Adventures: Paladins take their adventures seriously and have a penchant for referring to them as "quests." Even a mundane mission is, in the heart of the paladin, a personal test-an opportunity to demonstrate bravery, to develop martial skills, to learn tactics, and to find ways to do good. Still, the paladin really comes into her own when leading a mighty campaign against evil, not when merely looting ruins.

Characteristics: Divine power protects the paladin and gives her special powers. It wards off harm, protects her from disease, lets her heal herself, and guards her heart against fear. The paladin can also direct this power to help others, healing their wounds or curing diseases. Finally, the paladin can use this power to destroy evil. Even the least experienced paladin can detect evil, and more experienced paladins can smite evil foes and turn away undead. In addition, this power draws a mighty steed to the paladin and imbues that mount with strength, intelligence, and magical protection.

Alignment: Paladins must be lawful good, and they lose their divine powers if they deviate from that alignment. Additionally, paladins swear to follow a code of conduct that is in line with lawfulness and goodness.

Religion: Paladins need not devote themselves to a single deity. Devotion to righteousness is enough for most. Those who align themselves with particular religions prefer Heironeous, god of valor, over all others, but some paladins follow Pelor, the sun god. Paladins devoted to a god are scrupulous in observing religious duties and are welcome in every associated temple.

Background: No one ever chooses to be a paladin. Becoming a paladin is answering a call, accepting one's destiny. No one, no matter how diligent, can become a paladin through practice. The nature is either within one or not, and it is not possible to gain the paladin's nature by any act of will. It is possible to fail to recognize one's own potential, or to deny one's destiny. Some who are called to be paladins deny the call and pursue some other life instead.

Most paladins answer the call and begin training as adolescents. Typically, they become squires or assistants to experienced paladins, train for years, and finally set off on their own to further the causes of good and law. Other paladins, however, find their calling only later in life, after having pursued some other career. All paladins, regardless of background, recognize in each other an eternal bond that transcends culture, race, and even religion. Any two paladins, even from opposite sides of the world, consider themselves comrades.

Races: Humans, with their ambitious souls, make great paladins. Half-elves, who often have human ambition, may also find themselves called into service as paladins. Dwarves are sometimes paladins, but becoming a paladin may be hard on a dwarf because it means putting the duties of the paladin's life before duties to family, clan, and king. Elven paladins are few, and those few tend to follow quests that take them far and wide because their lawful bent puts them out of synch with life among the elves. Members of the other common races rarely hear the call to become paladins.

Among the savage humanoids, paladins are all but unheard of.

Other Classes: Even though paladins are in some ways set apart from others, they eagerly team up with those whose skills and capabilities complement their own. They work well with good and lawful clerics, and they appreciate working with those who are brave, honest, and committed to good. While they cannot abide evil acts by their companions, they are otherwise willing to work with a variety of people quite different from themselves. Charismatic, trustworthy, and well respected, the paladin makes a fine leader for a team.

Game Rule Information

Paladins have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma increases the paladin's healing, self-protective capabilities, and undead turning. Strength is important for a paladin because of its role in combat. A Wisdom score of 14 or higher is required to get access to the most powerful paladin spells, and a score of 11 or higher is required to cast any paladin spells at all.

Alignment: Lawful good.

Hit Die: d10.

Class Skills

The paladin's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Ride (Dex). See Chapter 4: Skills for skill descriptions.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features All of the following are class features of the paladin.

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. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble. Also, Swim checks suffer a -1 penalty for every 5 pounds of armor and equipment carried.

Detect Evil: At will, the paladin can detect evil as a spell-like ability. This ability duplicates the effects of the spell detect evil.

Divine Grace: A paladin applies her Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus to all saving throws.

Lay on Hands: A paladin can heal wounds by touch. Each day she can cure a total number of hit points equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) times her level. For example, a 7th-level paladin with a 16 Charisma (+3 bonus) may cure up to 21 points of damage. The paladin can cure herself. She may choose to divide her curing among multiple recipients, and she doesn't have to use it all at once. Lay on hands is a spell-like ability whose use is a standard action.

Alternatively, the paladin can use any or all of these points to deal damage to undead creatures. Treat this attack just like a touch spell. The paladin decides how many cure points to use as damage after successfully touching the undead creature.

Divine Health: A paladin is immune to all diseases, including magical diseases such as mummy rot and lycanthropy.

Aura of Courage: Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Allies within 10 feet of the paladin gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Granting the morale bonus to allies is a supernatural ability.

Smite Evil: Once per day, a paladin of 2nd level or higher may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma modifier (if positive) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per level. For example, a 13th-level paladin armed with a longsword would deal 1d8+13 points of damage, plus any additional bonuses for high Strength or magical effects that normally apply. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect but it is still used up for that day. Smite evil is a supernatural ability.

Remove Disease: Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin can remove disease, as per the spell remove disease, once per week. She can use this ability more often as she advances in levels (twice per week at 6th level, three times per week at 9th level, and so forth). Remove disease is a spell-like ability for paladins.

Turn Undead: When a paladin reaches 3rd level, she gains the supernatural ability to turn undead. She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to three plus her Charisma modifier. She turns undead as a cleric of two levels lower would.

Extra Turning: As a feat, a paladin may take Extra Turning. This feat allows the paladin to turn undead four more times per day than normal. A paladin can take this feat multiple times, gaining four extra daily turning attempts each time.

Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a paladin gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the paladin must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level, so a paladin with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Saving throws against a paladin's spells have a Difficulty Class of 10 + spell level + Wisdom modifier.

Upon reaching 4th level a paladin can cast 1st level spells. At 8th level a paladin can begin casting 2nd level spells, then 3rd level spells at level 11, and 4th level spells upon reaching level 14. A paladin has access to any spell on the list and can freely choose which to prepare, just as a cleric can.

Through 3rd level, a paladin has no caster level. Starting at 4th level, a paladin's caster level is one-half her class level.

Mana: Mana is the "life force" of magic. Each spell takes a specific amount to complete its invocation. For a Paladin, Mana is determined by his Wisdom modifier multiplied by his level of experience: (experience level x ability modifier = Mana). For example, Galadorn is a 5th level Paladin with a Wisdom of 16. His ability modifier for Wisdom would be +3, so his total Mana would be 5 times 3 for a total of 15.

Special Mount: Upon or after reaching 5th level, a paladin can call a special mount, an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve her in her crusade against evil. This mount is usually a heavy warhorse (for a Medium-size paladin) or a warpony (for a Small paladin).

Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment and loses all special class abilities if she ever willingly commits an act of evil. Additionally, a paladin's code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, etc.), help those who need help (provided they do not use the help for evil or chaotic ends), and punish those that harm or threaten innocents.

Associates: While she may adventure with characters of any good or neutral alignment, a paladin will rarely knowingly associate with evil characters unless forced to for the greater good. A paladin will not continue an association with someone who consistently offends her moral code. A paladin may only hire henchmen or accept followers who are lawful good.

A paladin who ceases to be lawful good, who willfully commits an evil act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all special abilities and spells, including the service of the paladin's warhorse. She also may not progress in levels as a paladin. She regains her abilities if she atones for her violations (see the atonement spell), as appropriate.

Like a member of any other class, a paladin may be a multiclass character, but paladins face a special restriction. A paladin who gains a new class or (if already multiclass) raises another class by a level may never again raise her paladin level, though she retains all her paladin abilities. The path of the paladin requires a constant heart. Once you undertake the path, you must pursue it to the exclusion of all other careers. Once you have turned off the path, you may never return.

	Attack	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
Level	Bonus	Save	Save	Save
1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Detect evil, divine grace, lay on hands, divine health
2	+2	+3	+0	+0	Aura of courage, smite evil
3	+3	+3	+1	+1	Remove disease, turn undead
4	+4	+4	+1	+1
5	+5	+4	+1	+1	Special mount
6	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Remove disease 2/week
7	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2
8	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2
9	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Remove disease 3/week
10	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3
11	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3
12	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Remove disease 4/week
13	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4
14	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4
15	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Remove disease 5/week
16	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5
17	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5
18	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Remove disease 6/week
19	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6
20	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6