I have to admit that I am a sucker for a well designed Core class and in this regard The Le Games Unorthodox Paladins doesn’t disappoint. This beautifully edited PDF retails for $9.95 and offers a passel of new options for players and DM’s alike.
Appearance:
Unorthodox Paladins comes in a 10 megabyte zip file. This download was reliable but it may take awhile for those poor sods on broadband, so be warned.
In addition to the PDF, the Le thoughtfully includes an .rtf version for easy content extraction, separate printable covers and an onscreen version. I appreciate this touch as it makes the product easy to use and adds a bit of value. The Melissa Cox cover of a gore blade wielding Drow isn’t my cup of tea but doesn’t detract from the product at all. Anyway it certainly is an Unorthodox Paladin.
The internal art is a mix of Ronin Arts, some shopworn Larry Elmore and stock images from Mongoose, clipart.com and Louis Porter Design. For the most part the art is well selected and of good quality. Seeing Chris Shy art from time to time also gives this a Ronin Arts like feel in places. This is a good thing.
The product is nicely bookmarked and has a good index. The OGL is also carefully handled. This is a professionally laid out, product, better in fact than some print products I have seen.
Content:
Content is always a subjective thing but on the whole there is something for everyone in this book.
The book begins with 4 short fiction pieces, Light and Darkness, Ends, Freedom and Hidden. These stories aren’t badly written but to be frank I have no use for game fiction. Still they are a bit of added value that may appeal to some On that I have no complaint.
The next section is the six core classes. I was pleasantly surprised with these as I was expecting the usual alignment Paladin variants. Instead I was greeted with only one of these, the neutral Adjudicator, a kind of legalist variety that curiously lacks any law skills.
The Echo Paladin is a sort of bard-paladin class with a confusing mix of reflective powers and bardic synergy abilities. Unfortunately these abilities, specifically Yesterday's Health and Echo Healing require extra tracking of states and information about who did what with that spell exactly when. This makes the class more difficult to use.
The Fist of God class suffers from one confusing paragraph regarding its Unarmed Combat ability but other than that is a really cool brawling Paladin class. It was quite nice to see this as a core class and not a Monk/Paladin prestige class.
The Order of the Barbed Cross a.k.a. The Hook is a kind of torture Paladin. The class would work as an inquisitor or a sort of Anti Paladin for some campaigns. It is a well balanced class but is no mercy ethos and its sadistic abilities make it unsuitable for PC’s in many games. I also have a minor quibble with the effects of its atonement ritual, Mask of the Hook, specifically the charisma loss not being a supernatural effect. Scars in D&D do not effect charisma. Still this is a minor rules quirk.
The Righteous Advocate is an interesting type of Paladin with both Smiting and Oratory powers. Curiously this class gains a familiar instead of a mount. This puzzles me a bit but it is balanced rules wise.
The last of the core classes is the swashbuckling city variant, the Vigil Knight. I really like this class. It has interesting social abilities, detective and trailing abilities. It also gains an animal companion, basically a familiar. It is also highly skilled (6 points) unlike a standard paladin. These extras are paid for by having a rogues BAB. This surprised me, as it was out the standard D&D box but it is reasonable and the class is great.
There are a few bugs though. The saves are wonky and instead of a good will and reflex save I think the class would have been better served with a divine grace or similar bonus and a good reflex save only. Also the defense abilities are pretty strong, with a charisma based bonus and a level based one. The class was meant to only use light armor and no shields but with a buckler (which the class is proficient in) the AC may be a little on the high side. Also the level based bonus has a cut and paste error that leaves it ambiguous as to whether the class get the bonus in light armor or not. Still it look really fun to play and will be finding a home in my next game.
The next section has the two prestige classes, the Divine Crusader a PRC focusing on Smite abilities and the Divine Seeker a kind of 2 weapon swashbuckling PRC that would be excellent in a pirate or other low armor setting. While I am not a PRC fan I did like these, they look fun and focused, always a good thing.
The third section details artifacts. The first artifact is a set item, an Angels sword and helmet that both powers up with levels gained and synergies with each other. I like this concept although I think the item should have been costed as it would make a nice alternative to the usual sword swap out method of many games.
The second is the a Deck of Dreams thing called Zipays Dreams that doesn’t quite fit the flavor of the rest of the book. It is a kind of Yu-Gi-Oh flavored card deck with a variety of blast effects.
The baubles and urus comprise the third set. They are rather like gems or runes from Diablo 2 and are fairly low in power. A nice sidebar also details alternate use methods for different campaign styles. My quibble here is the fact the items are treated as artifacts and not given a cost, something I think they needed. Still I do like these and would recommend a closer look at them.
The third section details 8 more Paladin spells, 2 of each level. None of the spells are unbalanced and all are usefull. The forth section are the two appendices. The first is a nifty spell appendix with both the spells from the book and the SRD. The second are rules for familiars (used by 2 classes) and wizard spells and armor for some reason.
The book closes with the SRD and a comprehensive credit list.
On the whole I was pleased. This is a solid professional product well worth the money. So if you use a lot of Paladins in your games or just want to try a company you may have overlooked get Unorthodox Paladins. You won’t regret it.
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