For the first time since it came out, I will be playing Pathfinder instead of DMing, and I am leaning towards playing a paladin.

The game so far:

- Setting is more dungeon crawl and Underdark type vs typical fantasy so I am leaning towards the divine bond option vs a mount.

- Setting is medium fantasy, and outside of potions and scrolls, magic items will have to be player made or found from what I have gathered so far.

- Character creation is 15 pt buy, and DM seems open to alternate races, like hobgoblin, goblin, kobold, drow, etc., so potentially tiefling, aasimar, etc are on the table as options. Otherwise its pretty much Pathfinder core rules.

I am hoping to get some advice, especially from those who have played paladins already, and to a fairly high level about character building. I think the mount based build is likely to be out, unless we go underground and stay extensively and I can petition for something like a cave lizard.

I would especially like some assistance in what feats work/don't work from experience and what some advice on where to put points, since none of my games have had any player paladins so far.

One last note is that I am leaning towards making a half orc paladin, and using intimidate to shake opponents as a possibility.

Human paladin, get a bow. Make sure you have Precise Shot ASAP.

A bow-spec'ed paladin is not the first build that comes to mind, I have to say. I wasn't sure if you were serious at first, but reading some of your other posts, it appears you are, so... could you elaborate on this build more?

A bow-spec'ed paladin is not the first build that comes to mind, I have to say. I wasn't sure if you were serious at first, but reading some of your other posts, it appears you are, so... could you elaborate on this build more?

You can probably TWF as a paladin as well, but it's a little more feat-intensive, has more MAD issues, and the payoffs aren't quite as good.

Human paladin, get a bow. Make sure you have Precise Shot ASAP.

I agree. Bow = many smites, 1 free hand to swift action heal self and you have the saves to handle being the target of the casters wrath for being able to ignore their shields of meat makes for a powerful package.

The only additions I would add to the Human, Paladin, Point Blank/Precise Shot build is Catch off Guard and Quick Draw and maybe throw anything !

Nothing is better then clubbing things with your bow in melee and my personal favorite as a new age paladin is the divine bond and smite evil combo... divine bond weapon enhancements can apply to anything thats a weapon for you = ANYTHING !!!! Throw that poop at your captors!

"When called, the spirit causes the weapon to shed light as a torch. At 5th level, this spirit grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus. For every three levels beyond 5th, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +6 at 20th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon bonuses to a maximum of +5, or they can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: axiomatic, brilliant energy, defending, disruption, flaming, flaming burst, holy, keen, merciful, and speed."

Ha Ha Ha... thats some powerful glowing poop with smite damage added !

disrupting, merciful, flaming burst poop ...

You can walk round as a pacifist with no weapons but when you detect evil quick draw that spoon and WHAM !! Even more satisfying is breaking that bottle of holy water on the demon and then cuttiN him goood.

Also don't forget that as catch off guard makes anything a weapon and quick draw only applies to weapons it means you can draw ANYTHING as a free action... need rope fast? a tinder box? a water bottle? BAM!

So what you your order of stat importance be? Cha, dex, str, wis, con?

So what you your order of stat importance be? Cha, dex, str, wis, con?

Chr at 14 is sufficient. A plus 4 item is all you need for free spells of each level.

Wis can be dumped (not needed for spells) and between will saves being strong and chr to saves you will be fine.

Con 14 is standard advice but as you can heal as a swift action this is not vital so can afford to have a 12 if you have a character image in mind where you want to push up other stats massively.

Int 12 or 10 is fine, even a 10 or 8 if your a human unless you have some skill oriented vision for your character.

Dex should be limited by the dex limit of the armour you want unless your going for projectiles in which case match your strength.

Str should be high as reasonably possible within character image for hit and damage unless your also a missile type in which case match your dex (you have a good bab and str adds to damage and going too high costs exponentially more so better to spread it between str and dex as both add to effective missile fire... assuming you don't use crossbows).

Due to divine bond and smite evil a switch hitter type works real well... you can choose daily which weapon to boost.

A bow Paladin works very well for a group that already has a primary fighter type. I played one, not very high levels, but to just about level 5. I was able to play the decent healer with a wand of cure light wounds. Took the remove fatigue for my lay on hands for our Barbarian. It worked out pretty well. I went through a lot of charges on that wand, but it was a fun option to play. Especially when throwing out that Smite Evil against the single enemy.

The one thing nice about the Paladin now is that the spellcasting is off your charisma now instead of wisdom. So you can actually use wisdom as a "dump" stat, along with Intelligence if need be.

Human works pretty well. If you can get your hands on suli, you might want to use that.

Whether you use sword & board, two weapons, a ranged weapon, or maybe even get Dervish Dance and go all dex with a scimitar is mostly up to you.

A bow Paladin works very well for a group that already has a primary fighter type.