Paladin Help

[LordAidite]

Alright, I've made my first PC paladin and I'm looking for some helpful feats and character advice.
I'm really looking for a mounted paladin type (that is what image I get when I think about paladins). Of course anytype of advice would be helpful.
Right now my party is lvl 2 and I have the feats Extra Smiting, and Mounted Combat. I'm playing with a longsword and a shield hoping that my god/DM (whichever happens first) might toss a holy advenger my way or tell me how to find one. My stats are:

Human
Str: 16
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 13
Cha: 17

I'll probably end up being the party diplomat and leader (althought my friend does a good job of influencing the party in less noticable ways) so feats helping along with diplomacy and just general influence over good-align creatures are nice.

Anyways just toss some advice my way please!

 

[smootrk]

Be sure to take some of the divine feats, like divine shield or divine might, and extra turning to allow you to do those feats often. As a paladin, you will never measure up to the standard party fighter in the typical fight (although against certain foes you can be very effective), so you should do what you can to bolster that front line. You will shine more as the character that empowers and protects rather than one who tries to be the driving combat force.

Don't count on a Holy Avenger, as in my experience most DM's are as loathe to give these out as the old Vorpal or Sword of Sharpness weapons. Do make a point to have ties to a temple or religious organization that can provide you with holy powered items. Depending on your DM's campaign style, buying magic items might be like going to Walmart, or you may have to roleplay it. Much easier to RP titheing to your religious organization, and therefore having access to the Holy, Sanctified, or otherwise religious type items. Even if your DM restricts item buying, you will likely have good chances of getting appropriate items if you RP the relationship between your character and the organization.

 

[Legildur]

The Mounted Combat feat chain can be a very powerful option for paladins. The typical feat choices are Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, Spirited Charge, Power Attack, and Divine Might. Combined with self casting of Bull's Strength, Eagle's Splendor, Divine Favor and Magic Weapon (or Greater Magic Weapon), the results can be nothing short of devastating when wielding a lance. Although the power up only lasts for a short time.

However, it can be very campaign specific. If it is predominantly a dungeon crawl, then your options are to rely on sword and board, or be a size small character and call a medium sized mount when you reach 5th level. I presume the latter is out of the question given that you are already 2nd level

Like Smootrk says, for sword and Board, Power Attack, Extra Smiting, and Divine Shield are good. And I'd also look at Divine Vigor as an option. Divine Might later on when you get multiple attacks, and possibly Extra Turning to boost your Divine feats.

Unfortunately for Paladins, you really have to choose one option or the other (sword & board and mounted) as there just aren't enough feats going around.

That being said, Spirited Charge is THE feat chain to have when you really, really need it. I recently sawa 13th level mouted paladin doing 130+ hps per round for several rounds with a lance - and it saved our collective bacon.

And don't neglect the paladin spells - they are better than they first appear.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Some advice to add to the good advice others are offering:

1. Diplomacy: don't waste a feat on it. As a paladin, you can have insane diplomacy skills without any feats. Max ranks, plus your high charisma, plus a synergy from five ranks of knowledge: nobility and Royalty and another synergy from five ranks of sense motive will give you a +15 diplomacy at 4th level with hardly any effort. It's possible to do better than that if you want to min-max for diplomacy, but for most characters, that should be more than sufficient.

1.5 Don't just rely upon diplomacy. Max Sense Motive as well. Being able to get a sense of peoples' trustworthiness and to see through their deceits is important to being a paladin. Detect Evil is a very useful ability but it is too basic to tell you whether the villain's henchman is really willing to turn coat and lead you to the secret entrance in return for his life or whether he's leading you into a trap. You already know he's evil--he's the villain's henchman. What you don't know is whether he's being honest. Similarly, detect evil will generally not tell you when an evil NPC is truly repentant and willing to change their ways (and thus a good candidate for mercy) or whether he's just pretending to be repentant because that act goes over well with holy types. Sense motive does help in both those situations.

2. Decide whether you want to focus on general combat or mounted combat first. As a paladin, you only have enough feats to get a few abilities. If you take Ride by attack at 3rd level and spirited charge at 6th level, you could take power attack at 9th level and divine might at 12th. Or you could do it the other way around.

2.5 Divine Shield is a good alternate route for a general combat-focussed paladin, but the standard action to activate is very costly. Divine Might can be used as a free action which is very helpful.

2.75 Look at the party composition and the DM's tendencies and decide whether Leadership is a good idea or not. In general, it's a good feat for a paladin, representing the way their holiness and devotion can draw a cadre of like-minded people together to follow the same goals. A cohort can also add a lot of power to a small party or fill in holes in an unbalanced party. However, some DMs don't like Leadership and in large groups, having extra characters around can step on other players' toes (his cohort is better than my character) and bog down combats.

3. Once you get Power Attack, consider using a buckler when you do Sword and Board style. That way, you can two-hand your longsword for extra oomph when you need to do damage more than you need AC.

4. When you get the opportunity, get some first level pearls of power. Lesser Restoration, Bless Weapon, and Divine Sacrifice (CD) are killer spells.

5. By the time you reach high level, two other good 3rd level spells worth considering are Blessing of Bahamut (CD) and Undead Bane Weapon (Libris Mortis).

 

[Jdvn1]

Everything I would've said has been covered, I think, except for (unless I missed it): consider going toward the Cavalier prestige class from Complete Warrior.

 

[LordAidite]

Thanks for all the character help. Little bit curious as to were I can find the feats divine shield and divine might. If anybody could quote me the text for the feats or point me in the direction of which books its found in that would be great.

 

[baeleg]

Both of those feats (Divine Might and Divine Shield) are in Complete Warrior, pg 106.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I would have recommended that class and the wild plains outrider from Complete Adventurer but for the fact that his paladin already has extra smiting. Since smites get better and better the more a character levels in paladin (or pious templar), it doesn't make sense to take a class that doesn't offer smite progression after taking Extra Smiting.

The Cavalier and Wild Plains Outrider, however, are quite good for characters who want to play a mounted paladin but don't particularly care for the spells and supernatural abilities (smiting, lay on hands, etc).

Everything I would've said has been covered, I think, except for (unless I missed it): consider going toward the Cavalier prestige class from Complete Warrior.

 

[Godofredo]

- swap str for con, then try to get an amulet of health ====> a lot of HP
- Go for the best AC and HP you can get, the damage must be dealt by the barbarian, not for you.
- Divine feats are cool, with a good charisma, divine shield is very nice
- A mounted paladin is very nice, but i've been playing an 19th level paladin (pal 15/fighter 2/fist of raziel 2) for the last 2 and a half years and used only a couple of times my mount. go for the sword and board paladin, or use a two handed weapon (don`t forget power attack)
- Some paladin spells are great (bless weapon, holy sword), use them.
- Forget the holy avenger, its not so great, try to find a ghost touch weapon instead
- buy silversheen
- Try cleric 7/prestige paladin (UA) 3/Fist of raziel 10, you can have cleric Caster level 18 and BAB 18 at level 20...


Godofredo

 

[Endur]

Everything has already been said, but here is my recommended feat progression:
Human Paladin feats you already have
1: Mounted Combat, Extra Smiting

Next levels
3: Power Attack
6: Divine Might

Power Attack and Divine Might help you whether you are mounted or on foot. Divine Might is an awesome feat that every paladin needs, and power attack is the pre-requisite. Power Attack also helps in knocking down doors, sundering items (evil caster spell focuses), charging with lance, and many other situations.

For levels 9+, either
9: Ride By Attack
12: Spirited Charge

Or
9+: Take Extra Smiting again and again

Extra Smiting again and again can really help your Paladin when fighting evil enemies at high level. It can add an additional 100-200 points of damage to the main enemy boss in two or three rounds of combat.

I do not recommend weapon focus or improved critical. While they give a marginal increase to combat effectiveness, they are nowhere near as effective as the awesome benefits Divine Might, Power Attack, and Extra Smiting give, especially at mid to high levels.

For stat bump purposes, I recommend the following increases
level 4: +1 charisma (17 to 18)
level 8: +1 wisdom (13 to 14)
level 12+: +1 to charisma