The Templar (3.5e Base Class)

[Tarkisflux]

I think the idea of a divinely ordained warrior has a lot of traction, but the narrow vision of the paladin has been a bit stale for a while now. In DnD land, there's lots of different faiths to go out and champion or fight for, but the various adaptions have never been particularly good ones. So there's lots of idea space left to use there, and the cleric doesn't fill it so well IMO.

I co-wrote a martial  2/3s divine caster over on the wiki to fill the void, work with a variety of alignments and faiths, and replace the paladin along the way. They don't have a particularly wide selection of spells (which should be mostly relegated to utility anyway), and they don't get a pile of bonus feats. What they do get is a bunch of selectable vows to convey the "divinely ordained" aspects of their character and allow them to cover lots of different faiths. And a choice of fighting styles as well to allow them to cover the "warrior" part of things and fill a combat role or two reasonably well.

So it should be a rather broad class that's able to fill many roles within a variety of parties, while staying solidly within the divinely ordained warrior design space. And hopefully mid-high T3 or low T2. If that sounds like an idea you want to discuss, I invite you to check it out on the wiki. Feel free to leave comments here though.

Here be the link: The Templar

[Tarkisflux]

Oh, forgot to mention that there are some spell things going on there that might look weird if you're not expecting them. A number of spells have been lowered in level, possibly in ways that you will dislike, but they fit into a larger spell re-leveling project. No spell gained by Templar will arrive earlier than the cleric will get it, and most spells will be 2+ levels delayed.