Author Topic: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff  (Read 4824 times)

Offline Reejerey

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Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« on: September 15, 2014, 05:21:14 PM »
I'd like to apologize in advance if this has been done before but I did a refluff of the paladin class for 3.5 as lawful neutral. I tried to follow the examples from Unearthed Arcana, Specifically combining the PHB Paladin with the Paladin of Tyranny. Without further ado -

Paladin of Justice

The paladin of justice is the embodiment of law. she is judge, jury and executioner. To a paladin of justice, the letter of the law is the most important thing, anyone who violates the law is subject to the paladin's justice. A paladin of justice draws her power from the belief that order triumphs over chaos. She uses her powers to mete out justice and enforce the laws of the land.

Paladin of Justice Class Features
The paladin of justice has all the standard class features, except as noted below.
Class Skills: Add Intimidate to the class skill list.
Aura of Law (Ex): The power of a paladin of justice's aura of law (see the detect law spell) is equal to her paladin of justice level, just as with the aura of a cleric of a lawful deity.
Detect Chaos (Sp): At will, a paladin of justice can use detect chaos, as the spell.
Smite Chaos (Su): Once per day, a paladin of justice may attempt to smite chaos with one normal melee attack. This ability is otherwise identical to the standard paladin's ability to smite evil, including increased daily uses as the paladin of justice gains class levels.
Hand of Judgement (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin of justice can use negative energy to cause wounds or positive energy to heal them with a successful touch attack. Each day she can heal or deal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her paladin level x her Charisma bonus. A Paladin of Justice may only harm the unlawful and heal the lawful with this power, a creature of neutral alignment is subject to a 50% chance for either effect. An opponent subjected to this attack can make a Will save (DC 10 + ½  paladin level + paladin's Cha modifier) to halve the damage dealt. The effects are reversed when used on Undead as with all positive and negative energy effects. This power otherwise functions identically to the paladin's lay on hands ability.
Aura of Truth (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin of justice radiates an aura that gives allies +3 to saves vs Enchantment and Illusion. This ability otherwise functions identically to the paladin's aura of courage class feature.
Turn/Rebuke Undead (Su): Beginning at 4th level, a paladin of justice can either turn or rebuke undead. She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier. She turns or rebukes undead as a cleric of three levels lower would.
Spellcasting: Replace the paladin’s spell list with the following spell list:
1st—bane, bless, bless weapon, bless water, corrupt weapon, create water, cure light wounds, curse water, detect poison, detect undead, divine favor, doom, endure elements, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, protection from chaos, protection from good, protection from evil, read magic, resistance, virtue;
2nd—bull’s strength, delay poison, eagle’s splendor, hold person, owl’s wisdom, remove paralysis, resist energy, undetectable alignment, zone of truth
3rd—bestow curse, cure moderate wounds, discern lies, dispel magic, greater magic weapon, heal mount, inflict moderate wounds,  magic circle against chaos/good/evil, prayer, remove blindness/deafness, remove curse;
4th—break enchantment, cure serious wounds, death ward, dispel chaos, dispel evil, dispel good, dominate person, inflict serious wounds, lawful sword, mark of justice, neutralize poison, restoration.
These spells count as paladin spells when determining eligibility for feats and prestige classes. Other paladin spells may be added to this list as long as they don't have the chaos descriptor.

Code of Conduct: A paladin of justice must be of lawful neutral alignment and loses all class abilities if she ever commits an unlawful act. Additionally a paladin of justice's code requires that he respect authority figures as long as they are acting within the law, act impartially (upholding the law to the letter, acting as judge and jury, and executioner if the need is present), help only those in need (provided they are acting in accordance with the law), and punish those who challenge authority (unless that authority is in violation of the law).
Associates: While she may adventure with characters of any alignment, a paladin of justice will never knowingly associate with chaotic characters (except on some sort of undercover mission), nor will she continue an association with someone who consistently offends her moral code. A paladin of justice may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful neutral.

Constructive criticism is welcome
« Last Edit: September 16, 2014, 06:31:38 PM by Reejerey »

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2014, 06:02:41 PM »
Nice work.

Yes, it has been done before, perhaps not as "good" (I mean lawful).

Dragon mag #310 had an extended article of Pally variants.
Variants            "Champions of the Divine"            James Jacobs      310(46)      D&D3
from DragonDex, the dmag index:
http://www.aeolia.net/dragondex/
Your codpiece is a mimic.

Offline Reejerey

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2014, 06:14:13 PM »
Hmm, The "Enforcer" from that article is quite similar, but doesn't seem to be able to "go evil" to uphold the law quite as much. Still, it's an interesting read, thanks for the reference

Offline zook1shoe

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2014, 01:00:02 PM »
with some of those abilities, your variant feels much more LE than LN
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Offline faeryn

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2014, 01:24:04 PM »
with some of those abilities, your variant feels much more LE than LN
I agree....

If your looking to make a LN paladin then I'd have to suggest trying something a little different with the channeled energy. Deadly Touch & Aura of Despair are just far to Evil for a neutral class, especially a Lawful Neutral class... Something that would be an interesting choice would be to only have them choose between Turn or Rebuke Undead... their other channeled energy abilities would use both positive and negative energy.
Quote
Hand of Judgement (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin of justice can negative energy can cause wounds or positive energy to heal them with a successful touch attack. Each day she can heal or deal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her paladin level x her Charisma bonus. A Paladin of Justice may only harm the unlawful and heal the lawful with this power, a creature of neutral alignment is subject to a 50% chance for either effect. An opponent subjected to this attack can make a Will save (DC 10 + ½  paladin level + paladin's Cha modifier) to halve the damage dealt. The effects are reversed when used on Undead as with all positive and negative energy effects. This power otherwise functions identically to the paladin's lay on hands ability.

Aura of ___ (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin of justice radiates a neutral aura that causes ___. This ability otherwise functions identically to the paladin's aura of courage class feature.
I have no clue what the aura should do >.<

Offline zook1shoe

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2014, 01:40:55 PM »
saves vs. enchantment spells, like compulsion? a way to avoid forcing non-lawful acts when affected
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Offline faeryn

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2014, 01:44:56 PM »
saves vs. enchantment spells, like compulsion? a way to avoid forcing non-lawful acts when affected
That would work

Offline Reejerey

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2014, 06:05:51 PM »
hmm the hand of justice is nice. I like that a lot more than the choose negative or positive.

The negative energy path was supposed to feel very dark and copied the abilites of the paladin of tyranny from Unearthed Arcana. The idea was for paladins of gods like Wee Jas (who has an evil flavor) to represent that darkness, where paladins of gods like St. Cuthbert would have more of a good feel, and have the abilities of a PHB paladin. 

I think I'll change that to hand of justice and forget deadly touch and Lay on hands.

What about +3 to saves vs enchantment and illusion? as both could cause a paladin to unintentionally commit an unlawful attack.

Aura of Truth (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin of justice radiates an aura that gives allies +3 to saves vs Enchantment and Illusion. This ability otherwise functions identically to the paladin's aura of courage class feature.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2014, 06:13:20 PM by Reejerey »

Offline faeryn

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Re: Lawful Neutral Paladin refluff
« Reply #8 on: September 16, 2014, 07:08:05 PM »
It certainly seems more like a Lawful Neutral Paladin now.

I understand the idea behind picking Positive or Negative energy on a neutral class... but when the choice is made it makes the class feel less neutral and more of a "You can now Play a Paladin or a Paladin of Tyranny as a Lawful Neutral character" type of deal... having the powers themselves dictate if it's positive or negative energy rather than the paladin gives it more of that neutral feel. And having it based on Lawful or Chaotic alignment of the target fits the Paladin of Justice theme much better. Targets that are Neutral in respects to Law and Chaos kinda get the short end of the stick, but I'd imagine a Paladin of Justice would likely not accept neutrality as a valid stance and would judge them one way or the other...

Funny enough... I thought "Aura of Truth" when I was trying to come up with some suggestions for you but nothing I could think of besides that name seemed to fit... bonus to saves vs enchantment and illusions is a good fit.