One of my favorite archetypes in pathfinder is the Stonelord Archetype for the Dwarves. I love dwarves, I love elements/elementals, and I love archetypes that change a class so a race that is normally a poor choice for that class can do well. While dwarves are my favorite humanoid race to play, I decided to spread the love. I made an archetype for each of the other three prime elements, and each one is for a different race.
For fire I made the Flameknight, and I made it for Orcs. Personally, I always found paladins having to be lawful good a bit of a downside. Don't get me wrong, that is actually my favorite alignment to play, but I decided to make it so that any type of good could be a paladin so long as they hold their god's tenants in their heart. Flameknight is for Chaotic Good Orc Paladins. I chose Orcs because they usually make poor paladins due to Charisma, and they are almost always associated with war and fire, even the tamer Orc depictions give them ties to the elements. Plus, I love Orcs, so Orcs it was.
For air I decided to go with Tengus for the Skywarrior. They just had that sort of free spirit that goes along with air, and giving a bird race a paladin archetype that gives them flight when they had none seemed right to me. In the end, the idea of a Chaotic Good Tengu Paladin who has a good nature, loves a bit of fun despite their duty, and has wind whistling through their feathers makes a good picture in my mind.
Lastly, for water I chose the admittedly odd choice of Samsarans for Aquaguardians. I imagine most players here never look at Samsarans but I look deep. Samsarans fit to me due to theme rather than physical traits, although they blood is as clear as water. Samsarans go through a constant cycle of death and rebirth, always different but always the same, just like water. It totally wasn't because I needed a race that would work that didn't already have a swim speed. ...okay it was but the other reason makes me sound more profound. So, I say let there be Lawful Good Samsaran Paladins where they are legal.
I guess I'll end this longwinded explanation before the hyperlink with a brief description of each archetype for those who don't want to read the whole thing beforehand. Flameknights are fire-based, heavy damage, pseudo-barbarians. Skywarriors are incredibly mobile fighters, and can reach many places not accessible and do many things not possible to martial classes. Aquaguardians are at home in the water, would be best used in a nautical campaign of any sort, and can still fulfill a bit of a diplomatic role. Any of you can use these as you see fit, and I just hope you put in a word or two on who made it. I would appreciate any discussion, critiques, or comments on these. Questions asked will be answered. I put Battledancer in there too so you all don't have to go through my awful first post, so feel free to do the same to that there. Thank you for even clicking on my post.
Agatesword Archetypes
