The Paladin Across the Tabletop
By Nick - August 31, 2009
(If you missed the exact premise for this series of articles, you can find the original article here.)
The Paladin was always “that guy” in the 2nd edition campaigns I played. I remember having to act like an idiot to stick with their strict code of conduct. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the proper way you had to play them, but it was fun. They actually got d12 hit die every level. The old-school Paladin was extremely powerful to make up for their strict code of conduct. With each passing edition this code of conduct has become more of a loose guideline. Even though they don’t get twelve-sided dice for their hit points with the future editions, I imagine any Barbarian would gladly sacrifice a little bit of health for some of these nifty features.
Click on the image for a link to the 3rd Edition Paladin
Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition: Divine Grace made the Paladin have ridiculously good saving throws, generally the best of any class. Smite Evil was also a really great damage dealing ability and Lay on Hands was an awesome healing ability, even if keeping track of it could be a bit of a pain at times. The Special Mount was cool, but was too dependent on the kind of Campaign being run for it to be useful or not. A horse wouldn’t exactly be great inside of a small dungeon. They also received four levels worth of spells. These spells weren’t scaled in the same manner that the first four levels of Wizard spells were. If you bought the right books, some of their fourth level spells were very powerful.
Click on the image to download The Pathfinder RPG Beta test for free
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Pretty different from 3rd Edition. Lay on Hands works in a far more manageable manner. Instead of learning Remove Disease that could be used only so many times per week, they gained Remove Disease, Remove Curse, Neutralize Poison, and Break Enchantment that all instead consume Lay on Hands uses. They also gain something like four new auras and a high-level Holy Champion ability that transforms a Paladin into a conduit of goody goodness. Divine Bond is also an interesting concept, creating a clear distinction between a Paladin that wants to smite foes with their weapon and a Paladin that wants to have their pretty little unicorn. This is probably my favorite version of the Paladin.
World of Warcraft -The Roleplaying Game: They get Holy Strike, which is slightly different from Smit Evil but it still has the same purpose of just hitting your target extra hard. Crusader Strike created an interesting dynamic to the Holy Strike ability. Its damage would increase each time you hit a target with it. This changed how you might view the Holy Strike ability. Instead of spreading it out over multiple encounters, you might decide to instead focus all of your uses of Holy Strike on a single target, stacking up your bonus from Crusader Strike to a ridiculous degree of extra damage. What doesn’t resemble the normal 3rd Edition Paladin is the “Activate Aura”ability. They learn a total of six different kinds of Auras, some offering bonuses to damage rolls, AC, or even giving a chance for spells to not consume their daily use. This is a concept borrowed straight from the World of Warcraft game and even earlier from Diablo II. Even though it is just a translation from a video game into the tabletop gaming experience, I still really like this feature.
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition: A Defender class much like the 4th Edition Fighter, they bring a unique utility to the party’s dynamic. Lay on Hands has become an optional feature with the addition of Divine Power, offering variations on Smite Evil and Remove Disease instead. I’ve always been fond of the Paladin, and changing the concept a little so that you can have evil Paladins makes a lot of sense to me. The apex of a faith isn’t necessarily going to worship good. There are evil gods in D&D as well.
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