9th level Paladin Smackdown wanted!

[Leopold]

I currently have a 9th level human female paladin(battle nun!). I want to do the most damage that I possibly can with a great sword that I own. What is the best possible combo that i can take with feats/skills/equipment that i can do to get a high +to hit and +to damage.


any feat/skill from any book will do. Just give me thename and pub so i can look it up! Kudos if it's already in pcgen for me to use!!

 

[Jeremy]

High Charisma + High Strength with power attack and divine might (defenders of the faith) will give you strength and charisma to damage with even base attack into damage against low AC opponents. At 9th level with a friendly cleric or wizard who will bull's strength and eagle's splendor (tome and blood?) you and greater magic weapon your weapon will have you doing outlandish damage.

Spirited Charge is another way to go, though more suited to lance than greatsword.

If you weren't locked into greatswords there are some other wonderful options that include spikes (defenders of the faith). Additionally spell storing items, especially the ring, can hold multiple instances of smite (relics and rituals) and true strike that will allow VERY punishing attacks as you can full power attack the true strike blows and additionally combine them with smites. Added to divine might and your buffed strength, you'll probably be doing damage around 50-75 points.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Assuming you're decided on a human Pal 9 and greatsword and have the standard 36k of items, here's what I'd recommend:

High Strength (ideally with a bonus that's a multiple of two to maximize the benefit from wielding a 2-handed weapon).
High Charisma (for use with divine might and boosting your saves.

+1 Holy Greatsword (that's a hefty chunk of your money so protect the investment by getting the cleric or wizard in the party to cast Greater Magic Weapon on it regularly (this will help protect it from sunder attempts).

+1 Fullplate of Command

+2 Cloak of Charisma

+2 Vest of Resistance

That leaves you with about 1500 gp to buy some barding for your warhorse, a bow, arrows, a wand of cure light wounds, and a potion or two of expeditious retreat and see invisibility.

For Feats, I'd recommend:
L1- Power Attack
Human- Cleave
L3- Divine Might
L6- Weapon Focus: Greatsword
L9- Improved Critical: Greatsword

If you're not decided on the Pal 9 part, I'd consider multi-classing. If there's a lawful good, lawful neutral, or neutral good deity in your world with favored weapon greatsword, I'd consider a combination like: Cleric 3/Pal 3/Templar 3. I tried that recently at a con (with a paladin of Heironeous) and it proved pretty effective. The cleric and templar levels enable you to cast buffs like endurance and bull's strength on yourself which can help make up for the fact that you haven't spent money on stat increasing items and need good stats in at least str, con, and cha (and wis 14+ and dex 12+ is helpful). They also give you weapon specialization, even better saves, extra smites, and mettle. Of course, your turning ability will only be good for assisting the cleric and activating Divine Might. . . .

Assuming that you can get at least a 15 in both str and cha (and increase them to 16 at 4th and 8th level), you should be doing:
2d6 +4 (str--very likely higher) +1 (enhancement--often higher due to GMW) +6 (Divine Might) +2d6 (holy weapon vs. evil opponents) + x (power attack). You'll also threaten a critical on 17-20. All that totals up to an average damage of 25+ per hit against evil opponents. (28+ average damage/hit assuming 50% of critical threats confirm).

 

[Thanee]

Power Attack and Improved Critical are great! If you can get a keen Greatsword, do so!

The Paladin also gets this nasty spell (Bless Weapon?), where all threats are automatically crits!!

And later he has a spell (Holy Sword?) that changes your weapon into a +5 weapon that always deals double damage!!

Divine Sacrifice (I hope that's the correct name) from DotF is also worth a look, you can take damage to deal up to 5d6 extra damage with one attack!

Cleave is also very good, especially combined with the above!

Divine Might is good, if your Charisma is at least 18, otherwise I wouldn't bother with it, altho with a Charisma of 16 it is still useful, but not that great.

Bye
Thanee

 

[The_lone_gunman]

Here is what I did with my pally and he was doing 50+ in one charge easy dmg at 9th lvl:

I am also throwing in some extra's if you can that will make him even more devistating:

2nd lvl fighter
7th lvl Paladin

Put your points in Cha and Str

Feats

Power attack
Shield Expert
Shield Charge
Divine Shield
Improved intiative
Extra Turning


Items:

Rhino Hide armor
Cloak of Charisma
Gauntlets of Str
Boots of striding/springing
MW Large Steel Shield w/shield spikes

If you can afford all that, I dont have my DMG here.


Anyway, with those combo's, 18 str and cha (i assume you would be able to get at least that high in both by ninth lvl), here is a dmg breakout on a successful charge:

You would have 11 or more divine shield attempts per day, which should be plenty:

When divine shielded and charging:

(keep in mind this is only with 18str/18 cha, you should be able to buff higher, this is simply assuming the minimum)

+4 to AC (-2 next round for charge)

Attacks: +19 (+9 BAB, +4 Str, +4 Cha (divine shield), +2 charging), 1-6 +8 (+4 str, +4 cha (divine shield)), then all this X4 (shield charge feat and rhino armor), giving you a whooping minimum dmg of 36 for a successful charge.

You could of course power attack, and/or smite for extra damage. Then, if you are buffed, remember to get STR and CHA bonuses, for the stack with your divine shield. The boots are nice because they let you charge farther.


The shield bashing paladin will make any DM very unhappy.


TLG

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Power Attack and Improved Critical are great! If you can get a keen Greatsword, do so!

The Paladin also gets this nasty spell (Bless Weapon?), where all threats are automatically crits!!

Divine Might is good, if your Charisma is at least 18, otherwise I wouldn't bother with it, altho with a Charisma of 16 it is still useful, but not that great.

Careful! Bless Weapon does not function on a weapon with a critical affecting enchantment (keen or vorpal) on it.

Divine Might is a good one with high Cha, if you really want to pump out damage. (I do not like it personally because I do not even try to build paladins that are good at dishing damage; it is not really their forte.)

 

[Leopold]

well i must put my stats in CHA and str. I will do that. What other words of advice would be best? I have a Clr who can cast BS on me so Clerical levels aren't needed as he will buff me and I will be set. What other classes could I use. I like being a paladin so I would like to stick with that if possible. Thanks for the info so far I really want to create this munch..i mean PC..the DM is gonna have a hey day with this!

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

For other classes that work with a Paladin:

1. Fighter: 4 levels gives you weapon specialization and two other bonus feats as well as a boost to fortitude saves (at a minor cost to reflex and will saves). Two levels is also advantageous but hoses your non-fort saves. Three levels gives you two bonus feats and doesn't change your saves but doesn't get you weapon specialization either.

2. Ranger: If you're the the standard plate-armored paladin, ranger doesn't get you much other than track, the ability to use wands of entangle, and a few skill points. OTOH, a lightly armored paladin would benefit from the dual wielding feats. Dual wielding combines very nicely with Divine Might and Divine Vengeance which add damage to both primary and off hand attacks equally. It has the same effect on saves as fighter levels though.

3. Rogue: Paladin/Rogue sounds like an odd combination but if you're playing an investigator/inquisitor type of holy warrior, the skills will serve you well. Sneak attack never hurts either. And, as long as you're willing to give up heavy armor, Evasion is a great feature. (This also sets you up for the Consecrated Harrier prestige class).

4. Templar. Weapon specialization, Mettle (Fort and Reflex save version of evasion), damage reduction, and multiple smites per day. This class combines very well with Paladin.

5. Hospitaller. Also an excellent combination with the paladin class.

6. Divine Champion. (FRCS) You give up spellcasting ability, Turning Ability, and Mount Advancement for the Divine Champion levels but you get Lay on Hands advancement, good reflex saves, a bonus to saves vs. divine spells (as if you needed more saving throw bonusses), gain bonus feats, and gain a second (and more versatile smite infidel ability). If you stick with it for 9 levels, you get the really neat Divine Wrath ability too.

 

[Jeremy]

Generally for paladin's I recommend single classing or only one level of paladin.

Their best abilities (turning---yes, even at -2, lay on hands--if you've got charisma, smite, and mount) all scale with levels and are all extremely useful. It's also one of the few classes that has Holy Sword on their spell list and that's going to take single classing to get to.

For the best paladin though, be a cleric who takes the hospitaler prestige class. If you take one level of paladin first or manage a level of contemplative and take the mysticism domain, you'll have all the perks of a paladin except you'll trade a mount for full spellcasting progression.

Note: Smite Evil is replaced by the first level R&R spell Smite which while it has it's limitations, it is also available as Smite Chaos, Smite Evil, Smite Law, or Smite Good as necessary to either alignment or foe.

But otherwise, I'd recommend staying single class paladin. Believe me, the first time you manage to get to melee with a lich, and instead of stabbing it, you Lay on Hands for (13th level x 10 charisma modifier) 130 points of damage to a creature with no con... Well, it feels good to incinerate a lich in your holy aura, let's just put it that way.

Edit: A single level or the full progression of Templar are also very good choices though there are significant trade-offs there. For one level you get specialization and mettle, mettle combined with a paladin's divine grace and a hopefully armor of command/cloak of charisma setup can have you saving against everything that requires a fortitude or will save as if you had evasion for those two saves, tack on a vest of resistance from tome and blood and you'll be an even bigger force for lich's to reckon with as you can shrug off many attacks. Add a ring of evasion and you'll be a complete Wolverine, always refusing to go down no matter what you get hit with.

If you keep going the full progression you'll get extra smites and damage reduction meaning not only will you shrug off spells, but a lot of the damage you take will be reduced too. Combine this with Shield Other from that cleric and well... There are very few characters with whom flesh wall is not only a requirement, but also an honor and a talent, but not only that, a role playing concept that fits well with a paladin's code.

 

[Leopold]

so far so good keep it up! the dm will be rattled by the mighty battle nun!