What level should a paladin get a holy avenger?

[Lord Pendragon]

DM: The door is magically sealed.
PAL: I greater dispel around the door.
DM (die roll): The door is still sealed.
PAL: I greater dispel around the door again.

Every magic trap, magic door, magic anything can be dispelled at will by the Paladin. Since there are no per day limits, there's no reason for him not to try. I've always hated the holy avenger.

Cool. I hadn't thought about that angle with the dispelling. As a DM I'm not sure I'd hate it any more than the wizard's Disintegrate or the rogue's +30 search check, but it's definitely changing my mind about the versatility of the Holy Avenger on the whole. The out-of-combat uses of at-will Greater Dispelling can't be ignored.

 

[ecliptic]

I would limit the dispel and give it something else.

Holy Avenger should have been a Relic.

 

[Endur]

Somewhere between level 5 and level 20. King Arthur got his when he pulled the sword out of the stone. Aragorn received his from the Elves in Rivendell.

So, you want the sword to be a part of the story, so relatively early in your campaign. You don't really want the sword to arrive right when the Paladin is settling down to raise children.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

A side quest, may be like this: A balor killed the local hero a knight of Heironious while he was seaching for the lair of a dragon that had been attacking the small village near by. the Pcs kill the dragon then during the celabation the Knights wive ask if the say her husband or if in the dragons hoard they hand fond his magic long sword (they didn't find it. The knights wife says he's probebly just lost but if the had time to look it would be appecated.
If they look the find the balor and if they kill it the find the corpse and sword in a near cave along with a some scrolls of disintagate the balors been failing to destroy the sword with