New Kit: Lancer

bbear

The Lancer is an elite corp within the Paladin class. Like all paladins, they are practitioners of the good and vow to vanquish all evil in the realm. They belong in the light cavalry regiments and specialized in two-handed thrusting weapons. Their sworn enemies are putrid creatures such as Gauths and Beholders.

Advantages:
-Every 5 levels starting at level 1, Spears do +1 damage.
-Immune to Petrification
-Immune to all Death Magics
-Movement Speed +2
-On each successful hit with a Spear or Halberd, Gauths and Beholders (Elder Orbs and Hive Mothers) must save vs death or be permanently blinded

Disadvantages:
-Cannot use missile weapons
-Cannot equip shields
-Cannot wear Full Plate and Plate Armor

elminster

Don't let @Kidcarnival see this!

Edvin

bbear said:

-On each successful hit with a Spear or Halberd, Gauths and Beholders (Elder Orbs and Hive Mothers) must save vs death or be permanently blinded

Really? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to do something like that?
Also, Immune to Petrification is quite useless ability because Beholders are only on two places.

How about something like this:

Advantages:
– May achieve Grandmastery (5 slots) in Spear and Halberd
- Every 4 levels starting at level 1, Spears and Halberd +1 damage
- Immune to all Death Magics
- Movement Speed +2


Disadvantages:
– May not Turn Undead
- Cannot equip shields
- Cannot use missile weapons
- Cannot wear Full Plate and Plate Armor

booinyoureyes

bbear said:

-On each successful hit with a Spear or Halberd, Gauths and Beholders (Elder Orbs and Hive Mothers) must save vs death or be permanently blinded

I like the idea of encouraging a polearm fighter, but I have serious doubts about being able to blind a beholder with a spear... you'd need a trident... no, you'd need like a quattuordecadent.

bbear

Edvin said:

bbear said:

-On each successful hit with a Spear or Halberd, Gauths and Beholders (Elder Orbs and Hive Mothers) must save vs death or be permanently blinded

Really? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to do something like that?
Also, Immune to Petrification is quite useless ability because Beholders are only on two places.

How about something like this:

Advantages:
– May achieve Grandmastery (5 slots) in Spear and Halberd
- Every 4 levels starting at level 1, Spears and Halberd +1 damage
- Immune to all Death Magics
- Movement Speed +2

Disadvantages:
– May not Turn Undead
- Cannot equip shields
- Cannot use missile weapons
- Cannot wear Full Plate and Plate Armor

If it's up to me, I would prefer the parallelism in the advantages that paladin kits share. All Paladin kits have 2-3 types of immunity and a common "class" of foe. Since Lancers are dedicated to destroying Beholders (if not then come up a new type of monster), I think immunity to Petrification is here to stay. Adding immunities to Maze and Imprisonment (Elder Orbs like to cast those) may be a good addition.

I wouldnt recommend Grandmastery since the other kits have no weapon Grandmastery. How about these changes:

Advantages:
- Every 5 levels starting at level 1, Spears +1 damage
- Every 5 levels starting at level 11, Halberd +1 damage (balance Spear 1d6 and Halberd 1d10)
- Immune to Petrification, Maze and Imprisonment
- Immune to all Death Magics
- Movement Speed +2
- +5 Hit and +5 damages against Gauths and Beholders

Disadvantages:
– May not Turn Undead
- Cannot equip shields
- Cannot use missile weapons
- Cannot wear Full Plate and Plate Armor
- Cannot put any slots in Two Weapons Style (I forgot to put this last time)

KidCarnival

"Their sworn enemies are putrid creatures such as Gauths and Beholders."

This kit confuses me. How can the paladin be his own enemy...?

Dee

Give them a boost to speed factor with those weapons, too; the halberd is especially slow.

reedmilfam

Spears are horrible in BG.

SionIV

reedmilfam said:

Spears are horrible in BG.

Halberds are great though.

bbear

The Ixil Spear pins the target (sleep). It even works on Melissan!

bob_veng

i like the idea of a paladin kit focused on pole weapons; i can see it as a paladin counterpart to archer

i have a different idea for how to implement it, first off, i don't like the name - lancer, because lancers are exclusively cavalry
therefore i propose the folowing: sentinel, blessed sentry, warder, watchman or something similar

Advantages:

- special ability #1: "hold the line" - for 4 rounds: allies in a 3 ft. circle get +2 ac/saves and fear/morale failiure immunity, 15% chance of slow on strike (caster only), 1 round, no save
(gained at 5th level + 1 use per 5 lvls)

- special ability #2: "lance charge" - for 1 round: free action (standard, haste disabling), movement speed +8, speed factor +2, every hit does maximum damage, +5 to hit/dmg against beholderkin, slays 4HD monsters
(single use, gained at 6th level, +1 round per 6 lvls)

^the special abilities are mutually exclusive (same as with blade's)

- casting ability #1: may cast invisibility purge once per day per 4 levels
- casting ability #2: may cast aid once per day per 4 levels (these abilities are an analogue of inquisitor's)

- spear grandmastery (no other paladin kit has grandmastery, but on the other hand, no other paladin kit is focused on a particular weapon; archer has bow grandmastery, so this is an analogue of archer's weapon focus)


Disadvantages:
- no turn undead
- no spells
(does have lay on hands)

- can only become proficient in any weapon other than spear and halberd (just specialization for halberds)
- *no whirlwind/greater whirlwind HLA* (could gain avoid death instead)
- no missile weapons
- no metal armor except chainmail

so the method of applying advantages and restrictions is combining those of inquisitor's and archer's.
lance charge is meant to be combined with critical strike at higher levels (making it an aesthetically pleasing stabbilicious combo), not whirlwind or improved haste (way too op); that's why ww had to go
lance charge works with halberds (no mastery tho) too making it pretty wicked (that 1d10 becomes 10)
a fighter/cleric can have the same with righteous magic and blunt weapons, so it's not unbalancing

bob_veng

i'd like to make an addition to this part

bob_veng said:

- special ability #2: "lance charge" - for 1 round: free action (standard, haste disabling), movement speed +8, speed factor +2, every hit does maximum damage, +5 to hit/dmg against beholderkin, slays 4HD monsters
(single use, gained at 6th level, +1 round per 6 lvls)

every 6 lvls slaying should also be improved by 1HD (at level 30 that would be 8HD, still mostly cosmetical)

or maybe it should start with 2HD at level 6 and then improve by 2HD, so it would slay 8HD at level 24 and 10HD at level 30, which might be a bit less trivial.

or maybe it should not slay at level 6, but start at 12 with 3HD, so it would slay 9HD at lvl24 and 12 at 30, making it moderately useful.

edit: sorry for not using the edit button, i thought it had expired