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First off, I want everyone to understand this is MY take of the paladin. Everyone has something different when interpreting this difficult-to-embrace class. These are just musings that I felt I needed to express.
The cleric is the soul, or the will, of their respective deity. This is embellished by Wisdom being a primary stat, and a basis for spellcasting. I think the paladin, however, should represent the heart, the passion of the diety, and therefore embellished by having Charisma as a primary stat.
Interpreting lawful good as the alignment restriction may have been the wrong choice for this complex character. Neutral good, a complete dedication to good without the bindings of legalistic interpretation or chaotic self-indulgence may have been the more correct route to go, but we have what we have.
The reason I say the paladin is a character of passion is that it is passion, love, charity that drives the paladin to help others. It is a fierce love of life and friends that would have a paladin take a reckless approach such as standing at the edge of the abyss and saying "This far - no further." No amount of law or legalism is going to fill a paladin with the ability to stand when all others run.
These are all generalizations of course. No one says that EVERY paladin has to be motivated by a cookie-cutter concept of morality. We each interpret the class in a manner we feel fits. In a recent chat room discussion it was said that someone didn't really care for paladins because that was the one class that some players liked to abuse because of the alignment and code restrictions. I can't help that, and no amount of rules are ever going to be able to compensate for such styles of gameplay. The paladin as a class shouldn't have to suffer an ignoble fate because of those players, however (AND - I am not saying that it is, or that such is a motivation for the way the paladin is being handled - just making a point on player abuses.)
Glan Var made some comments in the General thread concerning the paladin and its problem with multi-stats. Unfortunately, this is a carry-over from the 1st Edition design - boy did you need to have some stellar rolls to play a paladin! This created two things - either a natural limiting process where paladins were few and far between, else a lot of cheaters fudging dice rolls to make a paladin <insert blush here>.
As a brain-storming process only, because I haven't played 3.5 Edition enough to really comment on either the 3.5 Paladin or the Pathfinder version, I am wondering if it WOULDN'T be more appropriate to make CHA the spellcasting attribute? Of course this does break backwards compatability, so I don't expect to see it.
I also wouldn't mind seeing, rather than "once per day" elements, that ALL those were wrapped into one single mechanic. In this case, the Paladin gets a little more functionality because he has the option to turn undead, lay on hands, or smite evil from the same pool. I'd like to see laying on hands MORE healy, but the spell heals LESS healy or not there at all - perhaps even an option to divert some of the paladin's own HP to buff the lay? I'd also like to see some divergent spells from the Cleric list, where the paladin may have more buffs to either self or group.
I also know the mount is such an iconic aspect of the paladin, but in all the years I've played, the mount tends to be more of a window-dressing issue as opposed to being actually functional. That, however, may be the fault of the player, and not the class, but its hard for me to get excited about the mount because of its limited functionality (a lot like a druid's "can only be cast outside" spells).
In closing, I would like to see the paladin maybe shift from the "bound by the fetters of law" aspect and more a creature of the heart, with abilities that represent the paladin in that aspect. Also, NONE of the above comments were made in the context of the current game - its just raw brainstorming - I haven't tried to balance anything. Finally, I *don't* want to see the paladin go non-alignment restricted - that paladin is available in 4E, and really, if you want to get down to it, you CAN remove the alignment restrictions in your own campaign. In mine, however, the paladin will always remain a figure of passion, courage, pride, and occasional stupidity, ready to lay down his or her life for the betterment of others.
I completely agree. Waht I would like to see for future versions of the paladin:
- not restricted to lawful alignment (any good instead)
- Cha for spell casting (the also need strength so they aren't SAD)
- Replace the Remove Disease with an expanded Lay on Hands, much like the Rage Points, but focused on healing and possibly buffs.
- Spontaneous casting
- Fold smite and auras into "Faith Point" abilities with Lay on Hands and Remove Disease among others.