URGENT Help me choose a good Paladin feat.

[Wulf Ratbane]

I need some good suggestions for a 3rd level paladin feat.

Note that in 3.5, Turn Undead has been delayed another level-- which sucks, cause I was hoping for some Turning related feat.

Are there any feats that make use of Lay on Hands?

The paladin in question is human, already has power attack and cleave, and probably won't be mounted much for the forseeable future. Currently fighting shield and longsword.

Wulf

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Are there any feats that make use of Lay on Hands?

There's a feat in BoED that improves Lay on Hands (increases the hit point pool as if you were +1 level), but I don't know of any that spend it in any way. I've found Lay on Hands extremely useful for my paladin. The fact that it's now an (Su) ability--and thus doesn't provoke an AoO--is very nice.

The paladin in question is human, already has power attack and cleave, and probably won't be mounted much for the forseeable future. Currently fighting shield and longsword.

Do you plan to be mounted much at all? If you do, I might still consider Mounted Combat. Feats are so precious for a paladin that if you plan to be mounted much in the future, it might be worth it to pick up Mounted Combat now and wait, rather than spend your feat on another choice that you can use now, but don't particularly care for.

Do you plan on sticking with the longsword for your entire career? I considered Weapon Focus (longsword) with my pally at one point, but wanting a Sun Blade, and considering the lance and maybe even a greatsword, I couldn't afford to specialize...

 

[Kodam]

Hi!

Combat-wise there's only Weapon Focus or Mounted Combat.
But if you use BoED Nimbus of Light might be interesting. Its no good for combat but I like the atmosphere it creates. And the follow-up-feat Aura of Courage (?) is actually quite nice to have if you expect to go against Undead.

Kodam

 

[Storminator]

If possible, get Call of Duty, by Chainmail Bikini Games. There are some sweet paladin feats in there.

Examples:
Aura of Healing: All cure spells cast within your Aura of Courage heal 2 more hps
Knowing Gaze: Detect Evil as an MEA
True Smite: +10 on Smiting if you use Detect Evil first

There are more, but most of them require the Turn ability, so those won't work for you. There are some other nice augments of the Aura of Courage as well.
PS

 

[Voadam]

Do you have access to Call to Duty or forgotten Heroes paladin?

They have good ones based off the paladin aura and other neat effects.

If you are limited to core I would say you can't go wrong with improved initiative no matter what your fighting style.

If you wear medium armor in the field endurance is good to sleep in it (and I think it will work with mithral heavy armor later).

Alertness so you have some guard skill.

Skill focus so you are good at one of your two class skills.

And three from the 3.5 psionics srd feats section

HOSTILE MIND [GENERAL]
Your mind recoils violently against those who use psionics against you.
Prerequisite: Cha 15.
Benefit: Whenever you are subject to a power from the telepathy discipline (regardless of whether the power is harmful or beneficial to you), the manifester must make a Will saving throw against a DC of 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Charisma bonus or take 2d6 points of damage.
The benefit of this feat applies only to psionic powers and psi-like abilities. This is an exception to the psionics–magic transparency rule.
Special: You cannot take or use this feat if you have the ability to use powers (if you have a power point reserve or psi-like abilities).

MENTAL RESISTANCE [GENERAL]
Your mind is armored against mental intrusion.
Prerequisite: Base Will save bonus +2.
Benefit: Against psionic attacks that do not employ an energy type to deal damage you gain damage reduction 3/–. In addition, when you are hit with ability damage (but not ability drain or ability burn damage) from a psionic attack, you take 3 points less than you would normally take.
The benefit of this feat applies only to psionic powers and psi-like abilities. This is an exception to the psionics–magic transparency rule.
Special: You cannot take or use this feat if you have the ability to use powers (if you have a power point reserve or psi-like abilities).

OPEN MINDED [GENERAL]
You are naturally able to reroute your memory, mind, and skill expertise.
Benefit: You immediately gain an extra 5 skill points. You spend these skill points as normal. If you spend them on a cross-class skills they count as 1/2 ranks. You cannot exceed the normal maximum ranks for your level in any skill.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time, you immediately gain another 5 skill points.

 

[Voadam]

Another good one from psionics feats that is good with High AC and power attack:

RECKLESS OFFENSE [GENERAL]
You can shift your focus from defense to offense.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: When you use the attack action or full attack action in melee, you can take a penalty of –4 to your Armor Class and add a +2 bonus on your melee attack roll. The bonus on attack rolls and penalty to Armor Class last until the beginning of your next turn.

 

[Voadam]

Improved sunder.

You are already two thirds of the way on the feat path of Blackguard.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Thanks all!

The suggestion on Mounted Combat is a good one...

Any more?

 

[Urbanmech]

Depending on if you have access to the Draconomicon, Expertise and then Sense Weakness could be very useful for getting through DR without the need for a golf bag full of long swords.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Improved Smiting (CD, page 82) -- add 1d6 points damage to targets of a specific alignment when you smite

Combat Expertise (if you have the Int for it) is always pretty useful if you plan on pursuing further fighting techniques, plus it can help a paladin who wants to become a defensive amchor. Though since you'll probably want to start taking divine feats when you get turning, you might not want to take a feat here that is the start of a feat chain.