I wanted to construct a Daring Champion like Paladin Archetype, Basically an archetype that allows the Paladin the ability to use Deeds, even if only a handful of them.
Has anyone seen one before?
I was thinking of either trading out the Mercy class feature to give the Deeds to the Paladin, or I thought maybe trading out the Divine Bond class feature to grant the Paladin a few of the deeds, such as the parry and riposte and the precise strike deeds.
Either of these sound like a good idea?
Be careful of trading out defensive or non-combat abilities for combat abilities. Trading up is a very common mistake in homebrew archetypes, where a minor class feature is turned into a strong combat feature and makes the archetype too strong. I'd be careful of trading Mercies for Precise Strike or Parry. That would be like taking the Swashbuckler's Charmed Life and replacing it with a big feature like Smite: they aren't comparable.
Which is why I thought of trading out the Divine Bond which grants either the +5 increases or a mount for lance combat.
still not comparable.
is there anything you want on your Pali other than Parry and Reposte, and Precise Strike?
A +5 bonus by level 20, four times per day, or a mount is not the same as being able to consistently, every day, whenever you have Panache, add your level to damage (or double, if you spend Panache), or deflect attacks as soon as you hit level 3. You'd be stacking this on top of some of the best, if not the best, saves in the game, heavy armor proficiency, protection from most conditions, swift action self-healing, Smite, spells, and channeling positive energy. This is a chassis, as well, that gets to add Charisma as a bonus to some pretty rockin' stuff, and by adding in Panache you're simply rewarding the class for doing what it's already going to do anyways.
The Paladin is a very tightly packed class, and it takes a lot of sacrificing to make adding anything else justified. The Cavalier class doesn't even get as much great stuff as the Paladin, outside of maybe some role-playing things and mounted stuff, and Daring Champion is still better than a normal Cavalier in most cases, excepting the rare times when you want to actually do mounted combat. In fact, Daring Champion is often considered to be so good that many around these parts actually think it invalidates the Swashbuckler class altogether.
Deeds are a big deal. They're consistent, almost always available, and recharge over the course of combat. Hell, they even help themselves recharge by giving you the kick you need to finish off a baddie and get a Panache/Grit point back. If you give a class access to them they have to come with a price. For the Paladin this wouldn't be Mercies, Divine Bond, or both, unless you're looking at adding things like Kip-Up or Derring-Do. If you want Parry and Precise Strike, you would have to give up something like Divine Grace, Lay on Hands, or even Smite.
One way to look at class features is to assign them a number. Something like Smite or Rage is probably a 1.5, while something like Divine Health falls around a 0.25. Deeds usually come in packages, and these packages generally can be seen as a 1.5 as well; big, class-defining features. To avoid bloat and too much power, you've gotta subtract something of comparable cost, and not just enough small things that it seems alright. If you think of a Swashbuckler giving up Derring-Do, Kip-Up, Menacing Swordplay, Swashbuckler's Grace, Superior Feint, and Charmed Life to get Smite, that would still not be a fair trade. Here, the class has retained all of its combat potency while losing very small, niche abilities and simultaneously gaining a very powerful feature that more than compensates for the small dip in utility.
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Maybe use this 3rd party archetype for ideas?
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Dashing Hero
Not all paladins gallivant around in bulky metal armor with a heavy weapon and huge shield. Some go gallivanting around in light armor with a light weapon and small shield. These called champions find that the increased mobility, defensive combat training, and variety of skills to learn are just as effective in stopping evil as the heavy armor and great weapons of the more traditional holy avenger.
The dashing hero is an archetype of the paladin class.
Skills
A dashing hero's base skill points per level increases to 4. He gains Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Perform, and Swim as class skills.
Hero's Finesse
At 1st level, a dashing hero gains the benefits of the Weapon Finesse feat with light or one-handed piercing melee weapons, and he can use his Charisma score in place of Intelligence as a prerequisite for combat feats. This ability counts as having the Weapon Finesse feat for purposes of meeting feat prerequisites.
This replaces the paladin's proficiency with medium and heavy armor and with shields other than bucklers.
Panache and Deeds
At 2nd level, a dashing hero gains the swashbuckler's panache class feature, and learns the swashbuckler's derring-do deed.
This ability replaces lay on hands.
Dashing Rescue
At 2nd level, a dashing hero can spend 1 panache point as an immediate action when an ally is targeted by an attack or included in the area of a harmful effect in order to move up to his speed. At any point during this movement, he may pick up the targeted ally and carry them along with him. This movement provokes opportunity attacks for the dashing hero, but not for his ally. If this movement removes the ally from the reach or area of the attack or effect targeting him, he is not subject to the attack or effect. He may use this ability while astride his bonded mount, in which case he commands his mount to move up to its speed.
This ability replaces divine grace.
Deeds
At 3rd level, a dashing hero learns the swashbuckler's opportune parry and riposte deed.
At 6th level, a dashing hero learns the swashbuckler's kip-up deed.
At 9th level, a dashing hero learns the swashbuckler's grace deed.
At 12th level, a dashing hero learns the swashbuckler's superior feint deed.
At 15th level, a dashing hero learns the swashbuckler's dizzying defense deed.
At 18th level, a dashing hero learns the swashbuckler's edge deed.
This ability replaces mercy.
Nimble
At 4th level, a dashing hero gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC while wearing light or no armor. Anything that causes the dashing hero to lose his Dexterity bonus to AC also causes him to lose this dodge bonus. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 levels beyond 4th (to a maximum of +5 at 20th level).
This ability replaces channel positive energy.
Divine Bond
When the dashing hero gains this ability at 5th level, he must select a bonded mount.