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I love the new alpha 3 Paladin - as a paladin lover, I'm very happy and eager to really play one.
Two things I would like addressed however:
his healing with lay on hands is still suspect. Healing his paladin level worth of hit points is very minimal. VERY minimal; especially taking into consideration the increase in hit points most characters are getting in 3.PF vs 3.5.
The other as many have mentioned is the number of Smite Evils. As a bonus and gravy - it would be nice if they aren't expended if you use your attempt and it misses - but I would settle for more attempts. Like 1 Plus Cha mod per day as opposed to just one until 4th level and two until 7th.
Regardless, if I only had "one wish" left, my choice would be to look into allowing a little better healing. Why not Cure Light Wounds as the first level of Lay on Hands. Even at 4 times a day - that's not an exorbitant amount - considering clerics can now heal with their turning ability.
Robert
Barbarians get a "pool" of rage points, and monks get a ki "pool," so it would be logical if Lay on Hands had a total "pool" of hp, and extras like remove disease had hp of healing costs, not uses per day costs... But maybe Jason's intent was to limit the amount of healing the paladin can do in 6 seconds, in which case the current mechanic accomplishes that perfectly.
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Barbarians get a "pool" of rage points, and monks get a ki "pool," so it would be logical if Lay on Hands had a total "pool" of hp, and extras like remove disease had hp of healing costs, not uses per day costs... But maybe Jason's intent was to limit the amount of healing the paladin can do in 6 seconds, in which case the current mechanic accomplishes that perfectly.
Even only a cure light wounds is limited at once. At 4th level thats 5-12 hit points.
Considering all our 4th level characters all have like 35 hit point, that's not a lot - it would take all four attempts in the day to fully heal one character.
Robert
Yeah, The new lay on hands seems a bit weak.At 3rd level an average paladin can heal 3 hp 3 times a day. Big whoop.
Hopefully that rule'll change when the Beta come out.
But maybe Jason's intent was to limit the amount of healing the paladin can do in 6 seconds, in which case the current mechanic accomplishes that perfectly.
But it has also completely changed the way a Paladin plays in our group, and that's not good for backwards compatibility. I've bought this up on a number of occasions, as it's got to be an oversight.
Our Paladin went from being able to heal herself fully to healing a mere 17 HP. At 17th level, that's nothing. The change has halved the amount of time she can spend on the front line and makes some of her previous feats of heroism impossible. All the extra goodies were great, but this just does not work (IMHO).
We can fix it simply though, by allowing a Paladin to use as many 'Lays' in one go as they like. Or, if you're feeling up to scaling something out a bit more complex, you could work out a progression for the number of 'Lays' per turn at each level. It'd have to work with the other abilities that use Lay on Hands though. Not too bad.
If this doesn't get changed then I can live with that, simple house rule. What I think is more important is to allow the Paladin to be able to summon their mount more than once per day. Their sword is usable more than once per day, but the trusty old mount has been forgotten in favor of the new shiny toys.
Apologies to the Paizo crew if I'm starting to sound like a broken music box....
;P
Peace,
tfad
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This is my biggest concern for the paladin changes as well. Your level in paladin healed to you is usually so trivial as to define worthless. Being able to use all your "Lay on Hands" uses at once would be all I'd need to make me happy with the changes. The paladin's ability to once or twice a day heal a significant number of hit points with a touch is simply iconic.
I've always loved the concept of the Paladin and wanted to play one, and the changes to the Paladin in PRPG are, by and large, awesome. I especially appreciate the ability to ignore being mounted - though that is a big part of the original Knight in Shining Armor concept, it's usually more of a hinderance than a help in D&D adventures.
On a quick note, someone mentioned that smite evil attempts should not be used up when the attack misses. Looking at the new Smite Evil description on page 31, it appears to me that a smite attempt is only used up to no effect if the creature the paladin attempted to smite is not evil. Given paladins' ability to detect evil, and thus confirm their smite will work on the target creature, this doesn't seem too much of a game rules induced limitation to me. I also think it's a flavorful limitation, as paladins shouldn't smite those they aren't certain are evil anyway. That's my interpretation anyway.
Can anyone comment on this? Is my reading of Smite evil correct? This is actually important, as I'm playing a paladin in our PRPG playtest at the moment - it hasn't come up yet, but I'm sure it will!
I agree that LoH seems a bit on the low side and could be upped, but as a bit of compensation with paladin casting moved to Charisma based (about damn time!) you can pump your charisma significantly and since you can LoH a # of times a day = 1/2 paladin level PLUS Cha mod (should = paladin level + Cha modifier) that should help somewhat. It certainly looks like smite is no longer expended on a miss, which helps.
Also, one change I'd make to the paladin is to make its casting progression match that of the ranger (namely 1st level spells at 4th, 2nd level spells at 7th, 3rd level spells at 10th, and 4th level spells at 13th (I'd also expand paladin and ranger spell lists so that they'd have a 5th level of spells at 16th and 6th level of spells at 19th)(spells would be thematic spells from the 4th through say 7th levels of cleric (for paladin) and druid (for ranger) lists, but that's just my view))
Quick question-how long (assuming the paladin doesn't let go of the weapon) does the mount replacing weapon bond feature last? The text says it sheds light 1 minute per level but how long do the magical properties conferred last? This isn't spelled out in the rules text AFAICT. Help!
I also think the 'Lay on Hands' of the Paladin seems... insufficient as defined in the alpha-3 version of the rules...!
I suggest a revision.
RiTz21
http://TheOnlySheet.com
I agree, even a first level elf wizard with 9 con has 9 HP(using the racial health rules). The Alpha version of Lay on Hands is useless for healing the Paladin or any of the other front line characters. Even if you kept the number of uses per day the same, making Lay on Hands act as cure light wounds would make the ability useful, and hardly overpowering. It also makes things a little easier in when no one wants to play as the Cleric.
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Not that I don't agree that the number looks small for the LoH, however a point of order. The Paladin does get Channel Positive energy at 4th level (1+ cha modifier times/day) which is obviously not the healing of the cleric (but what is really?). That is a lot of healing, when added up, for a melee class...
True, but Lay on Hands as a healing power is practically useless before you get channel positive energy, and it's more useless afterwards, it almost feels that the only reason it's still in the class is because it's always been there. Either make it a semi-useful healing ability, or take it out and just give him a power pool for his LoH based abilities. Giving a player a two point heal once a day is just mean. At the very least make it a (CHA bonus + level)/2 heal. That would make it useful at low levels when you need it, without overshadowing the real healers or overpowering him at high levels.