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I know Paladins haven't shown up in the Alpha yet, but I wanted to pitch a couple ideas out there to get everyone primed.
The Paladin's LG alignment requirement seems silly to me. This says that there are no followers of non-LG dieties out there that are such ardent supporters of the diety they they approach being Paladin-esque. This seems utterly silly to me.
Instead, open Paladins up to non-LG dieties. Require that a Paladin's alignment match his dieitiy's alignment exactly (such a CG Paladin of Desna). This opens up alot of possibilities for the Paladin.
A Paladin's choice of deity drives whether they serve Good or Evil and this becomes the guidepost for their Paladin abilities. For example, the Paladin of Desna would gain Aura of Good, Detect Evil, and Smite Evil 1/day at 1st level, while a Paladin of Asmodeus would have Aura of Evil, Detect Good, and Smite Good 1/day. This would also drive the turn/rebuke and Lay on Hands being positive of negative. Like a Cleric, Neutral Paladins would have to choose which way they "lean."
I can imagine that the evil Paladin's abilities would be similar to that of a Blackgaurd. Of course, since the Blackguard is a PrC and the Paladin is core, this would allow Evil Paladins from 1st level and would provide sometime for neutral Paladins (for which there is currently no analogue in the SRD).
Just some random toughts. Enjoy.
-Skeld
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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My biggest paladin problem is that after 6th level, they get no new class abilities. There's no reason to stick with the class after that. <sarcasm>"I can cast Remove Disease one more time per week? Whoop-de-doo!"</sarcasm>
(yes, I know that they get spells, but they're not good enough and Paladins get too few for them to really be useful.)
Given the nice slew of class abilities Paizo is throwing out here, I'm hopeful that this will be addressed. . .
Director of Game Design
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My biggest paladin problem is that after 6th level, they get no new class abilities. There's no reason to stick with the class after that. <sarcasm>"I can cast Remove Disease one more time per week? Whoop-de-doo!"</sarcasm>
(yes, I know that they get spells, but they're not good enough and Paladins get too few for them to really be useful.)
Given the nice slew of class abilities Paizo is throwing out here, I'm hopeful that this will be addressed. . .
Rest assured, this is a concern that I will be addressing. That said, do you have any suggestions.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
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Director of Game Design
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As to the original post in this thread. I hear your concerns about Paladins of non-LG alignments. For this to work, I feel that they would need to be specific classes. This is something we have tossed around the design pit a number of times (primarily in reference to the Hellknight). I am not sure that this solution is right for the core paladin. This may be a bigger sacred cow for me than it is for others.
Thoughts?
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Hmm. Maybe some other class features, like:
3rd level -- Holy: Paladin can bless a weapon to be +1 to hit and damage against evil creatures, outsiders, and undead. Uses: Wisdom Modifier/Day.
5th level -- Walk Towards The Light: Paladin creates a circle of light that heals all allies within 30' of the paladin for HP = to the 2x Paladin's level and removes [2 or 3 Conditions]. Uses: Charisma Modifier/Day.
6th Level -- Holy 2: Weapon is +2.
7th level -- My Heart is Pure: Paladin doubles his Strength modifer for [a short period of time].
9th level -- The Righteous Never Sleep: The paladin doesn't need to sleep anymore and gains +4 to saves or checks against illusions.
11th level -- Peerless Perception: The Deception skill simply does not work on the paladin.
well jason u could add more aura like ability's.i added a few
6th conviction adds a pluses to enchantment and charm.
9th determination adds to will saves
12th of righteousnesses gives a pluses to allies within 20' 1/day per cha mod
15th divine might gives x2 cha mod to holy smite
18th contentment makes them immune to mind affecting ability's
using something like this my work or may not seems to work in my game so far
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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One mechanic that I really like comes from the Kensai prestige class (yes, I know it's not OGL, but I'm just talking concept here). They have an ability which lets them gain a +8 bonus to STR by making a Concentration check. The really spiffy part here, though, is that they can attempt the check as many times as they want -- each success increases the DC by 5. So the times/day scale automatically, and there's a bit of tension as to whether or not it will work. Plus, there's not hard per day limit.
Another nifty ability from a couple of WotC classes lets the character substitute a Concentration check for a Reflex save vs. area-of-effect spells. Something similar would be really cool.
Other ideas for Paladin class features:
Damage Reduction
Ability to take hits for adjacent allies
Weapons become Holy when they wield them
Turn/Rebuke evil outsiders
yeah I think they should be LG to although rules for other shades wouldnt be to bad but have diff names
Instead, open Paladins up to non-LG dieties. Require that a Paladin's alignment match his dieitiy's alignment exactly (such a CG Paladin of Desna). This opens up alot of possibilities for the Paladin.
I got one problem with non-lawful Paladins.
For me a Paladin is someone who is sworn to a codex. Chaotic alignement means, breaking the rules. That simply doesn't match.
I don't see a problem with good and evil and even neutral on that axis, but a Paladin has to be lawful in my eyes.
As to the original post in this thread. I hear your concerns about Paladins of non-LG alignments. For this to work, I feel that they would need to be specific classes. This is something we have tossed around the design pit a number of times (primarily in reference to the Hellknight). I am not sure that this solution is right for the core paladin. This may be a bigger sacred cow for me than it is for others.
Thoughts?
I agree with this. The Lawful Good and Lawful Good-only paladin has been a staple of D&D since the very first supplement to OD&D in 1975 (yes, yes, it was just Lawful back then, but the point stands). Indeed, the alignment restriction is one of the most iconic elements of the class. To change it is to turn one's back on tradition and I thought part of the point of Pathfinder was to stay true to the 30+ years of accumulated story.
That said, I have nothing against new paladin-like base classes for other alignments/faiths but these don't belong in the core rulebook. They're something that can and should be addressed elsewhere.
Here is my problem with Use Rope--it's not that it's necessarily useless, but that it is too universal. Use Rope is a component of Survival, Theft, Craft(Traps), Climb, and many other skills. Use Rope really should be a part of any skill in which its use is part. Part of my ability as a competitive rock climber is that I can tie the proper knots and operate the rope in the correct manner while climbing. Tying someone up should probably fall under Theft, but making a it a grapple check also works. The BAB part of a grapple check can represent knowledge of how to incapacitate an individual, such as by holding their arms in such a way as to cause immobility and pain. That same knowledge can be used when tying someone's arms together.
Welkerfan is on the right track here. The problem with the Use Rope skill isn't that you don't need a skill to use rope, the problem is that you don't need a seperate skill for it. Survival covers the majority of the uses, and most any other use can be lumped in with another skill - Climb, for example. Use Rope can be removed wholesale from the game without adding anything to compensate, which is exactly what a lot of people already do. Improving the 3e ruleset needs streamlining first and re-engineering second; a new and improved Use Rope skill doesn't do anything to solve the basic problem.
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Thoughts?
I've had some time to digest what you've said. I think the only reason for breaking non-LG Paladins out into their own class (ala Blackguard) is that including all the possibilities for alignment based class features will make the class write-up look very complicated. Aura of Good OR Aura of Dispair; Smite Evil OR Smite Good; etc., etc. Not to mention the conflicts in spell lists.
As you suggest, we could break the evil Paladins out as a separate class. The Blackguard could become an expanded core class with a 20-level progession to be released at some point after the core rules (maybe the same time as the Ninja and Pirate classes, hehe).
The thing I don't like about this is that it doesn't accomodate neutral Paladins. They would require 1) a class of their own, 2) the abaility to "lean" into Paladin or Blackguard, or 3) a RP reason to not allow them (maybe a Paladin-like character is such an ardent servent of his diety that he lacks the abaility to "lean").
As for abilities, I'd like to see a calss abaility that allows the Paladin to bypass certain types to DR, or perhaps a Paladins weapon is always considered Holy (or Profane). I haven't put too much thought into class abilities, but I'll try to think about it some.
-Skeld
Jason, I haven't had time to think about suggestions for Paladins (in fact, I really should be editing :p ), but I thought this might be the right place to express that fixing classes like Paladin and Barbarian is really what I'm personally most looking for out of Pathfinder.
I'd be totally fine with a "Divine Crusader" core class that has no alignment restrictions. But the actual term "paladin" has roots that are far too deep to disregard, IMO. As does the term "Anti-Paladin", which I miss.
It'd be like having a spell called "Magic Missile" but only having one missile and making the player roll to hit. Why even bother?
As to the original post in this thread. I hear your concerns about Paladins of non-LG alignments. For this to work, I feel that they would need to be specific classes. This is something we have tossed around the design pit a number of times (primarily in reference to the Hellknight). I am not sure that this solution is right for the core paladin. This may be a bigger sacred cow for me than it is for others.
Thoughts?
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
There's always just doing away with the notion of alignments.
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Okay, so that's probably an even bigger sacred cow than the paladin's LG alignment.
But! - as an experiment, Jason, as you think about the paladin class, try to envision the class in a system that does not consider alignment. Would you still be able to make the class then? If not using the rules you have in mind now, can you come up with a paladin class that functions in an alignment-less system?
Something else to consider when trying to decide whether a LG alignment is necessary for a paladin class - the Knights of the Round Table. Lancelot in particular. He betrayed his own king! The only man Lancelot ever encountered who registered on his moral radar besides himself and God, and he slept with the dude's woman. And the rest of Arthur's knights had problems too. Only Percival alone among them was pure enough to enter the Chapel Perilous and retrieve the Grail.
So, I'd say there's a very strong case to be made that among the canonical literature that the paladin class draws its inspiration from, the pinnacle of LG alignment was a purity to aspire to, not a requirement for inclusion.
One possibility, which would require scrapping the paladin for a generic holy knight, would be to give them "domain" like abilities in place of smite and cure disease. Most of the core abilities could be kept the same. Effectively, they would be fighters with some divine powers. I am uncertain if this versaion should keep it its spellcasting or not.
Doing a generic class like this would allow for the paladin and blackguard to be logical prestige classes for certain religions.
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I like the idea of having separate classes for the different types of Paladins. I can easily see three different Paladin types working, and making sense (to me, at least):
1) Paladin : Lawful Good. The typical holy knight we expect.
2) Blackguard: Lawful Evil. The "evil paladin" or dark knight. I think it would be cool to have a full class for this instead of the prestige class that currently exists, and perhaps a few unique abilities to set them apart from the Paladin, unlike the current Blackguard, which is just the inverse of the Paladin, but with Sneak Attack.
3) Justiciar(?): Lawful Neutral. A class concerned entirely with justice and upholding the rule of law in any situation. I think this would make for an interesting class, and allow a cool class for Hellknights and such. Seems like it would be fun to roleplay.
I only chose those three alignments because I feel that the lawful aspect is what guides a paladin. A chaotic paladin (such as the Paladin of Freedom in Unearthed Arcana) just doesn't make much sense to me. They have a code to follow, and so I feel that should push them to be lawful.
Perhaps we could find a better name for the LN Paladin, but I really like that concept.
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A couple of quick thoughts on Paladins
1) Paladins should be LG only. Opening up the alignment does nto feel right, as this has been apart of the rules since day 1. Now with that said....
2) For other alignments, we should come up with a new class name...knight, crusader, hellknight, holy/unholy warrior, etc...
3) I have always hated the class name "anti-paladin." I agree we need one, I just hate the name.
I totally agree that the Paladin class is too front loaded. Once you pass ~5th level, the class becomes un-interesting. I am going to think about this for a bit, and provide some recommendations.
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One possibility, which would require scrapping the paladin for a generic holy knight, would be to give them "domain" like abilities in place of smite and cure disease. Most of the core abilities could be kept the same. Effectively, they would be fighters with some divine powers. I am uncertain if this versaion should keep it its spellcasting or not.
Doing a generic class like this would allow for the paladin and blackguard to be logical prestige classes for certain religions.
I really like the idea of Paladins/holy/unholy knights getting domain abilities/spells that reflect their deity. This provides them some measure of customization and adds a bit of flavor.
Here is my problem with Use Rope--it's not that it's necessarily useless, but that it is too universal. Use Rope is a component of Survival, Theft, Craft(Traps), Climb, and many other skills. Use Rope really should be a part of any skill in which its use is part. Part of my ability as a competitive rock climber is that I can tie the proper knots and operate the rope in the correct manner while climbing. Tying someone up should probably fall under Theft, but making a it a grapple check also works. The BAB part of a grapple check can represent knowledge of how to incapacitate an individual, such as by holding their arms in such a way as to cause immobility and pain. That same knowledge can be used when tying someone's arms together.
Welkerfan is on the right track here. The problem with the Use Rope skill isn't that you don't need a skill to use rope, the problem is that you don't need a seperate skill for it. Survival covers the majority of the uses, and most any other use can be lumped in with another skill - Climb, for example. Use Rope can be removed wholesale from the game without adding anything to compensate, which is exactly what a lot of people already do. Improving the 3e ruleset needs streamlining first and re-engineering second; a new and improved Use Rope skill doesn't do anything to solve the basic problem.
Ok, that's seriously uncool. I swear I checked I was in the right thread this time.
IMO, the paladin should be a template or PrC. think about it, what is a paladin of Olidmarra? Mielekki? Kord? hell, of any god that isn't representing Honor, Virtue, or lawful goodness in general?
The clunky full plate wearing righteous wrath wielding holy warrior model only really works for LG, LN, or NG alignments. Maybe replace the whole paladin class concept with a "favored servant of" generic PrC that gives skill bonuses, limited healing abilities, and spellcasting balanced with hefty RPing requirements.
i.e. the "paladin" of Olidmarra is literally unable to turn down a dungeon raid on threat of losing granted powers.
I realize this is woefully incomplete, but it's all I got on short notice.
I really like the idea of Paladins/holy/unholy knights getting domain abilities/spells that reflect their deity. This provides them some measure of customization and adds a bit of flavor.One possibility, which would require scrapping the paladin for a generic holy knight, would be to give them "domain" like abilities in place of smite and cure disease. Most of the core abilities could be kept the same. Effectively, they would be fighters with some divine powers. I am uncertain if this versaion should keep it its spellcasting or not.
Doing a generic class like this would allow for the paladin and blackguard to be logical prestige classes for certain religions.
I concur. The paladin class is a fighter short on feats, stuck with only one alignment choice, and screwed for feats. They DO however, have a cool flavor. I say slightly improved spellcasting - to 6th level, with a single domain power, and say, a bonus feat every 4 or 5 levels?
An old issue of Dragon Magazine (106, I think. . . ?) included Paladin-variants for the alignments besides LG and CE. As I recall, each sub-class switched out a small number of abilities from the generic template and replaced them with more thematic stuff.
Having not actually read the Alpha release yet (I'll be downloading it momentarily), I'm not sure if the alignment system has been tweaked, but it might make sense to create a cluster of "Aligned Knight" (or somesuch) classes (or possibly even Prestige classes), each one built around the goals of a specific alignment. So the Paladin (Lawful Good) heals his friends, smites the wicked, inspires courage, maybe forges his own holy sword, etc., because those are Good and Lawful things to do. The Chaotic Good version might heal his friends, smite the wicked, break enchantment effects, grant bonuses to his allies' weapons, etc. And so on and so forth.
I'm hoping this doesn't sound too inane. . . =/
If we can't get non LG paladins, (Heck, even if we can) can we please, in the name of all the fictional gods *please* get a code of conduct that is clear enough that there not at the whim of every DM out there?
I've seen Paladins wholly hamstrung by there code because they had to subdue orks and evil cultists, secure them as prisoners and escort them to some manner of lawful authority of loose there powers. I've seen the rights and wrongs of killing evil cultists rage more feircly than any battle.
If Paladin deserves to be a full class it also deserves to have it made clear just where the line is that must not be overstepped. (My personal thought is that there redundant, 'Holly warrior' can be done just as well by a Cleric)
My biggest problem with Paladins is that detect evil ruins too many plots.
And I like the name "Anti-paladin". It's retro.
I have always personally been a huge fan of the Holy warrior class in GR's book of the righteous and I believe that it is already OGL. I do not know if you would want to open up the paladin class this much in the core book, but it does really allow customization in the paladin class almost as much as there is customization in the cleric class. I know in my campaigns I always use this system and it is great for mining ideas out of if I need a dedicated warrior for some god I am creating.
I'd enjoy expanding paladins beyond their lawful GOOD aspect, and include lawful neutral and lawful evil. Their proposed ideological codex is what makes them different from others. In reference to King Arthur's knights, I may suggest that many of them would be questing to regain their original status after falling from grace. Instead of good or evil themes, I propose that law and chaos would create a new element. Make items lawful or chaotic in nature, not necessarily holy or unholy (given to the cleric in most thematic cases). Imagine a lawfully-aligned weapon? How about a chaotic aligned item. Detect Chaos would balance games more than Detect Evil. Polarize a weapon, instead of blessing it. For example, a lawful good paladin could have it be a +x weapon vs. lawful evil outsiders, or re-polarize it vs. lawful-good (waitaminute- why would a LG paladin fight another LG character? Maybe same extension for a LE paladin not fight a LE BBEG?)
Summation:
Yeah, please consider changing the alignment restrictions by opening them to other alignments, and consider changing alignment benefits from good vs. evil to law vs. chaos.
I'm anxious to see Jason's new paladin. In our group, we'd given up on the base class and all gone over to the SRD Prestige Paladin instead.
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My biggest paladin problem is that after 6th level, they get no new class abilities. There's no reason to stick with the class after that. <sarcasm>"I can cast Remove Disease one more time per week? Whoop-de-doo!"</sarcasm>
(yes, I know that they get spells, but they're not good enough and Paladins get too few for them to really be useful.)
Given the nice slew of class abilities Paizo is throwing out here, I'm hopeful that this will be addressed. . .
Rest assured, this is a concern that I will be addressing. That said, do you have any suggestions.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
You are right, this may be to sacred a cow, but I do not think LG dieties are the only ones to have Holy Warriors. I would just like to be able to throw a Blackguard-esque evil paladin at the party without having to take a prestige class. We have core rules for evil clerics, so why not evil palidins who are equally attuned to thier diety as a good palidin is?
Does Blackguard really need to be a prestige class?|
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For Paladins I would hope you would incorporate the article in Kobold Quarterly about the replacing the Paladin’s Special Mount with some other ability to give the class a little more variety. Most of the times I’ve played a Paladin it has never been a big help to me other then getting me from place to place.
As to the original post in this thread. I hear your concerns about Paladins of non-LG alignments. For this to work, I feel that they would need to be specific classes. This is something we have tossed around the design pit a number of times (primarily in reference to the Hellknight). I am not sure that this solution is right for the core paladin. This may be a bigger sacred cow for me than it is for others.
Thoughts?
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
I feel that the Paladin should always be Lawful Good and remain so.
If we can't get non LG paladins, (Heck, even if we can) can we please, in the name of all the fictional gods *please* get a code of conduct that is clear enough that there not at the whim of every DM out there?
I've seen Paladins wholly hamstrung by there code because they had to subdue orks and evil cultists, secure them as prisoners and escort them to some manner of lawful authority of loose there powers. I've seen the rights and wrongs of killing evil cultists rage more feircly than any battle.
If Paladin deserves to be a full class it also deserves to have it made clear just where the line is that must not be overstepped. (My personal thought is that there redundant, 'Holly warrior' can be done just as well by a Cleric)
I too would like to see some guidelines put out for their code so that it was codified a bit more. I know that some believe that it should very from deity to deity and that is fine but something like a general guideline would be nice. I play a lot of paladin/holy knight types and given a choice it is my default character class so I have a lot vested in the outcome of this decision.
An old issue of Dragon Magazine (106, I think. . . ?) included Paladin-variants for the alignments besides LG and CE. As I recall, each sub-class switched out a small number of abilities from the generic template and replaced them with more thematic stuff.
In Dragon #106 there was an article called “A Plethora of Paladins� and it had sub-classes from Lawful Neutral to Chaotic Neutral. It was easily one of my favorite articles ever. I would love to see a new group of core classes based on this concept not necessarily this article in particular. As long as they were not called Paladins I would have no problem with it at all.
As for the whole Neutral and Chaotic Paladins thing I would remind everyone that they will be serving deities of the same alignment and as such would be acting in exactly the same way their god would too. So from the divine stand point as long as they are acting in accordance to their god’s portfolio and or wishes they should be allowed to continue to enjoy the divine favor of their god.
I don’t have any specific ability thoughts for these classes but I will return as ideas come to me.
Peace All, Jester
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My Paladin Ideas.
Nothing really wild here but here goes.
1) I see paladins of all verieties following a strict code, so keep the Lawful aspect, just let them be good or evil. No neutral paladins, as I see paladins as being strict in their ideology.
2) make thier aura good or evil depending on thier alignment.
3) give them some options other than turn undead. some ideas are
a) Let them channel Holy power into thier wieapon. This should not take the place of thesmite, but be less damage over more rounds. an idea would be to do your charisma in holy (or unholy) damage for a number of rounds.
b) perhaps they can make their weapons holy as the weapon ability for a while.
c) Let them summon help from thier deity. Hellhounds or some such and Archons maybe.
d) Give thier aura different effects other than fear immunity. Effects such as allies within 30' effected like a bless, or getting a +2 Morale bonus on Damage, or a bonus to hit.
e)Perhaps they can cast magic circle vs evil/good.
f) Maybe its just casting Protection vs evil
g) Let them get access to one domain from thier deity.
h) give them the Fighters Weapon specialization with thier dieties weapon.
anyway, these are my ideas.
thanks
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Paladins are Religious Champions. End of story.
As such, they should be able to be Religious Champions of any given set of ideologies. If a God can embue a Cleric with the ability to cast Divine spells and do that while demanding that the cleric adhere to the ideologies of a given faih (no matter what alignment that faith expouses), then that same God can embue a Champion with special gifts in the same vein.
Again... go read A PLETHORA OF PALADINS from Dragon 106. Great article.
And if you do not believe a very cool, flavorful, and interesting Champion of True Neutrality can be written... you have not read the background on the Paramander/Paramandyr.
:-)
You are right, I have not read that issue. thanks.
If this has already been done better in Dragon 106, then I hope the Pathfinder folks take that to heart.I too think of Paladins as Religious Champions. I just hope that in the Pathfinder edition, they are champions of more than just LG dieties.
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Rest assured, this is a concern that I will be addressing. That said, do you have any suggestions.Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Sense you asked I did a re-write of the Paladin for our group as it was simply not taken for many of the reasons listed above. My new version tried to keep the same core LG Paladin feel without making too many radical changes to the class.
If anyone is interested click HERE to check it out. I am not saying this is a perfect fix for all groups, but figured I would share. If nothing else maybe it will give others some ideas.
Actually, Paladin variants that aren't LG have been around since at least 2nd ed (the Avenger, the Anti-Paladin, etc.). \
More weight to this point: Dragon #30, page 3, 1980. Anti-Paladin presented as a "NPC" only class. So the door to alternative Paladins was opened long, long ago.
For the record, I like the approach present in [italic]Magic of the Incarnum[italic] and have always liked the champion of a cause/deity (in the Moorcock sense,) rather than a martial character who adheres to "chivalry". Is a paladin a crusader, fanatic or a knightly/romantic figure?
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Paladins being lawful good only is a pretty big sacred cow for me. I realize that it is in many ways irrational, but it turns out I don't always get to consciously decide which parts of the game I find important and which ones I'm flexible on.
And I agree that the blackguard should be the 20-level-class for LE "paladins."
Breaking it down by class means that you can do much more interesting powers that actually play to the alignment and the play style of people who tend to play that alignment. The chaotic neutral "paladin" doesn't need to have some boilerplate "version" of lay on hands, he can do something else more appropriate to his archetype.
I do wonder how spells would work for this, though. 9 different "paladin" spell lists strikes me as:
a) A lot of work.
B) A lot of space in the book for stuff I will never use.
C) Perhaps more trouble than it is worth.
Hmmmm.
I do wonder how spells would work for this, though. 9 different "paladin" spell lists strikes me as:
a) A lot of work.
B) A lot of space in the book for stuff I will never use.
C) Perhaps more trouble than it is worth.Hmmmm.
Technically, you'd only need six (or possibly four) lists of spells: One each for Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, and (optionally) the two Neutrals (moral axis and ethical axis). Then you just plug in whatever matches your "paladin's" alignment.
Well a paladin is supposed to be a character that has sworn an oath to a Code and has been given some supernatural abilities to help him up hold that code. So the question is: does he need a whole spell list to represent that, or could you just give him some neat tricks and special supernatural abilities every couple of levels? If you just give him SU abilities instead of an entire spell list then customizing for varying alignments would be a lot easier.
Give him supernatural abilities in the same way rogues get talents. A list of abilities that the player picks from every few levels, have some of the abilities themed according to alignment. Then the player picks and chooses the abilities that are appropriate to his alignment and Code.