Right now massive life-leech is the only way for a melee combatant to tank the massive damage handed out by major enemies, so of course everyone and their dog is a Sampire. They need to add another way to deal with all that PVM damage, without letting Sampires pile it on to become invincible.
Until they do that, just "nerfing Sampires" isn't going to accomplish anything except to kill off melee completely. I'd like some feedback on my spitballed idea above, honestly.
Coming from someone that doesn't enjoy pvm as it stands, I like your ideas to add diversity in the builds and templates available.
Splitting them is dead simple. "You cannot channel the holy power of Chivalry in your undead form" or something of that nature
Great solution, these skills were specifically designed to be opposites. I'd even go as far as to say your chiv and necro skill should be equal the absolute value of (Chiv) - (Necro). So 100 Chiv, and 80 Neco gives you 20 Necro and 20 Chiv. Basically you've wasted 180 skill points to be a human caster of each.
1) How do we keep the Paladin from exploding when being wailed on by hard-hitting modern enemies?
From a pure Paladin's perspective (at least this one) This is what I would do to make my Paladin pvm ready (without adding in secondary skills like Spell Weaving, Necro, Bushido, etc). 4/6 casting [heal spell, cure spell, remove curse spell], bandages, parry, life leech on a wep, hpr on armor, High DCI have some eater properties depending on monsters you are fighting, potions in a real bind [but depending on your setup you would likely go to 3/6 casting when chugging, and lose signifigant parry chance].
Someone that pvm's high end monsters will be able to comment more but I see mana as becoming an issue. I wouldn't be able to have Focus or Med, Chiv does not count towards lowering LMC for specials so the cost of using them is higher. Most of the mana pool would be there for keeping my character healed, cured and uncursed along with offensive spells like Concencrate weapon, Divine Fury and Enemy of One. It would be difficult to use anything other then a one-handed weapon for damage because of 4/6 casting and Pally's do not parry with two handers like a Bushido character. You have the option of incorporating something like the orny but then you run into issues with hci and dci [particularly with Divine Fury].
This is a lot of work and focus for much less return then the current sampire template.... so what needs to be added to make Chiv and other melee classes viable in pvm...
when the Paladin invokes New Power X, melee hits from the selected enemy give him a stacking damage reduction buff. With each hit he takes 10% less damage, up to a maximum of 50% reduction. If he goes 10 seconds without being hit, his buff goes down one step. Reverse Perfection, basically.... So the Paladin has to be careful during the opening stages of an important PVM fight, but after that he's in good shape. Meanwhile the archer isn't getting hit often enough to care about this at all. You could tie it to Enemy of One, or to Honor, or make it a new spell mutually exclusive with Enemy of One if you think it needs to be balanced. And Sampires can't have it. It's life leech, or it's New Power X. Pick one.
I think a new Paladin spell along those lines would work well. Holy Ward or something... The idea of making it only effective if you are standing toe to toe makes it a good way to prevent throwers and Archers from abusing the power. I'm sticking with the premis that Necro and Pally skills should cancel each other out. Make it a mid level spell and tie it to karma and Chiv. Allow it to be cast at 80 or so chiv without fizzle but scale the duration and effects with Karma and Chiv up to 120.
Since its a reduction of damage over time and (not a single attack), I'd scale the damage reduction much lower. 0-7% with a -3 to+3% based on Karma level... so a Paladin with negative karma would actually take more damage -3%. I saw you mention it as a reverse perfection and it reminds me of a reverse battle lust.
So a high Chiv, High Karma character under the effects would look something like:
First Hit 3% damage reduction (if hit withinin 2.50 ticks +2%) everytime 2.50 seconds pass and no damage is recieved the spell drops 1%
up to a max of 10% damage reduction and can never fall below the spells baseline (in this case 3%)
Add a Chiv specific casting focus bonus of 1%-3% (scaled 1-2 with Chiv skill and a +1 bonus st high Karma) that can put the Pally over the 12% cap while under Holy Ward. (Casters Focus + 1-3%) (Max 15%). This will help a Paladin heal, cure, remove curse while in combat with less chance of being interupted. You could also tie the spell to complement Divine Fury, in the way Reactive Armor and Reflect Magic work for magery. Add a 1-5% DCI bonus (scaled 1-4 with Chiv 60-120 with a +1 bonus at High Karma while spell is in effect [At 120 Chiv and Highest Karma with Divine Fury and Holy Ward in effect character would have a -5 DCI]
The spell can be canceled by Ward Removal type spells and abilities, Evil Omen, Curse and the weapon special of Mortal Wound would all remove Holy Ward but at the same time have their effects nullified. Casting Holy Ward while under those effects will NOT remove them.
Mana Cost slightly higher then Remove Curse, duration between Consecrate Weapon and Divine Fury. Casting time similiar to remove Curse.
You may be reading this and think its not enough and that might be true but I am a believe its better to have something a little weaker and slightly useful then putting something in game that is to powerful and later needs to be nerfed.
Potential issues of stacking it with other casting and so this spell should provide half benefits if a character has with more then 20 skill in other casting arts (magery, spellweave, Mystism). [base scale -2 to 3] [+3 or -3 for high karma = -5% to 6%]
That is a really long answer to your question but a duration spell with some DCI bonus, casting focus and damage reduction would certainly help the Paladin while still making it much less powerful then the current Sampire Templates while provide an option that might make it at least interesting to play.
An easy way to help Chiv and its mana issues in PVM would be to add the Chiv Skill to the list of mana reducing melee skills like ninjitsu and Bushido. This would reduce the mana cost for weapon specials for Paladin characters who invest in Chiv. I think most people think that change makes sense and are surprised to find out it is not included.
The other route would be to consider Paladin's casters like spellweavers, mages and mystics and allow the class to take advantage of casting specialization and spell damage (which currently doesn't effect Chiv). I think most people would want option 1 since Holy Light would be the only Chiv spell to benefit from spell damage Increase.
From a pvp perspective, the spell would also be useful but I've provided many avenues of removal (Magery, Mystism, Talisman, Necro, weapon ability Mortal) to keep it from being overpowering and balanced.
2) How do we do so without making Chivalry archers basically immortal in PVM?
I like the way you nerfed it for range attackers in pvm by making the damage reduction based on damage taken in a short period of time. In pvp this wouldn't be an effective nerf and you'd have to go a step further by reducing the damage absorbtion effects by 1/2 when using a ranged weapon (Archer or Throwing). Basically a scaled absorbtion from 0-2 on Chiv skill and a -3 to +3 for karma for a min/max range of -3 to 5). This would mean that initially the spell would provide both Melee and Ranged weapon users the same small protection but ranged users would never abosrb more then 5% whereas melee could abosrb up to 10% at the highest levels.
There are probably a hundred other ways then the ones listed here all with benefits and drawbacks. As a long time Pally these are the types of changes I'd like to see. I tried to adapt your idea to be fair and balanced but being that I play a paladin there is no way I can be sure I am being completely objective.
-Lore's Player
PS: I'd like to see the Paladin Sword maybe be class specific, give it special Chiv related specials or allow the Paladin spell divine fury to over the SSI cap (60) for this weapon alone (Pally sword and Pally spell). I will jump on the Spellbreaker bandwagon for this weapon anyway, a 5.0 melee weapon is pretty slow even for my liking (and if you've read this thread I am pretty much against lowering weapon speeds in general). In fact this is the only weapon, I believe to slow to be useful in the game (the Heavy Crossbow has same speed and damage but is ranged with moving shot and dismount). The Pally sword should probably be scaled down at least a tick to 4.75 (maybe even to 4.50 but not any faster). That keep it the slowest melee weapon by at least a tic and the heaviest damaging melee weapon.