Making paladin feat choices is tough!

[Seeten]

Important note: To use Law Devotion more often than 3/day, you need to PERMANENTLY expend turn attempts on the basis of however many is in the feat writeup. The amount you burn is locked in when you take the feat. Its in the sidebar on devotion feats.

 

[Patlin]

I like Divine Might, if your charisma is high enough to make it worthwhile. 16 is OK, but unless you're willing to buy +Charisma equipment, it might not be worth it.

I'm unclear how you are managing to be mounted almost all the time. That's a trick in and of itself, with tight dungeon corridors, cliffs, etc. If you're really commited to spirited charge, though, put up with the fairly poor ride by attack feat now. It'll be worth it once you hit 9.

 

[JoelF]

Maybe not at 6th level, but for 9th or at the latest 12th level I like Glorious Weapons divine feat from the Complete Divine. It basically lets you put the good descriptor on all allies weapons within 60 feet when you expend a turn attempt. Very useful against all sorts of demons and devils and other evil outsiders.

 

[Wolfwood2]

I'm unclear how you are managing to be mounted almost all the time. That's a trick in and of itself, with tight dungeon corridors, cliffs, etc. If you're really commited to spirited charge, though, put up with the fairly poor ride by attack feat now. It'll be worth it once you hit 9.

Well, being mounted all the time is more of a hope than something that I can say I've successfully accomplished yet. I'm hoping that we have (mostly) left behind small dungeon corridors. Perhaps I'm wrong in this hope. We shall see. Having a hippogriff mount does help some as far as difficult terrain.

Hmm. Spirited Charge at 9th is awfully tempting. Does anyone have any experience to offer on the utility of the mounted feats?

Important note: To use Law Devotion more often than 3/day, you need to PERMANENTLY expend turn attempts on the basis of however many is in the feat writeup. The amount you burn is locked in when you take the feat. Its in the sidebar on devotion feats.

It does say "permanently sacrifice" (not "permanently expend") in the general description of Devotion feats. However, then in each individual feat description it always refers to "expending" turn attempts, which implies a temporary thing.

The idea of permanently sacrificing turn attempts is also a bit weird because the number of turning attempts you have access to goes up and down depending on your charisma score. If you get a +6 boost to your charisma temporarily and get an extra 3 turns, can you then choose to immediately declare those turns as "permanently sacrificed"?

Do you have to declare how many turning attempts you are willing to permanently sacrifice when taking the feat? Like, "If I ever get 15 turning attempts in a day I am preemptively declaring them all permanently sacrificed, even though I only get six turning attempts a day now."

I may just throw it at my DM and ask him to rule.

 

[Patlin]

Hmm. Spirited Charge at 9th is awfully tempting. Does anyone have any experience to offer on the utility of the mounted feats?

I've done it before, and it works but it isn't all that exciting. I don't think I'd do it again. It's a bit of a headache to try to line up a charge every round, and takes a lot of planning in a highly unpredictable and thus frustrating environment. One gigantic attack per round has some advantages, but you'll have to try it and decide whether it's enjoyable... if it isn't, it doesn't really matter how effective it is, does it?

In all fairness, though, my negative impression of that build may also stem from the fact that the module we were doing at the time was pretty bad. In fact, the plot of the module still recieves occasional ridicule now, a couple of years after the actual game.

One last thing: when I did it, spell compendium wasn't out yet. There were a bunch of mounted paladin spells in there that might be fun to try.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Really? How many feats and when? (Eagerly awaiting CC from amazon)

Mine is on loan right now- but as I recall, you have to take the ACF at 1st level, and you get a bonus feat at 4th and a few others along the way...something like 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th.

The same ACF is available for Rangers.

Should someone ask, I'd let Sohei use it as well, or any other class (even psionic, incarnum or other ones) with a similar structure (basically a holy warrior/half-caster of some kind).

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

You mislabeled Divine Might as Divine Power. Divine Might gives bonus damage. Divine Power gives bonus movement and temporary HPs.

Cleave is a luxury I am not sure a Paladin can afford. But that depends on your specific role in the party. My Paladin PC needs to be able to stand toe-to-toe with the most dangerous foe on the battlefield; there are other PCs in the party that are efficient at clearing out the mooks.

Divine Might is very good.
Spirited Charge is very good. (Ride By, not so useful.)
Together, they are great.

I also really like Extra Smiting and Divine Power.

If you are fighting a lot evil creatures, the Extra Smiting is golden. There is no pleasure like a being a Hasted Paladin laying down 3 (or more!) Smite Evils in a single round with a full iterative attack.

The downside about Divine Power is that it can burn up Turning Attempts you might need for Divine Might (and if you are mounted it is less important anyway).

For those with a long planning horizon, you might consider getting input from your DM on Fleet of Foot (Complete Warrior) for your mount. Can you gain its advantages while you are mounted? You will need to plan out how to get your mount's Dex to 15.

 

[Wolfwood2]

You mislabeled Divine Might as Divine Power. Divine Might gives bonus damage. Divine Power gives bonus movement and temporary HPs.

Yeah, guess I did.

Cleave is a luxury I am not sure a Paladin can afford. But that depends on your specific role in the party. My Paladin PC needs to be able to stand toe-to-toe with the most dangerous foe on the battlefield; there are other PCs in the party that are efficient at clearing out the mooks.

It was pretty nice to have at levels 1 and 2. Yeah, I could beg my DM to let me retrain or something, but I'm not sure it's worth the battle. It's not like Cleave stops being useful entirely, just less good.

Divine Might is very good.
Spirited Charge is very good. (Ride By, not so useful.)
Together, they are great.

I also really like Extra Smiting and Divine Power.

I somewhat agree with all of these, but add them together and you're talking (with the Mounted Combat pre-req) six feats.

Currently I'd like to get: one feat that burns turn attempts, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge, Battle Blessing. That uses all available feats out until 18th level.

The downside about Divine Power is that it can burn up Turning Attempts you might need for Divine Might (and if you are mounted it is less important anyway).

What do you think about Law Devotion? It's expensive in terms of turning attempts, but has some nice flexibility.

For those with a long planning horizon, you might consider getting input from your DM on Fleet of Foot (Complete Warrior) for your mount. Can you gain its advantages while you are mounted? You will need to plan out how to get your mount's Dex to 15.

My mount is a hippogriff, so it already has a 15 Dex. Of course, it also lacks the Run feat that is a prerequisite for Fleet of Foot.

 

[Darklone]

I´d pick Divine Might. It will get better later and Cha is an ability each paladin will raise sooner or later.

 

[nittanytbone]

My DM screwed up his face in complete disgust when I mentioned retraining rules. But why would I retrain it later, anyway? It actually does scale with level. +7 bonus at 15th level is pretty good.

If I skip Ride By Attack, I never get to Spirited Charge and so never get that sweet x3 Smite, full two-handed Power Attack (with Find the Gap) charge.

The mounted combat feats are incredibly useful some of the time.

The divine feats are fairly useful all of the time.

I prefer the latter as they can be used every day, in nearly every situation. Although I suppose with a backup Potion of Reduce Person and some sort of medium sized critter (perhaps a wardog or summoned critter) you can always use your mounted feats, even indoors.