Paladin

A Paladin is a holy knight, crusading in the name of good and order, and a divine spellcaster. By definition and game restriction, a paladin is almost always of lawful good alignment. A paladins is expected to demonstrate and embody goodness – they are not supposed to lie or use poison. A paladin is a champion of justice and destroyer of evil, protected and strengthened by an array of divine powers.

Paladins are knights, working for their church or an order. Qualifying for an order is often difficult, and membership always requires that the paladin follow a specific code of conduct. These orders often allow non-paladins as members, with good-aligned ranger and fighter being the most common sort of non-paladin members. Paladins can serve in the military force of an aristocrat sanctioned by their religion, or within some autonomous church-based military order established for defense.

Abilities

The most prominent ability scores of the paladin are:

• Strength: Paladins generally need high strength in order to participate in melee combat.

• Charisma: Charisma is key to almost all of a paladin's unique abilities, including the ability to heal with lay on hands, smite evil, bonuses to all saving throws, and the ability to turn undead.

• Constitution: As a fighting class, paladins need to be hardy and tough to kill.

• Wisdom: A high wisdom score is necessary in order for a paladin to effectively use what divine spells they receive.

Paladin class abilities include the ability to detect evil at will, immunity to fear and disease, enhanced attacks against evil creatures, the ability to heal and cure disease, bonuses to their saving throws, the ability to summon a special mount (usually a heavy warhorse), the ability to cast divine spells, and the ability to turn undead. This establishes them as warriors with special power against evil foes with limited divine power. Switching to any alignment other than lawful good or breaching part of the paladin's code of conduct results in a loss of divine granted abilities.

Paladin Orders

The Church of the Silver Flame