Paladin 4th E

[StingrayTheStormKing]

alright. I'm partaking in a single session campaign where we can choose 3 magical items : levels 9,8, and 7. (1 from each level)

I want to give my Paladin level 9 Righteous (plate) armor, the Baldric of Dividing ranks, and i have not decided on a strong level 7 magical weapon.

I was leaning towards the Staggering Axe, Relentless Hammer, or Vicious Mace.

What I cannot figure out is whether or not a Paladin can wield a Great Axe or other Great weapon.

How can i make my Paladin strength based and more offensive as well?

Also we are given 2000gp each to play with, any suggestions on how to spend them wisely?

Anything is helpful, plz divulge what you know, Thanks

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Yes, a paladin can use a two-handed weapon.

To make a paladin Strength-based, make Strength your highest score, Charisma your second score, and boost Strength at 4th-level. Pick powers that say Strength vs AC rather than Charisma vs AC; those would better suit your build.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Having played a paladin in a "one shot" campaign almost exactly like this, I can give you some pointers. That 2000 gold won't go very far but

I might suggest Iron Armbands of Power for 1,800gp. +2 on all melee attacks, all the time.

The WotC CharOp boards have some excellent suggestions for paladin builds. Striker paladins are loads of fun to play. If you would rather more suggestions here, I could do that too...

 

[BobTheNob]

Yes, a paladin can use a two-handed weapon.

To make a paladin Strength-based, make Strength your highest score, Charisma your second score, and boost Strength at 4th-level. Pick powers that say Strength vs AC rather than Charisma vs AC; those would better suit your build.

Gotta disagree making Chr your second score. Make Wisdom your second score.

Your go to at-will as a damage spec is holy strike...which adds Wisdom to damage.
As a damage build you will mostly likely want Ardent Vow (See DP) rather than lay on hands, which gives a damage bonus = 5+Wisdom and is useable wisdom Times per day.

The only thing Chr will do for you is you damage with Mark...and if your not tanking (are you) dont bother.

The Paladin in Our group Started as Str/Chr, because it was very early and we didnt properly understand character design. Whilst he could pick any power he wanted, Wisdom was a secondary rider whenever a secondary rider was called for, so with a naff wisdom, he could pick anything he liked, but they didnt have any "Ooomph"

When we figured out what was making his character so ineffectual, I gave him a free change over (no-one likes playing a gimped character) to a Str/Wis build with great axe and he has never looked back

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Even if you want to tank, that's what Mighty Challenge is for (and that stacks with the Half-Orc paladin feat that AGAIN adds your Str mod to challenge/sanction damage).

 

[BobTheNob]

And I forgot to mention. Our paladin also has "Force of Arms" (7th level I think), which when you use in conjunction with Divine Might gives a to hit bonus = (you guessed it) Wisdom

 

[StingrayTheStormKing]

no i was not planning on tanking him, but i like the Str/Wis play. the Feats that are available seem to go with wisdom being the proper secondary. thanks for the insight guys.

 

[erleni]

And if you take Son of Mercy as your paragon path you can pile up some more Wis damage bonus.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

But don´t forget to put maybe an 11-13 into your charisma score if you can squeeze it in... and at least a 13 (better a 14) into constitution (for plate specialization)...

So a paladin definitively should not go for the 20 strength but rather have an 18 in it and at least a 14 in wisdom and some points put into appropriate tertiaries to make your character even more efficient.

You didn´t tell us what race you would take... a human could go with:

18 Str, 13 con, 16 wis, 11 Cha and int and dex 10 and 8

You can increase strenght and con/wis as you like... don´t increase charisma as this will result in wasted points at char gen.

You can also go for even more spread stas:

18 Str, 13 Con, 14 Wis, 13 Cha, and 12 points in int, 8 in dex. giving you a reasonable bonus to religion and some damage from divine challenge...

If you have a different race, you can most surely put an 18 into strength and still have reasonable scores in other attributes...

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I built my striker paladin with Longtooth Shifter for +2 Str & Wis. This also opened up some decent feat options like Beasthide Shifting (resist all 2 while using the longtooth shifter power), and Longtooth Spirit Shifter (increase longtooth shifter regen by 2).

That last one requires a primal class, so I went MC barbarian for a +2 to damage for an entire encounter once per day.

Worshipping a god of the Strength domain is also nice, since Power of Strength is just more free damage (+2/3/4 constantly) with Holy Strike.

There are other nice options too. If one of your party does a lot of knockdown effects, Headsman's Chop can be decent (+5 damage vs. prone targets), Honored Foe (+Wis THP when damaged by marked enemy) is also nice if your DM doesn't like to violate your marks.

Obviously, shifters like to be bloodied as often as possible, so anything that gives damage reduction, provides THPs or bonuses while bloodied is golden.