The deathless paladin.


Advice


So I've been playing around with this character idea for a while now, however the concept itself is fulfilled with just two feats and simply progressing through paladin levels with the iroran paladin archetype and the warrior of the holy light archetype. I know the last one isn't typically seen favorably but hear me out. So the build starts off like this:

Race: human with the Heart of the wilderness racial trait.
Stats: Str: 14 Con: 14 dex: 14 Int: 10 wis: 8 Cha: 17 (15+2)

Now the only feats I have planned are toughness and diehard, which could be gotten at first level if I want but I'm more than ok with waiting to grab those at 3rd and 5th level. The whole idea is simply to never go down, or at least be the last one too lol, with decent hit die, toughness, decent con, and heart of the wild giving me half of my level to the total of negative hit points I can drop to before I die, diehard, and lay on hands coupled with a solid charisma score and warrior of the holy light giving me even more lay on hands I should be pretty hard to take down. On top of this I'll do the usual good diplomacy score will be my only real out of combat utility. The question is though is how should I fight? I won't have a lot of feats to mess with and two of them are going to toughness and diehard. I thought archery might be a good way to go since I could snag precise shot at first level, and archery is pretty good even without many feats, not to mention I could punch people who get to close or as a last resort if I get pinned in somewhere. But that wouldn't really capitalize on the whole "I never die" thing. Now you may be wondering, "Where does iroran paladin fit into all this? Why take it?" The answer to that is simply that I like the archetype, and the flavor added by the whole idea of striving to perfect yourself to better serve others is an appealing one.


Well, it's possible to design around Diehard, but then I wouldn't stop half-way:

* A level of fighter (unbreakable archetype) nets you Endurance and Diehard, instead of the usual bonus feat
* The social trait Draconic Destiny adds +2 to the effective Con score before death
* Deathless Initiate makes you more effective below 0 HP; the two further feats of the chain are nice but not a must

A half-orc fighter would get more out of it (FCB and feral alternative racial trait), but a paladin has his own impressive defensive abilities, ok. Damage reduction has synergy with 'bonus HP below 0', maybe you can get a bit.

And with your good HP (d10), AC (light armor + Dex + Cha, shield as option), melee damage (martial weapons, half monk progression for unarmed) and self-healing (swift action lay on hands!) you should absolutely go melee. As a fellow player (likely with a more fragile PC) I would be quite upset if the paladin stays behind...


Yea that's definitely a strike against bows, wasn't really digging it but was just throwing it out there. Ferocity would be nice I suppose, I'm not actually sure what the difference between that and diehard is, I simply haven't looked into it mainly cuz I was pretty sold on heart of the wilderness, but that coupled with deathless initiate seems pretty nice and I'm not averse to going half-orc. That would also save me some feats if I start off with ferocity.


Hmm, half-orcs can actually trade away Orc Ferocity and Weapon Familiarity for the Skilled racial trait - via Human-Raised from Inner Sea Races. And given you count as human to qualify for character options, you could then trade away Skilled for Heart of the Wilderness. This needs a bit of GM fiat twice (trading away an alternative racial trait, picking up a human only option as half-orc), but might be accepted.

Alternatively you can simply pick up the Ferocious Action feat to upgrade Orc Ferocity to normal Ferocity. No Diehard needed then. With lay on hands you won't stay in negative HP for long, so the HP cost for doing both a standard and move action isn't that much of a problem.

And if you want a really weird option, there is the Kobold Confidence feat - for kobolds. It allows you to use a mental stat (likely Cha in your case) to determine Fortitude saves and negative HP before death, instead of Con. You can even combine this with a human or half-orc, via Racial Heritage (kobold).


you can't take heart of X as a half-orc.


I suggest Fey Foundling as your first level feat and as many uses of Lay on Hands as you can possibly grab. Radiant Charge is also really, really fun to use if excessive.

I personally like Tortured Crusader over Enlightened Champion in this build since you can use your Lay on Hands to prevent yourself from dying from going overboard. Additionally, Tortured Crusader allows you to completely ignore Charisma so you can grab a few points in Wisdom and then call it a day. All you really need is a 14 in Wisdom for spell casting, you can get more Lay on Hands uses with feats.

That lets you spend more points boosting the truly important scores, like Constitution and Strength.


A Human Paladin gets the amazing benefit of the Favored Class Bonus.

Archives of Nethys wrote:

Traits

Unscathed
Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 58 (Amazon)
Category Basic (Magic)
You are amazingly resistant to energy attacks because of either your upbringing or magical experimentation. Each type of energy resistance you have (if any) increases by 2 points.
Archives of Nethys wrote:

Favored Class Options

Human (Advanced Race Guide pg. 1 (Amazon), Advanced Player's Guide pg. 23 (Amazon)): Add +1 to the paladin’s energy resistance to one kind of energy (maximum +10).

At every level, put one point into every element plus one point in negative energy. At Level 5, you'll have 5 types of energy resistance 3.

Don't think you can get energy resistance against force (it isn't an energy, right?) but if you could, that could effectively give your paladin almost-immunity to Magic Missile.

This post isn't directly related to the Deathless Tree, but moreso with being able to eat damage and live.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / The deathless paladin. All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice