Half-Orc Paladin Bard


Advice


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Hello,

My party and I are gonna be running a Gestalted AP soon. It will either be Kingmaker or RotRL (Anniversary Edition) pretty soon. The Party is small consisting of 3 players more or less.

I decided to go with a Cha feel in case we run Kingmaker and RotRL is not too bad to have a good Cha either.

So here is the Statistics
Half-Orc Race
Sacred Tattoo Alternate Racial
20 Pt Buy

Fate's Favored Trait
(Second unselected)

Classes (w/ Archetypes)
Paladin (Warrior of the Holy Light)
Bard

Now my GM of course is allowing somethings from UA (Gestalt for example) and he considers the Paladin of Freedom or those variants to be very akin to Archetypes. I considered the CG Paladin angle, but for building a Kingdom I think LG works best. But in RotRL should I go CG?

This begins play at level 5. Taking 5 levels of the Human Bonus for Bard to pick up new spells. (7 Cantrips, 6 1rst, 3 2nd levels)
I am also considering taking Expanded Arcana to gain more spells known. This is my only issue with bards is their limited spells known and I would like to invest in some ways to gain further spells when I can.

I am taking two flaws from Ebberon though the Flaw system comes from UA. These would be the flaws that issue a -4 to Hit if I am fighting someone who is clearly the opposite gender to me (Up to the DM what clearly is) and -4 to Hit if I am fighting someone who appears not to be carrying a melee weapon (Though I did point out Unarmed Strike is Melee I will not be using that argument unless the person is a strict unarmed fighter.)

So currently I have 5 feats to work with.

(My DM is iffy on this as he is not sure if the feats gained every odd level is a class feature or not covered by the Gestalt rules. As in, do you get 2 sets of feats. So for example would each side get their normal 1, 3, 5 level feats bringing the total to 6 feats by level 5 (Not counting flaw feats) or do they just get the one flow of feats.)

So looking at Warrior of the Holy Light at level 4 I picked up Power of Faith, this is a morale bonus, but the bonuses go to To Hit, To Dmg, To AC, and against Fear. A Bard gives a morale bonus to saves against fear so those do not stack. But the Bard's inspire Courage grants a competence bonus to Hit and Dmg of +2 at level 5. Meaning those standing within 30 ft of my Paladin//Bard gets a +1 to AC and a +3 to Hit and Dmg.

Any advice on this build so far?

EDIT: If I take Expanded Arcana as my flaw feats, I would start with 4 first level spells and 5 Cantrips using the Human favored bonus. At lvl 5 I would have 9 Cantrips, 12(?) 1rst Level (Arcana used on each level to add +2 (from two of them)), and 7 2nd level.

I am not sure I am understanding Arcana correctly as it says it adds 1 spell known in addition to the spell gained at each new level. So each level I would add an additional +1 for each use of the feat. Is this right I am sorry but its wording as me confused.


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The magician archetype for the bard gives extra spells. Note only that it can be from any arcane casters spell list. This opens up the wizard/sorcerer or the witch spell list for you. The archetypes does replace some very useful abilities including inspire courage and bardic knowledge. You also get a bonus on knowledge arcane, spell craft and use magic device. If the idea of casting a fireball in a mithral breastplate appeals to you this may be a way to go. You are giving up a lot of useful abilities so the cost may be more than it is worth. This would be the one character that would actually benefit from taking a weapon as an arcane bonded item.

I would advise against taking sacred tattoo for a half or paladin. Instead take the feat Ferocious Resolve. It gives you the full orc ferocity which allows you to keep fighting at negative HP. For a paladin this is extremely useful. They have to literally kill you to stop you. If you take this with Fey Foundling it will be incredibly difficult to keep you down, especially with the warrior of the holy light archetype. As a paladin your saving throws are already high boosting them even further is not that useful.

Feats are not based on character level not class level so they are not class features. You do not get two sets of feats.

Another option would be to take the archeologist archetype for the bard. This way you could be both the paladin and “Thief”. You of course would not actually be a thief, but would have the skill set and be able to scout. In this cast fates favored is the way to go. Take the extra rounds of performance instead of extra spells and don’t forget lingering performance.

Armor expert is a good trait. You essentially get a bonus to multiple skills.

Extra Arcana gives you either one extra spell at your highest level of spell you can cast when you take the feat. Or you can gain two extra spells of any spell level lower than your highest level you can cast when you take the feat. These spells cannot be changed so chose them carefully.

One thing to keep in mind is that many of your abilities require at least a swift action to start. This means you may not be able to use them at the same time. Lay on hands for example requires a standard action as does your power of light. Your bardic performance also require a standard action to start, but can be maintained as a free action. That means that on the first round you can either start your power of light, or your inspire courage. The next round you can use your standard action to start the other effect. But that pretty much takes all your actions for the first two rounds.

Scarab Sages

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For bard I suggest the arcane duelist. He eventually gets to cast in heavy armor without chance of spell failure.

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