Paladins

=Overview= Holy knights. Paladins hold up principles of virtue and justice, and breaking these principles can rob them of their powers without the Spenta being there to take it from them.

Like clerics, they possess holy magic abilities, though not to the same extent. Paladins cannot heal diseases the way clerics can, and their offensive magic, while potent, pales in comparison to a cleric's. Xumurdad's power often grants them more durability than the average person. Even without their defensive magics in play, they can take a beating.

=History= The first Spenta first ate a piece of Xumurdad on the run from the Armaiti, the newly awakened leader of the Assassins. In a panic he ate the colon of Xumurdad, hoping against hope for some sort of power. Luckily, the defensive strength he acquired prevented his untimely demise.

This war against the Assassins is still reflected in the day-to-day workings of the Paladin. They are taught the first and foremost sin is to murder, though they often take lives at their hands. The distinction between a just kill and a disgusting murder is drilled into early cadet's heads by the Spenta.

The current Spenta is Ezra Amos.

=Details= Paladins as a combat class may be either melee or ranged caster builds. As a melee build, they may be either offensively or defensively oriented. As a support class, they are healing-oriented. There is a great deal of crossover among paladin builds and many will learn skills outside of their specialized build to supplement their abilities. All paladins are capable of taking hits and trained for melee, but how good they are at it varies depending on their specialization.

Defensively oriented paladins rely on heavy armour and shields to shoulder and block damage, and use spells that boost their own defenses while attracting enemy attention. They don’t deal a lot of damage, but they are invaluable members of a party, suffering hits to protect their party members. They are front-lines fighters, always the first ones into the fray.

Offensively oriented paladins sacrifice armour for damage, striking hard and utilizing holy magic to make their blows quicker or more powerful. Magic serves as a supplement to melee skills. Shields are utilized as a weapon alongside blades.

Ranged caster builds rely on holy magic to cause damage, utilizing a number of AoE, splash, and single-target spells. While capable of melee combat, they can be quickly overwhelmed if forced to melee for too long, because their strength lies in spellcasting.

Support builds use holy magic to heal and aid allies. Paladins have a limited amount of buff/debuff skills, and like clerics, a dedicated buffer class will have a wider variety of more powerful buffs and debuffs to call upon. They also have a number of skills intended to guard hits or immobilize opponents. Their healing is very combat-oriented, with AoE, splash, and single-target heals that are intended to be thrown in the heat of battle, and they are able to dispel curses, remove debuffs, and banish undead/demons. Unlike clerics, they are not able to cure disease.

=Members=
 * Spenta: Ezra Amos
 * Acher Ostendramm
 * Anais Vallinar
 * Eileen Wallace
 * Rasmus
 * Ravindra Savarna
 * Victor Bristol

=Headcanon=

Losing guild status
Paladins will automatically have their ties to the guild severed if they break the paladins' moral code. Paladins cannot murder. That is not to say that paladins cannot kill, but there is a difference between a murder and a justified killing, and paladins cannot cross that line.

Skills
Banish: offensive, magical. The paladin uses holy energy to banish evil, dispelling unholy magics or banishing demons back into the Dark. This can be used to one-shot undead enemies or demons.

Binding Light: supportive, conjures holy chains to bind a single target, preventing them from acting. Lasts thirty seconds. Deals no damage except to holy-weak enemies. Differs from Sacred Chains in that the paladin retains no hold on the chains. This skill is used for crowd control.

Blessings: The buff skills available to support paladins, blessings increase one stat by a significant margin. A person cannot have more than one blessing on them at a time. (Note: there is no blessing to lessen mana consumption.)
 * Focus blessing: increases focus, decreasing casting time and improving aim for ranged weapons.
 * Protection blessing: increases defense, decreasing the amount of damage taken by physical attacks.
 * Strength blessing: increases physical strength, raising attack power and lifting capability.
 * Etc?

Holy Aegis: defensive, conjures an emergency shield made of holy light to mimic a regular, equipped shield. Size and duration depends on the paladin's skill. Very weak is a buckler, with something like a wall shield for max strength.

Holy Armor: (as seen on: former Spenta) defensive, conjures emergency holy magic armor over the paladin's form. High, continual mana drain limits duration. Can be "broken" with significant damage.

Purify: supportive, a debuff that removes all magical effects on a single target. Dispels curses, buffs, debuffs, and any temporary magical effect. Does not affect inanimate objects or standing enchantments. As such, it cannot be used to remove permanent enchantments, break wards, or disarm curse-traps. It can, however, be used to remove the negative effects of these after they have been triggered on a living target. It can also be used to remove non-magical debuffs like alchemist potion effects, but cannot cure poisons or diseases.

Radiating Calm: supportive, heal (scales with caster level), splash. A white glow like rippling water spreads across the floor in a five foot radius from the caster, healing everyone within range. Does not heal the caster, heals everyone for an amount equal to twice the caster's current HP.

Resurgence: supportive, revive a single fallen ally with 10% HP. It has a significant casting time and mana cost, but grants the revived ally a temporary defensive and offensive buff. Only targets at 0HP can be revived; ineffective against dead, sleeping, or comatose targets. In real-world terms, it basically only works on people who've been knocked out, fainted, passed out, or otherwise rendered temporarily unconscious due to pain or injury. Note that Resurgence does not fix the issue that caused the 0HP condition; if an ally passed out from blood loss, they will need to be healed as well or they will simply pass out again.

Righteous Fury: offensive, magical, single-target, knockback effect. A wave of holy light slams into the target, dealing heavy damage and knocking them backwards.

Sacred Chains: offensive, but does little inherent damage except to undead or demons. Chains of light latch onto a target to immobilize or yank them toward the paladin 's shield bash. Usually used by defensive paladins to keep monster attention on them.

Sanctuary: defensive/supportive, channeled, conjure a dome of protective light directly around the paladin and an ally to defend them from incoming damage. Those within Sanctuary cannot attack anyone outside of it.

Seraphic Radiance: offensive, magical, summon pillars of holy light to deal damage in targeted area, AoE.

Shield of Light: supportive, holy magic summons a shield of light in the air in front of the target to guard them, blocking three attacks before shattering. It is a hard three-hit limit, no matter the strength of the attack used. Does not block magic, but blocks magically-boosted physical attacks.

Smite: offensive, magical, summon a slash of holy light to deal damage to a single target

Dragon's Hide: ?
 * Unlocked to all skill builds at level 75
 * Quest-based