Healing Paladin


Advice


I need a bit of help with a Paladin build I'm doing. Now I'm in a home game where there are only four players, We have 1 Hell Knight, 1 Dragon Rider, and 1 Winter Witch. So the problem I saw was we had no healer and the guy who's playing the Dragon Rider has a tendency for doing his own thing after a while.

So I decided to make a Cleric / Paladin because we need more then 1 dedicated defender and we still need a healer.

The race I choose and mind you this was about the only race I could pick because of where we are was a Triaxian.
-2 Strength
+2 Con
+2 Wis
1 Bonus Feat
+2 to perception

Point Buy 20. Starting Level 12 because we're picking up a campaign from where we last left off.

Cleric (Archtype: Cloistered Cleric)(Domain: Good) Level 6
Paladin (Archtype: Hospitaler / Warrior Of The Holy Light) Level 6

Str: 14
Dex: 10
Con: 16
Int: 10
Wis: 15
Cha: 16

Feats: Extra Channel, Selective Channel, Endurance, Extra Lay On Hands, Greater Mercy, Shield Focus, and Lighting Reflex's. I got Scribe Scroll as for free with Cloistered Cleric.

I wear +3 Agile Mithral Full Plate, +2 Mithral Heavy Shield and a +2 Long sword with Holy and Called Abilities. I also have +3 ring of protection, +3 amulet of Natural Armor, and the Phylactery Of Positive Channeling which let's me add 2d6 every time I channel to heal or deal damage to Undead.

I feel like when I look at this build I'm missing something. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My Healing Before spells as of right now are as follows:
Cleric: 8 channels a day for 5d6 per channel
Paladin: 8 channels a day for 4d6 per channel
Paladin: 9 Lay On Hands a day for 3d6 per use (4d6 if none of my mercies kick in.)


Alternatively you could look into playing an Oradin, a Paladin/Oracle healer.
You can find a guide here, on the Giant in the Playground forum. Even if you decide not to play one there are plenty of suggestions regarding feats and equipment.


A paladin can spend 2 lay on hands attempts to channel energy as a cleric of the same level. So the paladin could channel 4/day instead of laying on hands 8/day. The paladin channels energy as a cleric of the same level, so 3d6 (+2d6 phylactery) is 5d6.
Edit: Okay, the hospitaler archetype changes this, from 3d6 channel using 2 lay on hands to a 2d6 channel 6/day not using lay on hands. My point about the extra channel feat below still applies though.

The extra channel feat applies to your total number of channels, not to each class. You can choose which class uses them but it only gives you a total of two.

Note though that a cleric 12 could channel 8d6 10 times per day if you just took the extra lay on hands feat and switched it to another extra channel feat. That's 80d6 worth of channeling, as opposed to 8x5d6 + 4x5d6 6x4d6 for a total of 60d6 64d6 of channeling from muliclassing. Plus the cleric can spontaneously cast cure spells in place of prepared spells. The healing domain can empower all your cure spells for free at 6th level. And a 12th level cleric can cast breath of life and heal.

With a bonus to WIS, no bonus to CHA, and a penalty to STR, it's tough to make a decent paladin as a Triaxian, but clerics will be at least decent. So if you are just aiming for maximum healing ability, I would be inclined to go straight cleric with this race.

Edit: I'm also not sure why you are taking cloistered cleric with this build; it gets you a few more skills, but at the cost of spells, which also represent healing.

Considering the Triaxian race bonuses, I'd be inclined to leave STR low and build a cleric of Sarenrae with the healing and fire domains, and then go dervish dance. But that's just me.

Peet


GentleGiant wrote:
Alternatively you could look into playing an Oradin, a Paladin/Oracle healer.

I agree that as a multiclass, oracle/paladin is more efficient than cleric/paladin for the reason that they share the same casting stat (CHA) so you don't need to drop points into WIS. Oracles also get 4+INT skill ranks which I think is what you wanted with the cloistered cleric archetype, yes?

I am not sure that an oracle of life makes as good a healer as a cleric with the healing domain. Channels are only CHA+1 per day (though your CHA can be higher). However, the life link ability combined with your lay on hands ability does mean that you can heal your friends at range (slowly) by healing yourself.

Peet


Assimar (Agathion blooded) Oradin.

Life Oracle 8/Paldin 4 (the rest going into Oracle).

First leve feat Fey Foundling.

Favored class oracle choosing the 1.5 times for your channel energy mystery.

20 Point stat build.

St 14
Dx 10
Con 14 (16) +2 racial

Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 16 (21) (+2 racial) +3 levels


All those builds are way overkill. You should not need that much in combat healing. In general it's better to kill things than heal in combat, but if you do have to heal, swift action LoH is the best way! (Life link suggests being an oracle of life which is healing overkill)

I suggest you go full Paladin. Take either Hospitalar or Sacred Servant, make sure you have the fey foundling feat. Most of your out of combat healing should be done by a wand of CLW and channels (if Hospitalar). Be sure to get pearls of power for Shield Other. You'll also need a wand of lesser restoration.

Suggested feats:

1. Fey Foundling, Greater Mercy
3. Power Attack
5. Extra Mercy
7. Extra Mercy
9. Ultimate Mercy


You may find this to be of use. The Combat Medic build begins on page 10.


Let's look at some options:

Triaxian race bonuses:
-2 Strength
+2 Con
+2 Wis
1 Bonus Feat
+2 to perception
Low-Light Vision
Seasoned

Full Paladin Healer Build

Str: 18 (-2 racial, +4 belt)
Dex: 10
Con: 16 (+2 racial)
Int: 10
Wis: 10 (+2 racial)
Cha: 20 (+3 level, +2 Ioun stone)

Paladin 12 (Hospitaler/Warrior of the Holy Light)

Traits: Exalted of the Society (+1 channel/day), Dangerously Curious

Probably put favoured class bonus into skills, unless your GM allows a cool favoured class bonus. Use UMD to gain access to paladin spells via scrolls, wands, etc.

Feats:
1: Fey Foundling
Bonus: Extra Lay On Hands
3: Greater Mercy
5: Extra Channel
7: Selective Channel
9: Quick Channel
11: Ultimate Mercy (use 10 lay on hands to raise dead)

Gear:

+2 Adamantine Full Plate (provides DR 3/-) 20500 - you have no DEX so don't bother with mithral
+2 Heavy Shield 4020
+4 Rhoka sword 36325 - you can add holy with your divine bond ability. Get a weapon cord to keep it with you.
+1 ring of protection, 2000
+1 amulet of Natural Armor, 2000
Phylactery Of Positive Channeling 11000
Cloak of Resistance +2 4000
Pink and green Sphere Ioun Stone (Charisma +2) 8000
Cracked Magenta Prism Ioun Stone (+2 to any one skill) 800
Cracked Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun Stone (familiarity with Rhoka Sword) 1500
Belt of giant strength +4 16000
Bracers of the Merciful Knight (+4 levels for lay on hands) 15,600

Total cost of gear 121745 (the original gear was 121835 so I assume this is OK)

Channel 10 times per day @ 7d6 (+14 if used on self) DC 18
Lay on Hands 17 times per day @ 8d6 (as 16th level paladin due to bracers) (+16 if used on self) or 9d6 with no mercy (+18 if used on self)

AC: 27 - AC is lower than with your build but self-healing is huge and offsets it.
HP: (average) 106

Saves:
Fort: +18
Ref: +11
Will: +15

Attack: Rhoka Sword +20/+15/+10 1d8+8 damage (18-20, x2 crit)
With Smite Evil: +25/+20/+15 1d8+20 damage (18-20, x2 crit)
Divine Bond adds keen & holy 2x per day
Smite Evil adds +5 to hit and +12 damage 4/day
Smite damage multiplies on a crit so you want something that crits well. Rhoka Sword looks cool, but katana is functionally the same. Falcata doesn't crit as often but crits at x3. If you don't want to use any of these then your main weapon should be scimitar.

This build doesn't hit very hard in combat but heals on average 50 points to himself on a lay on hands and he can do that 17 times a day.

Variant: If you are happy with just the lay on hands healing (which is totally overboard), then switch to the Oath of Vengeance instead of Hospitaler and you can use 2 lay on hands to gain an extra smite evil, but lose channeling. That frees up three feats which you can trade for power attack, furious focus, and vital strike (or maybe weapon focus). You also get rid of the phylactery and the +2 CHA Ioun stone and get a +4 CHA headband instead of those which saves you about 3000 gold. This gives you an extra lay on hands, improves saves by +1, and adds +1 to hit for smite evil. That makes your standard action attack do:
Rhoka Sword +20 2d8+16 damage (18-20, x2 crit) or with smite:
+26 2d8+28 damage (18-20, x2 crit). The improved Critical feat also works and replaces keen from divine bond.

Peet


Peet wrote:

Let's look at some options:

Traits: Exalted of the Society (+1 channel/day)

I believe that's a cleric only trait.


Mr Kincaid's build suggestion is simple and solid. Grab yourself the 2-handed weapon of your choice and wade into combat. Stuff is going to hit you, but you can swift-action self-heal quite large amounts regularly. If something hits you, hit it back - hard. Mix in archetypes if you want, but the standard Paladin does perfectly well.

You get all the necessary condition removal spells and with those extra mercies you should be able to get rid of a lot of annoying effects too.

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