Hi there, this is kind of my first post so I first off apologize if its in the wrong section.
So back when I played 3.5 my DM allowed me to make a Werewolf Paladin.
I didn't get to play him much but I enjoyed it, not cause werewolf shenanigans but because he was an interesting character and could tank for days - unless my DM decided to be a jerk and make it that all the enemies and their grandmas has silver weapons (which was some reason often).
Anywho I would like to remake him, and I was hoping to get some suggestions as to what I could do
I like the human modifier being replaced by the werewolf template modifier, makes perfect sense to me.
You could also restrict it to certain archetypes for the paladin... Like make him a Chosen One Paladin, but instead of a familiar gained, it's your werewolf form. You can use your paladin abilities in your werewolf form as your familiar can use the paladin's abilities laid out in the archetype.
Or something to that effect.
There's a lycanthropic Shifter archetype called Weretouched. You could reasonably do 1-4 levels of Shifter and the remainder in Champion of the Faith Warpriest or Gray Paladin for the rest. If your GM is willing to ignore the Shifter's alignment requirement, so much the better.
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He would have been just another filthy beast, but Ashava saw a spark of hope in him, and raised him from the dead, saving his soul from damnation.
Ashava is chaotic good alignment, the goddess of lonely spirits, and consequently, good werewolves. Her sacred animal is the wolf. It makes sense, I promise.
You are Ashava's Chosen One...
What can the GM really say? Besides, "No." Lol.
Ashava has the Ghost Whisperer feat, which actually makes sense for a paladin. She even has a prestige class if you wanted to really drive it home with the whole Ashava's Chosen One thing.
If it's not about the werewolf powers, maybe a skinwalker with werewolf heritage is an option. See d20PFSRD, for example:
They are somewhat tanky, due to +2 Con, +2 Wis (while in shapechanged) and potentially +2 to all saves. Claws and bite make a feral offense, if you pick up the Extra Feature feat two times.
Skinwalkers are roughly en par with humans, when it comes to character power, so a GM might be more open to accept them instead of real werewolves.
I will definitely ask C: thank you these are all really cool ideas. I did look at the Skinwalker as my first choice but I really like some of these ideas and will look more into them
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Because my GM is not the sort to allow people to play templated monster characters, much less werewolf paladins, I could sit here stewing in my mother's house and tell you (with as much righteous indignation as I can muster) that you can't do that--that you're playing the game wrong--and that werewolves are always CE and paladins are always LG.
However, I'm not an a%%$!~&, so I'll say this instead: Enjoy your awesome character concept! :D
(If you do go for the template, rather than taking one of the posters' above suggestions, it might be best to take steps to keep the overall character about on par with the other characters, lest you risk stealing a bit of spotlight and diminishing the fun of others.)
Because my GM is not the sort to allow people to play templated monster characters, much less werewolf paladins, I could sit here stewing in my mother's house and tell you (with as much righteous indignation as I can muster) that you can't do that--that you're playing the game wrong--and that werewolves are always CE and paladins are always LG.
However, I'm not an a!!$~+#, so I'll say this instead: Enjoy your awesome character concept! :D
(If you do go for the template, rather than taking one of the posters' above suggestions, it might be best to take steps to keep the overall character about on par with the other characters, lest you risk stealing a bit of spotlight and diminishing the fun of others.)
I googled 'pathfinder werewolf deities' and found Ashava, who is at least on the good side of alignment, which should allow you to make an argument for being a paladin.
Her description literally mentions good werewolves.
As far as not being overpowered and stealing the show... The Chosen One paladin archetype has a familiar that gets delayed access to the paladin's abilities, and they cost twice the normal daily uses.
If you use your werewolf form as your familiar, you have to choose between being a full paladin, sub par werewolf. Or a full werewolf, sub par paladin.
Balance.
And easy. One template, one class, one archetype. Easy.
Only the most anal GM would say no.
It's not half a paladin. It's still a full on paladin. But trying to do full paladin stuff as a full werewolf will cost twice as many of the daily uses of your paladin abilities.
Don't change form, be a full paladin.
Change form, and it will cost you.
With the Chosen One archetype, your familiar doesn't get the ability to change form at will until level 7, so you can have it so that before that level you can only change form either with the full moon or say to save your life... If you drop below half health, you automatically change to the werewolf.
After level 7, you can change at will.
I wouldn't even take a character level away, just let the god-dog play.
Literally not going to break the game, no matter what you do with it, so who cares?
You mean there's drawbacks to being a paladin that is literally a freaking monster?! What?!
I was just throwing out ideas. And it was literally the first idea I had after one Google search about werewolf deities. I briefly scrolled through the paladin archetypes, and this seemed like it could be fun and easy to work with thematically.
I'm in no way saying it's the best, but a werewolf paladin is a fun idea because they are opposites... So there should probably be a cost associated with trying to be a warrior of the light, whilst being a creature of the dark.
An evil character being a werewolf only taking a -1 character level to play makes sense.
A freaking paladin probably has a bit more internal struggle associated with being a monster.
He would have been just another filthy beast, but Ashava saw a spark of hope in him, and raised him from the dead, saving his soul from damnation.
Ashava is chaotic good alignment, the goddess of lonely spirits, and consequently, good werewolves. Her sacred animal is the wolf. It makes sense, I promise.
You are Ashava's Chosen One...
What can the GM really say? Besides, "No." Lol.
Ashava has the Ghost Whisperer feat, which actually makes sense for a paladin. She even has a prestige class if you wanted to really drive it home with the whole Ashava's Chosen One thing.
If you pitched me this idea in my game, I would totally let you roll with it. Because it is interesting and has enough game support to work.I can't be the only GM who hates every creature or species having to stick with the RAW's narrow minded alignment.
Good werewolves why the hell not?
Duly noted. And being a Paladin doesn't have any effect on race or species.
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Without homebrewing (which I hate), the simplest and most elegant solution in my opinion would be going Werewolf-kin Skinwalker (which is a playable race) and full Paladin (maybe Tortured Crusauder if you want to exploit the Wis bonus and roleplay a struggled character).
You can also get the same result (cursed heavy tank) with an Oradin (which is an Oracle/Paladin build really good at surviving) with the Wolf-scarred curse. Another option would be going full Oracle with Lunar mystery (which is strongly related to lycanthropy).
Honestly, Werewolf-kin Skinwalker is the best option! I heavily agree with Gray Warden for the most part. You could also be a Paladin of Desna, since she's the patron deity for good werewolves!
I found Ashava to specifically mention good werewolves, but didn't see anything about Desna being related to lycans.
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What about a Rougarou (Bestiary 6)? It's essentially a wolf-folk with the ability to change into a real wolf.
At best, be a Paladin of Erastil and pretend that you're a Hound Archon ;)
Sadly it's only once per day. Like that's very useful :(
Well, it's relative to how many fights you're getting into...
Also, in the future, rougarous might get some support.
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I think the main problem with a 1/day wolf form is that in wolf form you can only attack with a bite, and outside of wolf form you don't have a bite (unless you can get one from somewhere other than your race or the paladin class). That makes it hard to invest in single combat strategy. You might do OK using UAS in humanoid form, since then your AoMF would enhance both forms of attack (and I think by RAW you're allowed to use UAS in wolf form, though I'm not clear on the details). Losing your armour would also be a pain, though, since paladins tend to depend on armour for AC. Might help to take Iroran Paladin or dip a level in Scaled Fist or Nornkith monk for IUAS and Cha to AC. (The nornkith's silver UAS ability is actually kind of thematic.)
I don't think the possibility of future support is a good enough reason to take Rougarou over Skinwalker.
Doesn't Divine Health prevent Lycanthopy?
Is there an archetype that trades out Divine Health?
From a quick scan, Forest Preserver, Holy Tactician, Martyr, and Shining Knight. Probably missed one or two odd ones (for example, I didn't check the Oaths at all).
Doesn't Divine Health prevent Lycanthopy?
Is there an archetype that trades out Divine Health?
Yeah, that occured to me when I saw the title. But there are a few archetypes which ditch it, including the Grey Paladin and its looser code of conduct.
If you want to have werewolf flavor, lots of legal options have been floated. They won't necessarily make you any tanker than the average paladin, though. If you want to be a werewolf for extra power, which you seem to be inclined to go for, then it's pretty much entirely up to your DM. Many games explicitly don't allow you to reap benefits from the curse of lycanthropy, and being a natural born werewolf presents balance challenges that your DM will have to decide if they want to deal with that.
So your starting point should be discussing it with the DM.
yes and no,its disease and a curse and would only make them immune to the bite of a wearwolf however it would not remove any effects of being a natural born wearwolfDoesn't Divine Health prevent Lycanthopy?
This was also my understanding of how it would work. As long as being a werewolf came before acquiring Divine Health, I'm pretty sure your character functions without issue.
Fayt Darkblade, your idea has a lot of flavor. Let us know what you end up going with.
Being in hybrid form all the time is harder to role play with any depth, in my opinion.
You start out at level one of your chosen class, right? So the world of being a paladin is new to you, it's a recent choice you have made as an adult.
If you were recently converted to a werewolf, and say Ashava saved you from eternal damnation, maybe you would change your career to better serve the goddess who did you a solid.
But you have to learn to master your curse, as you learn your new chosen class in life.
It's easy to play and believe.
Being a master of your curse stepping into level one of a class seems like more of a stretch, like someone is trying to cheat something into their character, in my opinion. I get it that if they were born a werewolf, by adulthood they probably have it under control, but for the sake of a role playing game, I think making the character learn to control his or her lycanthropy is a better call thematically.