Need opinion with paladin build

[Sharkon]

I am going to play a defender in an upcoming campaign and so i was taking a look at the paladin. It is a very stong class, however in my opinion you need to have high charisma , strenght , wisdom scores and a high constitution is always helpfull. I also took a look at the at-will power :''Virtuous Strike'' from the divine power book. According to this , i can use virtuous strike in place of any melee basic attack and it's attack and damage roll are charisma based.

Would it be a problem (in any way) if i just had a str score of 10 and just use virtuous strike in place of all my basic attacks ? In other words are there any drawbacks for melee characters with low str ?

 

[Bold or Stupid]

The drawback on a melee character with low strength is you end up with poor OAs unless you find a way to make basic attacks on your main attack stat - which hey you've done.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Chaladin + Virtuous Strike is a solid build and has no problems in melee combat.

But STR 13 might still be nice, for the fighter MC feat Battle Awareness and maybe even a bit more STR if you like some polearm fun. But that depends on your build goals.

 

[tyrlaan]

If you or your DM care about encumbrance rules, you might find STR 10 to be a bit restrictive when you factor in the inevitable plate armor. I've seen STR 11 work just fine, however, so STR 10 might be ok, but it's something to keep an eye on.

 

[Aplus]

my paladin has 18CHA and 10STR. between the at-wills that work as basic melee attacks and the Melee Training feats available, you shouldn't have any problems with basic attacks or OAs.

Where I do run into problems however, is my -3 Athletics modifier

 

[BobTheNob]

Generally, a good pally is Either Str/Wis of Cha/Wis. But even when putting together a Cha/Wis (Challadin...bit more "leaderish" and more implement options) its still worth having a bit in strength any just for feat picks.

Just too many good melee feats linked to Str