A Good Prestige Class for a Paladin

[Dannyalcatraz]

I kinda dig that Shadow- whatchamacallit with the requirement of taking Rogue levels.

 

[KarinsDad]

What kind of paladin would you like to play? What area would you like to focus on? Smiting? Mounted combat? Diplomacy?

It's not my Paladin. It's for my wife who has never played 3x, only 2E.

I'm just trying to come up with a list of options for her.

 

[Solarious]

If you have Eberron, Exorcist of the Silver Flame offers a variety of an array of interesting abilities, which includes Smite Evil eventually, at the cost of medium BAB and three of four levels of spellcasting, forget exactly how much without my books on hand.

If you want to adapt it to FR, any LG aligned religion focused on combating demons works as a stand in for the Silver Flame.

 

[Votan]

Divine Crusader (Complete Divine) is not a bad option. Not long after it's release someone undertook a pretty good analysis of the PrC to identify the most 'useful' domains.

What ended up as the best domain choice for a Divine Crusader?

 

[Shin Okada]

Pious Templar (Complete Divine) is another poplular option.

 

[Bryan898]

What ended up as the best domain choice for a Divine Crusader?

I'm not sure what the list said, but I had a Divine Crusader that used the War domain that was fairly powerful. I used Practicied Spellcaster (CAr) and Spell Penetration to increase my chance of breaking SR, since the Power Word spells already lack a save. Attack and smite the first round, then finish the job with a Power Word Kill spell. Power Word Stun was great for pesky spellcasters as well. Flame Strike, Blade Barrier, Spiritual Weapon, and Divine Strength are great too, though your save and Caster Level will likely be low. (CL tops out at 10/ 14 with Practicied Spellcaster, and all aspects of Divine Crusader spellcasting are CHA based-- except saves which are WIS based.)

For extra munchkin cheese, if you want the spellcasting without losing out on BAB and HD, simply take one level in Divine Crusader, then move onto Fist of Razial. The 9 levels of previous class spell progression given by the Fist of Razial will allow you to get all your spells, plus all the nifty cool benefits of Fist of Razial, Full BAB, and d10 hd.

 

[the Jester]

Knight of the chalice is good; so is hunter of the dead. Also, knight of the iron glacier sticks out in my mind as a cool choice for some reason... oh, and cavalier, of course.

 

[Klaus]

Wild Plains Outrider: 3 levels that dramatically improves your mount's effectiveness, and has no multiclass restrictions with paladin.

Champion of Corellon Larethian: great for agile paladins in heavy armor. If I ever play a character inspired by LotR's Gil Ghalad, I'll aim for this class.

Also, you might consider the following feats from Complete Adventurer:

Ascetic Knight - Paladin + Monk stack for unarmed and smite evil damage, no multiclass restriction.
Devoted Inquisitor - Paladin + Rogue. Sneak attack and smite the same foe at the same time in order to daze him. No multiclass restriction.
Devoted Performer - Paladin + Bard stack for smite evil damage and bardic music uses per day. No multiclass restriction, and you can be lawful and remain a bard.
Devoted Tracker - Paladin + Ranger stack for smite evil damage and wild empathy bonus. Your mount becomes your animal companion, plus some other stuff.

Also, look into Complete Warrior's Paladin without Spellcasting option. It allows you to have a paladin that doesn't need high Wisdom.

 

[gamecat]

Ive found a paladin/sorcerer build works exceptionally well - focus on archery and blaster spells.

Edit: Per sean k reynolds' recommendations, my game throws out paladin and monk multiclass issues. YMMV.

 

[Legildur]

What ended up as the best domain choice for a Divine Crusader?

Found it!! Strength and Mysticism were Elder-Basilisk's first choices. See this thread (Complete Divine: Divine Crusader Options) for a full analysis.

There was also another thread (archived) about how bonus domains interacted with the PrC which may be of interest. Divine Crusader and Bonus Domains (for some reason the original thread only shows one post at a time).