Charisma - A Munchkin Paladin's Dream

[Trainz]

The initial post didn't specify core 3.5.
It said only "WotC products". And Charm domain is in FR.

BTW: Using an ECL race with a Paladin is not very effective, from a power gaming perspective. You can take my word for it, or not, but I'm not going to argue that statement. It's fairly straightforward, since almost all the Paladin's abilities are CLASS level dependant.

Oh, I won't argue. I experimented it first hand. Very bad. The best synergy is single-class human IME.

 

[James McMurray]

I think an ECL race could be ok, as long as it was a race that complimente the paladin. A succubus' charisma bonus will make up for much lost level abilities (especially lay on hands). You lose smite damage but gain smite to hit. You also gain a lot of ther really nice abilities, such as greater teleport, ethereal jaunt, and polymorph self (humanoid) at will.

An Aasimar is such a low level hit that the +1 to charisma modifier could be worthwhile.

And even if they aren't the most optimal, you also have o look at the fun factor involved in playing something that isn't a vanilla human. Some folks like that sort of thing even if it isn't the most powerful option.

 

[Epametheus]

My 3.0 half-celestial paladin rocked. Being able to pull off massive bonuses to Divine Might and Divine Grace more than made up for losing some HP and a few measly points off of Smite Evil.

Also, paladins don't have any dump stats, and so they benefit from everything. I suspect that only a cleric can really match the results you get from a paladin with high stats across the board.

In 3.0, Smite Evil was a one-shot deal, while the mount and just about all paladin spells but Holy Sword were completely dismissable at high levels. They've improved smiting and slightly improved the mount, but nerfed the hell out of Holy Sword. They also inexplicably nerfed the turning ability, making the penalty 3 levels instead of two. So the best use of your turning attempts now are a) smashing hordes of wimpy undead wooks or b) converting them into divine feats. Turning isn't going to work on anything that would be a real threat to your paladin.

Lay on Hands and Smite Evil are the main reasons to take a paladin to high levels, now. The mount will still die in nothing flat if it's targetted, and paladin magic is basically garbage (the 1/2 caster level thing certianly doesn't help) -- it'll work okay if you can get a prayer bead of karma, but otherwise it's a waste of time.

The Divine Champion PrC from the FRCS is a very good PrC for a Paladin to multi-class into, since it's also loaded with abilities based on charisma, including a smite ability that works on anything that doesn't worship the champion's god.

 

[molonel]

If your DM allows Monte Cook's Requiem for a God, you can use a stored - as opposed to an ingested - divinity spark to grant a +2 divine bonus to any one stat. Once you choose the stat, it can never change, but it's another way to bump charisma.