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I'm building a Paladin who uses a Fauchard. This is my first reach character. Any way this is what I had in mind.
STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 14
1st Combat Reflexes, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Fauchard)
3rd Power Attack
5th Improved Initiative
7th ?
9th Improved Critical
11th ?
13th ?
At this point I am unsure of some my later feats. I would like them to be combat feats that complement reach weapons, or defensive feats that complement the Paladin.
Any ideas?
Put 4 ranks into Perform (dance) and take Spear Dancer. It's fantastic.
I see you have the extra Human feat, but are you taking any archetypes? Oath Against Savagery has an ability to increase their natural reach by 5ft for 1 minute at a time, but you sacrifice saves.
Lunge is amazing with reach. It does not increase your threatened area, but allows you to strategically place enemies in a sweet spot where you can get more AoOs.
Normally, with a polearm, you end your turn with an enemy 10' away. That means they only need a 5' step to reach you, which prevents an AoO and allows them to full attack. If you attack first, you do not get an AoO.
With lunge, enemies end up 15' away. Many will need to spend a move action to move 10' to reach you. That means they draw an AoO and they most likely lose their full attack. That is offense and defense in one. Also, if you attack first, you can still get in an AoO.
Pushing assault also has similar advantages- if an enemy gets right next to you, you only need to take a 5' step back, full attack, and push them back 5'. They are back in the sweet spot 15' away. This lets you set up enemies for AoOs again and again.
Another note- lunge also has the stated advantage of expanding your reach- you can full attack anything in a 45' wide circle (reach+lunge+5' step+ you square in the middle). While reach is a great defense... you are no turtled up monk or sword and board user. You still ahve a 2 handed weapon, and you are very good at using it.
Final advice- get a fortuitous weapon. This +1 property lets you get in 2 AoOs for the same action (second one at BAB-5), and it does this 1/round. That is basically a small full attack against anything that crosses your threatened area. This truly exemplifies 'the best defense is a good offense'.
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I would run the following stat array instead:
Half orc
Str 16, dex 14, con 13, wis 10, int 12, cha 14
Lv 1 feat: Combat reflexes
Lv 3 feat: Power attack
Lv 5 feat: combat expertise
Lv 7 feat: beast rider (stegosaurus mount)
Lv 9 feat :improved trip
Now bad guys take 2 AOOs instead of 1 moving past you. One from you, one from your mount. Stegeosaurus can attempt trip on hit.
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If you're set a Fauchard (nice choice!), a Half Elf works as well, since you can swap out the Skill Focus for an Exotic Weapon Proficiency.
Depends if you value an extra skill point every level over the racial mods of a Half Elf.
I always recommend Weapon Focus for warrior builds. It's "only" +1, but dice can be cruel and when your whole build is about killing baddies, you should scrape any bonus to hit that you can.
Anyway, I had never heard of the feat Spear Dancer recommended above, but that is really nice looking! Plus, Dance just fits a Paladin of Shelyn.
Spending feats on Improved Trip is a good option with the Fauchard as well.
Lunge is fantastic.
Put 4 ranks into Perform (dance) and take Spear Dancer. It's fantastic.
How is taking 2 feats and blowing 4 skill ranks to give an opponent a -1 fantastic? Are you thinking it said "dazed" instead of "dazzled"?
Lunge only works until the end of your turn. So you won't increase your threat radius against enemy movement; just for stuff that happens during your turn. For example, you could combine it with Greater Trip to take an AoO against an enemy that you trip during your turn.Lunge is amazing with reach. It does not increase your threatened area, but allows you to strategically place enemies in a sweet spot where you can get more AoOs.
Normally, with a polearm, you end your turn with an enemy 10' away. That means they only need a 5' step to reach you, which prevents an AoO and allows them to full attack. If you attack first, you do not get an AoO.
With lunge, enemies end up 15' away. Many will need to spend a move action to move 10' to reach you. That means they draw an AoO and they most likely lose their full attack. That is offense and defense in one. Also, if you attack first, you can still get in an AoO.
Pushing assault also has similar advantages- if an enemy gets right next to you, you only need to take a 5' step back, full attack, and push them back 5'. They are back in the sweet spot 15' away. This lets you set up enemies for AoOs again and again.
Another note- lunge also has the stated advantage of expanding your reach- you can full attack anything in a 45' wide circle (reach+lunge+5' step+ you square in the middle). While reach is a great defense... you are no turtled up monk or sword and board user. You still ahve a 2 handed weapon, and you are very good at using it.
Final advice- get a fortuitous weapon. This +1 property lets you get in 2 AoOs for the same action (second one at BAB-5), and it does this 1/round. That is basically a small full attack against anything that crosses your threatened area. This truly exemplifies 'the best defense is a good offense'.
Which is what I go on about.
The point of using lunge is so you can do things (as in normal during your own turn things) outside of your normal threatened area. Because you want enemies to come from outside your circle to inside your circle, so you cans stab them.
Without lunge, you have to put them inside your circle yourself. That means no extra stabby stabby. With lunge, you leave enemies outside your circle. That means, if an enemy wants to interact with you, it has to be the one entering your circle. And enemies will fear doing anything because stabby stabby happens if they try.
Lunge is a positioning tool. That is all I suggested it for. Well, that and allowing you to full attack a wide area. Always nice, it justifies why enemies still have to try to get to you, despite stabby stabby. Because you will still stab them even if they ignore you.
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STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 14
1st Combat Reflexes, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Fauchard)
3rd Power Attack
5th Battle Cry
7th Improved Initiative
9th Improved Critical (Fauchard)
11th Greater Mercy
13th Ultimate Mercy
Purity of Faith(Iomedae)
Your soul is free from impurity, and you are deeply committed to fulfilling your duties to the church.
You gain a +1 trait bonus on Will saving throws and a +1 trait bonus on saving throws against spells and effects originating from an outsider with the evil subtype.
Put 4 ranks into Perform (dance) and take Spear Dancer. It's fantastic.How is taking 2 feats and blowing 4 skill ranks to give an opponent a -1 fantastic? Are you thinking it said "dazed" instead of "dazzled"?
1.) The OP already said they were taking Weapon Focus in a two-handed weapon, so I wasn't counting that as a cost.
2.) 4 skill ranks is negligible, even for a 2+Int class.
3.) I knew it said dazzled and stand by my statement. The feat gives no chance of failure, so every single enemy you ever hit that isn't outright immune to it will receive that debuff. This even applies with an AoO or multi-target maneuver such as Cleave, meaning you may apply this debuff to multiple targets per round. Over the course of a long career, those extra reductions to hit will add up and result in many attacks missing you and your allies, probably even saving lives.
EDIT: I looked back to make sure, and noticed that the OP did not in fact say they were taking Weapon Focus. They only said they were taking proficiency with it. That does add to the cost, so you have me there. Still, they've got 3 question marks to fill with feats so…
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I’ve got a lowly cleric with a keen Fauchard and the d10+16 or so that threats on a 15+ is pretty fun to play. Imagine this on a paladin who could start to have it Keen with divine bond as early as L5. Later he can choose to add Keen or go improved crit route.
He spends twice as much time in Melee as a Cleric who is busy channeling or spellcasting or some other nonsense. And don’t forget smite amping up on a critical.
I also highly recommend the Phalanx Formation feat. Makes you invaluable as the second rank in those pesky 5” wide corridors.