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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2259779" data-attributes="member: 3146">Good adviceNot so good advice. Paladins may lack skill points, but front line combatants find a lack of hit points to be a much more serious deficiency. I'd arrange the stats more like this:Str 15 (+1 lvl 4)Dex 12Con 16Int 12Wis 13Cha 15 (+1 lvl 8 and the rest of your increases (12, 16, 20))The choice between dex, int, and wis for the 13 is pretty questionable. Dex qualifies you for dodge, mobility, and elusive target--useful feats, but not as useful as other ones for a paladin. Int qualifies you for combat expertise, improved trip, etc--also quite useful feats, but not a paladin's bread and butter. Wisdom enables you to cast third level spells without a stat booster. It's superfluous if you wear a periapt of wisdom, but useful if you never get one.If you're a human character, that build gives you 4 skill points per level which is plenty. With 4 skill points per level, you can max diplomacy, sense motive, and ride and in two levels, you'll still have enough skills to have the five rank synergies from knowledge religion, knowledge: nobility and royalty, and handle animal. (Actually, it makes sense to have diplomacy two ranks from max and take 5 ranks of knowledge: Nobility and Royalty if you're starting at 12th level--those two ranks give you the same +2 bonus to diplomacy that two diplomacy ranks would give you AND they give you +2 to knowledge: nobility and Royalty too). By 12th level the hit for playing an Aasimar or half-celestial may actually be worth it, but I'd still stick with human instead unless you've a good story reason to be something else. +2 wis and cha translates into +1 to hit with your smites, an extra 2nd level spell, +1 hp/level lay on hands, and +1 to all saves via divine grace. Being a level 12 paladin instead of a level 11 Aasimar gives you +1 to hit with all attacks, +1 damage on all your smites, an average of 8.5 hit points, a 3rd level spell (if you've a 13 Wis), an extra level of mount advancement, and +1 on all your saves (via base save bonuses). Being a human instead of an Aasimar also gives you 15 bonus skill points and one bonus feat. To me, the human package sounds better than the Aasimar one. (Some of the benefits are only present at level 11/12--for instance a 12th level Aasimar paladin has better saves and more  spells than an 13th level human paladin, but that somewhat balances out because there are noticable benefits to being human at other levels that aren't noticable at level 11/12. For instance, an 11th or 16th level human paladin has one more attack than a 10th or 15th level Aasimar paladin).Half Celestial is a more interesting choice because the differences are much greater--coming in the form of DR, SR, resistances, and spell-like abilities. By ECL 12, the +4 con will translate into 16 hit points. The extra 4 HD tranlate into 34 hit points so you're noticably down there, but not as much as you are at earlier levels. Similarly, the +2 strength translates into +2 attack and damage, so you're even with a human paladin who always power attacks for two points with a one-handed weapon... except that the human has an extra attack. The +4 charisma translates into 16 more points of lay on hands which is slightly morethan the (minimum--assuming no charisma cloak) 12 points of lay on hands that four levels give the human version of the paladin. With smiting, the +2 to hit from charisma doesn't even out the +4 to damage and the extra smite that a human paladin would get. But, at least the half-celestial paladin is in the ballpark of the human paladin by ECL 12. You just need to decide whether the spell like and other abilities are good enough to be worth the hit in melee effectiveness.Decent advice. I'd say Cleave is optional and Extra Smiting is good in nearly any world.Human Pal 12: Power Attack, Extra Smiting, Extra Smiting, Divine Might, Improved Critical: Scimitar, Extra Smiting.That should put you at 9 smites per day which will put the hurt on a lot of enemies.A mounted Human Pal 12: Power Attack, Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, Divine Might, Spirited Charge, Extra SmitingBe sure to give your mount Improved Flight (CV) so that it can keep flying and let you full attack in the next round if something survives your charge.As for the question of weapons, if your DM says scimitars are the most common weapon in the campaign, I'd go for a scimitar. Aside from the character concept and campaign considerations, however, it's also a solid choice from a damage point of view--at least if you have Imp Crit or a keen weapon.Assuming all crit threats are hits (not necessarily true, but pretty close IMO) and that all threats confirm (again, not necessarily true unless you're using bless weapon against evil foes, but you probably will be doing that a lot and most do):1. The average difference in damage between a longsword and a scimitar is one point.2. The difference in critical rate between a longsword and scimitar is 5% (10% if doubled).3. Therefore the average damage including crits from a scimitar will exceed that from a longsword any time that 5% or 10% of the crit-multiplyable damage exceeds one point.4. That happens at 20 points of average damage/hit without Imp Crit and 10 points of damage per hit with improved critical.5. This paladin, when using divine might and smite evil, does 1d6+19 points of crit multiplyable damage on a hit with a +1 one handed weapon (and no cha cloak)--averaging out to 23.5 points. With only Divine Might, he does 1d6+7 with a +1 one-handed weapon--averaging 10.5 points. Wielding the weapon two-handed and power attacking, those numbers go up dramatically.Since this assumes ideal conditions for the scimitar--all threats are hits and all threats confirm, scale back the numbers a bit. The conclusion is still valid: a scimitar will deal decidedly more damage than a longsword when using divine might and smiting critable foes (in fact, it pulls about as far ahead of the longsword as the longsword starts out ahead of it).  Without Improved Crit or with only Divine Might, the numbers are pretty inconclusive and the scimitar and longsword are even. Without using power attack, divine might or smite evil, and against uncrittable foes, the longsword is superior to the scimitar.So, if you take the scimitar, either get it keen or take improved crit. Otherwise, take the longsword.</blockquote>

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