So I wanted to create a king's acolyte for a campaign as a playable character, but am unsure if I should choose a paladin or a cavalier or what exactly since the character doesn't worship a deity nor does it have an animal companion. It's more of a adviser to the king, who can fight well in melee, as well as see's the king as a God almost. Would that still be considered a paladin?
Paladins, interestingly enough do not actually need to worship a deity. Food for thought.
Really, it mostly depends what you want mechanically here. That concept is pretty class-agnostic.
Cavalier fits very well, however, especially with Order of the Lion.
The Daring Champion replaces all the mounted aspects of the class, though pretty much limits you to a "dueling style" (one-handed weapon, no shield).
Although, many classes can do similarly well. A Slayer can make a good advisor/bodyguard, being able to Study anyone addrsing their liege, having 6+Int skills to use, and gaining bonuses to Sense Motive and whatnot against their target. While the class implies a more "assassin" based flavor, it's not at all necessary, and is easily re-fluffed.
You want a space marine.
Jokes aside, paladin, cavalier (bard/battle herald if he's meant to be inspiring), slayer or even fighter could work. Swashbuckler too.
Honestly, you could just pick a melee class, and then monkey about with traits until he had the neccesary skills to be a good advisor.
The Daring Champion replaces all the mounted aspects of the class, though pretty much limits you to a "dueling style" (one-handed weapon, no shield).
???
No...daring champion is best suited sword and board, even more so than dueling style. Just not the typical sword and board this board expects (with TWF where you shield bash). No, it is suited for good old 'the shield is only a shield' style of sword and board.
The precise strike deed lets you use a buckler. Except for the inability to shield bash, it is pretty much the same as a light shield (+1 AC, and you can do stuff with the hand).
And not using the buckler is wasteful- it is another AC enhancement slot.
If you go Paladin (or any other divine caster), I recommend asking your GM what setting he is using and if that setting requires divine casters to have a patron deity. Even though Pathfinder doesn't require Paldins serve a deity, many settings do.
Setting rules > system rules.
Advisors to the king? Does he REALLY need to make any knowledge checks? Honestly if I were a king, I'd want a wizard to advise me. They're so smart.
While knowledge checks are useful, he could be an advisor with more social skills.
Of course, in both respects, I would look for a bard. Cha casters with huge bonuses to knowledge checks. Make use of some perform (oration) to sing "The Praises of this God Among Men"
While martial classes are better suited for full knights, bards have enough proficiencies to swing around as courtiers at least (rapiers, long swords, basic spears, a bow, etc)
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But...but if he's too charismatic, it'll all end in tears.I'd rather he had some defect preventing him from taking over the monarchy. Maybe he's dowdy and unattractive and has ugly looking spectacles.
Well, maybe s/he just doesn´t want to be the one running the show and is okay with the current monarch sitting on the throne and taking suggestions.
I would go with bard, though cavaliers, monks and possibly swashbucklers work okay as well. Paladins are good bodyguards, but too skill-poor to make good advisors.
Monk sensei could also work pretty well.
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My latest PFS character is a decent match for what you want to do (Click on the portrait for more details).
Swashbuckler (Inspired Blade) 1 / Investigator (Empiricist) X.
Inspiration on lots of stuff, class skills for lots of stuff, and only needs two stats: Dex and Int.
Inspired blade gives you panache and qualifies for fencing grace for your L1 feat.
With Expanded Inspiration as your L3 Feat, you can add a d6 to most of your "advisor" type skills for free!
If you want to emphasize anything, you can use panache or inspiration to add a D6 to just about anything you need at any time.