Ok, I have an NPC paladin whose feat I've been absolutely struggling to complete. Here's the character:
Safia al Sa'id, the Dragon of Oumaroo
Level 18 human female Oath Against Wyrms paladin
Feats:
Alternate Trait Focused Study: (Perception, Intimidate, Fly)
1st: Power Attack
3rd: Eldritch Heritage (Draconic bloodline)
5th: Cosmopolitan (Perception, Intimidate)
7th: ??
9th: Improved Critical (glaive-guirsame)
11th: Improved Eldritch Heritage (armor & resistances)
13th: ??
15th: ??
17th: Greater Eldritch Heritage (wings)
I'm looking for feats that are thematic to the character, useful, and interesting. Furious Focus, for example, although useful is pretty boring in my view. I thought about Crippling Critical although the DC for airbourne creatures to avoid falling is only 10. I can't think of any other feats that would be especially useful for killing dragons.
Leadership? Have a bunch of archers ready...
"all" the other Notting options... Dodge, weapon fokus, shield fokus, save boosters...
Need more back ground info for better help...
Since this is an Oath Against Wyrms paladin, she travels around slaying evil dragons. Due to her Eldritch Heritage feats, she has a dragon - likely either a silver or gold - in her family tree. I kind of imagine her as someone who's kind of introverted and fights either alone or with a devoted companion, which is why I didn't give her the Leadership feat.
Don't forget you need Skill Focus: Perception as a prerequisite to Eldritch Heritage (Draconic).
Ok, I have an NPC paladin whose feat I've been absolutely struggling to complete.
Who is the NPC competing with?
Alternate Trait Focused Study: (Perception, Intimidate, Fly)
1st: Power Attack
3rd: Eldritch Heritage (Draconic bloodline)
5th: Cosmopolitan (Perception, Intimidate)
7th: ??
9th: Improved Critical (glaive-guirsame)
11th: Improved Eldritch Heritage (armor & resistances)
13th: ??
15th: ??
17th: Greater Eldritch Heritage (wings)
To keep with the themes you have now, I suggest this:
1st: Power AttackHuman Bonus: Skill Focus(Perception)
3rd: Eldritch Heritage
5th: Furious Focus
Divine Bond: Weapon
7th: Leadership
9th: Mounted Combat
11th: Improved Eldritch Heritage
13th: Ride by Attack
15th: Spirited Charge
17th: Greater Eldritch Heritage
Since you have no "critical feats", improved critical isn't particularly important for using the Glaive - and you can always add keen as part of your divine bond if you want it.
Eldritch Heritage - Skill Focus, Eldritch Heritage, Improved Eldritch Heritage, and Greater Eldritch Heritage
General Combat - Power Attack, Furious Focus (These are good with any weapon and any fighting style you use.)
Mounted Combat - Mounted Combat, Ride by Attack, Spirited Charge, and Leadership* (Get a Young Silver Dragon cohort to ride!**)
Equipment - Get a two-handed weapon (glaive-guirsame is fine), a one-handed weapon, a composite longbow (adaptive), a lance, and a shield. You can add +5 worth of bonuses and special abilities to a weapon 4 times per day! So, rather than trying to specialize in one weapon, or pay for one super high-powered weapon, use a combination of the right weapon for the job with the right enchantment for the job. (Another option is an intelligent magic weapon with the transformative property, but the strategy remains the same.)
*You can simply ignore the non-cohort followers from leadership. Personally, I'd make up a cool story about them, then proceed to ignore them most of the time.
This way you've got a community of "followers" you could access if you want to, but they mostly do their own thing and leave you alone.
**For extra bonus points, refer to your dragon cohort as "Mom" "Uncle Dave" "Cousin Sidney" or "Great-Aunt Genevieve":)
By the way, what attributes and how much wealth are you working with?
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To the above posters: there are 3 skill focus feats listed, but listed under "Racial" due to taking the Focused Study alternate racial feature. Perception, Intimidate and Fly all have skill focuses listed.
As a last resort, feats like Dodge, Toughness, Lightning Reflexes, Shield Focus, etc are good for filling in gaps.
In fact, since paladins are usually not so hot on the reflex and dragons like attacking reflex, you might try Lightning Reflexes and Improved Lightning Reflexes. The second gives you a 1/day re-roll, making it unlikely for you to fail your roll against that breath weapon.
lunge at 7th and strike back at 13th are two i'd say off the top of my head.
also, cornugon smash works great, since paladins usually have good cha, as well as a few ranks in it. tacking on cruel on your weapon makes that shaken status work even harder (makes them sickened), and you get it for free when you power attack anyway, so why not?
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The step-up chain is fairly nice. Stunning/Dazing assault is a big one off the top of my head that you'd like. Not all monsters have insane forts, and even then they can roll a one. Greater Mercy is always nice. One thing I'd suggest is pushing back those first few feats to get fey foundling. Nothing's more amazing than rolling 8d6 then adding 16. It really is worth it.
Strike back is one I'd look into for a dragon fighter... That 'reach' is a killer!
I'm also having fun with Reward of Life, for some extra healing. And Greater Mercy is one I'll probably pick up later for whenever mercies aren't needed.
If you can spare the 8 skill points somewhere down the line, you could take Osyluth Guile to get your CHA as a dodge bonus to AC.
Admittedly, you might find it a bit hard to explain where those ranks in bluff came from though, being a paladin and all. But it can be used for feinting, so you do not need to have it for lying specifically. Alternatively, you could go the more interesting route and find creative loopholes when dealing with the truth. Remember, the best lies are created from the truth. Just get creative with words like "could," "might," and "maybe" so you do not have to specifically lie. But this is a dangerous game, and requires your GM to be cool with it.
Thanks for all the replies! To answer some specific questions:
@Blueluck - This character has PCs wealth, also I've already determined all of the character's magic items. The character is actually completely statted up except for the three missing feats. Of what you posted, I don't like any of the mounted combat feats because I don't envision this character fighting from a mount.
I've also been thinking of how to incorporate dragons with the character's background. The Knights of Golarion book gives rules for having a dragon as a cohort, but the problem is this character isn't high enough level to have one. I also have to flesh out how dragons feel about dragonslayers in my world.
@Stabbitydoom - Lightning Relexes is a thought, although it falls on the boring side IMO. As it stands the character has a +19 Reflex save. Although the character does get Evasion vs. dragon breath weapons, so Lightning Reflexes may not be such a bad idea.
@Fromper - To be honest I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to incorporate this character into my campaign. I made the character more from just liking the idea of it than any specific campaign need.
From a utility standpoint, I'd love a feat that would prevent/hinder a dragon from flying, since this character wants to melee it. The only feat I saw that I thought could help with this is Crippling Critical, but the DC to remain airbourne is only 10, so I dismissed it. If I do decide to focus more I crits, then I'll probably switch her weapon from a glaive-gurisame to a bardiche, since it has a 19-20 threat range. The character will wield a reach polearm, in any event.
From a utility standpoint, I'd love a feat that would prevent/hinder a dragon from flying, since this character wants to melee it.
Since you can fly too, you could just fight them in the air. You could even take a couple of flight-related feats (Hover, Wingover, etc.) to guarantee superior maneuverability and win the dogfight.
you wanna ground a dragon? throw some really, really big bolas at him.
From a utility standpoint, I'd love a feat that would prevent/hinder a dragon from flying, since this character wants to melee it.Since you can fly too, you could just fight them in the air. You could even take a couple of flight-related feats (Hover, Wingover, etc.) to guarantee superior maneuverability and win the dogfight.
Big issue I see with that is most dragons are going to be flying three times as fact, which is a pretty big advantage.
Honestly, I don't know why I'm putting so much thought into this because I don't even know how much I'll actually be using this NPC, but I feel like I have to get everything just right.
Unsanctioned Knowledge might be a cool feat to have, could use it to get some arcane spells from the bard spell list. Depending on the spells chosen you could flavour it as your draconic heritage coming through in another way.
Ooo, I like that. I'm gonna check that feat out!