GFA18 - MCC Paladin

My second 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac article about additional pure-strain human classes re-imagines the Paladin. The original DCC Paladin was written by Jose Lira and published in CRAWL! no 6: Classic Class Collection. Rather than presenting the complete class, I offer suggested modification needed to make the Paladin work in the Terra AD setting. My vision of paladins for MCC is that they're fanatics devoted human purity and/or to the Patron AI satellites. The bits about pantheons and alignment, I think, really drive home both how nasty paladins are and how different they are from other characters in MCC. My occupation list and starting equipment list both imply a certain amount of inequality and animosity between pure strain humans and other character types; paladins embody this attitude to the extreme.
   
To avoid just making bards and paladins into lesser shamans, my goal was to sort of divide the patrons in half, give one set to the bards, the other set to the paladins, and leave GAEA for the shamans alone. I didn't quite achieve that, because while paladins start out invoking one of the security-related patrons, alignment restrictions prevent them from adopting the other two security satellites. Instead they'll eventually learn wetware related to other, non-security patrons in the same Pantheon, and thus slightly overlap with bards at higher levels. Keith Garrett edited this and the other pieces in this series, and Karim provided the art.
 
 
MCC Paladin
Paladins in the world of Terra A.D. are fanatics who revere the patron AIs. They are martially skilled and train rigorously to serve their pantheon. They wield a small bit of wetware programming and are living agents of the AIs.
 
Choosing a pantheon: At 1st level, a paladin selects an alliance of patron AIs to worship: either the Mainframe of Order, the Grid of Net Neutrality, or the Matrix of Entropy. At 2nd level, a paladin selects a specific AI to serve, while remaining loyal to the pantheon as a whole. This patron will grant the paladin access to wetware programs of terrible power, including the program Invoke Patron AI. Because of their role, paladins almost always adopt security-minded patrons, especially HEXACODA, ACHROMA, and MANGALA. At higher levels, a paladin may adopt additional patron AIs from the same pantheon, but they always maintain an affinity for the first Orbital God they served.
 
Archaic alignment: Paladins adhere strictly to their alignment and devote themselves to their pantheon's cause. Their devotion to the patron AI's principles is absolute. Paladins may begin as members of The Clan of Cog, The Curators, and they are the only player characters who may be members of The Gene Police archaic alignment. In addition, paladins adopt the ancient systems of thought that form the basis of the patron AIs' philosophical alignments: Law, Neutrality, and Chaos.
 
Smite: Paladins can empower their weapons against those deemed unworthy by their AI patrons. Instead of their regular attack bonus, paladins can add their Smite Die to their attack and damage rolls when attacking mutants, manimals, plantients, and horrors (any creatures with a mutation check bonus as a special property).
 
Magic: Like shamans, paladins can run wetware programs granted them by their AI patrons. Paladins add their Personality modifier to their spell check, and may use glowburn by consuming radioactive substances while running a program. Rather than risking disapproval like DCC paladins, MCC paladins risk patron taint from spellcasting.
 
Holy deeds: Rather than risking disapproval like DCC paladins, MCC paladins risk patron taint when they perform holy deeds.
 
Lay on hands: Paladins have the power to channel ambient atmospheric nanites controlled by their patron to heal the wounded. Unlike DCC paladins, MCC paladins can use this power to repair robots and holograms, though only those that are aligned with the correct AI pantheon. Because of the differences between repair and biological healing, all AIs count as "opposed" for the purposes of determining the holy deed result. All pure strain humans count as "same", mutants count as "adjacent", manimals count as "opposed", and plantients cannot be healed. The paladin must physically touch the wounds and concentrate for 1 action.
 
Fallen paladin: Each day an MCC paladin receives any patron taint, they gain one point on the Fallen Paladin table. As with DCC paladins, using their holy powers in ways that contradict the will of the patron AIs risks incurring additional points directly. Like DCC paladins, these points do not reset each day, and must be erased by paying real sacrifices to atone and be redeemed in the eyes of the AI patrons.
 
Darwinian luck: Pure strain humans are very lucky as a species, but paladins sacrifice much of this when taking on a patron AI. Paladins regenerate spent Luck at the rate of 1 point per 7-day period.
 
AI recognition: Because of their close resemblance to the Ancient Ones, all pure strain humans (including paladins) gain a natural +2 to AI recognition rolls.
 
Artifact check bonus: Paladins have a natural affinity for understanding the artifacts of the ancients, resulting in an added bonus to their artifact checks. Paladins use the artifact check bonus recommended for DCC warriors. Lvl 1-4 ACB +2, Lvl 5-8 ACB +6, Lvl 9-10 +8.