Templar

Kormac the Templar is one of the three classes of followers in Diablo III. As a bit of trivia, the Templar appeared as the jack of spades in the Diablo poker set [1], emblazoned with the word "Courageous".

Full info about Followers in Diablo III.
- Eirena the Enchantress.
- Lydon the Scoundrel.

Lore

Templar concept arts.

The followers were designed with lore in mind, and Kormac is no exception. Leonard Boyarsky spoke of Kormac in an interview with FZ.se[2]:

The Templar is called Kormac and he’s a bit like the game's Navy SEAL guy. He’s a member of the Templar order and they’re on this quest – they’re looking for some holy scrolls that were stolen by Archbishop Lazarus in Diablo I. He is good at absorbing damage, so he’s the kind of guy you’d wanna put up front.

It seems that Lazarus is capable of pissing people off well after his timely demise in Diablo I. Apparently he was also a petty thief, which is one more reason to bash his face in with a mace in D1.

Kormac also introduces the Templar Order to the Diablo series. It is not known how much of an impact they will have on the lore of the story.

Jay Wilson added more about Kormac's introductory quest.[3]

The Templar you encounter locked away in a dungeon and he’s been betrayed by a member of his order; you help rescue him and help hunt down that member of the order. That kind of builds his confidence in you, he feels that his interests and yours align. At that point he will come with you, unless you don’t want him to, or you get a different follower at another time, he will return to town and he’ll always be available for you to pick up.

Gear

The followers in Diablo III are much more restricted in what they can equip from what we've seen in the mercenaries in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. It is currently unknown what items the Templar can equip, or what the restrictions are, outside of two rings, an amulet, a main-hand weapon, and an off-hand shield. He appears to be brandishing one-handed spears and perhaps a sword in more than one screenshot.

Like the other followers, Kormac has three tiers of gear progression, which are based upon level.

Three levels of gear progression for Kormac.

Skills

Much like the player character classes, followers are able to learn a few skills or spells at specific level milestones. Not much is known about the skills, currently, besides their names and when they are unlocked. Players may choose one skill from each tier.

Follower skills cannot be modified by runes, and they only have one rank.

Unlocked at Level 5

Heal -- A healing skill that triggers automatically when the character's health drops below a certain percentage. From Kevin Martens:^[1]

They are definitely smarter and use their skills contextually, the Heal for example of both the Templar and the Scoundrel, they will use automatically when you are low health, so you don't have to worry about telling him to heal you or anything like that.

Charge (which appears to be similar to that of the Paladin in Diablo II)

Protection

Unlocked at Level 10

Loyalty

Intimidate

Guardian

Unlocked at Level 15

Tribute -- Increases all gold the character picks up by 20%.^[2]

Inspire -- Boosts passive regeneration of a character's resource (Wizard’s Arcane Power, Monk’s Spirit, Barbarian’s Fury, etc.)^[2]

Intervene -- When your character's health gets low, Kormac will taunt all nearby enemies for eight seconds.^[2] Kevin Martens had earlier hinted at this skill's use:^[1]

So the Templar can increase his hit points for instance, and you can use him as a tank, or maybe if you are a Barbarian and you are tanky yourself, maybe going to use his Intervene ability to only help you when you’re low on health, and these are sort of choices you have to make.