d20 The Quintessential Paladin II Collector Series Mongoose Publishing 2004

d20 The Quintessential Paladin II Collector Series Mongoose Publishing 2004

The paladin is the quintessential hero, the knight in shining armor, the holy warrior, the crusader the champion. He is the sword against evil, he is the bright line of fire against the darkness. It is he that rides out against the horrors and says ‘no further’.

His burden is a heavy one  utter perfection is demanded from him. On the one side, the stern gods of good wait to judge his every action, ready to strip his sacred powers from him should he fail to be a moral exemplar. On the other, all the ravening hordes of hell yearn to rip his shining armor into shreds and feast on his still-beating heart.

This is the razor bridge to heaven.

The Advanced Tactics series takes an advanced look at the whole range of class and racial sourcebooks from Mongoose Publishing, all designed to greatly widen a player’s options for his character within the d20 game. More than simple continuations, the second series of Quintessential books slot seamlessly into any fantasy-based campaign, giving advanced alternatives for characters of one class or race within the game, allowing both players and Games Masters the chance to give mid- and high-level characters new options without overpowering or unbalancing the game as a whole. The Advanced Tactics series will not necessarily allow players to make their characters even better, but they will be able to do a lot more than they ever thought possible.

This is the book of the paladin, a sacred text dedicated to him. We begin with Career Paths, describing various forms of paladin. Some are dedicated to the service of the church, others to the state, and yet others serve only Good in its elemental form. The methods by which the paladin can use the abilities of the other classes are explored in Multiclassing. Then, the Legendary Paladin describes the exalted heights that the paladin can aspire to, from the transcendent Angelic Knight to the mournful Penitent.

Superior Tools offers new pieces of equipment, including special armor and weapon variants and holy weapons forged in the heavens themselves. The works of angels may now armor the paladin against harm. This chapter also contains rules for heraldry, both magical and mundane. The Divine Paladin contains new spells and spellcasting techniques used by paladins.

Tricks of the Trade discusses all the paladin’s other abilities, from detect good to his special mount, and offers lots of feats and other variants on how to use them. This chapter also contains a lengthy analysis and reworking of the paladin’s code, to give players and Games Masters tools for determining if and by how much a paladin has broken his code.

Special Techniques deals with other famed techniques of the paladins, such as organizations and squires. It gives several sample paladin orders, then delves into what happens when the paladin breaks faith with code and order, revealing the terror of the Anti-paladin. Finally, Survival tactics discusses roleplaying the paladin and dealing with moral temptation and crises.

The last section is, perhaps, the most important. Of all the classes, it is the paladin who will be tested most harshly. His truest challenge is not found on the battlefield, or in the mysteries of the arcane or the divine, but in the crucible of the soul.

The razor bridge is not an easy one to cross.