Hi guys,
I am putting together a Pally for a PBP game. (Legacy of Fire)
The game has a Witch and a Sorcerer,
so they need someone who can FACE/MELEE/HEAL
naturally I thought Paladin.
Human OATH OF VENGEANCE Paladin OF Sarenae
Focused Study Varient Human
STR 16
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 10
CHA 14
Traits-Blade of Mercy, Magical Knack
1-Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Smite evil 1/day, Fey Foundling, Skill Focus: Knowledge-Religion
2-Divine Grace, Lay on Hands
3-Aura of Courage, Mercy (fatigued), Power Attack
4-Channel Wrath, Smite Evil 2/day
5-Divine Bond (Mount), Fast Learner
6-Mercy (remove disease)
7-Smite Evil 3/day, Improvisation
8-Aura of ResolveSkill Focus: Intimidate
9-Mercy (exhausted), Unsanctioned Knowledge
10-Smite Evil 4/day
11-Powerful Justice, Improved Improvisation
12-Mercy (Paralyzed)
13-Smite Evil 5/day, Eldritch Heritage (Familiar)
14-Aura of Faith
15-Mercy (remove curse), Improved Eldritch Heritage (New Arcana)
16-Smite Evil 6/day, Skill Focus:Perception
17-Aura of Righteousness, Improved Familiar
18-Mercy (Stunned)
19-Smite Evil 7/day, Feat
20-Holy Champion
This is only rough so open to suggestions.
My reasoning
Damage:
I figure pally's come with enough Damage between SMITE and Divine Bond and Divine Favor among thier other spells. Power Attack is the only Damage Adding Feat.
Skills:
He gets 5 skills per level, Likely Maxing out Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge: Religion, Sense Motive and Perception.
All other skills get a +4 to the check from Improved Improvisation. Not sure if it's worth 2 feats but he should be ok at most checks. But his normal skills cover the FACE role.
AC/HP- Wear Heavy armor. Maybe even use a shield if needed. Plus Fey Foudling makes his swift slef lay on hands even more awesome with tons of HP on tap.
Spells:
Unsanctioned Knowledge gets him an extra
1st- Featherstep?
2nd- Invisibility?
3rd- Good Hope?
4th- Divine POWER?
Spells off the Cleric, Inquisitor and Bard list.
Improved Eldritch Heritage Gets Him 3 more spells of the WIZARD/SORCER list up to level 4.
I have no Idea WHAT SPELLS to pick.
Maybe:
Resiliant Sphere
Boneshatter
Fly
Blacklight or Invisiblity Sphere
I am entirely open to suggestions.
My focus here is to adequately fill the tank role (via melee damage and HP)
adequately fill the healer role (wands and mercies)
and not suck at skills and gain some versitility out of combat.
I think a faire dragon familiar would rock for wand use.
Help please?
Further these seem to be the best Paladin Spells to focus on:
Best Spells
1- Divine Favor, Grace, Hero’s Defiance, Bless, Bless Weapon, Wrath
2- Fire of Entanglement, Paladin’s Sacrifice, Shield Other, Knight’s Move, Angelskin, Litany of Righteousness
3- Heal Mount, Find the Gap, Fire of Judgement, Blessing of Bahumut, Blessing of Fervor
4- Fire of Vengence, Blaze of Glory, Mass Resurgence, Holy Sword, Mark of Justice, Order's Wrath
To your concept, yeah it can work, although Inquisitor may be a better bet in terms of skill ranks to fulfill face role (not to mention other things you may like). Focusing on maxing out just certain skills will be ignoring a bunch of skills that are really desirable to have at least a low level in, like Swim, Acrobatics (Fight Defensively bonus, not falling Prone when you jump from heights, etc), Ride, Climb, at least so that you are trained and can pick up any Class Skill bonus to be minimally competent in them. I don't know how you get 5 ranks/level from Paladin (2) and 13 INT (+1), with Favored Class only being 1 more possibly = 4...? Ioun Stone or Headband, I guess? I think Inquisitor is simply ahead in that realm, and their Judgement is more flexible to boot... (Solo Tactics' Outflank is a nice attack boost when not Judging, if you have an Animal Companion or Familiar you should always have a Flanking partner, never mind your allies or their Summons, etc). Their spells cover remove fear/pain/poison/paralysis/curse, restoration, heal, and surmount affliction so on that you are as capable or more than a paladin (albeit paladins don't need to use spells for all that, alot of that will eventually be scroll/wand anyways).
Going with Oracle to multiclass with Paladin somehow also seems viable, although slightly worse off than pure Paladin in terms of skill ranks (unless you are Half-Elf and you can get full FC bonus in 2 classes). Going Life Oracle for Positive Channel seems useful for heals, and Energy Body is nice for the immunities... Or go battle oracle or something else and rely on spells for heals, the bonus feats and self-buffs should make you more than capable of a combatant if you focus on that (which means lower CHA than a full caster build, bonus spells at each spell level are more important than DCs here). But I was just trying to cover all the bases there, your basic approach with Paladin seems very doable.
Improved Eldritch Heritage Gets Him 3 more spells of the WIZARD/SORCER list up to level 4.
EH doesn't let you use different class' spell slots to cast these sorceror spells.
Even if you pick ones that are also Paladin spells, EH is letting you know them as sorceror spells, it never change the spell list they are on so that stays the same. To function otherwise would mean that multi-classing two spontaneous classes means you can cast any spellknown from any class list with any slot. Mystic Theurge has specific wording to allow cross-class spellcasting, just taking EH doesn't let you do esentially the same thing with any spell slots you have from any classes. So taking that specific power may not be useful. You can still get the Familiar with the 1st Feat, which can be very useful.
I thought about inquisitor but I am already playing one in another game.
Didn't want to double up.
Sad about Improved Heritage. Ok so dump that.
He gets the extra skill point just for being human. It's a race trait.
I should not have said Max to those skills. Near max would be correct.
Skill gonna put 3 ranks in acrobatics for example.
Not sure if improvisation and improved improvisation are worth it....
And what to do with those other feats... looking for biggest bang for my buck
Actually the dump wisdom idea is good.
If I go wisdom 8 I can go Int 14
For 6 skills perlevel.
Then forget improvisation and improved improvisation.
Take iron will instead.
Frees up a feat and +1 better will save.
Or could also swap magical knack for latent Psion.
That would free up two feats. But not sure if losing the bonus cl from magical knack is worth it.
Two free feats is nice but what to do with them?
Ah, for some reason I thought Focused Study replaced the Skilled (bonus rank), and not the Bonus Feat.
My take on Improvisation is: if a wide range of skills is really so important to you, just go Inquisitor.
Although there may be some Pally Archetype that gets more skills... ???
I think Cleave is useful (especially when Slowed), Blind-Fight/Imp.B-F is useful, Improved Bullrush->Rhino Charge (Readied Partial Charge) is an interesting tactic, Channel Smite is useful for when you're out of Smites (although it has it's own limitations, so you're probably better off boosting general combat prowess) ...If you can Fly somehow (gear, Domain?) Fly-By is an obvious consideration. Dodge->Mobility could be useful vs. AoOs, you can Swift Heal yourself, but getting where you need to be is an issue, so the AC boost could help. Shield of Swings could also be used for that purpose while not being limited to just Movement AoOs. Your DEX isn't very impressive, but PBS->Rapid Fire is still a big damage boost, riding a Mount around and Full Attacking is a great strategy for some encounters (if the GM has encounters on open plains). Lunge and Combat Reflexes could be useful, Polearms seem like a good weapon to have regardless.
I think you should use the Feats from Fast Learner, Improvisation, Imp Improvisation, Unsanctioned Knowledge, Imp Eldritch Heritage, and apply them towards Feats that help your prowess in general combat (i.e. not just vs. Smitable enemies). I think you should look at the Sacred Servant, that gains a Domain which allows further options, and also boosts Smite (and it's Holy Symbol Divine Bond can boost Lay on Hands usages). On the other hand, the normal Paladin Weapon Bond (which it gives up) is very useful for extended uses (minutes/level) when you're not Smiting, but if you can apply your Feats well to Combat stuff, I don't think you need that, and the Feats are ultimately broader than what the Weapon Bond can do.