A man is never truly a pacifist unless he knows how to kill and chooses not to. A man who does not know the means to mete violence is merely a victim.

Base Class Statistics:

• Ability Requirements: Stamina 12, Fitness 9, Willpower 13, Leadership 17
• Alignments: Lawful Good
• Experience Chart: Warrior
• Hit Dice: d10
  • Maximum Hit Dice: 9d10
  • Additional Hit Points: +3 per level beyond 9th
• Attack: Warrior
• Saves:
  • Paralyzation/Poison/Death: as Warrior
  • Rods/Staves/Wands: as Warrior
  • Petrification/Polymorph: as Warrior
  • Breath Weapon: as Warrior
  • Spell: as Warrior
• Proficiencies:
  • Weapons, Initial: 4
  • Weapons, Advancement: +1 per 3 levels
  • Non-Weapon, Initial: 3
  • Weapons, Advancement: +1 per 3 levels
  • Non-weapon Proficiency Groups: Martial, Pastoral, and Spiritual
• Allowed Weapons: Any
• Allowed Armor: Any

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Class Features:

Lawfulness and good deeds are the meat and drink of a paladin. If a paladin ever knowingly performs a chaotic act, he must seek a high-level (7th or more) cleric of lawful good alignment, confess his sin, and do penance as prescribed by the cleric. If a paladin should ever knowingly and willingly perform an evil act (including any act of violence), he loses the status of paladinhood immediately and irrevocably. All benefits are then lost and no deed or magic can restore the character to paladinhood: He is ever after a fighter. The character’s level remains unchanged when this occurs and experience points are adjusted accordingly. Thereafter the character is bound by the rules for fighters.

If the paladin commits an evil act while enchanted or controlled by magic, he loses his paladin status until he can atone for the deed. This loss of status means the character loses all his special abilities and essentially functions as a fighter (without weapon specialization) of the same level. Regaining his status undoubtedly requires completion of some dangerous quest or important mission to once again prove his worth and assuage his own guilt. He gains no experience prior to or during the course of this mission, and regains his standing as a paladin only upon completing the quest.

A paladin will cooperate with characters of any other alignment, as long as they behave themselves. He will try to show them the proper way to live through both word and deed. The paladin realizes that most people simply cannot maintain his high standards. Even thieves and evil characters can be tolerated, provided they are sincerely trying to reform. He will not abide the company of those who commit evil or unrighteous acts. Stealth in the cause of good is acceptable.

The greatest test of a Paladin’s devotion to the cause of good is his training in arms. Violence is an act of evil. Whereas most people view violence as a necessary evil, a Paladin’s code does not recognize any evil as necessary. A Paladin bears arms only as a test of his faith. A Paladin may never use weapons, unarmed strikes, spells, or any other tactics to harm (defined as dealing any amount of hit-point damage) a sentient creature (defined as any creature with an Intelligence score greater than 1). A Paladin will always encourage her companions to use the minimum required force during encounters, to ask foes to surrender before attacking them, let retreating enemies flee if she thinks they won’t be a menace again, and so on.

In addition to his prohibition against evil acts, a Paladin must abide by an oath of Humility and Generosity, as befits a paragon of good.

Humility. The paladin remains humble in spirit and action. He rejects adulation and declines awards. Tributes embarrass him; the knowledge of a job well done suffices as thanks. He speaks modestly of his deeds, if at all, grateful for the opportunity to fulfill his moral obligations.

• A paladin does not attract a body of followers upon reaching 9th level or building a castle. However, he can still hire soldiers and specialists, so long as these comport themselves in a lawful and good manner.

Generosity. The paladin gladly shares his meager funds and possessions with anyone in need. If he owns two swords and a elderly hunter has none, the paladin offers one as a gift. He will give his last crust of bread to a hungry child, even if he must go without food for the rest of the day. He is also generous of spirit, always willing to lend an ear to a troubled companion or acknowledge a friend’s accomplishments with lavish praise.

• A paladin may not possess more than 10 magical items. Furthermore, these may not exceed one suit of armor, one shield, four weapons (arrows and bolts are not counted), and four other magical items.
• A paladin never retains wealth. He may keep only enough treasure to support himself in a modest manner, pay his men-at-arms and servitors a reasonable rate, and to construct or maintain a small castle or keep (funds can be set aside for this purpose). All excess must be donated to the church or another worthy cause. This money can never be given to another player character or NPC controlled by a player.
• A paladin must tithe to whatever charitable, religious institution of lawful good alignment he serves. A tithe is 10% of the paladin’s income, whether coins, jewels, magical items, wages, or taxes. It must be paid immediately.

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As warriors, Paladins gain the ability to make more than one melee attack per round as they rise in level. At 7th level, they can make 3 attacks every 2 rounds. At 13th level and up, they can make 2 attacks per round.

When engaged with large numbers of weak enemies (less than 1 HD each), the warrior gains double his normal number of attacks per round (including doubling attacks with off-hand weapons). Starting at 11th level, this applies to any foe with 10 fewer HD than the warrior’s levels (so a 12th level warrior can do this against 2HD creatures).

Because of his extensive time spent training with weapons as defensive tools, the Paladin gains a +1 bonus on all Parry and Disarm attempts, and may use any (usually ALL) of his attacks in a round to parry. This bonus increases by 1 for every three levels of the Paladin, and stacks with all other attack bonuses the Paladin may have (from Muscle, Specialization, Magic weapons, etc). In addition, the Paladin may use a Parry attempt to intercept attacks directed at any adjacent creature, not just himself.

A paladin can detect the presence of evil intent up to 60 feet away by concentrating on locating evil in a particular direction. He can do this as often as desired, but each attempt takes one round. This works exactly like the priest spell Detect Evil. Like the priest spell, character alignment is only revealed if the target is strongly aligned, is of at least 9th level, and is currently intent upon appropriate actions. Powerful evil-aligned supernatural monsters, such as rakshasas or evil-aligned undead, send forth emanations of evil, even if polymorphed. An evilly cursed object or unholy water radiates evil, but a thing that is simply dangerous (such as a trap or a snake) does not.

A paladin receives a +2 bonus to all saving throws.

A paladin is immune to all forms of disease. (Note that certain magical afflictions-lycanthropy and mummy rot-are curses and not diseases.)

A paladin can heal by laying on hands. The paladin restores 5 hit points per experience level each day. This healing may be spent all at once, or broken up among multiple creatures and healings.

A paladin can cure diseases of all sorts (though not cursed afflictions such as lycanthropy). This can be done only once per week for each five levels of experience (once per week at levels 1 through 5, twice per week at levels 6 through 10, etc.).

A paladin is surrounded by an aura of protection with a 10-foot radius. Within this radius, all summoned creatures and all specifically evil creatures suffer a -1 penalty to their attack rolls, regardless of whom they attack. Creatures affected by this aura can spot its source easily, even if the paladin is disguised.

A paladin armed with a holy sword projects a circle of power 10 feet in diameter when the sword is unsheathed and held. This power Dispels all magic in the area of effect as the spell cast at the paladin’s experience level. (A holy sword is a very special weapon; if your paladin acquires one, the DM will explain its other powers.)

A paladin gains the power to turn undead and extraplanar creatures when he reaches 3rd level. He affects these monsters the same as does a cleric two levels lower—for example, at 3rd level he has the turning power of a 1st-level cleric. See the section on Clerics for more details on this ability. Because his vows forbid harming sentients, the Paladin can never Destroy undead or other creatures when exercising his ability to turn.

A paladin may call for a bonded war horse upon reaching 4th level, or anytime thereafter. This faithful steed need not be a horse; it may be whatever sort of creature is appropriate to the character (as decided by the DM). A paladin’s war horse is a very special animal, bonded by fate to the warrior. The paladin does not really “call” the animal, nor does the horse instantly appear in front of him. Rather, the character must find his war horse in some memorable way, most frequently by a specific quest. The bonded mount is always much stronger than a normal member of its species. The mount gains +2 to its Intelligence, an extra 2 hit dice, +3 to its base speed, and has a morale of 20 when fighting alongside its rider.

A paladin can cast priest spells once he reaches 6th level. He can cast only spells of the Divination, Healing, Law, and Protective spheres. The acquisition and casting of these spells abide by the rules given for priests. The paladin cannot cast spells from clerical or druidical scrolls nor can he use priest items unless they are allowed to the warrior group.

Paladin	Priest Spells
Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
6	1
7	2
8	2	1
9	3	1
10	3	2
11	4	2	1
12	4	3	1
13	4	3	2
14	4	4	2	1
15	4	4	3	1
16	4	4	3	2
17	4	4	4	2
18	4	4	4	3
19	4	4	4	3
20	4	4	4	4