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Paladin
The paladin is a champion of good and defender of the right, called and empowered by superhuman forces to attempt great quests. Her devotion, courage and purity of purpose sustain the paladin against despair at the enormous tasks demanded by the calling.
Many paladins are loyal knights, and some are noblemen, since the path of a paladin is familiar to one who has dedicated his life to upholding the law and defending the weak. But though a paladin is a warrior in more than physical terms, he is not defined as such by his armour, his warhorse, or even his sword. A heroic commoner or even a wizard can take up the holy quest, despite the disbelief and scorn often bestowed by those more concerned about birth and appearances than a valiant heart.

Requirements
To become a paladin, a character must first fulfil all of these requirements:
Alignment: Lawful Good
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Base Will Save: +2
Heal: 2 ranks
Knowledge (religion): 3 ranks
Weapon Proficiency: Any martial weapon
Special: Has been spoken to by a good-aligned outsider of at least CR 2, or a good-aligned deity.
Either has never performed an evil act in his adventuring career (including casting evil spells), or has received atonement for all such acts after an appropriate quest.

Hit Die: d10

Class Skills
The paladin's class skills are Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex) and Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill points at each level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features
The class features of the paladin prestige class are:
Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Paladins are proficient with all simple and martial weapons. A 1st level paladin does not gain additional proficiency with armour. A 3rd level paladin is proficient with light, medium and heavy armour and with all shields.
Detect Evil (Sp): At will, the paladin can detect evil as a spell-like ability.
Divine Health: A paladin is immune to both mundane and supernatural diseases.
Lay on hands (Sp): A paladin can heal wounds or blast the undead by touch, curing a number of hit points per day equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) multiplied by her character level, or dealing damage to undead creatures from the same total daily points of lay on hands effect. A character who has gained a level of any other class, including a prestige class that allows paladin advancement, after becoming a paladin, does not advance further in her lay on hands ability, counting only the levels up to and including her last level of paladin before taking another class. Lay on hands is a spell-like ability whose use is a standard action when used for healing, or equivalent to a touch spell that is a standard action if used to harm the undead.
Smite Evil (Ex): Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with a normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma modifier (if positive) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per character level. A character who has gained a level of any other class, including a prestige class that allows paladin advancement, after becoming a paladin, does not advance further in her smite evil ability, counting only the levels up to and including her last level of paladin before taking another class.
Divine Grace (Ex): A paladin of 2nd or higher level applies her Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus to all saving throws.
Aura of Courage (Ex/Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin is immune to fear (magical or otherwise), and allies within 10 feet gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Granting the morale bonus to allies is a supernatural ability.
Spells: Beginning at 2nd level, a paladin gains the ability to cast divine spells. To cast a spell, the paladin must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 plus the spell's level. Paladin bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + spell level + paladin's Wisdom modifier. A paladin's caster level is equal to her paladin level.
Turn Undead (Su): At 3rd level, the paladin gains the supernatural ability to turn undead. She may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 plus her Charisma modifier. She turns undead as a cleric of her paladin level. A paladin may take Extra Turning as a feat, starting at 3rd level, which grants the ability to turn undead four times per day more than normal.
Remove Disease: Beginning at 3rd level, a paladin can remove disease as the spell once per week, increasing to twice per week at 6th level and 3 times per week at 9th level.
Paladin's Mount: Upon or after reaching 4th level, a paladin can undertake a quest to locate an unusually strong, intelligent and loyal steed. A paladin's mount is a magical beast, not an animal. It is superior to a normal mount of its kind, and increases in ability with the paladin's level, as shown in Table 2.
Bonus Feat: At 10th level, a paladin acquires a bonus feat that can be used to select any feat listed as a bonus feat for fighters, any divine feat or special feat listed in the Defenders of the Faith sourcebook, Extra Turning, or any metamagic feat.
Code of Conduct: A paladin must be of lawful good alignment, and loses all class features except for weapon and armour proficiency if she ever knowingly commits an act of evil. If she committed the evil act willingly, she will never be granted her paladinhood again by the powers that she once served. If she ceases to be lawful good, commits evil unwittingly or under a compulsion, or grossly violates the paladin's code, she loses all class features except for weapon and armour proficiency until she receives atonement. See Fallen and Abandoned Classes for other pertinent details.
If the paladin's mount departs as a result of such a loss, it does not return. The paladin must wait a year and a day before commencing a quest as difficult as before, or more so, in order to regain the same mount or find a different one.
A paladin's code requires that she respect legitimate authority, refrain from lying, cheating and stealing, help those in need, punish those who harm or threaten the innocent, and avoid the company of evildoers and criminals.

The undead cannot be paladins. If a paladin acquires a template that gives her the undead type while retaining an Intelligence score, she loses all paladin class features, and is considered to meet all requirements for the blackguard prestige class so long as she remains undead.

A paladin may gain levels in other classes before and after taking levels in paladin, and may gain another level of paladin after acquiring levels in a different class. However, if the paladin gains levels in a different class after becoming a paladin, she no longer advances in her lay on hands or smite evil abilities, as described under the listing for those class features.

Table 1: The Paladin

Table 2: The Paladin's Mount

Paladin Level	Bonus HD	Natural Armour	Str Adj.	Int	Special
4th	+2	+4	+1	6	Improved evasion, share spells, empathic link, share saving throws
5th-6th	+4	+6	+2	7	-
7th-8th	+6	+8	+3	8	Command creatures of its kind
9th-10th	+8	+10	+4	9	Spell resistance