Paladin

A paladin is a paragon of righteousness sworn to be, and always to remain, Lawful Good. If this vow is ever breached, the paladin must atone and perform penance to be decided by a powerful NPC cleric of the same alignment—unless the breach was intentional, in which case the paladin instantly loses his or her enhanced status as a paladin and may never regain it. Such a “fallen paladin” is in all respects a fighter, with no special powers, for the remainder of his or her career.

The Paladin class in OSRIC superfi cially resembles such legendary warriors as Sir Galahad or Sir Gawaine of the Arthurian cycle, but is more closely similar to characters described in the works of Poul Anderson. His “Three Hearts and Three Lions” is particularly highly recommended

The Paladin Character

• Minimum Scores: Str 12, Dex 6, Con 9, Int 9, Wis 13, Cha 17
• Hit Die Type: d10 (max 9)
• Alignment: Lawful Good only
• Experience Bonus: Str and Wis 16+
• Armour/Shield Permitted: Any
• Weapons Permitted: Any
• Weapon Proficiencies: 3 + 1 every 2 levels
• Penalty to hit for non-proficiency: -2
• Weapon Specialisation: Optional Rule

Paladin Level Advancement

* Constitution hp adjustments no longer apply † 8th is the ceiling spell casting level for paladins; they may never cast spells as a High Priest or Priestess does. Each level gained thereafter requires 350,000 additional experience points and gains 3hp

NB: Paladins do not gain bonus cleric spells for having high wisdom. This ability is limited to “true” priests, i.e. clerics or druids.

Paladin Saving Throw Table

Paladin To Hit Table

Paladin Class Abilities

Improved Saving Throws:

The paladin uses a more favourable saving throw table than other classes (see table above).

Cure Disease:

Paladins can cure disease (as the clerical spell) by touch, once per week. Paladins of higher than 5th level may do so twice per week, and those higher than 10th level thrice per week. Paladins themselves are completely immune to disease.

Detect Evil:

A paladin may detect evil at any range up to 60 ft at will, provided he or she concentrates on doing so.

Protection From Evil:

A paladin radiates an aura within a 10 ft radius, equivalent to the clerical spell protection from evil

Lay On Hands:

Once per day, the paladin may heal 2 hit points/ level to any creature touched (e.g. a third level paladin would heal 6hp with this ability)

Weapon Specialisation (optional):

With the permission of the GM, weapon specialisation may be selected during character generation. If weapon specialisation is not selected during character generation, it remains forever unavailable to the character, barring some magical or divine intervention.

If weapon specialisation is in play, paladins may take a second proficiency in the same weapon as the first, granting them one extra attack every 2 rounds with the weapon (hence 3/2 attacks with a melee weapon at 1st level, 2/1 at 7th and 5/2 at 13th), +1 to hit and +2 damage owing to their skill. Specialisation costs one proficiency “slot” for melee weapons and crossbows, and two “slots” for missile weapons other than crossbows.

Advanced Abilities

Turning Undead (3rd level):

Paladins can “turn” the undead, making them flee from the paladin’s holiness.

Clerics and paladins can turn undead, causing them to flee or even turning them to dust by the power of religious faith. An evil cleric can also turn a paladin, but cannot destroy the paladin by turning. Evil clerics may choose to control the undead instead of turning them. If an evil cleric gains a result of “D” on the table, the undead creature falls under the cleric’s control for 24 hours. Normally 2d6 creatures are affected by Turn Undead. Exceptions are paladins and Type 13 creatures, of which only 1d2 are affected, and results of “D”, which affect 1d6+6 creatures.

Turning lasts for 3d4 rounds. While turned, the creature must move away from the cleric at its fastest possible movement rate. It will attack a creature that is directly blocking its escape route, but otherwise may not fight.

The cleric or paladin must be holding his or her holy symbol to make a turning attempt. In most cases this will preclude attacking on the same round, and the cleric must sheathe or drop his or her weapon (or else set down his or her shield).

To turn undead, roll a d20 on the Turning Undead Table. If the result is equal to or higher than the number shown, the attempt is successful.

Exception: Certain religions exist where the cleric’s holy symbol is also his or her weapon (for example, some GMs may permit clerics of the god Thor to carry a hammer which doubles as a holy symbol). In this case, the cleric will be able to make a turn undead attempt with his or her weapon in hand, although even this situation does not empower the cleric to attack and attempt to turn undead in the same round. If the cleric is successful in a turning attempt, he or she may try again next round. If the cleric fails, no further turning attempt may be made during this encounter.

Optional Rule: An evil cleric may control no more Hit Dice worth of undead than his or her level of experience; thus a 9th level evil cleric could control no more than two wights, for example.

Turning Undead Table

For the purposes of evil clerics turning paladins, paladins are treated as Type 8 if they are level 1-2, Type 9 if level 3-4, Type 10 if level 5-6, Type 11 if level 7-8, Type 12 if level 9-10 and Type 13 if level 11 or higher. However, paladins cannot be destroyed by turning. If the number on the die is equal to or greater than the number shown on the table, the creature is turned and will fl ee. If the table indicates “T”, the undead creature is automatically turned, and will flee. It the table indicates “D”, the undead creature is automatically destroyed and will crumble to dust. For evil clerics, a result of “D” indicates that the undead are forced into the cleric’s command for a period of 24 hours.

Summon Warhorse (4rd level):

At fourth level, the paladin may summon a special Paladin’s Warhorse, a heavy warhorse with enhanced hit points, intelligence and movement speed. Such a destrier may be called only once every ten years

Bonus Attacks (8th):

Paladins gain additional attacks as fighters do, but less swiftly. A paladin has one attack at 1st to 7th level, 3/2 attacks at 8th to 14th level, and two attacks at 15th level and above. If the optional weapon specialisation rules are permitted by the GM, paladins may specialise as fighters do, save that they receive fewer proficiencies and gain extra attacks more slowly as described above

Clerical Spellcasting (9th):

Paladins gain the ability to cast certain cleric spells at 9th level (see table, above).