The Bache's page

...As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite...

Benefit: While using your smite evil class feature, as a swift action at the start of your turn, you can forgo the bonus on damage rolls and instead gain half that bonus as a bonus oncombat maneuver checks against the target of your smite. The effects of your smite evil feature return to normal at the start of your next turn.

The way this looks to me is that the earliest you can use Adept Champion is on the second round of using Smite Evil. I am hoping that I am wrong. It seems awkward to me that you should have to wait a turn to gain the benefits of the feat. Trying to make a grappling-proficient paladin who is unable to use his first move+standard as a divine-powered grapple rubs me the wrong way. Am I misreading it, and can activate Adept Champion during the first round of Smite Evil?

I also do realize that just activating Smite Evil does give +Cha to hit (including CMB).

Thanks, The Bache

Name: Rowan Cousland
Race: Human Male
Class: Paladin (Templar)
Alignment: LN

Rowan spent his childhood amongst the guards and knights of Highever, learning their skill with both blade and shield. However, as the youngest son, he stood to inherit little to nothing of the family estate. Rather than leave him destitute, or subject to the courtesy of family, Rowan was given instead to the Chantry, like many extra sons. There, recognizing his skill at arms, he was quickly recruited into the Templars. This was a lucky break for Rowan, for while he believed both in Andraste and the Maker, he found little gain in begging for their aid; amongst the ranks of Templar's, he found it much easier to pay them lip service. Years were spent with the Templars, mastering their powers and learning his duties. Rowan quickly became accustomed to the flow of Lyrium through him, as well as the true danger of Abominations. Because of his family name, he is now stationed at Highever Chantry.

25 point buy

Str: 14 +2
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 12
Wis: 11 -2
Cha: 14 +2

12 mod point:

Str: 16 (+3)
Dex: 17 (+3)
Con: 14 (+2)
Int: 13 (+1)
Wis: 11 (+0)
Cha: 16 (+3)

Significant Events:

Abomination Sensation: While everyone had always heard the rhetoric about Mages and the dangers of Magic, particularly Abominations, Templars are the men who deal with such monstrosities. As such Rowan has see first hand the destruction wrought by mages gone awry. What shall forever stay with him is the image of a Rage Demon standing over the slaughtered remnants of a small farming family with whom he had spoken to the day before.

Second-rate Hero: Rowan, as a younger son, was always compared to his siblings, and found lacking. Not in his abilities, but rather his responsibilities. The casual disregard for his skills rankled him, and to this day, he still finds himself out to prove something. What he needs to prove, and whom to, he does not yet know.

I can see my house from up here: Occasionally, while some of the family went on sport hunting trips, Rowan was left in charge of the estate. During these trips, many of the lower classes would come to Rowan for a Noble's decision in disputes. Unused to command, Rowan was forced to develop his mediation skills. While he did his utmost best, many left his rulings unhappy and agitated. Rowan does not look at those times in charge fondly, but does not deny that the skills gained have been invaluable.

Questions re:
1: Darkspawn/Blights
2:Maker/Andraste, Chantry/Mages
3:Childhood Ambition

1: Legends and Tales as told by his childhood tutor; no real information known.

2: The Maker and Andraste are indeed True, however, they show no inclination to help Thedas anymore, so why waste the effort? Mages, on the other hand, are exactly where they should be: controlled.

3: Rowan always aspired to be a great warrior; to smite injustice with one hand, and to shield the weak with the other.

Anything else you need, or want me to expand on?

P.S. Not entirely Super Templar, but definitely some elements. Good enough for you Yossarin?

I am going back and forth between a Human Noble Ranger, or a Human Noble Paladin/Inquisitor.

The Ranger for the stereotypical Ferelden dog lords. I'd take the animal companion dog/wolf - whatever one you felt was best as a Mabari. Personally, I feel that they are more similar to wolves, but it is your call. I'd most likely go for a Two-Handed build, though I'd try to be half decent at archery in case it was called for. Also, the Ash Warriors were rather neat, though I do realize they are not viable as per the Human Noble Origin. This character would have been lax in their studies/responsibilities, and goofed off with friends/mabari instead.

The Paladin or Inquisitor because the hold that the Chantry has over Thedas is astounding, and I think it would be interesting to play as part of the militant arm of the Chantry. I would most likely go Sword and Shield for either class. This character would believe the Chantry's correctness regarding Mages and abominations, but may be more lax in other respects.

I'll get back to you later tonight, or tomorrow with one of them more fleshed out. Any advice on which one to focus on?

Dotting for now.

Out of curiosity, when is the deadline for character submissions?

Would someone be able to help me understand how Araonna Chorster can have so many HD's worth of undead under her control? I get that there is one zombie under the command undead FEAT, and that she can control up to 6 HD/lvl instead of 4 HD/lvl with the animate dead spell. By my count, she has 166 HD under her control (not including the one controlled by the feat), while she is lvl 15 and so should only have 90 HD.

It was my understanding that the caster level increases (i.e. varisian tattoo, spell specialization, spell perfection, and ioun stone) only apply to the HD of undead created, not undead controlled; mainly because they are temporary bonuses that apply to the spell as it is cast, but not your actual caster level which determines the Hard Cap Limit (maybe the ioun stone would still count though). Even the Undead Master Feat only specifies that it increases how many undead are animated.

I hope I am wrong, because I love the idea of her, and she is one of my favorite characters in this Emporium.

Regardless, thanks RD for all your awesome characters.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but it appears to me that those who point buy like it for the flexibility in character creation and game balance, while the dice rollers like it for RP purposes as well as the feel of a heroic character.

What I am unable to understand is why a PB character can not be both heroic (in stats) and RP fantastically?

With a 20-point PB, some balanced stats could be 14/13/13/13/13/13 (just to throw an array out here), not including racial modifiers. I want to take this moment to remind the rollers that a 10 in a stat is seen as average. A character using this array is better than an average person -at everything- and can still easily cast lvl 9 spells (remember the unused racial modifier and level increases), or dish out decent combat damage, etc. Is this character optimized? No. Is this character better than average in everything while still able to do his/her main shtick? Yes.

I'd also like to say that while not good, an 8 in a stat is just below average, not terrible.

I mean, sure, many people in PB get that coveted 18 at the expense of a 'dump stat'. That in itself is a great RP opportunity - the intelligent and frail wizard; or the super-strong fighter whom is not the brightest. These are ICONIC to the fantasy genre.

Rolled stats, on the other hand, can be anywhere from pathetic to SUPER GOD MODE. I remember seeing in this thread somewhere that a person stated they have never seen a GM not let a player re-roll their pathetic stats. What is the point of rolling randomly for stats, if the second there is a bad stat a player can re-roll? The re-roll effectively takes the risk out of the random factor. Since the risk is removed, why not just use a PB?

If a re-roll is NOT allowed, the player is gimped in some way, shape or form, and not in a way they intended when they created the character concept in mind.

Which brings me back full circle: PB allows for a balanced game, flexibility and customization in character creation, heroic characters, and rich role playing possibilities.