Dungeonscape has a great ACF for Paladins who do not want the mount in combat.  The mount is actually one of the weaker class features, and the Spirit Paladin ACF makes the class better as a party member.

I feel that this ACF should also apply to the PrC Paladin.  Opal is running this concept in the Night Below, and I am running it in Walpurgis night.  In order to make this idea more in keeping with the class concept, i propose the following entry changes for characters seeking to use the spirits instead of the hrose as part of the paladin prc:

In lieu of Ride 4 ranks and Mounted Combat, replace with Blind Fight and Diplomacy 4 ranks for entry requirements.

Unchaged are the Knowledge Religion 2, Knowledge Nobility 2, LG Alignment, able to cast Prot. Evil as a divine spell, and Turn Undead.

Ok, so those would be the changes in the Requirements, but what does this acf do for the Paladin? I would like to know that b4 I approve/deny the change in the class.

The "Spirit Paladin" can summon spirits according to these rules.

Note that the spirit of healing can heal total HP up to double that of the Paladin's Lay on Hands ability. I remember some brief talk of doubling every Paladin's base Lay on Hands in order to buff the class and to avoid being outclassed by the Dragon Shaman. In Night Below, Dave is allowing me to double the base Lay on Hands and then double that value for the Spirit of Healing. That seems very powerful but the Paladin is so weak to begin with, and almost no one complains about having a super healer.

I also wanted to breifly float the idea a mana-like system (call the pool "Divine Points") as a new ACF.  the paladin would draw from this pool in order to perform Lay on Hands, Smite Evil, and Turn Undead.  The value of points in the pool would be CHA and Class Level based.

Classes that stack with Turn Undead, Smite, or Lay on hands would also stack for the purposes of this.

I was thinking of (CHA + 5) * Level for pool.  Healing is 1 point per HP, 5 for lesser resto, 20 for any status remove past lesser resto.  Smite is 8 ish, Turn is 16 ish.

Thoughts?

After talking to Mike, Nick, and Gregg, there is some interest in reworking the bad classes that have good flavor.  Nick has suggested using the Pathfinder Paladin (or other base classes) located here:  http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/classes.html

For Reference, here is my version of the paladin

Dave's Paladin ACF (Tier 3 or 4) : (NOTE:  This applies to the base class ONL:Y)

Lose:  Turn Undead, Smite Evil, Remove Disease, Lay on Hands.

Gain:  Holy Warrior (Su):  A paladin is imbued with the power of her god as an instument of rightousness.  This connection manifests as a font of Holy Energy that the paladin can call upon.

This pool has (CHA * Level)  * 3 Divine Power Points (DPPs).  These points are expended only after the paladin has rested and prayed.  The rest must be a full night's rest (allowing for rings of sustinance), but the prayer time must be spent independent of time spent learning spells for the day.

Holy Smite (Su): At level 1, the paladin may imbue any attack with the power of his or her god.  The paladin spends 6 DPP's from his pool.  He adds his CHA bonus to his AB and his Level to his damage for one attack only.  If thge target is not evil, this has no effect, but the power is expended.  The paladin will know that she has tried to smote a non-evil being.

Holy Healing (Su): Starting at level 2, paladin may spend a standard action to lay on hands to heal.  She may channel as many DPP's as she wishes as a 1 to 1 ratio for points spent to HP healed.  A paladin may only cure 5 * Level HP in any one use of this ability.

Holy Censur (Su):  At level 4, a paladin may spend 10 DPP's to Turn Undead, per the cleric rules.  This power may also be used to power divine feats and class abilities at the same ratio.

Holy Curate (Su): At level 8, a paladin may spend 5 DPP's to remove dazed, fatigued, or sickened conditions from on person.  A paladin may spend 10 points to remove exhausted, nauseated, poisoned, or stunned from one person.  A paladin may spend 20 points to remove 1 negative level, blindess, deafness, or diseased conditions from one individual.

Other Classes:
Classes that stack their smites with the paladin's smite add their class levels to the paladin's class level for the purposes to DPP's.  They give up smite uses per day but not other smite effects (Such as the Fist of Raziel's Holy Martial Strike) to do this.

Classes that stack lay on hands with the paladin's lay on hands stack their levels with the paladin's levels for determining DPP's.  They give up their normal lay on hands pool but not their other effects (such as the Grey Guard's nauseate attack) to do this.

Class that stack with Turn Undead add their levels to the paladin's class elvel when for the purposes of determingiun DPP's.  They give up their normal turn undead but not other divine effedcts (such as the Ruby Knight Vindicator's Divien Fury) to do this.

Other ACF's: 

The spirit of healing (Dungeonscape) calculates the healing pool based on the formula for Lay on Hands from the standard base class (Level * Cha * 2) points.  No other spirits are affected.  These two ACF's may be used together.

Non-spell Casting Paladin (CWar) is not affected.  These ACF's may be used together.

No-mount charging smite varient (PHB2) uses DPP's like a smite to make a charging smite. These ACF's may be used together.

Racial Supstitutions:

Elven Paladin (RotW):  Ranged Smite uses DPP's as per Holy Smite.  Standard Holy Smite is not available.. 

Half-Orc Paladin (RoD): Righteous Fury uses DPP's per Holy Smite.  Holy Smite is not available.   Remove Fatigue is not present.

Warforged Paladin (RoE):  Holy SMite may also be used to smite constructs.  Holy Healing and Holy Curate not available.  Repair Damage may use DPP's at a 1 to 1 ratio for damage repaired to points spent.

I am ok with changing the Paladin to make it better. The Pathfinder change would bump it to at least T4 I think, and the floating point pool would probably keep it T5, but maybe bump it (I would have to think about it a bit more).