Paladins and granted powers

[Sitara]

Do you think paladin's will now differ according to the deity they select? In 3E it really didi not matter whether the paladin was of hieroneous, bahamut or cuthbert, they all got the same dry abilities. clerics at least go domains and domain spells to diffrentiate them (though they were very limited in application).


I want 'kewl' powers for paladins depending on which deity they follow, and I want these powers to be different to what a cleric of the same deity might get.

Example:

Cleric of Tiamat: "Cauterize": You can call upon tiamat and cauterize wounds with hellfire as a standard action. Result: One target removes the 'bloody' condition.

Paladin of Tiamat: "Scorching Steel": Once per encounter you can call upon tiamat as a move action and enshroud your weapon in the flames of hell for 10 rounds. +1d8 fire damage to target.

Thoughts/improvements?

 

[Zweischneid]

Example:

Cleric of Tiamat: "Cauterize": You can call upon tiamat and cauterize wounds with hellfire as a standard action. Result: One target removes the 'bloody' condition.

Paladin of Tiamat: "Scorching Steel": Once per encounter you can call upon tiamat as a move action and enshroud your weapon in the flames of hell for 10 rounds. +1d8 fire damage to target.

Thoughts/improvements?

Dunno, that was the way it was supposed to work in 3e if I remember correctly. They just give you the mechanics (i.e. heal 1d8 damage) and leave it up to the players to describe it as gentle healing light, cauterizing hellfire with sulfur, ancient herbal wisdom, revitalization through a seeping darkness, or whatever else fit you're diety.

Unfortunately, too many players lacked the imagination to fluff-up their spells and powers on-top of the mechanics given making many games of D&D rather dry "I-heal-you" affairs. Hence, bringing the fluff back into the rulebooks seems to be one trend of 4e that will likely take Clerics along for the ride aswell.

 

[Sitara]

You misunderstand me.

iam talking about mechanics. In 3E there were no mechanics to diffrentiate paladins by deity. A paladin of hireeous and cuthbert were the same mechanically. I'm hoping in 4E they will be different (with kewl powers).

I gave the cleric as an example, and to state that i wish they wont simply give clerics and paladins the same thing to diffrentiate them.

 

[Derren]

Imo that would make them too much like clerics.
And as you can see in my sig the 3E paladin didn't get their powers from a deity at all.

 

[FireLance]

If they differentiate paladins of different deities at all, I think it will be based off whatever will be used to differentiate clerics of different deities.

My ideal 4e cleric would work very similar to the 3.5e ardent (a psionic class), which gains access to a number of mantles (collections of powers similar to 3e domains or 2e spheres), and selects his (limited) powers known from those mantles.

A cleric with the Sun and Healing domains (or whatever) would thus have a very different spell list from a cleric with the Strength and War domains, who would also have a very different spell list from a cleric with the Travel and Fire domains.

With that set-up, it wil be quite easy to make paladins different from each other by giving them access to different domains (representing the different abilities that their patron deities would grant).

 

[jaer]

You misunderstand me.

iam talking about mechanics. In 3E there were no mechanics to diffrentiate paladins by deity. A paladin of hireeous and cuthbert were the same mechanically. I'm hoping in 4E they will be different (with kewl powers).

I gave the cleric as an example, and to state that i wish they wont simply give clerics and paladins the same thing to diffrentiate them.

Yeah, you gave examples, but your examples were of generic powers any cleric or paladin might have.

"Cauterize" doing what it does with hellfire could just as easily be called "Healing Spring" given by a water diety which causes a cooling spray of mist to do the task. "Scorching Steel" could just as easily be called "Fire of Faith" or something and be given by some other god and be just as appropriate for any paladin. Mechanically, these things don't need to be different (which is where it sounds like Zwe is coming form).

I could see there being a list of Deific Smites under each of the deities entries, and at some point in his career, the paladin picked one herioc, one paragon, and one epic, from a list of like three choices, but I doubt these smites would be unique to each deity (any god with an association with fire would have the Fiery Smite while gods of frost might have a Frosty Smite or something).

I think it would take up too much room in the book to have each deity have specific, unique powers and abilities for both paladins and clerics, unless the players don't get options as to what abilities they get (in effect, picking the deity picks the ability you get at X lvl). I seriously doubt they will do that, though. It takes away from the "you don't need to plan your character's career out when you make him" thing they are trying to do. They don't seem to want picking your deity at first level to lock you in to your abilities throughout your career.

 

[Sitara]

It doesn't have tobe throughout the career, as you say. They could have each deity give small list of powers granted to paladins (like 3e had domain powers. That didn't take up that much space.)

The paladin can then select a talent ("Boon of Faith" or something ) and each selection of this talent give the pally one pick from the powers of his deity. these powers scale with level so they are useful throughout levels 1-30. The talent can be selected multiple times, each time granting an additional power from the list.

And now that I think about it, since clerics will get powers (spells) and rituals, they really don't need any 'granted' powers such as they had in 3E. People already complain clerics are overpwered so this would help in this regard.

 

[Slander]

I wouldn't hold my breath. I can see Paladin's of different alignments having different powers (similar to what they did in UA), but I doubt they'd differ by deity. That would make to much mechanical tie-in with what is supposed to be a meta-setting.

Best case, they tie in a unique Paladin power or two with Domains or some domain-like thing. Then it'd be applicable with the default core pantheon or whatever other pantheon you come up with.

 

[Umbran]

Do you think paladin's will now differ according to the deity they select?

I don't recalling anyone saying that paladins will have to select a deity at all. They don't, by 3.x rules. Heck, clerics don't even need to select a deity by current rules.

 

[Green Knight]

All I want to know is, with the alignment restrictions being lifted, if I'll be able to play a Jack Bauer style Paladin.

"WHERE DID YOU PUT THE ARM OF VALOR? WHERE IS IT!?!"

*stabs Kobold in the eye*