Melee Templars (Just A Thought)

[SAAj]

It's always bothered me that there aren't many clear and well-developed pairings of caster classes and their melee templars (the only two that really come to mind are cleric-paladin and druid-ranger). This is my take on three caster classes (wizard/sorcerer was intentionally excluded from the list, and will perhaps get its own alternate templars when the mood strikes me) and their respective melee templars. This isn't really a set of game mechanics so much as a tying up of loose ends. Please let me know what y'all think.

Cleric
Heavy Templar: Paladin (smiting, turning)
Light Templar: Monk (healing, enhancement)

Druid
Heavy Templar: Barbarian (wildshape)
Light Templar: Ranger (wild empathy)

Bard
Heavy Templar: Fighter (bardic lore)
Light Templar: Rogue (bardic performance)

Paladin: the obvious choice for a cleric, the paladin tends to focus on smites, turning, and other aggressive cleric-like abilities.
Monk: the 'other' white knight, the monk tends to focus on self-only healing and enhancements emulating beneficial cleric spells.

Barbarian: the barbarian's rage is actually a very basic form of wildshape, inherent in all creatures and potent in the barbarian.
Ranger: focused on the more serene druidic paths, the ranger receives abilities to commune with and utilize creatures and environments.

Fighter: utilizing the bard's love of lore, the fighter gains advantages against creatures, equipment, and tactics it identifies in combat.
Rogue: utilizing the bard's knack for performance, the rogue feints, evades, and otherwise baffles enemies with deceptive maneuvers.

There are also three alternate templars.

Druidic Monk: focused on divination-like abilities used to commune with the natural world itself, able to 'read' stars like a written language, 'hear' the wind speaking, etc.
Bardic Barbarian: utilizes perform skills to maximize its intimidation factor in the heat of battle, incorporating its intimidate checks into normal attacks and maneuvers.
Clerical Fighter: combat medic emphasizing defense and aid of allies, as opposed to the more offense-oriented paladins and self-only monks. Often found on the front lines.

[Zurai]

Actually, I would say that the Bard is the Sorcerer's "Light Templar", to use your terms.

[SAAj]

Zurai wrote:

Actually, I would say that the Bard is the Sorcerer's "Light Templar", to use your terms.

In traditional D&D terms, I would agree. My goal with these templars, however, is to eliminate the abbreviated spellcasting altogether for extraordinary abilities that emulate the caster class they are a templar for. The lack of material components and ability to function within antimagic fields helps balance them against the casters, who have greater versatility and more potent abilities.

I think a good example of this approach is the Pathfinder sorcerer, who isn't simply a spontaneously-casting wizard, but instead receives spell-like abilities and other bonuses (though of course, my templars would lean much more heavily towards melee).

[Zurai]

I'd suggest you actually state that somewhere, then, because there's nothing in the original post suggesting that spellcasting be removed from the classes that have it.

[SAAj]

Zurai wrote:

I'd suggest you actually state that somewhere, then, because there's nothing in the original post suggesting that spellcasting be removed from the classes that have it.

Sorry; this was kind of a rough draft. In essence, the goal is to establish links between casters and melee templars, and further to give these templars extraordinary abilities that mimic various aspects of the caster class without simply being a lesser form thereof (in other words, something unique rather than just a few spells from the caster class).

I suppose the critiques I'm looking for are what melee templars fit what caster classes thematically, and what 'abilities' (spells, class features, whatever) of each caster class the templar should embody. Because of how immensely complicated wizards/sorcerers can be, I've decided to leave them out of the mix for now and perhaps add their templars later (such as fireball-shooting wizard-monks or sorcerer-barbarian rage mages).

[Zurai]

Fair enough. Now that I understand what you're getting at, I'll give it a bit more thought.