boredpanda
Member
Core Identity
Paladin is an elderly holy warrior and the father of Venator, though the exact nature of their relationship, conflict, or separation would be left open for Valve’s writers to define.
He carries his family’s treasured hammer, a sacred relic passed down through generations. Once a weapon of judgment, it now serves as both his burden and his last remaining connection to his bloodline.
Paladin is designed as a scrapper support. He stays close to allies and enemies, fights in the middle of chaotic engagements, protects teammates, and uses his hammer to create space, punish dives, and reposition in unusual ways.
He is not fast or slippery by default. His strength comes from timing, positioning, and committing to the fight.
Visual Theme
Paladin is an old, battle-worn holy knight with a large two-handed magical hammer. His armor is heavy, cracked, and ceremonial, with faint holy light leaking from the seams. Opposite colors of Venator lots of light bright colors white, blue, gold.
His hammer glows brighter when fully loaded and slowly dims as his ammo is spent.
Reload Animation
Paladin raises his hammer to the sky and mutters a short prayer. A beam of holy light descends onto the hammer, restoring its charge. As the weapon reloads, the hammer briefly shines with full divine power before gradually fading as ammo is consumed.
Movement Profile & Hitbox
Paladin is durable but slow.
Movement traits:
- Slow dash category
- 3 stamina
- Lower base movement speed
- Strong close range presence
- Limited chase potential without committing resources
This keeps him from becoming too mobile while still letting him make powerful plays with his hammer.
Model Size: Medium-high
He is bulky and in shape covered in armor besides his head and should have hp scaling to match that. Model size should be in between Venator and Abrams about 10% smaller than Abrams or bigger than Venator.
Weapon: Sacred Hammer
Paladin’s basic attacks are not traditional bullets. Instead, he swings his hammer and releases wide, slow moving waves of holy force.
Primary Fire
Paladin swings his hammer, creating broad, slow moving shockwaves in the air.
Damage type: 50% bullet damage, 50% spirit damage
Fire rate: Very low
Projectile behavior: Wide, slow moving waves that pass through enemies
Range: Moderate, with heavy falloff
Role: Area pressure, wave clear, close-range fighting
This would feel somewhat similar to Paige’s primary fire, but slower, heavier, and more bruiser like.
Alternate Fire: Hammerfall
Paladin slams his hammer into the surface he is aiming at and discharges all holy energy into it, consuming all remaining ammo.
If used on the ground, the impact displaces nearby enemies within 2m of Paladin and launches Paladin into the air away from where he is aiming. The height of the launch depends on how much ammo he had remaining.
Full ammo: Launches Paladin roughly as high as a small Majestic Leap or double jump
Low ammo: Launches Paladin only slightly, similar to a small hop or single jump
One bullet remaining: Still usable, but with greatly reduced height, damage, and displacement
This gives Paladin a unique engage or disengage tool tied directly to ammo management.
This can be aimed on any surface he can also slam his hammer into walls to be used similarly to a stronger wall bounce. ***
Aerial Use
If used while falling from height, Paladin slams downward with increased force.
The higher he falls, the stronger the impact becomes.
Low height: Light melee level damage
Medium height: Moderate displacement and damage
High fall: Heavy melee level damage or slightly above
Scaling: Benefits from melee damage items
This gives him a Lashlike aerial punish, but slower and more committed.
Intended Playstyle
Paladin is meant to be a frontline support brawler.
He wants to stay near his allies, protect them from dives, create space with his hammer, and punish enemies who overcommit. His alternate fire gives him creative movement, but because it consumes all ammo, he has to choose carefully between sustained pressure and a big repositioning play.
He should feel powerful when fighting around teammates, but weak when isolated, kited, or forced to chase.
Ability 1: Purifying Shot
Cooldown: 24 seconds
Range: 10 meters
Damage type: Spirit damage
Paladin charges his hammer and releases a short-range cone of holy light.
The blast heals allies and damages enemies caught within the cone.
Allies hit: Receive spirit scaled healing burst heal 10% base heal.
Enemies hit: Take spirit scaled damage
Shape: Charged shotgun like cone
Role: Close range sustain, teamfight swing, antidive tool
This ability rewards Paladin for staying close to the fight and positioning himself between allies and enemies.
Upgrades
1AP: Reduce Cooldown by -8 secs
2AP: Purifying Shot also applies a -20% healing reduction to enemies
5AP: Purifying shot applies movement slow and dash reduction of -15% and pushes enemies back by 2m. Gains the ability to use charges +1 charge.
Ability 2: Sanctifying Aura
Cooldown: 50 seconds
Duration: 6 seconds
Range requirement: Target must remain within 10 meters of Paladin
Self Cast: Yes
Paladin blesses a target ally with divine protection. While the ally remains near Paladin, they gain a temporary debuff immunity and share 10% of all damage with their target.
If a debuff is removed when Sanctifying Aura is applied, the target is healed for a flat amount and gains bonus damage based on number of buffs removed.
Debuff removed: Target receives a flat burst heal, similiar to dispel magic
Bonus damage: Scales based on the number of debuffs removed
Damage bonus: 5% / 10% / 15%
Condition: Target must stay within 10 meters of Paladin
This makes Paladin very strong against heavy crowd control and debuff heavy teams, but enemies can counterplay it by forcing distance or waiting out the protection.
To keep it balanced, it removes standard debuffs while only reducing the duration of stronger ultimate debuffs by 20%.
Upgrades
1AP: Sanctifying Aura increase the target and your movement speed by +1.5m m/s.
2AP: Reduce cooldown by -11 secs
5AP: Sanctifying Aura also removes the move speed while shooting and increase the targets spirit and bullet resist by 10%
Ability 3: Smite of Providence
Cooldown: 35 seconds
Range: 25 meters
Damage type: Pure spirit damage
Paladin calls down divine judgment on an enemy target.
The target is struck by holy light, taking spirit damage, becoming slowed, and suffering reduced dash distance for a short duration.
Damage: Spirit damage
Slow: 30%
Dash distance reduction: 15%
Role: Anti-mobility, chase setup, peel tool
This gives Paladin a way to punish slippery heroes without giving him extreme mobility himself. It fits especially well as a counter to fast divers or heroes who rely heavily on dashing in and out of fights.
Upgrades
1AP: Decrease cooldown by -8 secs
2AP: Smite becomes Pure Spirit Damage
5AP: Smite becomes an AoE ability in a 10m Radius Around the target.
Ability 4: Hallowed Ground
Cooldown: 200 seconds
Radius: 10 meters
Duration: 4 seconds
Damage type: Pure spirit damage
Paladin sanctifies the ground around himself, creating a holy zone that heals allies, removes debuffs and damages enemies.
On activation, enemies in the area take an initial burst of pure spirit damage. For the next 4 seconds, enemies inside the zone continue taking pure damage over time that is exponential the longer enemies stay within, while allies are healed over time and gain a barrier on activation if in range. Enemies within Hallowed Ground cannot heal and any healing effect instead will damage them. All DoT environmental effects in the area are dispelled.
On cast: Burst spirit damage to enemies, purges non-ult debuffs
Over time: Pure damage to enemies, exponential, all healing enemies receive within radius damage them instead( Don't try to stay or you die) allies and enemies within are unaffected by all debuffs including ultimate debuffs.
Allies: Flat 300 barrier & healing over time that scales with spirit
Radius: 10 meters
Duration: 4 seconds
The initial damage would be comparable to Paige’s Bookwyrm, but slightly higher because Paladin has to place himself directly in the danger zone.
This ultimate turns Paladin into a powerful teamfight anchor. It rewards teams that fight around him, but enemies can counter it by disengaging, displacing him, or forcing the fight outside the zone.
The ultimate is very powerful but disallowing all debuffs within allows enemies to escape fairly easily with great risk if they stay. Also allows great ways to combine ultimate's for potentially working together against certain heroes like Victor or counterplay with Rejuvenator by trying to finish them off by throwing them into Hallowed Ground with characters like Lash or Holiday.
Upgrades
1AP: Allies caught within radius on activation gain a flat heal based on how many allies effected +100 hp per ally inside activation zone.
2AP: Decrease cooldown by -30 secs and allies caught inside activation zone get 1s of invulnerability.
5AP: Increase Hallowed Grounds duration by +1 second , barrier now scales with spirit and lasts 10 seconds. All death altering abilities, items or boons are disabled within Hallowed Ground for enemies.
For example, Cheat Death, Victors Ultimate, Rejuvenator.
Balance Weaknesses
To keep Paladin fair, he should have clear weaknesses:
- Low base movement speed
- Weak long-range pressure
- Slow weapon fire rate
- Large commitment windows
- Reliant on ammo management
- Strongest when near allies
- Vulnerable when isolated
- Can be kited by highly mobile enemies
- His best defensive tools require close positioning
Design Summary
Paladin would be a heavy support bruiser built around protection, disruption, and close range teamfighting.
His hammer gives him a unique weapon identity, while his kit lets him cleanse, heal, slow, displace, and create a holy zone for his team to fight inside. He would appeal to players who like support heroes but still want to be physically involved in the fight rather than sitting far back and only casting heals or other abilities.
The biggest design goal would be making him feel like a powerful holy guardian without giving him full invulnerability, excessive mobility, or frustrating get out of jail free mechanics.
Last edited:
