Paladin Class Through The Ages part seven: D&D 4th Edition

[@Arcboltkonrad13]

Fun fact - When my group was playing 3.5 and I got those two preview books for 4e, most of the group was a bit hesitant about 4e because we all had all these books for 3.5. However, when one of the players saw that Paladins could now be any alignment and Dragonborn would be a core race, his hype (and my general hype) got the group switched over to 4e as soon as it launched (I bought those three core books in the slipcase, the slipcase sadly being destroyed by my little brother). We never went back to 3.5, sticking with 4e until a short time after 5e launched. Even then, I find myself yearning for 4e more and more. As for Paladin players, the most notable one I played with was my fiance's Pixie Paladin who was constantly drunk on Feyberry Wine who would stir from their stupor, shout squeaky little battle cries and then fly full force at the enemies to smite them.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

Sounds awesome!

[@Gaurelin]

4e gets a lot of guff, and while it is a very different system than any other edition of the game, and is far from my favorite iteration of it, the things it did well, it did *very* well. Tactically interesting monster options, minion rules, skill challenges, and the disease track will always be the standout features of 4th edition in my mind, and I have carried versions of them into many other games I have run in the time since.

[@qarsiseer]

Paladin was my first and favorite 4e class! I loved I think it was called Valorous Smite which let me mark everyone within 3 squares and draw all the attention! On evil paladins in 4e, after the essentials book they put out Heroes of Shadow which let you play as the Blackguard subclass of paladin, who channels more sinister divine powers through their Vice. You didn’t have to be evil and you didn’t have to worship a god, but your alignment was restricted based on your Vice.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

Thank you! I have Heroes of Shadow but honestly haven't looked at is in years. I may have to add it as a bonus video

[@brettjansen8053]

Will you be doing the Pathfinder 2e Champion? I enjoy these trips through the designs of editions past. Keep them coming.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

Indeed I will be!

[@ObatongoSensei]

4th Edition's paladin was not the paladin anymore, as you correctly pointed out. It was just an ordinary temple guard, basically, which had the same list of powers no matter what deity it served or the alignment it had. Its powers and features were mostly a fusion of those from the knight and crusader classes from 3.5 with "radiant" as a staple damage type, but a lot less versatile than the older ones. That was due to the role inflicted on each 4th edition class, which greatly reduced the variety of things a character could do. The only trace of the old paladin class that remained in this one was the name "smite" in some of the powers. The main issue I have with the roles of 4e is that you tend to need all of them in a fight to succeed. Missing one is a huge handicap and can easily bring an adventure to an abrupt end, if not the entire campaign. And that happens each time one of the characters is incapacitated. Suddenly, a fight could turn for the worst, and that is even more true if the one to be incapacitated is the defender, since everything else is considerably less durable than him. That's unfortunately a flaw inherited by trying to copy World of Warcraft when developing the basics for a new D&D edition. I have never been fond of 4e, but the paladin is probably the class I disliked the most in that edition. The best word to describe how I consider it is an Italian one, "insulso", which has no correspondence in English, but roughly combines the meanings of "useless", "meaningless", and "flavorless". If I was forced to play 4e and had to decide what "tank" to use, I'd rather choose any other one but this.