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Okay so this is for a potential Carrion Crown character in the possible near future. So the idea is to have a quiet and reserved Paladin of an unknown deity at the moment who tries to talk down most enemies and will usually spend his first round observing the battlefield to get an idea of the situation. I want him to be a very intimidating yet very diplomatic kind of guy with a very mysterious vibe going on and he is not much on talking about himself or his past. His weapon of choice is a Scythe, which will more than likely not change and if I can get GM approval may attach the scythe blade onto a staff for an all in one weapon. His familiar will be the cutsiest and possibly the most useless animal ever just for some fun RP stuff. Okay stat block goes like this:
Human Paladin 2, Sorceror 3-6, EK or DD 10
20 PT Buy
STR 16
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 7
CHA 16
Bloodline is one of the hardest things for me to decide because I think it would be fun to RP a Pally with a Shadow bloodline but making it work is hard because I'm not sure how to play off of it yet and then of course there is Draconic but I'm still not sold on the idea of DD except for the ability score bonuses. Cold is something else I am interested in BUT it is the most resisted element of the four unfortunately so I'm not really sure where to go there. Also would a Wis score of 7 be okay since Pally can add CHA to saves plus Sorcerors get awesome Will saves?? I'm sure more questions will arise if this post lives long enough but I'm on empty right now. So now the help can begin =D
One thing to bear in mind with your weapon is strictly by the rules, you are expected to have a hand free to cast. This makes wielding a two handed weapon like a scythe problematic. But that is something you can probably work out with your GM.
As for bloodline and prestige class, a lot of it is up to you and the flavor you want, and how you want your abilities to mesh together. Some thoughts to take or leave...
Bloodline:
Arcane: This one may seem "boring" but it's also open to reflavoring as you like more than most other bloodlines. Also, if you decide to go EK, the 3rd level ability Metamagic Adept is REALLY useful because of the EK's 10th level Spell Critical ability. You activate Spell Critical as a Swift Action, see -- but if you want to avoid arcane spell failure (assuming you are wearing armor), activating Arcane Armor Training/Mastery is ALSO a Swift Action, so you can't do both. This saddles you with arcane spell failure -- but wait! Metamagic Adept allows you to apply metamagic to the spell you cast upon critically hitting without increasing casting time, meaning you can apply Still Spell to your spell, thus negating the need to worry about arcane spell failure. (Just remember to mark off the spell from a higher spell level.) Hopefully that makes sense.
Destined: This has a nice theme for a heroic paladin, and has some neat bloodline abilities you can incorporate into your concept. It's not powerful, especially if you only take a few levels, but not inappropriate at least and could be useful. The ability to buff allies, however in a small way, is also nice if you're not wanting to immediately jump into fighting.
Draconic: If you do go this route and you are attracted to cold, I'd combine the two and be of silver dragon heritage. Silver dragons' amiable nature makes sense for your paladin's desire to be diplomatic first, and while it is cold power oriented, it is not the only kind of power granted to you (unlike an elemental bloodline). Plus while a lot of creatures are resistant to it, many are not and some notable foes of good like red dragons are vulnerable to it, even.
Draconic of course as you well know also opens you to Dragon Disciple and all that brings. If you want to be more of a lightly armored melee-caster this may be a good choice for you -- plus spell-less source of flight is always a good thing.
Dreamspun: This could account for his mysterious nature, and the Combat Precognition ability is really nice for a melee-caster.
Verdant: Another way of getting a natural armor bonus, and the tanglevine ability allows you an option to trip/disarm without the scythe. Entangle and barkskin good bonus spells for a combat-caster as well.
Maestro: The beguiling voice ability is a cool way to reflect being able to talk down an opponent in even dire circumstances. Plus the possible heritage of being from a good outsider like an azata is cool for a paladin.
Rakshasa: If he has a dark secret that his ability to be diplomatic and charming comes from tainted blood, on the other hand...
So that's some thoughts.
As to prestige class, Eldritch Knight if you want to be more the shining knight--and have some unusual abilities be less obvious (going DD is "obvious" --you're scaly and such). Also having your EK levels count as fighter levels for feat qualification is nice if you're dead set on focusing on only using one kind of weapon.
DD has advantages too as mentioned above and you have the option of natural attacks when weapon attacks aren't working or available. You get flight and blindsense too. But it is unsubtle, and I get a sense if he wants to observe before getting involved, that could be a downside (however minor).
Not really speaking to what might be most optimal, btw, but what works with your flavor and what could be interesting and fun -- certainly effective as well.
One thing to bear in mind with your weapon is strictly by the rules, you are expected to have a hand free to cast. This makes wielding a two handed weapon like a scythe problematic. But that is something you can probably work out with your GM.
You can hold a two-handed weapon with one hand while you cast. There's some technicality with regards to bonded item where it doesn't count as "equipped" if you do this (causing all the regular issues with not having your bonded item equipped while casting), but if it's just a regular two-handed weapon you can just hold it one hand while you cast with the other.
Personally I find EK's (and DD's) are really fun at low levels but fall behind dramatically at higher levels. With two levels sunk in Paladin, that's going to be all the more painful. If you're cool with that and don't have to keep up with a high-optimization group, this should be a very fun build.
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So...are you the party arcanist or are you a fifth wheel? If your the party primary arcanist and your running a pretty standard AP campaign, your gonna get the party killed. If your the fifth wheel or in a much easier game, you will be fine. If your playing at above AP level difficulty...yeah don't even think about it.
It should be noted that you don't get a familar as a sorcerer unless you take the arcane bloodline...and you MUST take droconic for DD...so DD = no familar...and arcane is one of the most useless ones for a gish.
Some of the good gish bloodlines are abyssal for the profane bonus to str, abberant for ignore crit, the infernal subtype that gives profane con bonus...Although I am very fond of boreal. After level 9 of sorcerer, you cast sleet storm and laugh your ass off.
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As it stands I will probably be more fifth wheel but none of the party is set in stone yet so I was gonna grab some feedback on this first. Abyssal was another bloodline that would be really fun to toy around with...Paladin summoning demons HOWEVER I'm not sure how one could RP that and really get away with it. I like DD abilities however I do not like the common flavor and appearance change that comes with it so I think I am leaning more towards a EK build. I would just do Pally 2/Sorceror X but the lack in a solid BAB makes me lean more towards EK. Boreal is a very good "cold" bloodline
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I should caveat that the boreal bloodline build REALLY hurts at the start. The most survival from level 1 version is to do the 9 levels of sorcerer, grab your level of paladin and then fill up on EK...splash in paladin level if want...not like you will get a capstone in an AP with this build. But that is a lot of levels of not being what your concept is in all honesty. It is the most powerful sor/pal EK I have made so far.
For abyssal...nothing says you HAVE to summon demons with the bloodline. In fact, you can summon a celestial with your summon spells and you still get your bloodline arcana dr/good applied to it. Yeah amused the hell out of me too. And you really shouldn't discount the abberant arcana ability...50% longer polymoph spells = more gishy goodness.