The Crusader

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Behold, the Crusader!

This is my version of the Paladin, its a bit of an admixture of the 1e AD&D Paladin and Companion Set Paladin. The reason I am calling them Crusaders and not Paladins, because the Paladins were pseudo-historical/legendary figures, whereas the dnd paladin is really just a generic fighter dedicated to a cause or church, and not really like the historical legendary figures (basically the same reason I am against the usage of druid and bard as dnd classes).

So onto the abilities, most of the names for the abilities I just took from either 3rd edition or 5th just for flavor.

Divine Grace is just taken straight from AD&D with no changes, and Divine Sense is also from the Companion set

Lay on Hands I had to modify a bit to fit with my wound system(another post there). I kept the 2hp number, but instead of that piling up to a total hp per day to be spread as the paladin sees fit, its 2 hp able to be applied to each individual wound. so the crusader kinda becomes a sort of combat medic. This is especially useful as clerical spells(miracles) are rituals that take a minimum of 10 minutes in my games. and I just rolled the cure disease ability into a more advanced form of lay on hands, though maybe i should make that switch at 12th level.

Turn undead I used the companion set version of 1/3 level, I think that fits better than the AD&D version. I also transferred the above average wisdom requirement that applied to spells in the companion set.

Relating to the above, I didn't include the ability for the crusader to cast spells even though both AD&D(at 9th level) and the Companion Set(equivalent to 1/3 cleric level) have some degree of spellcasting for the paladin. I feel like with lay on hands and cure disease and divine sense and aura of courage, these are all spell like abilities, and the reason for the crusader(paladin) to have these above and beyond what a cleric could do is to make up for their lack of ability to cast spells. These special abilities replicate spells, and to have both is basically "double-dipping" in abilities; if a crusader/paladin can cast cure light wounds, why would they have lay on hands? if they can cast cure disease, why have  class ability that allows them to do that? if they can cast remove fear why have it be a constant class ability? etc. etc. Essentially a Crusader can do all these things that mimic clerical spells/miracles precisely because they cannot perform the spells. In the fiction of the world it can be justified by saying the church has not ordained them with the authority to perform its rituals, yet through their dedication and faith are blessed by their patron. Whatever the justification, the result in gameplay is the same: a fighter who mimics some clerical abilities while staying within the fighting-man niche.

Divine Health, ie immunity to disease, I decided to bump up to name level(9th), partly because I felt enough abilities had been assigned to the 4th level tier, and partly because I felt complete immunity to disease was a fairly OP and made for a good capstone ability.

Aura of Courage with immunity to fear comes from 3e and 5e, and was bumped to level 9 for the same reasons as stated above for Divine Health. and then the full constant Protection From Evil effect from 1e seemed also a bit OP, so i bumped it to a more advance version of this ability, still not sure about the Level 24 point though, maybe 12 or 20 or something.

Smite Evil, totally stole from 3e, definitely preferred this version over the one in 5e. Only change I made was to make it apply to all evil creatures all the time, but cant be used against anyone else; this is less helpful than you might think if you been following along and remember my definition of Evil. This ability still allows the Crusader to have a significant advantage when facing such creatures though, so I feel it fits well.

And the Holy Charger. Essentially unchanged from 1e, just reworked small details. the whole only summon once every 10 years I replace with having to actually train the horse from a colt and form a bond(could take 2 to 5 years, I think, have to look up horse maturity). keep the basic stats, and applies to the type of horse the the Crusader is training to be his warhorse: Rouncey, Courser, or Destrier(my rules regarding horses is another post...). And the Lancer Fighting style I already developed takes care of special bonuses for horseback riding.

So that's the Crusader. I have plans for the Avenger next, and maybe the Warlord(a ruler and/or conqueror of a Domain). The Avenger from the Companion Set is basically just a paladin dedicated to an evil church with the same abilities, well I find that a bit boring, if I wanted to do that, it would just be the Crusader Class with different fluff. I've already got ideas to make it interesting, a devil dog instead of holy charger, fearful presence instead of aura of courage, sowing enmity/chaos instead of lay on hands (I think just a direct cause wounds is a bit too plain and not that useful if they have a weapon), I'm also going to take a look at JB's Comes Chaos supplement, and maybe incorporate corruption as part of the Avenger. I'll see what I can come up with . . .