The Faithful Warrior - a Paladin for all alignments

[Wensleydale]

Alignment: Any (see below)

Hit Die: d10.
Class Skills

The faithful warriorâ,¬,,¢s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nobility and royalty / religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

[class=Faithful warrior]
[bab=fighter]
[fort=good]
[special][1]Aura, Detect Alignment, Smite 1/Day[/1][2]Divine Strength, Divine Touch[/2][3]Aura of Courage/Fear, Divine Health[/3][4]Turn/Rebuke Undead[/4][5]Smite 2/Day, Special Mount[/5][6]Remove/Inflict Disease 1/Week[/6][9]Remove/Inflict Disease 2/Week[/9][10]Smite 3/Day[/10][12]Remove/Inflict Disease 3/Week[/12][15]Remove/Inflict Disease 4/Week, Smite 4/Day[/15][18]Remove/Inflict Disease 5/Week[/18][20]Smite 5/Day[/20][/special]
[/class]

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the paladin.

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

Aura(Ex): The power of a faithful warrior's aura (see the detect good spell) is equal to her faithful warrior level. Its alignment matches hers.

Detect Alignment (Sp): At will, a faithful warrior can detect the opposing alignment to hers. For instance, a Chaotic faithful warrior could use Detect Law as the spell, whilst a Good faithful warrior could use Detect Evil.

Smite (Su): Once per day, a faithful warrior may attempt to smite an enemy of the opposing alignment to her own with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per faithful warrior level. If the faithful warrior accidentally smites a creature that is not of the opposing alignment to her own, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the faithful warrior may smite evil one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: The Faithful warrior, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

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

Holy Touch (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a good faithful warrior 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 x her Charisma bonus. A faithful warrior may choose to divide her healing among multiple recipients, and she doesnâ,¬,,¢t have to use it all at once. An evil faithful warrior with a Charisma score of 12 or higher can inflict the same amount of damage by touch (requiring a touch attack). A chaotic, lawful, or neutral faithful warrior must choose at second level which they can use.

Using divine touch is a standard action.

Alternatively, a faithful warrior can use any or all of this power to deal damage to (or heal, if evil) undead creatures. Using divine touch to damage an enemy in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesnâ,¬,,¢t provoke an attack of opportunity. The faithful warrior decides how many of her daily allotment of points to use as damage after successfully touching an undead creature.

Aura of Courage/Fear (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a faithful warrior is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Also, for a good faithful warrior, each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. This ability functions while the faithful warrior is conscious, but not if she is unconscious or dead. If the faithful warrior is evil, her aura instead deals a -4 morale penalty against fear affects to all enemies within 10ft of her.

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

Turn/Rebuke Undead (Su): When a faithful warrior reaches 4th level, she gains the supernatural ability to turn or rebuke undead (depending on her alignment). She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier. She turns/rebukes undead as a cleric of three levels lower would.

Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a faithful warrior gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the paladin spell list. A faithful warrior must choose and prepare her spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, a faithful warrior must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a faithful warriorâ,¬,,¢s spell is 10 + the spell level + the warriorâ,¬,,¢s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a faithful warrior can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is as the Paladin's. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score. When Table: The Paladin indicates that the Faithful warrior gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to based on her Wisdom score for that spell level The faithful warrior does not have access to any domain spells or granted powers, as a cleric does.

A Faithful warrior prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though she cannot lose a prepared spell to spontaneously cast a cure spell in its place. A faithful warrior may prepare and cast any spell on the faithful warrior spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.

Through 3rd level, a faithful warrior has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, her caster level is one-half her faithful warrior level.

Special Mount (Sp): Upon reaching 5th level, a faithful warrior gains the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve her in her crusade. This mount is usually a heavy warhorse (for a Medium warrior) or a warpony (for a Small warrior).

Once per day, as a full-round action, a faithful warrior may magically call her mount from the planar realms in which it resides. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the faithful warriorâ,¬,,¢s class level. The mount immediately appears adjacent to the faithful warrior and remains for 2 hours per faithful warrior level; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The mount is the same creature each time it is summoned, though the faithful warrior may release a particular mount from service.

Each time the mount is called, it appears in full health, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. The mount also appears wearing or carrying any gear it had when it was last dismissed. Calling a mount is a conjuration (calling) effect.

Should the faithful warriorâ,¬,,¢s mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. The faithful warrior may not summon another mount for thirty days or until she gains a faithful warrior level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow returned from the dead. During this thirty-day period, she takes a â,¬'1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls. (See the Paladin for specifics on mounts)

Remove Disease (Sp): At 6th level, a good faithful warrior can produce a remove disease effect, as the spell, once per week. She can use this ability one additional time per week for every three levels after 6th (twice per week at 9th, three times at 12th, and so forth). An evil faithful warrior can instead inflict disease, as the spell Contagion.

[Darkxarth]

I like it, but I think you shouldn't call it Holy Warrior.  What if it's a Neutral Evil Fiend with class levels?  Doesn't make a lot of sense.  I liked the "Faithful Warrior" title better.  But, still, it's a great idea!

EDIT:  Great!  I see the fix. Looks good!

[Wensleydale]

Faithful Warrior - yes, that was it. ;) Sorry, were all mistypes... ONE MOMENTO!

[snakefing]

Hmm.

I think the idea of a holy warrior is a good one. This is a fairly simple one that sticks pretty close to the basic D20 paladin concept. But the powers and abilities need to be keyed to the deity or pantheon to be really interesting.

What I'd like to do really with something like this is to extend the concept of a deity's domains to encompass things like this. Specifically:

1. The list of spells for each domain should be more extensive and colorful. This may imply that the meaning and usage of domains would change.
2. Special abilities of divine characters will always be keyed to the domains. Instead of turn/rebuke undead, disease immunity, etc. you'd get to pick an ability from the list of options for your deity's or pantheon's domains. There'd be more abilities, prerequisites, and so on.

When I get around to it, I'll finish the divine magic design for World of Axa - but conceptually priests don't have spells per se. They are granted the ability to call on the familiar spirits of their deity. Different deities would have different types of spirits, which have different powers and abilities.

Anyway, in a system like that, a holy warrior would be more like a multi-classed fighter/priest.

[Wensleydale]

I am working on something like that - but at the moment, this is just a paladin for all alignments. :)