Let’s Make a Shadowdark Paladin (Part One)
Designing a Divine Warrior That Balances Faith, Steel, and Simplicity
Shadowdark is my new obsession. There’s so much to love, but fiddling around with the free online character generator Shadowdarklings just adds fuel to the fun furnace! I absolutely love the strict and simple character class options offered in the rulebook: Fighter, Priest, Thief, Wizard. While categorically narrow, each class offers a broad canvas upon which you can bring a particular vision of each archetype to life.
That being said, I’ve always been a tinkerer, and I find the mental challenge of trying to think through new homebrew classes pretty stimulating. How do I create more options that compliment the core rules system and my own game world?
And my game worlds always feature my favourite class: paladins.
So I began to play around with what a paladin class would look like in Shadowdark. I’ve checked out a few paladin homebrew classes that others in the community have made, but I thought it would be fun to invite collaboration in creating an archetypal paladin class.
“But wait!” You say. “Shadowdark’s priest class already provides paladin-ish features. In fact, the highest title of a Lawful-aligned priest is Paladin. So isn’t creating a homebrew paladin class redundant?”
No. For a few reasons. The first is because I said so! Secondly, creating new classes is friggin’ fun, and Shadowdark’s simplified class design makes it relatively easy to create a class that is mechanically balanced and yet distinct from other, similar classes. Thirdly, while there are ways you can lean into a paladin vibe via the priest class, by default the priest class nudges you toward a more classically cleric direction. Clerics traditionally focus more on healing, magical utility, and turning undead. Paladins, on the other hand, focus on their martial role rather than magical utility. Their spellcasting is much more limited than a cleric’s, but front-line durability and damage potential are greater.
Let’s get started.
The Goal: To create an archetypal paladin class for Shadowdark. The sweet spot for a paladin build will lie between the Fighter and Priest.
The Pitch: The paladin is the champion of a cause, a sworn knight whose life is dedicated to an oath or higher ideal. They embody action over prayer, making them more worldly and practical than priests. Paladins are committed to justice, righteousness, and redemption, and are often on a personal quest to uphold their oaths, confront evil, and inspire others to follow their example.
Class: Paladin
Virtuous champions and zealous warriors empowered by divine conviction.
Weapons: All melee weapons, crossbows
Armor: All armor and shields
Hit Points: 1d8 per level
Languages. You know Celestial.
Smite. You know the smite spell as a tier 1 spell. It doesn’t count toward your number of known spells.
Guardian Instinct. Once per day, when a creature within near range of you is the target of a successful attack, you may choose to redirect the damage to yourself before the damage roll is made.
Spellcasting. You can cast priest spells you know. To cast a priest spell you know, make a spellcasting check by rolling 1d20 + your Charisma modifier.
You know one tier 1 spell of your choice from the priest spell list on pg. 51.
Each time you gain a level, you choose new priest spells to learn according to the Paladin Spells Known table.
Paladin Talent Table
2d6 | Effect
2 | Increase smite spell damage by 1d6
3-6 | +1 to melee or ranged attack rolls, or +1 to spellcasting checks.
7-9 | +2 to Strength, Constitution, or Charisma stat.
10-11 | You gain +1 AC while wearing armor.
12 | Choose a talent or distribute +2 points to your stats.
Design Notes:
Bumping up the paladin’s hit points to 1d8/level aids in reinforcing their fighter-ish level of toughness.
Charisma for spellcasting is a given.
Reducing the smite spell to a tier 1 level spell for the paladin feels right.
Guardian Instinct feels thematically appropriate and balanced.
Paladin Talent Table is challenging as there are a lot of diffferent buffs you could offer.
There’s no “charismatic leadership” feature of the Paladin as is. Is that a problem?
I tried to really nerf the paladin’s spellcasting options both numerically and by tier so the priest remains much stronger in terms of magical utility. However, is the paladin still too powerful at higher levels? Fewer higher tier spells?
Ok, that’s my first draft. Please comment below and share your thoughts!
Hey, great start! And some awesome feedback - sorry I can’t add anything better. But I’m looking forward to your final version!
I like this a lot but probably too many spells.
I would personally not start the spells until level 3 and reduce the overall number.