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Lawful Good does not have to mean Lawful Nice.
I think the confusion is coming from redefining Paladin as "Champion of a God" rather than "Knight dedicated to the greater good in all they do." As I understand it, at least some incarnations of 3rd edition actually said Paladins didn't need to follow a god, or rather they got their power from their code to the forces of good rather than from their dedication to a single god. That's why, to many, having anything other than the LG Paladin (champion of good) and the CE Antipaladin (champion of evil) feels wrong to many people.
It seems like what you're doing, then, is changing Paladin from "Champion of Good" and making him "Champion of a God," or "Champion of a Cause," which is a subtle difference, but still a valid one that makes him feel like an alternate class rather than an archetype, and perhaps you should approach your Paladin as such- "Champion," the alternate Paladin in the same lines as a Ninja or Samurai being alternate classes.
If pursued in that way, the biggest changes I see would be changing their mercy ability and smite evil ability with a series of alternate versions, similar to the Cleric's alternate channeling variants. Instead of smiting evil and mercy healing, you could have a Paladin of a god of luck, who gives people luck penalties with his smite, and gives his friends luck bonuses with a touch.
By the way, one of the greatest D&D-based stories ever written, starring a Paladin and GMed by a PhD of Religious Studies. Very, very good (and applicable to this conversation) reading.
Lawful Good does not have to mean Lawful Nice.
And
eriously, that is the whole point of the Paladin: being the ultimate role playing class in the game. Every other RP I've seen has been the creation of a player within the game. Nothing wrong with that, but THE Gold Standard hard wired into the game's mechanics is the bad-arse, literally knight-in-shining-armor, Paladin. Tough to play and I've only seen a few players that actually managed to pull it off.
Sadly, Some people DO think that LG means Lawful Nice.
Dabbler - I like it very much, But i'm adding Bluff and Intimidate to the class skills (If its about equilibrium, then they are as valid as diplomacy) And i noticed you missed a few name replacements in the Spell List area - But aside from that It's very good :)
Thank you for your help on this :D
Now to convert this all into HeroLab for use at our game, and I'm done for the night :D
Thank you for your feedback everyone. (I'll still be watching/commenting on this thread if any more come however.)
~ Hinairusu
You are welcome Hinairusu, glad you like it.
I think the swap from cha to int was a good decision over all, Makes sense that in order to preserve balance you would have to know about it
And looking at it, There is only one alignment likely to occur that you haven't made a paladin archetype for yet xD
I'll think about that. Lawful Evil is an alignment I can see a paladin falling to, as they replace benevolence with code, perhaps along a sliding scale. Now you've put the idea there I'll have to go look at it...
Hinairusu, also thanks. The many ways to play a Pally are important parts of the class. It is a class that I realize that I may never aspire to. Fortunately, I have played with AND run a few high quality Paladins, particularly since 3.0. Strangely, one of the best was playing her first (and last) game and nailed it.