The trait Blessed Touch grants an additional point of healing when using Lay On Hands.
Other than that, traits that boost things like initiative (like Reactionary) are pretty universally useful for most PCs.
Magical Knack (paladin) is good. There is trait from the River Kingdoms that gives you a +1 to hit with Longswords.
The feat Additional Traits lets you get 2 more traits; unfortunately, you can still only pick 1 trait from each list, and Paladins tend to be feat-starved anyway (but this might fit if you are Human and/or going for a generic Castigator = Two-Hander Paladin build).
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Fey Foundling is really good for making you really hard to kill by giving you bonus self-lay-on-hands healing. This is a feat, but it can only be taken at first level, which means that it is harder to squeeze in with Additional Traits. You can partialy alleviate this by using Additional Traits to gain things like Magical Knack later, since Additional Traits DOESN'T have to be taken at first level, but again, you're talking feat starvation -- it's starting to get tight even for a Castigator.
Are you using the Golarion deities?
Blade of Mercy is quite nice for a follower of Sarenrae.
If you worship Torag, Defensive Strategist is basically uncanny dodge in a trait.
Deadeye Bowman is incredible for a ranged paladin of Erastil.
Take a peek at the Religion traits, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
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The one I'm building is a cross between a Castigator and a Combat Medic, with a heavy lean towards the Combat Medic. Basically, I have Power Attack for damage with a Greatsword, and then I have feats to improve my Lay on Hands, like Greater Mercy, Ultimate Mercy, etc.
Warrior of the Holy Light archetype doesn't have spells, so don't need Magical Knack.
Well you can look here Deities
Under the more common ones there are traits that relate to each deity. So if your really playing up the God you worship you may want a trait that is associated with them.
The Blessed Touch is a great trait. If you Take Fey Foundling as your level 1 feat it will add up very nicely together.
I am a Fan of Fate's Favored and buying a Luckstone. (sadly your paladin is giving up spells so No Divine Favor and Prayer spells to help fuel the Trait.)
Like people suggested the +2 initiative is a great trait on any character.
Dangerously Curious is IMHO one of the better traits for a paladin. UMD is a great skill and has helped me greatly in the past. Low level scrolls are cheap and effective way to increase your survivablity. 1st Level wands are also great investments. Since your giving up spell-casting this is a great way to get a little back.
I like trying to use additional traits feat to make interesting paladins.
If you think you might like to use diplomacy in interesting ways:
Voice of monsters
Maybe you have not been reading threads or talked with your DM regarding whether or not you have any legal authority, these traits are useful
Law enforcer
Justicar
Maybe you want to intimidate...animals and vermin
Unnatural presence.
Maybe you want to be a know it all in all knowledges as long as the DC is 15 or lower...
Eternal understanding
I've always liked this in case somebody goes down in combat, and you happen to be there:
Sacred Touch: You were exposed to a potent source of positive energy as a child, perhaps by being born under the right cosmic sign, or maybe because one of your parents was a gifted healer. As a standard action, you may automatically stabilize a dying creature merely by touching it.
So since this sounds like a Home game you might have already done this but...
Your two archetypes can't stack per the rules. They both try to touch spellcasting. So either talk to your GM and hope they allow it, or remove one of them.
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I've always liked this in case somebody goes down in combat, and you happen to be there:
Sacred Touch: You were exposed to a potent source of positive energy as a child, perhaps by being born under the right cosmic sign, or maybe because one of your parents was a gifted healer. As a standard action, you may automatically stabilize a dying creature merely by touching it.
Sacred Touch is so wasteful of a standard action.
Use a Standard action to stabilize via Sacred Touch verse Standard to Lay on Hands (Or anything that Cures) as a heal, that Stabilizes, and possibly get them back into the fight.
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Ehm...I don't see the basic ones:
- Seeker, Social: Perception as class skill
- Fate's Favored, Faith: +1 to the bonus you get from Divine Favor and items that give you luck bonuses (mainly ST)
- Blade of Mercy, Religion: you can do non-lethal damage without penalty. This is gold for an Enforcer build and perfect for the classic LB paladin flavour.
Also, as others have said,
- Reactionary, Combat: +2 to initiative.
- Magical Knack, Magic: +2 to CL if you want to improve your spellcasting (though is not a good idea).
Note that you can take them all because they are from different categories!
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Good point. I don't see it being a problem (if anything, it's even less OP, because I should be getting an extra spell/day from Sacred Servant and I'm not) but I will check with my DM anyway, just to be sure he is ok with it.
Honestly the whole build seems far from OP, but it fits the theme/flavor I was going for, so I'm happy with it.
What people perceptive as OP, Optimized, munchkin, or Game Breaking varies from group to group and Player to Player.
If you like the combat Medic type the Hospitalier Paladin is a very good archetype IMHO as you have both a channel and LoH pool to heal with. As well as keeping your Spellcasting for spells like Shield Other.
You can also ask the DM about Variant Multiclass if he allows it. VMC Cavalier order of the stars or Bard for performance you will be quiet the Beast. If not just straight paladin is good.
As far as your concern of 3 skills the best Skills a paladin can have is: Diplomacy (Or intimidate), UMD, and Perception. I mean what more do you really need? You can see it to hit it, you can UMD all the utility in the world, and you can talk very nicely or Mean depending on your Build (Intimidate is more a IN combat social skill IMO than outside.)
I'm making a Paladin for a friends upcoming custom campaign and have gotten most everything figured out except for Traits.
What would be some good traits for a Paladin? The build I'm going for is a two-hander wielding combat medic type, with a focus on Lay on Hands and Mercies. Archetypes are Sacred Servant and Warrior of the Holy Light.
I found the following usefull on Paladin builds:
Seeker to make perception a class skill and give a +1. Because perception.
Magical Knack to boost casting level so your only 1 behind. Edit: Which you don't need since you traded out spells.
Blade of Mercy so you can always deal subdual damage without a penalty or the merciful weapon ability.
Omen so you can make Intimidate a class skill, get a +1 and swift action demoralize once a day.
All the above are usefull depending on what kind of Paladin your going to play IMO.
Also look into Fay Foundling as a feat. I know it is not a trait but getting +2 per die for every die of healing used on you is seriously nice, especially at lower levels. IIRC it must be taken at level 1.
Hope this helped.
Mystic Healing is a 3pp feat that is really good for healers. It grants extra scaling dice of healing, which stacks with the benefits of Fey Foundling. It really comes on line around level 5. (1d4 extra healing at 1st, 1d6 at 4th, 2d6 at 7th, 3d6 at 10th, and 4d6 at 13th, I think.)
If you're Human, one of my favourite combinations is the Human FCB (for Resistances) combined with Unscathed to increase all those Resistances by 2; letting you afford even some cool ones like Sonic and Negative Energy!
While I'm getting advice for my build, any suggestions for the speed penalty while wearing plate? I'm considering dropping down to a mithral breastplate, but would prefer to keep the plate if at all possible. Plan to get mithral plate (and eventually the celestial version) when I can afford it.
Until then, should I just suck it up as far as the speed penalty, or should I look into ways to mitigate? Campaign is supposed to be "classic fantasy" so that doesn't really give me any ideas as to what to worry about (I know some cold weather near the beginning, but nothing too big).
Boots of Striding & Springing?
I'm making a Paladin for a friends upcoming custom campaign and have gotten most everything figured out except for Traits.
What would be some good traits for a Paladin? The build I'm going for is a two-hander wielding combat medic type, with a focus on Lay on Hands and Mercies. Archetypes are Sacred Servant and Warrior of the Holy Light.
Pact Servant so you can be a Paladin of Asmodeus.
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Pact Servant so you can be a Paladin of Asmodeus.I'm making a Paladin for a friends upcoming custom campaign and have gotten most everything figured out except for Traits.
What would be some good traits for a Paladin? The build I'm going for is a two-hander wielding combat medic type, with a focus on Lay on Hands and Mercies. Archetypes are Sacred Servant and Warrior of the Holy Light.
Which was mentioned several times by devs as not being an intention of the trait, so that's quite bad advice.
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Also, any suggestions for a deity? Are there any LG, NG, or LN deities that are focused on funerary rites? Or at least that hate/despise undead as a desecration of the dead? Any deities close to this you would suggest?
They hate the Undead for sure. The biggest hater of Undead is Pharasma I believe but She is a N deity.
Which was mentioned several times by devs as not being an intention of the trait, so that's quite bad advice.
Pact Servant so you can be a Paladin of Asmodeus.
Dev mumblings on the forum mean nothing. By RAW it's totally allowed.
That said, I don't see how Asmodeus fits OPs goals. He can still be a Paladin of Pharasma since Paladins, unlike Clerics, don't gain their power from their deity, so there's nothing preventing him from choosing a deity off from his alignment, and unlike say Gorum, it should be totally possible to remain LG while doing anti-undead Pharasma things.
Since you're doing a custom campaign, just ask your DM if he'll let you do a Paladin of Pharasma. By RAW it's totally allowed but clear it with your DM first.
In the case of Pharasma, the dogma/code may be the trickier part. AFAIK on Golarion the deity-specific codes take precedence and the one in the core book was given as a setting-agnostic one. I do not think it works all that well for a pharasmin paladin. Then again, the paladin may venerate Pharasma without drawing power from her.
To be honest, I would probably go with Sarenrae anyway, unless I was making a character who specifically fits the Pharasmin dogma.
The Redeemer all the way.
If you're Human, one of my favourite combinations is the Human FCB (for Resistances) combined with Unscathed to increase all those Resistances by 2; letting you afford even some cool ones like Sonic and Negative Energy!
This.
1 pt each of Fire and Cold resistance makes you immune to natural environmental extremes, you'll never need Endure Elements.
However, Resistances are generally based on the spell Resist Elements, so it is highly unlikely the GM will let you take something other then fire, cold, acid or lightning.
Blowing a feat for a few extra points is a choice of your own. If you have a LOT of resistances (i.e. put 1 pt into each of the 4), that's actually not that bad, it's just it won't stack with spells and you'll really only be resistant to tossed alchemical items and effects on magic weapons. Elemental attacks very quickly ramp up to more then 5 pts damage.
As for magic item, saving up for a RIng of Evasion to take advantage of your incredible saving throws is a good idea for higher levels.
Is there an archetype that can give you the Travel Domain for the speed boost? Or are you willing to dip into a class with a speed boost (barbarian, bloodrager, cleric, inquisitor, oracle (flame), 3 levels of fighter for Armor Training 1, etc.)?
barb and bloodrager wont work since he's in heavy armor.
boots of striding and springing.
UMD longstrider.
Why are you trying to figure out a Trait for a Standard action Stabilize when you can Lay on Hands, Cure Light Wounds, or Channel Energy?
Your basically wasting the Trait and might as well not even bother giving it to him as he wont use it past 1st level.
Sadly, you'd probably be better off picking up Chosen Child and buying a wand of cure light wounds and a spring-loaded wrist sheath. The 50 charges would far exceed the number of times you'd use stabilize and would get you some minor additional benefit (and I wouldn't recommend this.)
Another great trait: Birthmark. Works as an indestructable Holy symbol and grants +2 to will saves against charm and compulsion (i.e. the worst kinds of effect).
barb and bloodrager wont work since he's in heavy armor.
boots of striding and springing.
UMD longstrider.
Bloodrager steelblood archtype, if its only a few dips you reduce your speed to 25ft instead of 20ft in armor and you can use your abilities in heavy armor.
Would this be an appropriate place to discuss allowing some archetypes to stack, that wouldn't normally be allowed to stack (including a 3rd party archetype)? Or should I start a new thread, maybe in a different forum on the boards?
That's up to your DM.
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Speaking of super powerful and legal.... >___>'
My Suli paladin of Shelyn did unscathed and deft dodger, with Fey Foundling for my first level feat. The goal was to make someone so hard to kill he was super arrogant and just waltzes into everything without a care in the world. He's proven to be one of my favorite characters. Pool of acid? Meh, wade through it. House burning down? Walk in. Spell trap? My saves are Fort: +15, Ref: +11, Will: +12 with a +2 vs. death effects. Level drain? Deathless armor (that was a purchase learned through eating 2 negative levels twice in a row). I also spent a special boon just to give myself a third trait that grants Perform(Sing) as a class skill and a +1 bonus because then I can sing things to people in-character and drive them mad.
So he pretty much wears the boots of trapfinding in any party he's in (PFS) and I try to have him eat attacks from BBEGs as at his current level I can drop a 5d6+10 Lay on Hands on myself as a swift action.