Hello, all. I've been quite intrigued by the Irorian Paladin, and I'm trying to elaborate a build that can best benefit from the reroll-augmenting abilities. Here is what I have so far:
Irorian Paladin: This is not a surprise! The abilities on which I'm particularly keen are Confident Defense, Unarmed Strike, and, in particular, Aura of Excellence and, should one reach this level, Aura of Perfection. The idea is to create a high-charisma character with excellent defenses who can contribute to combat with reasonable melee ability and lots of die roll manipulation to abet allies.
Other Classes and Sources of Reroll Abilities:
Cleric:Separatist of Irori to get the Luck Domain stands out here. Law might be a good second domain; Touch of Law doesn't open up any good Domain Strike options, but it allows one to keep one's allies (perhaps those that have already benefited from your Misfortune that day) consistent.
Oracle (Dual-Cursed): Misfortune is key, but I have a question: if you use Misfortune on an ally, does that count as rerolling "against [their] will"? What if they didn't know that you were the source of the reroll? Could one conceal this from his or her allies? Fortune also comports with the theme. If one disregards the suggestion that a stat shouldn't be allowed to add to the same ability twice, the Lore mystery (felicitous for Irori) provides Sidestep Secret. Legalistic and Tongues should prove to be thematic and relatively innocuous curses.
Monk (Weapon Adept): Perfect Strike is good and fits the theme; this can, of course, be taken as a feat, instead. Note that Ki Mystic can stack with Weapon Adept, and the fifth-level ability could be nice, especially since both monk and paladin offer ki pools (although I assume that you must choose either wisdom or charisma, but not both, to govern it).
Feats:
Eldritch Heritage: I love this feat chain. One idea is simply to take Abyssal for the usual strength benefits. I can see the flavor working nicely here: the quest for perfection involves incorporating into oneself a dark, fractious power and mastering it through force of will! Perhaps the character read a forbidden tome or ate facinorous fruit to take on this burden. I also like the Impossible bloodline here; the third-level ability (Spontaneous Generation) and the fifteenth-level ability (Relativity) kind of recall the supernatural powers of a siddha.
Divine Interference: Fits the theme, and, if you take enough levels in Paladin, you'll hit the caster level requirement eventually.
Ki Channel: Desiderated by Champions of Irori everywhere, this feat is also very nice for this build, particularly if one takes levels in Cleric and Ki Mystic. Irorian Paladin abnegates channel energy, but, if one has taken a one-level cleric dip, those channels won't be worth much later; it would probably be best to convert them into ki.
Traits:
Lessons of Faith or Second Chance could be nice!
Some observations:
The expected value of a d20 roll is 10.5. The expected value of the maximum of 2d20 is 13.875. The ability to roll twice and take the better result is a little better than a +3 bonus. Therefore, when Aura of Excellence replaces forced rerolls with "roll twice and take the better," it's effectively affording a +3 bonus on the reroll, passively and without limit. Similarly, by converting a "roll twice and take the lower" effect into a "roll thrice and take the second-lowest," this ability effectively obviates rolling a one (29/4000 chance of getting at least two ones), but I've not yet run the math to determine how beneficial it is exactly.
I would build this character either with a strength focus, followed closely by charisma, or, if taking the monk dip, with equal attention to wisdom and charisma (Guided Hand tricks after the cleric level might be welcome). Again, this character should have good defenses and be able to do something in melee (whether using combat maneuvers, doing a bit of damage, or using abilities to help allies: aid another and its related feat chains, Bodyguard, Archon Style, etc.) while more-or-less passively helping allies.
What do you all think? I realize that this isn't terribly optimal, but it sounds fun to me. Any suggestions? Additions?
Thanks!
Hmm, another Eldritch Heritage possibility is Arcane. At character level nine (sorcerer level -2), depending on how one reads the Improved Familiar feat, one could gain access to the Ceru as a familiar. In addition to being ADORABLE, the Ceru affords several rerolls per day.
A final bump to see whether anyone is interested.
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The link to the Irorian Paladin isn't working properly-- that may be why nobody's commenting. At least it doesn't work for me.
A reroll-based character would be pretty cool, and your math seems to suggest that it's a solid idea-- a +3 bonus is nothing to take for granted. I know there are some Bard spells along the same line, like Gallant Inspiration, but they're all cast as an immediate action when you fail a roll, so you couldn't UMD a wand. The Unsanctioned Knowledge feat would let you cast them yourself if you can afford 13 Int, or you could go Samsaran with Mystic Past Life.
Still, doing this as anything but a Halfling just feels wrong. ;)
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It's a fun class. I find it telling that my favorite Paladins are this and Stonelord, which change so many of the paladin abilities they might as well be a different class.
EDIT: Huh, still not working, must be a board error. Here is the direct url:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/paladin/archetypes/paizo---pal adin-archetypes/enlightened-paladin-paladin-archetype
Seems pretty awesome, controlling probability like that. Though, with cleric levels you're going to need some measure of Wisdom to support the domain abilities, unlike most paladins.
To make that more feasible you could grab the Scion of War feat to add your Cha to initiative instead of Dex and the Sidestep Secret revelation from the Lore mystery (or one of the equivalents from other mysteries) to replace Dex with Cha for AC and Reflex. That would let you safely drop Dex and boost Wis a little more.
Silent Saturn: Ah, the link is bad! Sorry about that. Unsanctioned Knowledge sounds good for this build. And yes, halfling does make a lot of sense ... with the aid another bonuses a halfling can get, you could, at high levels, quicken the luck domain's touch power (Quicken Spell-Like Ability FAQ seems to suggest that it can work), aid another as a standard action, and watch an ally get an effective +10 or more to a roll. Gallant Inspiration is a good idea; I wish there were a way to get Ill Omen (Mystic Past Life won't work there).
Imbicatus: Thanks for the fixed link! Yeah, while I find the Paladin fun, Stonelord and Irorian are just slick. Actually, between Stonelord and the contemplative archetype, I could actually see myself quite enjoying a dwarf.
Aratrok: Yes, that is a problem, but I agree that effectively replacing DEX with CHA would help a fair bit. Having wisdom opens up Combat Meditation, which might be nice, although I'm already suggesting a huge amount of feats.
Oh, and I just found a lovely combo: this feat won't work for you (it appears to be for Pharasmans only), but, if you have a friendly cleric who's often near you, they could take Fateful Channel.
Hmm. It might be nice to try an actual build here. I'm going to try to see how much we can warp the laws of probability! Builds and suggestions remain welcome :).
Hmm so Aiming for amulet of Mighty fists? Two weapon fighting?
Link
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I do know that if multiple classes give you a ki pool, then whichever one gives it to you first determines which attribute you use for it. So if you hit Paladin 4 before Monk 4, your ki pool will be CHA-based, but your monk levels and pally levels will still contribute to the same pool (and you'll thus be able to use Paladin ki for monk ki powers and vice versa). This is all expounded upon in the Ninja section of UC.
Speaking of monks, are you even sure you want monk levels? Perfect Strike may be a re-roll ability, but it only works with a small list of pretty terrible weapons unless you're a Zen Archer, and even then you get so few uses of it per day as a multiclass character. Ki Mystic might be nice, but just skip Weapon Adept unless you absolutely have to have every ability in the game that lets you re-roll d20's. And I'm quite sure you don't, since many of them are suboptimal rogue talents.
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Traits:
Lessons of Faith or Second Chance could be nice!
Unfortunately, I believe both of those are D20's knock-off versions of 'Lessons of Chaldira', a Faith trait that requires one to be a worshiper of the Halfling God, Chaldira Zuzaristan.
I'm playing a oracle with Misfortune right now. It's very powerful, but does require some cooperation from the GM and the most intense focus of any ability I've ever experienced in table-top gaming. You have to make sure you are within 30', keep meticulous track of your immediate actions, track the allies and enemies you've used the ability on that day, and make split-second decisions about when to use it.
