Paladin

Holy warriors who fight evil and chaos. The most demanding class to play: paladins are bound by a rigid code of honour, cannot withdraw from combat, and must tithe after every adventure. In return they gain raw combat power and a resource (prayer points) that shores up the entire party.

App status: The Paladin class is implemented in the app. These rules come from Against the Netherworld.

Stats

| | | |---|---| | Life | 6 + level (7 at L1) | | Attack bonus | +L | | Armor allowed | Shield, light armor, heavy armor | | Weapons allowed | Any | | Starting equipment | Heavy armor, shield, hand weapon — or a two-handed weapon instead of shield + hand weapon | | Starting wealth | d6 gp | | Saves as | Warrior |

Prayer Points

A paladin has level + 1 prayer points per adventure. Each point may be spent to do one of the following:

1. Heal — restore 1 Life to themselves or any character in the party. Any number of prayer points can be spent at once to heal multiple Life.
2. Re-roll a failed save — the re-rolled result stands. Re-rolls cannot themselves be re-rolled.
3. Summon a steed — conjure a mount for one day (outdoors only; cannot be summoned into the Netherworld). If mounted and not surprised, the paladin attacks non-mounted enemies at +1. A foe is considered mounted only if the encounter description says so.

Restrictions

Tithes: After completing each adventure, a paladin must pay 10 gp × their current level — or alternatively surrender all gems and gold found during that adventure — as tithes to their holy order.

Never breaks from combat: A paladin will not flee combat, even if the rest of the party does.

Mission commitment: A paladin will not leave an adventure until the objective is fulfilled (e.g., the final boss is slain). Exception: if all surviving characters are below half their maximum Life and all healing has been spent, the paladin will agree to withdraw if it saves the party.

Netherworld Notes

• Elves and paladins emit a bright holy aura in the Netherworld, imposing −2 to stealth saves for the group.
• The steed cannot be summoned in the Netherworld.
• Groups containing a paladin subtract −1 from the Netherworld Objective roll.

Expert Skills

Commanding Presence, Double Attack, Dying Action, Gladiator, Poison Resistance, Protective Incense, Negotiator, Strong Will, Sworn Enemy, Vampire Hunter, Withstand Pain.

Paladin-only expert skill:

Divine Smite: Once per adventure, declare this attack before rolling the attack die. On a hit, deal 3 wounds to a single Boss or Weird Monster, or instantly kill 3 minions or vermin regardless of their level. Exploding-dice effects are ignored. The smite also damages monsters that can normally only be hurt by magic.

Party Friction

• Paladins will not worship Blasphemous Ones and always attack them on sight.
• A paladin in the party makes it impossible to use the Enslave Demon spell without the paladin first succeeding a save against their own level — on failure, they attack the caster until one of them dies.