[Kit] Martyr Kit, paladin of Ilmater

TheArtisan

While working on my mod NPC Sirene it occurred to me that people might actually like to play with a PC using the martyr kit I designed so I took out the files related to the kit and made it a standalone mod.

MARTYR: Martyrs are worshippers of Ilmater, the good god of suffering, endurance and perseverance. Paladins of Ilmater's order are compassionate and train themselves to become protectors of their allies and to alleviate the suffering of others.

Advantages:
- Hit Die: d12
- May use the Sacrifice ability once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 7 levels thereafter.

SACRIFICE: The martyr heals the target for 1d6+1 per level hit points and deals 1d6+1 per level nonlethal damage to self.

- May use the Martyrdom ability once per day starting at level 5. Gains an additional use every 7 levels thereafter.

MARTYRDOM: The target gains a +4 bonus to armor class and 50% resistance to physical damage for 5 rounds while the martyr loses the same amount.

- 12th level: Gains 10% resistance to physical damage. An additional 5% is gained at levels 16 and 20.
- 15th level: May use the Ilmater's Grace ability once per day.

ILMATER'S GRACE: The martyr regenerates for 3 hit points per second for 1 turn.

Disadvantages:
- -1 penalty to THAC0 every 5 levels (starting at level 1).
- May not cast Protection from Evil.
- May not Turn Undead.
- May not use ranged weapons.

Keep in mind this is something I put together in the span of a few hours in total so I cannot guarantee that it works perfectly. It shouldn't do anything terrible but don't be surprised (but do inform me!) if you get the wrong number of skill casts or if Sacrifice is giving you any wacky numbers or something. Enjoy!

This mod should be compatible with both BG:EE and BG2:EE, but I haven't tested it with IWD:EE.

T2av

Why the -1 thaco every 5 levels ? Just curious.. I know you had to offset advantages a bit.but I'm curious to the reasoning behind it?

TheArtisan

Two reasons: 1. I had to take out some offensive power to make up for the significant defensive advantages of the kit, and 2. to keep to the theme of Ilmater's followers being less martially skilled since they have an emphasis on healing and protection instead. As such, they're slightly worse fighters than other paladins.

Funny story - it used to be -1 to both THAC0 and damage, but then I realized how terrible the idea was because it meant the kit's damage went to garbage at high levels, so I removed the latter.

GreenWarlock

Rather than a penalty-to-hit, I might go with a more restrictive weapon choice, and remove weapon specialization as an option. e.g., staves are a practical weapon when considered as an aid for folks spending a great deal of time walking the wilderness, preaching their virtues. Likewise, a restriction against costly metal armors, allowing only 'natural' leathers and hides. I would probably allow slings as a range weapon, as there is little more natural than throwing rocks to ward off bad guys, and again, the ammunition is in keeping with poverty. Likewise, restrict access to jewelry slots for rings/amulets, as there is nothing that goes there that is not a worldly possession to be forfeit. The kit restrictions would more than make up for an arbitrary -1 THAC0 every 5 levels.

I'm not convinced that an aggressive class like a paladin is in keeping with the Ilmater ideals though - I would be more inclined towards a cleric of ilmater, with the above weapon/armor restrictions, and spell restrictions if we could manage them too (not sure the engine supports that). If we can restrict the aggressive spells, then a cleric bonus would reasonably be more spells/day, or a doubling of the Wisdom spells. As a final strand to the cleric, we could go completely nuts and ban all weapons, making for a very difficult character to solo! My suggested recompense would be to go the ranger route and add stealth, as the more powerful denizens of the world, particularly the civilized urban world, are very practiced at NOT spotting those uncomfortable Ilmater folks, and sneaking through the wilderness unmolested - when you are not treating everything as a potential fight - is something that comes naturally with practice...

Staying with Paladin, I am mildly concerned about losing one of the more flavorful abilities, protection from evil. It makes no sense to me for an Ilmater worshipper to give that up, especially when it can be cast to protect others.

TheArtisan

I'm not doing any more work on this kit aside from bug fixes, as my NPC mod is my main priority right now. I'll say this though - I designed this kit with the idea 'tank' in mind, not 'paladin of Ilmater'. This was supposed to be NPC exclusive, so it certainly is not recommended for solo play. I released it as a standalone because it works and I thought someone might like to use it.

ahungry

@AionZ I'm trying out the kit (fun!) however I notice Sacrifice seems to always set my HP to 1 and apply the knocked over effect - I assume that's an error and not intended, as my paladin has full (100+ hp) when I'm using this move at level 6 or so (I have Generous HP option from Scales of Balance enabled)