The Dwimmermount Paladin

In the ACKS version, a paladin at 10th level can cast Dispel Evil once per month. However, in the LL version, a paladin casts Dispel Evil once per day at 8th level. Dispel Evil basically works the same in both games (and is a powerful spell to boot), so I’m wondering why the LL version is so much more generous. I suppose ACKS characters are a little tougher (given Proficiencies and such), and the ACKS Paladin also grants his or her hirelings a morale bonus at 5th level which LL Paladins don’t receive, but even so reducing Dispel Evil from a once/day ability to a once/month ability seems a fairly massive change in power level. Was this change intentional, or is there a mistake in one of the two versions?

That’s from building it with the ACKS Player’s Companion - in the Custom Powers section, pg 98, a 5th level spell can be made available as a power that can be cast in 1 round once per month (once per week in ACKS would be a casting time of 1 turn).

It’s essentially the difference between ACKS and LL’s character power levels, I guess (and I don’t know if there’s any real guidance on balancing LL classes against each other).

It kind of read to me like the DW Paladin was something that grew out of one of the original player’s character choice, since it’s presented as a class from a far-flung foreign land. I’m not sure where it was originally sourced from.

The ACKS DW Paladin was built according to the rules in Player’s Companion, while the LL DW Paladin was simply adopted from JM’s house rules.

I’m considering keeping the ACKS Paladin instead of using Maliszewski’s version for Dwimmermount. However, I still would like Lawful Fighters to gain a boon while exploring Dwimmermount if they dedicate themselves to one of the gods at any of the sites that would originally change a PC’s class from Fighter to Paladin for doing so. Maybe granting them Sanctified Body. Any idea how much adopting the Paladin’s code of behavior/dedication should be worth in terms of granting additional class abilities? I might allow this approach to allow members of any class to become “dedicated” to one of the gods in this manner since it would no longer involve a change of class.

I would too; the ACKS Paladin is a bit more paladiny to me; and the special mount power seems less than optimal for a megadungeon-focused campaign (putting aside the fact the ‘special mount’ power has never sat well with me).

Pg 42 in DW; there’s a sidebar stating that the code was worth an additional power at 1st level; this was traded for a power at 4th and 10th for the DW paladin; your choice would be whether give the player one thing immediately or you make them gain a level or so by placing multiple powers at later levels - so they have to continue to earn favor.

The ACKS Player’s Companion has all the rules on how that works; the custom tradeoff rules on page 92. Trading off an initial power for two later powers has an option for all levels from 2-7; so you could even do a variable gain based on whatever level the character was when he or she dedicated themselves; if they’re 4th level, then do a power at 5th and 9th.

Hey, Alex - I hate to say I’ve just now noticed this, but the sidebar states the DW Paladin is HD Value 2, and the table has d6 hit points. (fresh download from RPGNow).

Thanks, I missed that sidebar. So, I’m going to retain the ACKS original paladin class. In addition, I’m replacing the opportunity for Lawful fighters to become paladins in the Temple of Law, from Hu P’an or from Jin Tai with the opportunity for any Lawful character (including non-humans) to become an ‘Apostle of Law’ so long as their character class has no levels of Divine Value, nor is a paladin.

When a character becomes an apostle he gives up any patron god he may have already had, and instead dedicates himself to the principle of Law in the service of Good. The apostle must follow the moral code as given in the fifth and sixth paragraphs of the description of the variant paladin class given on page 42 of the ACKS version of Dwimmermount, with one exception. The number of magic items the character may retain twelve magic items of any type. An apostle who fails to follow this moral code loses the benefits of being an apostle, though this status may be regained in the manner outlined in the seventh paragraph of the variant paladin description, i.e. atonements, quests, etc.

In return for adopting the moral code of the apostle the character may lay on hands. If the character already has the ability to lay on hands he can still choose to take this ability again to gain the ability to lay on hands one additional time per day, or in place of the lay on hands ability the character can choose to gain the aura of protection. If the character already has both the abilities to lay on hands and aura of protection they then instead are granted divine health. Finally if the character already has lay on hands, aura of protection and divine health they are granted the ability to detect evil.