Fendin Foxfast's page

In 2E, the bard was the consummate adventurer. He was the jack-of-all trades, master of none---a guy compelled to wander the world and see and do everything. He was a competent fighter who could learn to use any weapon, a competent thief with decent access to thieving abilities, and a competent wizard who could learn any wizard spell he could cast. That he was an artist was only natural from a wandering, talented soul like that.

Then in 3E he became. . . corny.

The old school bard could cast spells because he was a renaissance man who had studied a bit of magic. The new bard has magic spring spontaneously from the divine artistry of his soul. It's silly.

I'm not pushing any major mechanical change here, just a change in flavor. (Unless people really want mechanical changes.):

1. The bard's magic is ordinary arcane magic. It comes from occult study, just like the wizard's. His mechanics are different than the wizard's because he's a dilettante. He doesn't learn very many spells. The spells he learns are less complicated; they don't manipulate cosmic energies or necromantic forces. So he doesn't have to memorize them beforehand.

2. Remove the line which says that the verbal component of bardic spells are singing, poetry, and the like. They can still all have verbal components, just make them ordinary arcane chanting. Since his verbal components are the same as any wizard or sorcerer, let him take Silent Spell

3. The bard would remain a spontaneous caster. His spell list wouldn't change. He could still only know a set number of spells.

But he would write down the spells he learned in a spell book, like any caster who had to study. He would study it in the morning to review his spells, but that would be the only mechanical change in how his magic worked.

4. For those that still want to tap the supernatural powers of music, there are a number of nice prestige classes that do just that.

I've been reading the board, and I've seen a lot of good stuff.  The paladin threads have been particularly interesting to me, because the paladin is my favorite class.  I really like where the paladin is going in Pathfinder, but on this board I've only seen bits and pieces of my view on the matter.  It hasn't been brought it together in a coherent post yet.

It seems to me that the four martial classes break down into two categories.  The fighter and the ranger excel at attacking.  The paladin and the barbarian excel at withstanding attack.

There's a very vocal faction on the board that says the paladin should be unsurpassed in it's ability to damage evil.  I must respectfully disagree.  In my opinion, the true heroic quality of the paladin is his ability to stand unmoved.  Lancelot withstood arrow after arrow from his foes, Roland held an entire army at bay, etc. etc.

To this end, these are the changes I'd like to see in the paladin:

1.  Keep divine grace and the paladin's base saves the way they are.  This allows the paladin pretty good all around saves, without making it ridiculous.  The immunities he acquires as he levels up eliminate the need for a higher will save.

2.  Several classes have evasion because they're good at getting out of the way.  The paladin is good at standing there and shrugging it off.  Give him the Mettle ability from the Templar prestige class.  This has already been well discussed, but it bears repeating.

3.  Fix Lay on Hands so that it can once again be used to dump hp back into the paladin during the fight.  If this means that some of the new uses get reduced, so be it.  Healing points equal to your level is nearly worthless at first level, and at 20th level probably won't save you from a heavy hitter.  The other options for Lay on Hands are interesting, but again fairly limited.
 
Merging it with channeling energy isn't very useful, because it means a Paladin surrounded by foes will be unable to heal himself without healing all of them.  It defeats the stalwart defender idea.

4.  Maybe give the Paladin a divine armor bonus equal to 1/4th his level. This is consistent with the Barbarian's damage reduction and the Fighter's armor specialization.
 
I would shy away from any mechanic that requires the Paladin to remain in place or take up a defensive stance.  Doing so negates the usefulness of a mount, and infringes on the realm of the Knight or Dwarven Defender.

Of course, the paladin is a combatant and should have offensive capabilities as well:

1.  Increase the caster level so his spells are effective. 

2. I've always wanted to see the paladin have just a bit more spell casting. Paladins shouldn't be super-casters, but as it stands now their spells are afterthoughts; rarely useful and often underpowered.   A smaller spell-list with spells that scales as the Paladin gains levels is more useful than cleric spells that even the Cleric doesn't use unless otherwise tapped out.

2.  Most of the other classes have bonus feats for flexibility.  I propose the elimination of smite. The mechanic is akward, the ability is limited, and it has really provoked a lot of arguing on the board.  Smiting was pretty useful on the off chance you got a critical hit, but past that it doesn't do much. 
 
Give the paladin bonus feat slots instead to choose from a list that includes divine feats. The people who want more offensive power can choose feats accordingly (Divine Might, etc).  Those who want more spell power, or something else, could choose feats for that.

4.  Allow the paladin to enhance any weapon he chooses, not just his deity's favored weapon.  A bit of flavor that really hurts the paladin if his or her primary weapon is broken, if they're forced into unusual circumstances, or if the situation calls for a specific weapon that the deity doesn't favor.

I welcome discussion on these thoughts.  However, there are already enough threads voicing the view that the paladin needs to be a better attacker.  If you disagree with me, your thoughts are valid, but please use this thread to explore these ideas.  Save lengthy pro-offense arguments for those other posts.  And let's please all try to be as civil as possible to each other.  Everyone here is a fellow gamer who feels as passionately about this game as you yourself do.