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Recent Thoughts - chaoticangel97 - 04-10-2013
After prepping NPCs for my latest campaign and looking over some of my player's backup ideas I've come to think there is some merit to something that was brought up before. Perhaps some thought should be put into removing Smite Good, Smite Evil and a couple of the other iconic D&D Paladin abilities from the Holy and Dark Knights. More so this is meant to talk about the Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight I've noticed, at least in my games, sees very little play due to the fact it is built for the nonstandard type of game, the evil campaign. Smite Good is basically one of it's main abilities(as Smite Good is for a Paladin) but in the typical campaign this will likely see little use as most enemies will either be evil or neutral. The fact that the Dark Knight is kinda pigeonholed into being only really usable in a evil game kinda feels off to me. So my suggestion might be to remove the Paladin/Anti-Paladin abilities from Holy Knight and Dark Knight and perhaps replace them with thematically Final Fantasy abilities. I suggest doing this to both because if you change one of these two drastically you'll need to do it to the other one.
Anyways, just some thought's I've had recently while working on my newest campaign.
RE: Recent Thoughts - ZeronosVega - 04-10-2013
I'll admit that I've never cared for the alignment feature in games such as D&D and Pathfinder. Instead, I preferred the allegiance system found in d20, where you could have your characters pick the classic alignment markers or you could choose a group, philosophy or something else. It's a little bit more friendly for the table-top environment, I feel.
In regards to Final Fantasy, while the games main characters in these games are definitely cut-and-dry in terms of their alignment, I find that campaigns are often more dynamic in their approach. But even still, if you wanted a Final Fantasy example where the classic alignment system didn't entirely pan out was in FFIV. Basically, Cecil was a Dark Knight but stopped following the orders of his King. In terms of the game, he would no longer be Lawful Evil which would then make him a less-effective Knight.
But I can agree with you, chaoticangel97, in that, while certain classic class abilities translate well, I don't think the old-school smites cut it in this sort of game. Actually, even D&D 3.5 had problems with them and while Pathfinder gave them a necessary buff, only some of the problem was remedied.