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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2521493" data-attributes="member: 3146">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).</blockquote>

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