Sword and Board...of DEATH!

[Darklone]

Animated shield and greatsword: not worth it. With good strength, the extra damage of the greatsword compared to the longsword is not worth it. I wouldn't even drop the shield but eat the -1 to attack.

TWF: If you can get your DM to allow you 2 fighter levels (and Dex is high enough), go for TWF, ITWF as extra feats asap. Perhaps Combat Reflexes and Double Strike/Hit if you have feats left.

Good tactics in tight quarters: Let the buddies cast Enlarge Person on your paladin while you move ahead with fighting defensively and C-expertise. Most mooks and enemies who try to get at your buddies will draw AoOs... and you can hit them often. Biggest advantage of paladin over cleric: One buff (often Divine Favor) usually is enough to make you hit very very good. Even without buffs, you'll hit pretty well.

TWF Paladin: You'll love bards. Get a buddy to play one or get a cohort. ("Brave Sir Robin ran away...")

 

[FireLance]

TWF Paladin: You'll love bards. Get a buddy to play one or get a cohort. ("Brave Sir Robin ran away...")

Buddy yes, but no cohort, I'm afraid. Paladin cohorts have to be Lawful Good.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Animated shield and greatsword: not worth it. With good strength, the extra damage of the greatsword compared to the longsword is not worth it. I wouldn't even drop the shield but eat the -1 to attack.

Well, I was thinking Animated+Greatsword because it would allow me to get 1.5x strength consistantly, and keep the defense of the shield (which is very strong with Divine Shield thrown into the mix). With an 18 strength, I'm ignoring 2 potential points of damage with each hit by wielding a 1-handed weapon.

As far as eating the -1, do you mean wielding a longsword two-handed while keeping the shield in place? This is only possible with a buckler, yes?

TWF: If you can get your DM to allow you 2 fighter levels (and Dex is high enough), go for TWF, ITWF as extra feats asap. Perhaps Combat Reflexes and Double Strike/Hit if you have feats left.

My Dex is 13, so that path isn't looking so good anymore. I'd originally forgotten about the Dex 15+ requirement for TWF.

Good tactics in tight quarters: Let the buddies cast Enlarge Person on your paladin while you move ahead with fighting defensively and C-expertise. Most mooks and enemies who try to get at your buddies will draw AoOs... and you can hit them often. Biggest advantage of paladin over cleric: One buff (often Divine Favor) usually is enough to make you hit very very good. Even without buffs, you'll hit pretty well.

Sadly, I have an Int of 9, so no Combat Expertise for me. All the more reason to keep a shield and pick up Divine Shield. As far as buffs are concerned...well, we have a cleric and a wizard, but neither are really into giving out buffs. So the only buffs I can count on are the ones I can cast myself. Currently, that means Protection from Evil.

Buddy yes, but no cohort, I'm afraid. Paladin cohorts have to be Lawful Good.

Yeah. I've thought of getting a cohort, but our party is very large, so the extra logistics of another person would be a strong downside, unfortunately.

Currently, it looks like my best strategy is to stick with sword-and-board without TWF, and loose my shield when I want to focus on heavy offense. It means I'll never get close to the damage output of our fighter (he caused his first massive damage save tonight. Or at least he would have, if the guy he hit weren't taken down to -27hp by the hit itself.)

On the other hand, if I forget about TWF, I might have the feats to pick up Weapon Focus and/or Improved Critical.

 

[Darklone]

Buckler: yeah sorry. Brainfart.

Change Protection from Evil to Divine Favor and your damage output will be better than the fighters.

If you want to use some twohanded weapon, think about a scythe or falchion later.

 

[Thanee]

Divine Favor? We are talking about that spell, that gives a grand +1 to hit and damage up to 11th level, right?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

About multiclassing: There's at least some precedent. In the FR there are a few paladin (and monk) orders, which can freely multiclass with fighter, others with cleric.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darklone]

Divine Favor? We are talking about that spell, that gives a grand +1 to hit and damage up to 11th level, right?

Right. Does not seem too much, but it stacks with many other things and a TWF dude ... ah right, no TWF here. Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Divine Favor? We are talking about that spell, that gives a grand +1 to hit and damage up to 11th level, right?

Don't get me started on paladin spellcasting, or I'll have to bring up Greater Magic Weapon, which gives a grand +1 to hit and damage up to level 15.

As it is, I think I'm going to ask my DM if I can swap out Remove Disease for a bonus feat or two. That could allow me to take another mounted feat, and maybe Improved Critical at 9th.

 

[Darklone]

Try to make him use the houserule of the paladins spellcaster level as class level -3. It really makes a difference without being too unbalancing.

 

[Shadeus]

I'm a bit curious...how did your paladin get Divine Might before level 6? Was he a 3.0 conversion? Because paladins get turning at level 4 now, it's usually impossible to get it before level 6.

I've been playing a sword and board paladin for just over a year now (he's level 8) and I tried to go the same path you did with this...the shield and sword TWF...but the -4 penalty on each attack was killing my char but then he doesn't have an 18 Str like yours does.

One feat I was really considering that works really good for a high Cha character is Resounding Blow from BoED. I don't remember the BAB req, so you might not be able to get it until level 9. But with an 18 Cha (at level 9), its a DC 18 Fort save on a crit or you foe is...stunned? Nauseated? I can't remember.

Another option which I wanted to try was Ride-by Attack (6) and Spirited Charge (9). Combine that with Divine Might, Smite, and a lance, and you've got 3d8+51 [(4 (str) + 4 (Cha) + 9 (level) ) x 3] and that's without even nifty stuff like divine favor, magic lances, or power attacking.