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Is it possible to get a final answer and clarification of the Paladin capstone ability Holy Champion? This has been FAQ buttoned to death, with no official reply regarding the rules. Pretty much EVERYONE, including James Jacobs thinks that it is a bad idea as written.
Holy Champion (Su): At 20th level, a paladin becomes a conduit for the power of her god. Her DR increases to 10/evil. Whenever she uses smite evil and successfully strikes an evil outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment, using her paladin level as the caster level (her weapon and holy symbol automatically count as objects that the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. In addition, whenever she channels positive energy or uses lay on hands to heal a creature, she heals the maximum possible amount.
After reading TONS of people asking for a clarification and FAQ of the issue, no one from Paizo has given an official response. It is rather frustrating to have the culmination of an almost 2 year game result in a character that is now worse at fighting demons than he was a level ago due to the way that the smite effect is now worded for Holy Champion.
As written the Holy Champion ability forces you to attempt a banishment upon an outsider and whether or not the banishment is successful, the smite ends after 1 single successful melee attack. Was that intended??
Or was it intended to read "After a successful banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. (italics and bold are my edit)
For those of you that read this and agree that it should be FAQ'd, please hit that FAQ button!
After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved
This tells me after you;ve figured out if the banishment has worked or not...if it has, no more smite, becasue that target is gone anyway. If it didn't banish, then smite away until they're dead or banished or you sleep.
But, it's not explicit. I'll FAQ it.
Looks fine to me as written - the banishment effect is a powerful add. Perhaps the reason you haven't gotten a response on this is that the rules team agrees?
I hit FAQ, but this is more of a 'needs errata' than 'needs clarification' situation. It's bad design that a class ability gets worse when you level up (which is what happens to the Paladin between 19 and 20, although it isn't worse in absolute terms).
Another question is, if you've taken the oath of vengeance, does your dimensional anchor effect prevent the banishment?
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Why is this a FAQ? Isn't this really "I don't like how this ability works"? Is the Question of the FAQ "Why does this ability(in the FAQ'ers opinion) suck?"
As written, it is pretty darn clear:
* DR 10/evil
* Smite Evil modification: evil outsiders are subject to a Banishment, after which the smite ends. A +2 CL and a +4 DC are added on for the banishment, in addition to any other modifiers.
* Channel positive and Lay hands at max possible.
For the most part, FAQs address ambiguous statements or things that fall in the grey area. I don't see any grey area here or contradictory statements. Banishment is instantaneous and does not "hold a charge", so the effects resolves whether is was successful or not, thus ending the Smite Evil vs that target. Yes it sucks to have it end if the banish fails, but there is nothing unclear as written. Having the ability blow off a 6th level Cleric Save-Or-Die spell on contact every single hit until the save is failed is a little much.
The reason is that at 19th level you are a better fighter of demons than you are at 20, and seldom should a capstone ability cause that to occur. As well as the fact that almost everyone but Shar Tahl sees it as a problem also means that it is probably something that could be FAQ'd to finalize the issue once and for all.
Bump. Still no answers from Sean!
Holy Champion is the reason I would never ever in a million years take the 20th Paladin level. Even if we were importing the 3E epic rules and epic paladin progression / bonus epic feats were at stake.
It completely destroys the Paladin's main class feature.
I hit FAQ, but regardless of how they answer, unless they take it a step further and say you don't HAVE to attempt to Banish the foe, I'd still never want anything to do with Holy Champion. Often times, killing the fiend, even outside its home plane, inconveniences it far more than a banishment does. Like...it can make a difference of literally hundreds of years until that demon/devil is a threat to mortals again. If you kill them and they have to re-form. If you banish, they just come back in a few days...
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I think at this point it is GM call. As a GM, I would allow you to forego the banishment in favor of continuing your smite, but I would not allow a banishment every hit.
So, in short, if you choose to attempt the banishment the smite ends after the attempt.
Of course, I am nowhere near any source of authority, so... ;p