey Guardians themselves are safe from their brother’s watchful eyes.

Oath: “I shall watch the watchmen and be there to punish good people when they fall.”

Smite Targets: Your smite also affects creatures with the Holy keyword.

• Inquisitor (13th level): You become Exceptional in Investigation if you were not already.
• Hidden Presence (8th level): Choose one keyword that applies to you. Detect and Pinpoint effects that sense this keyword don’t detect your presence. You may change what keyword this is after a long rest.
• Judgment (13th level): Using 1 action, you can use Discern Oath as an innate (Investigation) spell against a touched creature.
• Shades of Gray (18th level): With an ancient and terrible practice known only to the gray guardians you may temporarily free yourself from your oaths. Once per long rest, as a free action you can enter a state of moral ambiguity for 1 minute. While active this allows you to take any action without violating an oath. You must live with the consequences of your actions afterwards however…

Some paladins eschew the formal call of an order and instead dedicated themselves to a more private divine calling. These are the self-trained knights, the barely trained at all, or, those guided by divine visions. Referred to as “Knight-Errants”, “Bogatyr”, or even “Ronin”, they wander on a personal crusade against evil and corruption. Many a tale has been told of these knights, with famous ones becoming culture heroes in their own right.

Oath: Knights-Errant swear to a personal code of conduct, in addition to The Canticles. Discuss with your GM and come up with a new oath that you must follow that reflects your journey/ideology as a paladin.

Smite Targets: Select a specific creature type or keyword (such as “animal”, “undead”, or “monster”). This is now a valid target for your smite ability. Please discuss with your GM to come up with a thematically relevant creature type.

Special: Unlike other “orders” you select one of the following abilities at 3rd, 8th, 13th, and 18th level. You cannot select any option more than once unless it expressly says so.

• Banner of Peace: You gain a free Hero Dice on attempts to improve a creature’s attitude towards you.
• Dedication & Skill: Select a skill that most reflects the oath you created with your GM. You become Professional with that skill. If there is no particularly relevant skill, you should select one from the list of paladin skills.
• Feat: You gain a feat in lieu of an order ability. You must meet the prerequisites. This may be taken multiple times.
• Pray For Guidance: You gain foresight as an innate spell (Religion) usable once per long rest, requiring a 1-minute ritual prayer to cast.
• Selfless Hands: You can use your Lay on Hands class feature 3 additional times per short rest. However, these extra uses can only be used on someone other than yourself. You must be at least 13th level to select this option.
• Strong Faith: You become Professional with your Will saves if you weren’t already.

This order is a loosely affiliated order of questing knights who seek artifacts and adventure in equal measure. They have a passion for traveling, seeing new places, and risking their lives for wondrous artifacts and magic items. Despite this, as an order, they place the “journey” before the “destination” and believe an item of value without a good story behind it is worthless.

Oath: “I shall never turn down the offer of a good adventure.”

Smite Targets: You can select 1 keyword that defines a type of creature (“Giant”, “Construct”, etc.) and your smite class feature now works against them.

• Treasure Hunter (3rd level): You gain Detect (Magic) and can equip 1 more magic item at a time (normally you can only equip 3).
• Questing Knight (8th level): You may change the bonus enemy keyword that your smite affects during a long rest.
• Gallantry & Adventure (13th level): Increase your Reflex save proficiency by 1 step (to a maximum of Exceptional).
• Grail Knight (18th level): You can use the Seek Item spell as an innate (Religion) spell at will. Casting this takes only a single action for you.

Standing guard against the ancient beasts known as dragons, the Order of the Dragon Slayer is composed of the brave, the foolhardy, and those with nothing left to lose. Dedicating themselves to slaying wicked dragons and limiting the influence of “noble” dragons, they believe that greed of these monsters means they can never truly be trusted.

Oath: “I shall slay all wicked dragons and stem their influence in the world.”

Smite Targets: Your smite also affects creatures with the Dragon keyword.

• Scalebreaker (3rd level): All your attacks that deal slashing or piercing damage gain the penetration weapon quality, ignoring an amount of Resist (physical) equal to your level.
• Wurm Hunt (8th level): You gain Detect (dragon) 10 miles and Pinpoint (dragon).
• Blastbreaker (13th level): When included in the area of a cone or line area of effect spell or effect (such as a dragon’s breath weapon) you can attempt to counter it with a shield. You roll your Defense proficiency against either the attack roll or the DC of the save to avoid the area of effect. If successful, the effect is entirely negated for all those in its area.
• Wyrmbane (18th level): Dragons struck by your smite suffer your level in persistent divine damage per round for 3 rounds.

Stemming from oppressed communities and those who toiled long under the jackboots of the absurdly wealthy for little reward, the Order of the Proletariat fights for the common man. They are very focused on building and repairing communities, punishing those who economically exploit the weak and the poor, and help with things like infrastructure projects. Some go to extremes though and believe in radical redistribution of wealth and power in addition to radical equality to the point of bland homogeneity.

Oath: “I will fight for the rights of the worker, slay the rich, and redistribute their wealth.”

Smite Targets: Nobles, those of the highest classes of society, and the ultra wealthy are viable targets for your smite.

• Eat the Rich (3rd level): You gain Detect (smite targets).
• Strength of the Masses (8th level): When doing work on a Skill Challenge with a group of at least 3 allies, everyone involved (including yourself) does 10 more work with each check.
• Redistribution (13th level): When an ally within 30 feet of you receives healing of at least 20 points, all allies within 30 feet of you (including you) are healed for 10 HP. This can occur no more than once per effect and no more than once per turn.
• Stronger Together (18th level): Allies within 60 feet of you receive a Free Hero Dice on saves so long as they are adjacent to an ally.

An aggressive and militant order, the Order of Undead Hunters has taken it upon themselves to wipe out the scourge of the undead. They take a very “us or them” view of undeath, seeing it as an unforgivable evil. This extends to those who would create, command, or even shelter the undead. This uncompromising approach makes them popular in areas plagued by the undead, but less so in areas with sentient and non-violent undead.

Oath: “Suffer not any undead to ‘live’, and seek out and destroy those who would make them.”

Smite Targets: Your smite also affects creatures with the Undead keyword.

• Rites of Rest (3rd level): Any creature you kill cannot be raised as an undead. Additionally, you may take 1 minute to perform a small ritual to make any corpses within 30 feet of you immune to being raised as an undead.
• Undead Slayer (8th level): Undead you smite also gain impaired 2 for the length of combat.
• Cloak of Light (13th level): You are immune to necrotic damage.
• Final Punishment (18th level): Any time you kill an undead, the one who corrupted them takes your level in divine damage. It doesn’t matter where they are - they automatically suffer the damage as a piece of their soul burns away.