I had an idea for a "neutral" Paladin inspired by the Judges of Ivalice. Essentially a Paladin unconcerned with Good v Evil, but only Law v Chaos.
It would change Smite Good to Smite Chaos, but I can't think of any justification for it to be able to continue having any of it's "holy" or an antipally's "unholy" skills. Any thoughts on replacement abilities?
I'd build a prestige class around the concept, rather than an archetype. The Hell Knight could be a good place to start; just replace all the infernal stuff.
As a paladin is a lawful individual tempered by his propensity for good, your Judge archetype (though judges can also be good or evil) should likely have a Lawful alignment requirement only. Allowing it t be LG, LN, or LE. I don't see whay you couldn't have a paladin archetype alter some of the core things with the base class. These would then be focused on the LAw aspect instead of the good/evil of a paladin or antipaladin
Here's my ideas, using already establised abilities from other sources.
Class Feature Swaps
*Alignment: Any lawful (or you could restrict it to LN, though I think a "Judge" could definately be good, neutral or evil, bending the laws to their ther alignment axis)
*Aura of good = Aura of law
*Detect evil = Detect chaos
*Smite evil = Smite chaos
*Lay on hands = Commmand (Inevitable subdomain; change uses per day to 1/2 level + Cha mod)
*Mercy (3rd level) = Mantle Against Chaos (Order Inquisition)
*Channel positive energy = Channel Energy as cleric, bu t spends 2 uses of Command instead of Lay on Hands (LG = Positive; LN = Pos or Neg, must choose; LE = Negative)
*Divine Bond = Same but with the following changes - Weapon Bond: change it to a lawful spirit and grant the following weapon properties: axiomatic, brilliant energy, courageous, cruel, flaming, flaming burst, grayflame, nullifying, and speed; Mount bond: mount gains the resolute simple template instead of the celestial template at
*Mercy (6th level) = Chains of Justice (Jusice Inquisition)
*Aura of resolve = Commanding Order (Order Inquisition; change uses to Cha mod per day)
*Aura of Faith = Same, but change to lawful-aligned weapons
*Aura of Righteousness = Aura of Order; same as A of R but change it to DR 5/chaos.
*Holy Champion = Champion of Justice; same a HC but change to DR 10/chaos, banishment on chaotic outsiders, but keep max channeling.
**If you go LN only alignment, you can just tweak some of the above abilities to reflect that. Still need to find something to swap out the rest of the mercies at 9/12/15/18.
Okay, that's some really nice stuff. I wasn't sure if it made sense to let them keep channeling, but, I forgot to mention that I only wanted to restrict it to Lawful alignments only, rather than <i>just</i> Lawful Neutral.
I like the replacements you've suggested. This will be what I use as a start. I'm going to look into more... "inevitable" esque mercy replacements.
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I've got these in my current campaign. I just change all the references to Good/Evil to Law/Chaos, and assign Paladin or Antipaladin progression in a similar way to how a cleric selects which energy type to channel - good ones get Paladin progression, evil get antipaladin progression, and LN pick at first level and then stick with it.
I think the only abilities that swing are Channel/Lay on Hands vs Touch of Corruption, Mercies vs Cruelties, and the Auras (Bolstering vs Destructive).