Paladin of Mystra questions

[dante jay]

I'd advise you to take the Body hellbred. Yes, the Int penalty kind of hurts, but the Con boost and the bonus feats are great. There's a fast healing one, a vision one, and more.

Perhaps instead of taking levels of paladin for spell slots, pick up Devoted Spirit maneuvers via items or feats, then move into Ruby Knight Vindicator, if you can get a refluff of devotion to Mystra instead of Wee Jass. It's all round better, granting you bonus swift actions (Which would go very well with Battle Blessing) and maneuvers, which'd be useful for healing purposes, as well as the attack and defensive maneuvers.

As suggested, the Touch of Healing reserve feat is cool, but, I'd honestly stick with wands. If you find any wands, use the Faith Healing Wand spell to convert them to a, funnily enough, Wand of Faith Healing, and spend the feat on something else. Law devotion is a great pick, as people've said.

For spells, don't forget awesome buffs like the Bite of the X line. Reading through the situation it looks like the DM won't be needing a full caster, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting everything.

 

[Duke Arioch]

TY all for some nice suggestions. I made a few changes in my build, but I don't have much time now to post them. I will, though, when I return from work. Cheers!

P.S. Bite of X is a great line of spells, however, with access to only 4th lvl of spells, I will be able to get only 2: Wererat (dex focus) and Werewolf (str focus), which are 3rd and 4th lvl respectively. Now, rat seems pretty much useless to me, but wolf is nice. Or would be if I couldn't use Draconic Might AND Polymorph (Hill Giant right when I gain 4th lvl of spells and Fire Giant once my caster lvl reaches 15).

 

[Empirate]

A Mystic Fire Knight Paladin can easily qualify for Suel Arcanamach - and it would even fit the theme of the campaign to take up that PrC: champion of Mystra is allowed even more Weave magic in order to protect what's left of it.

Paladin 6/Suel Arcanamach 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Spellsword 1/Dragon Disciple 4 is a viable build.
You can also top out with Sacred Exorcist to regain turning, and get insane caster level for your pally spells due to the way Sword of the Arcane Order interacts with the Abjurant Champion capstone ability!

 

[Duke Arioch]

Suel seems pointless to me, since DM ruled all arcane spells I would get via Sword of the Arcane Order Paladin spells (hence no ASF). Mystic Fire Knight already has hefty number of uses of Spellshatter too, rendering second Suel class feature moot.
The only thing I would get would be spells to qualify for Abj Champ... However, DM planned me to be pure pally, and probably didn't expect me to use spells much in the first place. So, when I gave him my build, I must have phased him a little bit That is why I wouldn't want to stretch it further with arc casting.
Anyway, I started the intro play, and I like where the game is going. CON won't be much of a problem, as I will not be the tank, and we will have support NPCs in harder encounters. Turned out that Barb changed the race to Warforged (ported from planes of Eberron), so my healing would not help him much anyway. I dropped the whole Idea. Also, after some consideration, I found out that Spell Prodigy would net me only 1st lvl slot in the long run, so I changed it to power attack and will take extra smite in due time instead of it. I will tell you all how this will go after we play actual game (which takes place tomorrow.

 

[dante jay]

TY all for some nice suggestions. I made a few changes in my build, but I don't have much time now to post them. I will, though, when I return from work. Cheers!

P.S. Bite of X is a great line of spells, however, with access to only 4th lvl of spells, I will be able to get only 2: Wererat (dex focus) and Werewolf (str focus), which are 3rd and 4th lvl respectively. Now, rat seems pretty much useless to me, but wolf is nice. Or would be if I couldn't use Draconic Might AND Polymorph (Hill Giant right when I gain 4th lvl of spells and Fire Giant once my caster lvl reaches 15).

No problem. If you want to access those Polymorph forms early, an Ankh of Ascension (MiC) and/or a Bead of Karma would get you them 4 or 8 levels earlier.

Suel seems pointless to me, since DM ruled all arcane spells I would get via Sword of the Arcane Order Paladin spells (hence no ASF). Mystic Fire Knight already has hefty number of uses of Spellshatter too, rendering second Suel class feature moot.
The only thing I would get would be spells to qualify for Abj Champ... However, DM planned me to be pure pally, and probably didn't expect me to use spells much in the first place. So, when I gave him my build, I must have phased him a little bit That is why I wouldn't want to stretch it further with arc casting.
Anyway, I started the intro play, and I like where the game is going. CON won't be much of a problem, as I will not be the tank, and we will have support NPCs in harder encounters. Turned out that Barb changed the race to Warforged (ported from planes of Eberron), so my healing would not help him much anyway. I dropped the whole Idea. Also, after some consideration, I found out that Spell Prodigy would net me only 1st lvl slot in the long run, so I changed it to power attack and will take extra smite in due time instead of it. I will tell you all how this will go after we play actual game (which takes place tomorrow.

A trick to qualify for Abjurant Champion (Though it may be a bit late for you now) is Magical Training (PgtF) and either Versatile Spellcaster or Precocious Apprentice and Arcane Manipulation (LeOF), but I don't think it's that worth it on your build.

Oh, remember that you can cast the sanctified spells. Greater Luminous armor gives you +8 Armor bonus to AC, and melee attackers take -4 on attack rolls against you. It has a 1 hour/level duration, and you can give it to others by touch - for a 4th level spell. The 2nd level version is +5 armor bonus instead, same duration and penalty - certainly worth it for your character.

Have fun at your game!

 

[Duke Arioch]

So, I had a first real encounter last night. Since I am at work now, I won't go into detail yet. Will let you know how it went when I arrive home

 

[Duke Arioch]

Okay, apologies first for not getting to this earlier.

The game progresses really well. Although ruling is very, very different from RAW.
Since two of our party members are new to D&D, DM decided to make it easier, and more fun IMO (especially for new players).
First he decided to drop XP altogether and give a level-up after each session (he says it will be one level per two sessions from 10-15, and 3 from 15-20). Since this is basically an interactive story, he presents us with a short comic book strips he draws between the sessions and which depict our party's previous exploits.
Since we had 4 sessions, my pally is now lvl 10, and only one lvl from gaining 3rd lvl spells (goodies like haste, keen and fly XD). I took advice given by Dandu and took Power Attack on 1st, Divine Might on 2nd, Practiced Caster on 6th and SotAO on 9th. So far, I have been using those 2nd lvl slots for Wraithstrikes (which are already swift action cast) and Battle Blessing could wait until I hit 12.
I took Paladin Mount instead of Charging smite, and plan to get Redeemed Nightmare mount (approved by DM; acquiring will be implemented into next session).
As for healing, we are supplied with "ultra-mega" potions that never run out, as this game proved to actually be a presentation for our new party members.

Oh, remember that you can cast the sanctified spells.

Thx Dante Jay, sanctified spells totally slipped from my mind. Could be useful.

On another note, the same DM plans on making a new game, one that will be high lvl, high power, stick to the rules and, most importantly, will leave me free to make my own choices in character creation. For now, all I know is the party will be evil oriented, a D&D veteran (whisper gnome from this current game), my wife and I are the only players known for now; my wife plans on playing a gish type of build, while I am thinking of warlock/ur-priest/eld disciple thing. But that is a story for another thread.