Paladin of the Sublime Way (3.5e Class)

Created By

Eiji-kun (talk)
Date Created:	4-5-10
Status:	Complete
Editing:	Mechanical changes on Talk please.
Balance:	Rogue

{{#set:Summary=A paladin which uses martial maneuvers instead of spells, they have the backing of the gods at their side. |Length=20 |Minimum Level=0 |Base Attack Bonus Progression=Good |Fortitude Save Progression=Good |Reflex Save Progression=Poor |Will Save Progression=Poor |Class Ability=Martial Maneuvers }} {{#set:Allowed Alignments=Lawful Good}}

Paladin of the Sublime Way

Paladins who have focused on the more martial aspects of their class, in lue of trying to be mini-clerics and gain spells, they channel their divine might through their sword, striking at evil directly with the grace of their divine patrons.

Making a Paladin of the Sublime Way

Abilities: As a melee class, strength and constitution are ever as important. However, charisma is important with many paladin class features, and allows the paladin to truly shine as a hero. Certain disciplines may rely on wisdom, and dexterity and intelligence are used less frequently due to heavy armor and straightfoward tactics, although certain paladin builds do enjoy the additional skill points of a high intelligence score.

Races: Any race which is devoted and capable enough to produce a paladin can have a paladin of the sublime way within their ranks.

Alignment: Lawful Good.

Starting Gold: 5d4×10 gp (125 gp).

Starting Age: As fighter.

Table: The Paladin of the Sublime Way

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Maneuvers Known	Maneuvers Readied	Stances Known
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Martial Domain, Smite Evil 1/encounter	5	5(2)	1
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Divine Grace, Lay on Hands (Healing)	5	5(2)	2
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Aura of Courage, Divine Health	6	5(2)	2
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Bonus Feat	6	5(2)	2
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Smite Evil 2/encounter, Paladin's Blessing 1	7	5(2)	2
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Sacred Sword Stance	7	5(2)	2
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Lay on Hands (Disease and Poison)	8	5(2)	2
8th	+8+/+3	+6	+2	+2	Bonus Feat	8	5(2)	3
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Paladin's Blessing 2	9	5(2)	3
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	Martial Domain, Smite Evil 3/encounter	9	6(3)	3
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3	Aura of Healing	10	6(3)	3
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Bonus Feat, Angel Wing Stance	10	6(3)	3
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	Paladin's Blessing 3	11	6(3)	3
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	Lay on Hands (Ability Damage and Negative Levels)	11	6(3)	4
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Smite Evil 4/encounter	12	6(3)	4
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	Bonus Feat	12	6(3)	4
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Paladin's Blessing 4	13	6(3)	4
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Fierce Deity's Justice	13	6(3)	4
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Death Ward	14	6(3)	4
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Bonus Feat, Divine Apothesis, Martial Domain, Smite Evil 5/encounter	14	7(4)	4
Class Skills (Skill Points::2 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Balance (Dex), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Martial LoreToB (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Tumble (Dex),

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the paladin of the sublime way.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Paladins are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

Maneuvers: You begin your career with knowledge of five martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to you are Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon, and White Raven.

Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied below). A maneuver usable of paladins of the sublime way is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. Your maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you initiate one. You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on Table: Paladin of the Sublime Way. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. See the table to determine the highest level maneuver you can learn.

Upon reaching 4th level and every even-numbered paladin level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on) you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver and exchange for the new one. You can choose a maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a new maneuver of the same level. For example, upon reaching 10th level, you could trade in a single 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level maneuver for a maneuver of 5th level or lower, as long as you meet the prerequisite of the new maneuver. You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

Maneuvers Readied: You can ready all five maneuvers you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more maneuvers you must choose which maneuvers to ready. You ready maneuvers by praying for 5 minutes. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to pray again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time in order to ready your maneuvers; any time you spend five minutes in prayer, you can change your readied maneuvers.

You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter (unless you recover them, as discribed below).

Paladins of the Sublime Way share their maneuver methods with crusaders^ToB, relying on flashes of divine inspiration to use their martial maneuvers. As such, you do not control access to your readied maneuvers. Before you take your first action in an encounter, two of your readied maneuvers (randomly determined) are granted to you. The rest of your readied maneuvers are withheld, currently inaccessable. At the end of each turn, one previously withheld maneuver (again, randomly determined) is granted to you and thus becomes accessable on your next turn and subsequent turns.You can freely choose to initiate any maneuver that is currently granted when your turn begins, but you cannot initiate a withheld maneuver. If you choose not to employ a maneuver in a given round, your currently granted maneuvers remain available, and a previously withheld maneuver is granted, as described above. In other words, it doesn't matter if you use your maneuvers or not- at the end of each of your turns, one withheld maneuver from your selection of readied maneuvers is granted to you. Over the course of a few rounds, all your maneuvers will eventually be granted.

If, at the end of your turn, you cannot be granted a maneuver because you have no withheld maneuvers remaining, you recover all expended maneuvers, and a new pair of readied maneuvers is granted to you. Randomly determine which of your maneuvers are granted and which are withheld. At the end of your next turn, a withheld maneuver is granted to you, and the whole process of divine inspiration begins again.

You begin an encounter with an additional granted maneuver at 10th level (bringing your total to three) and every 10 levels after.

Stances Known: You begin play with knowledge of one 1st level stance from the Devoted Spirit, Stone Dragon, or White Raven discipline. At 2nd, 8th, and 14th level, you can choose an additional stance. Unlike maneuver, stances are no expended, and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you currently use as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description.

Unlike with maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one you already know.

Aura of Good (Ex): The power of a paladin’s aura of good (see the detect good spell) is equal to her paladin level.

Detect Evil (Sp): At will, a paladin can use detect evil, as the spell.

Martial Domain: <-class feature game rule information->

TABLE HERE

A paladin of the sublime way gains an additional martial domain at 10th level and again at 20th level. She still only has one slot open for her domain maneuver, which she selects from any of her martial domains available. She does however benefit from the domain powers from all her martial domains.

Smite Evil (Su): Once per encounter, a paladin of the sublime way may attempt to smite evil as part of a normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that encounter.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the paladin may smite evil one additional time per encounter, as indicated on Table: The Paladin of the Sublime Way.

Divine Grace (Su): At 2nd level, a paladin gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws.

Lay on Hands (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin of the sublime way with a Charisma score of 12 or higher can heal wounds (her own or those of others) by touch. Each day she can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her paladin level × her Charisma bonus. A paladin may choose to divide her healing among multiple recipients, and she doesn’t have to use it all at once. Using lay on hands is a standard action.

Alternatively, a paladin can use any or all of this healing power to deal damage to undead creatures. Using lay on hands in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The paladin decides how many of her daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature.

At 7th level you may use 5 points of healing from lay on hands to instead duplicate the effects of remove disease or neutralize poison.

At 14th level you may instead cure ability penalties, damage, and ability drain, or cure negative levels by using your lay on hands. For each point of ability penalty, damage, drain, or negative level you consume 2 points of healing from your lay on hands.

Aura of Courage (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects.

This ability functions while the paladin is conscious, but not if she is unconscious or dead.

Divine Health (Ex): At 3rd level, a paladin gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.

Bonus Feat: At 4th level and every four levels beyond (8th, 12th, 16th, and so forth) the paladin of the sublime way gets a bonus feat. She may XXXX

Paladin's Blessing (Sp): At 5th level, a paladin is given a boon by the spirits who favor him in the form of either a powerful weapon to strike against evil with, or a brave mount to ride into battle. XXXX

Sacred Sword Stance (Su): At 6th level

Aura of Healing (Su): At 11th level

Angel Wing Stance (Su): At 12th level

Fierce Deity's Justice (Su): At 18th level

Death Ward (Su): At 19th level

Divine Apothesis: At 20th level

Ex-Paladins of the Sublime Way

<-Describe what happens when a character violates the alignment restrictions of any other class restrictions. If there are no behavior or alignment restrictions delete this section->.

Epic Paladins of the Sublime Way

Table: The Epic Paladins of the Sublime Way

Hit Die: d10

Level	Special
21st	Maneuver Known +1, Stances Known +1
22nd
23rd	Maneuver Known +1
24th	Bonus Feat
25th	Maneuver Known +1, Smite Evil 6/encounter
26th
27th	Maneuver Known +1
28th	Bonus Feat, Stances Known +1
29th	Maneuver Known +1
30th	Maneuvers Readied 8(5), Martial Domain, Smite Evil 7/encounter
2 + Int modifier skill points per level.

<-existing class feature->: <-how this class feature increases or accumulates at epic levels->

<-another existing class feature->: <-how this class feature increases or accumulates at epic levels->

<-Lather, rinse...->

<-... repeat.->

Bonus Feats : The epic paladin of the sublime way gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic paladin of the sublime way bonus feats) every <-number of feats per level-> levels after 20th.

Epic Paladin of the Sublime Way Bonus Feat List: <-list of bonus epic feats->.

Human Paladin of the Sublime Way Starting Package

Weapons: Greatsword.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 2 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
<-Skill name->	4	Int	—
<-Skill name->	4	Int	—
<-Skill name->	4	Int	—

Feat: <-1st-level feat selection->.

Bonus Feats: <-1st-level feat bonus feats due to class or sample race. remove this section if this sample doesn't get any bonus feats at 1st level. ->.

Gear: <-Starting armor and other equipment outside of weapons.->.

Gold: <-Starting gold using this package.->.

Campaign Information

Playing a Paladin of the Sublime Way

Religion: <-description of how this class typically (but no exclusively) approaches religion including likely portfolios it would worship->.

Other Classes: <-How this class typically interacts with other classes and how characters of this class interact with characters of other classes->.

Combat: <-Typical role in combat->.

Advancement: <-Typical advancement options for characters with this class. Include desirable multiclass options->.

Paladin of the Sublime Way in the World

“

I am not afraid, no matter what evil comes. I will defeat the cursed knight and stop his terror, so others may sleep at night.

”

Daily Life: <-day in the life of a character of this class->.

Notables: <-notable NPCs of this class->.

Organizations: <-info on what, where, when, and how characters of this class congregate and assemble->.

NPC Reactions: <-How NPCs react to PCs of this class->.

Paladin of the Sublime Way Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge Religion can research paladins of the sublime way to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge Religion

DC	Result
10	<-common knowledge->.
15	<-not so common knowledge->.
20	<-rare information->.
30	<-very rare information->.

Paladins of the Sublime Way in the Game

Adaptation: As the paladin does, the paladin of the sublime way may come in other alignment flavors. Replace the typical paladin abilities for their varient class powers (paladins of courage, tyranny, and slaughter) and invert alignment boons when possible.

In the event that the paladin of the sublime way gains access to other disciplines (through alternate class features or the like), the following martial domain powers are suggested for each martial discipline.

TABLE HERE

Sample Encounter: A paladin of the sublime way has become possessed by an evil intelligent sword, and it leading him some place to complete it's fell ritual of transformation. You must stop the paladin, saving others in his path while keeping him from falling into evil's hands.

EL 10: PENDING.

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