Bodhizen wrote:
Akin DT,
Thank you for your input! I will definitely look over Shining Knight again. Do you have any specific recommendations or input regarding the Shining Knight that you can share?
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Regarding the wings... I don't think you're crazy for wanting wing attacks for your angelkin. Flight plus attacks are nice, but two feats to get them both? Hrmmm... They're not going to be as great as any of your potential weapon choices are, and I'm not quite sure whether it's worth the penalties. I'd have to think about it. It's not something I'd tell you "Don't ever do this!", but I am not confident that it's optimal.
Thanks for the input and I'm hopeful to hear your reply. Happy gaming!
Oh boy, this is the fifth time I've typed this post. If I lose it one more time I SWEAR, I'll turn into the incredible hulk.
Warning: I haven't played Pathfinder yet, but I've been running other, more 10 sided, games for years, and I've spent the last 3-4 months reading up on the character that I will be able to play whenever my GM decides to actually start it.
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So the shining knight trades in disease resistance for mounts that are less likely to be effected by annoying effects, such as petrification and instagib vs reflex attacks. Sounds like a good trade, considering how much people warn about dieing mounts on message boards etc.
The level 11 ability is a good trade if you don't use use the Aura of Justice much (because it eats up 2 smites perhaps?) It's also good if you don't have ride-by-attack (no AoO on you & mount when charging). The chance to PANIC the smitten enemy for 5+ rounds every time you successfully charge them sounds nice.
So if you like mounts that die less, and want the chance to panic the enemy, it is a good deal.
(not so much if you like being immune to mummy rot and letting your allies shout "JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE")
:3
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Oh, yes, Mounts. Unless it's hidden in some guide on some board I haven't found, I can't find any good guides (or any guides at all really) on mounts. And even advice on which to pick is scarce. So you should probably mention them.
The best I can pick up, cheetah and raptor are the go-to mounts for small lancers. The stats look right for both of them, but you would want the raptor by level 11 because the high charisma would be advantageous to the once/day smite evil ability your mount would get then. Also pounce.
Didn't look much at the Large mounts, but Lion/Tiger (liger?) looks like it could pretty much be someone's favorite mount, and T-rex should in theory do x2 Power attack damage.
No matter the creature, however, lunge looks like a requirement so the mount can hit at the same space as you hit.
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As for the wing attack it's four feats:
*Angelic Blood, a circumstantial benefit feat that serves as a prerequisite for all others below,
*Angelic Flesh, gives you one of four benefits. The Silver and Steel are the only options a paladin should consider. Both of them make all of your natural attacks and unarmed strikes silver and cold iron, respectively. Silver gives you bonuses to things you aren't immune to, and Steel gives you +1 natural armor. Who hates natural armor, I mean really? So pick Steel if you have to pick up this feat, unless you constantly live in fear of being petrified or something.
*Angel Wings (level 10, in theory), give you a slow fly speed, but it means you get fly as a class skill. and you can deal with an anti magic field while high in the air.
*Metallic Wings (requires all of the above, level 11 in theory) lets your wings do 1d4 slashing each. Think about it.
I (a castigator) was going to get the wings anyways, even if it wasn't advantageous, but when I looked at Metallic Wings' 1d4 damage I laughed and said it was a waste of two feats... until I remembered that smite evil doesn't care if you're hitting with a weapon that does 1 damage, because you still add str, power attack damage, and smite damage.
But I worried about the negatives to the main 2h attack (I picked a nodachi). Then I read the Bestiary rules for natural attacks during a normal attack.
Unlike secondary manufactured weapons, secondary natural weapons don't hurt the main attack's chances of hitting. So instead of hitting with a nodachi at +13, then +8, then +3, I'd be hitting at +13 with the nodachi, then +8 and +8 for the wing attacks, then +8 and +3 for the Nodachi again. Other than the opportunity cost of whatever else you could do with those two feats, there's no penalties. I ran some calculations vs the AC of a demon with a CR a few levels higher, and it's quite favorable *free damage*. Like 25 average /wing, assuming I'm making the right assumptions as to what gear would be available at that point, and ample time to prepare exists.
Yeah, it doesn't add much when you power attack without smite evil against said demon (because you will mostly miss, thanks to lack of power attack), but if you have an amulet of annoying expenditure... er mighty fists, you could do some interesting things each time you hit (you would also want permanency on your greater magic fanged wings). In crazy la-la land where you can afford such things at level 13, you could even have your amulet have the vorpal property on it. A random chance to lop off somepony's head sounds nice.
Oh, right, and there's a spell called Strong Jaw you'll want a wand of if you know you'll be in a fight with a evil boss. And if you take Sion of Humanity you can have yourself Enlarge Personed (or have a GM that lets Enlarge Monster exist as a level 3 spell). Or there's that armor property that can make you larger. There's another spell I can't remember that helps with natural attacks as well. Regardless, we're actually talking about nice base damage now, ESPECIALLY during a smite.
.... I wish I could find a way to get another natural attack though, preferably a unicorn horn gore. Then I could get multi-attack at level 15, making the wings 20 perce-- er I mean 15% cooler (more likely to hit). Oh, right, and more free smite evil damage.
(Yeah, I could get that one trait that gives you a 1d4 bite attack, but you'd need to get it via Adopted because it's a half-orc trait, and your GM is likely to kill you IRL for that.)
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Black_Lantern wrote:
Maybe I didn't look hard enough but I don't see the feat fey foundling mentioned anywhere. It's probably one of the best feats for paladins.
Oh, wow. I haven't heard of that.
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P.S. Yes, I did put a lot of references in this post.
