Angelic Vessel - Homebrew Paladin Archetype. Suggestions? Criticism?

[olePigeon]

Angelic Vessel (Archetype)
An angelic vessel's devotion to her deity and cause has begun a divine transformation of her soul. An angelic vessel has the following class features.

Angelic Bond: At 5th level, an angelic vessel gains a cassisian angel familiar, with its natural form as that of a winged helmet, crown, mask, or other similar object best representing her deity. This ability is identical to the wizard's arcane bond with a familiar and the Improved Familiar feat, using the angelic vessel's character level in place of the wizard level.

This small celestial being is an extension of the angelic vessel's soul, made manifest by her devotion to her deity and moral code. As long as the familiar is within 30 feet and line of sight, this familiar can act as a living divine focus and holy symbol for her spellcasting if the angelic vessel so desires; i.e., channel positive energy may be centered on the familiar instead of the angelic vessel. Should her familiar die, a part of the angelic vessel dies with it, and the effects are devastating, immediately gaining 2 temporary negative levels as a result. These levels cannot be overcome in any way except upon completion of an atonement spell requiring no less than 30 days, thereby healing her soul and creating an identical familiar. If the angelic vessel grossly violates her code of conduct resulting in the loss of her class abilities, the familiar is forcefully ripped from her by her deity, with the same conditions listed above. There are no other costs or rituals required to regain the familiar other than completion of the atonement spell. Furthermore, the familiar gains the following special abilities beyond those granted by the standard familiar.

Shared defenses (Su): The familiar may be worn as a part of the angelic vessel's armor, assuming magic armor bonuses (but not shields) as a deflection bonus to its armor class, and allowing it to occupy the same space as the angelic vessel without penalty or hinderance. This ability only works while the familiar is in its natural form and within arm's reach.
Divine call (Sp): Once per day, an angelic vessel may magically don her familiar and armor as a full-round action. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the angelic vessel's level. An angelic vessel can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every 4 levels thereafter, for a total of four times per day at 17th level.
Deliver lay on hands (Su): The angelic vessel may deliver a lay on hands through her familiar instead, as long as the familiar is within 30 feet and line of sight.
This ability replaces Deliver touch spells.
Shared vision (Su): At 7th level, while the familiar is worn as a part of the angelic vessel's armor, the angelic vessel gains the benefits of her familiar's senses. She gains darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, and a +4 competence bonus to perception checks. If she already has darkvision, the distance is extended an additional 30 ft.
This ability replaces Speak with animals of its kind.
Shared flight (Su): At 13th level, while the familiar is worn as a part of the angelic vessel's armor, she sprouts a pair of angelic wings from her back and gains a fly speed of 30 feet (20 feet in heavy armor) with average maneuverability. If the the angelic vessel already has a fly speed, it is instead increased by 10 feet (5 feet in heavy armor.)
This ability replaces Scry on familiar.
True flight (Su): At 17th level, while the familiar is worn as a part of the angelic vessel's armor, her fly speed increases by 30 feet (20 feet in heavy armor) with perfect maneuverability.

This ability replaces divine bond.

[LazarX]

Shared defenses (Su): The familiar may be worn as a part of the angelic vessel's armor, assuming magic armor bonuses (but not shields) as a deflection bonus to its armor class, and allowing it to occupy the same space as the angelic vessel without penalty or hinderance. This ability only works while the familiar is in its natural form and within arm's reach.
Divine call (Sp): Once per day, an angelic vessel may magically don her familiar and armor as a full-round action. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the angelic vessel's level. An angelic vessel can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every 4 levels thereafter, for a total of four times per day at 17th level.

These two are confusing. Does the first mean that the companion becomes part of the vessel's armor? Is still a separate being or what? What happens to the companion or it's master when this power is used.

Divine Call... is this a restatement of the first power? and again, what does it mean to "don your familliar"?

[olePigeon]

The cassisian angel is a living, angelic winged helmet (but not a construct.) It's in the bestiary and improved familiar feat. It can also be in 2 other forms, but in this archetype, its true form must be the helmet kind. The player can then choose one of the other 2 forms as an alternate form, as instructed by the improved familiar feat.

Even though it looks like a flying helmet, it's still just a creature and all the normal rules apply (including penalties) if you were to attempt to use it as a helmet. You can't ware a duck as a helmet... well, I guess you could, but you'd have major penalties trying to do combat with a duck on your head.

The Shared defenses ability simply allows the Paladin to actually utilize the familiar as a helmet, thus being a functional part of her armor. The close ties between the two creatures negates any penalties you would normally have when sharing the same square with a small creature (re: duck helmet.)

The second ability allows the Paladin to near-instantly don her armor, including the familiar along with it. What normally takes several minutes to do can now be done as a full-round action.

[kamenhero25]

I love the flavor of this and it can even stack with other archetypes because it doesn't replace much. I'd love to play a paladin with an angelic ally. One question though: Does wearing the Cassisian give the usual bonus it provides to an ally within 5 feet? I'd assume that's the intention, but it's not clear.

[Amanuensis]

I like paladins more as warriors with principles than heaven's soldiers, but this is a really cool idea.

A few observations:
- the Cassidian's alignment should probably change to LG
- it doesn't make a lot of sense for the cassidian to gain improved evasion while being 'donned'. Maybe he could be treated as part of the paladin's equipment, so he doesn't have to make saving throws against area attacks?
- it should be stated what the Cassidian can do while being 'donned' (SL abilities, breath weapon, etc.). I'd say that, for balance reasons, the cassidian should not be able to use its special abilities in this form (otherwise, there is no risk involved).
- in total, the combined abilities of angelic bond are probably a lot better than the divine bond or familiar class feature. To maintain balance, I would replace 'shared vision' with the ability to gain truespeech as long as the cassidian is worn and replace 'shared flight' with 'shared vision'. I would drop the at-will flight ability. Losing flight is sad, but at that level, even martial characters can gain access to flight with reasonable resource investment.

The mechanics need refinement, but alltogether, I really like it.

[Elghinn Lightbringer]

I did a Multiclass Archetype (MCA) called the Angelic Knight. Its a Paladin/Summoner combination, and allows the summoning of a Cassisian instead of an eidolon. May want to take a look and plumb it for ideas. I have the cassisian as wearable and grants the Angelic Knight his protective aura, etc., when doing so.

Angelic Knight
Cassisian "Eidolon"

[olePigeon]

kamenhero25 wrote:

I love the flavor of this and it can even stack with other archetypes because it doesn't replace much. I'd love to play a paladin with an angelic ally. One question though: Does wearing the Cassisian give the usual bonus it provides to an ally within 5 feet? I'd assume that's the intention, but it's not clear.

It should.