Suprized I don't see a reach weapon on the list.
Building a physical combat character, there are 4 main ways to go. 2 Handed weapon, two weapon fighting, sword and board, and archery. As a paladin, with the way smite works now, more attacks is better so archery, S&B and twf are mechanically better.
My suggestion, unless you're dedicated to falchion, just take a good old longsword that you can wield in two hands if needs be, a shield, and a backup composite longbow.
Feats do make you specialize a bit, but if you want to be versatile in your combat style then take some feats from each style. If you want to be what is called a "switch hitter" which means when enemies are at a range you use bow and arrow then swap for a 2h (or S&B) in melee, this is the way to go.
Take Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, Cleave, Improved Shield Bash and Rapid Shot.
Intimidating Prowess as a first feat.
I've got a player who has just started a 1st half orc paladin. Going Bard then Dragon Disciple. Looks scary on paper.
Looking at that route myself just working on some details...
Hey why bard rather than draconic sorcerer?
my guess is that sorcerer loses too much and he wants a dancing dragon.
Draconic sorcerer really stinks as an entry point to dragon disciple. The bard will get most of the goodies he needs, has better chance to use the strength bonus due to better BAB, and can wear armor while casting spells and using shields without any problem. With better HD and the fact that you can take all 10 levels of DD and not lose your highest level spells as a Bard you got lots of good reasons to do so.
For feats:
Point Blank shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot
Two weapon fighting, Improved Two weapon, Shield bash Shield slam
Power Attack, Cleave
Quick Draw
That gives you access to the basics of each fighting style. If you want to get more use out of the shield slam (and have a maneuver to use in general) go human drop the quick draw or cleave and take improved and greater bull rush.
Looking at that route myself just working on some details...
Hey why bard rather than draconic sorcerer?
Casting in light armor. Mithril Breastplate.
Bard get some darn useful buffs and with Perform (Sing/Shout) Versitle Performance helps with diplomacy and bluff. But mostly for the armored casting. I think it will be a great PC.Or Still Spell...
Or Sticking to True Strike and Blur which don't have a somantic component and Still Spelling anything else...
And what Adam Spalding said ;)
Actually I'm looking at his sheet now.
Its a test run to see if an arcane fighter can be done with a Bard and not be gimped and I think it can.
25 Point buy STR18, DEX12, CON14, INT13, WIS10, CHA14
Intimidating Prowess and traits give him a +13 Intimidate.
Opening move is roar and slash away with his falchion.
Dunno when the shift to Bard and Dragon Disciple will take place but could end up with a smattering of paladin spells and good buffing spells from the Bard.
Mithril Breastplate later.
Actually I'm looking at his sheet now.
Its a test run to see if an arcane fighter can be done with a Bard and not be gimped and I think it can.
25 Point buy STR18, DEX12, CON14, INT13, WIS10, CHA14
Intimidating Prowess and traits give him a +13 Intimidate.
Opening move is roar and slash away with his falchion.
Dunno when the shift to Bard and Dragon Disciple will take place but could end up with a smattering of paladin spells and good buffing spells from the Bard.
Mithril Breastplate later.
He can easily dump the Wis to take his Int up to 14 if he wants (or switch the Int and Dex for a bit more there).
Since he's looking at two good will saves and the perform(oratory) skill with versatile performance means he'll be good on sense motive still that Wis of 10 isn't strictly needed if he wants the points else where.
Note to Kinderken:
Bard/DD for a melee monster is nice simply because you don't have to just be a combat junky. You are getting good skill use out of the bard and you can have better stats in places other than strength and con since you know you'll be getting bumps there later. For example with Spacelards build I would do it slightly different:
Human or Half elf
Str 16 (start with a 14)
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 7
Cha 15
Since I know I'll be getting a +4 to strength and Con I can afford to let them start a little low. I can put my level boosts into strength for the first 3 and then put the level 16 boost into Cha to get those sixth level spells right when they come out finishing with strength again -- the base strength will be 24 before books and what not. With two hits on versatile performer (2nd and 6th level) I can not worry about the following skills: Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Acrobatics, and Fly. In fact I would probably level in the following order: Bard 5 DD 1, Bard 2 DD 9.
The blind sense means this guy will be the parties early warning system in most cases, and his spells give him options for other things to do. With flight and buffing available he could spend the first round buffing (good hope and bardic music) the second one springing out a haste and moving into position before wailing on the third round.
@ Adam Spalding
Player prefered a WIS10 rather than dump. He has learned paranoia from me as a GM! But I do agree if it was a min/max build dump it. Keeping INT13 for RP reasons. The Sorcerer player is taking the p!$$ about thick half-orcs until he realised his INT was lower.
@Kenderkin
I've started a little thread/project on arcane fighter builds with three different ones being run in a real campaign to test the "you can't build a decent gish" stance. I'll post quite frequently about playablity, contibution, etc.
Paladin/Bard/Dragon Disciple
Fighter/Bard or Sorcerer/Arcane Archer
Fighter/Wizard/EK
My gut feeling says that the half-orc will be a brute with all the self buffs going down the critical attack route. The increased HD and stat boosts from the DD will go a long way. The synergy between the three classes gives a very nasty build.
One more question (maybe more than one)
paladin/bard build
I was leaning toward pal 4/bard 1Any comments or suggestions on that?
If I build that way I might need extra performance, no ?
I like feed-back! : )
Not sure yet...pal5 for weapon bond thingy...then Bard1...or pal2 then bard1...
Depends on what the focus at low/mid level fighting or casting...
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I was building a new 1st level half-orc Paladin and read both guides here on the boards.
The feat system seems to want my PC to select from among several combat builds.
I wanted to use the following build for variety (and b/c it makes sense) (having weapons that deal different types of damage, different ranges, etc).
One handed swinger
sword and board
archeryWeapons of choice
Great axe
Falchion
Heavy flail
hand axe
shortbowFirst feat I am considering?
Quick draw
It's a drawback in the system design.
See, in most RPGs, you have the following: Ability Stats, Power Level, A set of Awesome Powers based on Power Level, a variety of Skills at different things, and A Single Category For Everything Else.
In Pathfinder/D&D 3.5, that breaks down to Ability Scores, Character Level, Class Features, Skills, and Feats.
In World of Darkness, it breaks down to Traits, Power Stat(Blood Potency, Gnosis, etc), Special Powers (Disciplines and Devotions, Arcana and Rotes), Skills, and Merits.
There are other examples, like L5R, that I could list too. All of them have additional systems, but they tend to be minor.
It's a solid way to go about designing a game, but it breaks down precisely because having a single "everything else" category is impossible to balance. Is "skill focus" = "weapon focus" = "toughness" = "spell focus (illusion)"? How do you even begin comparing?
I'm honestly not sure what the solution is, though.
It's important to note that the switch hitter was a ranger idea and built on the ranger not needing dexterity to take his feats.
In general, you will specialize at least to some degree, but that doesn't mean you can't carry the spare weapon with you. If you're going for arcane warrior bard type, especially as a half orc, there's no reason not to have a falchion, a whip, and some kind of ranged weapon - though with UMD, it could be a wand instead of a bow.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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You can switch between melee and ranged decently well even as a Paladin.
You just cannot afford 2 feat intensive paths.
Ranged requires 4 - Up to Manyshot + precise shot and is very feat intensive.
Using a sword and a shield is mechanically inferior but requires really 0 feats.
TWF requires 1-3 feats, but also a good dex.
Mounted Combat requires 3 feats to work - Up to spirited charge.
Using a big 2 hander requires one feat - power attack.
I play a TWF paladin. I can switch hit well when smiting- my to hit skyrockets and the damage bonuses eclipse whatever else I need. I get away with my good but not great Dex (needed for TWF) and no archery feats. When not smiting, archery isn't a decent option. I miss a lot and do piss poor damage. The message here is when smiting...especially one of the extra-evil groups...things work out. I nearly one-shotted a creature greater than my CR with one round of using a sling at mid levels. If it wasn't an evil outsider, it would have taken forever.
If I wanted to be a more dedicated switch hitter, I would go archery focused with my feats AFTER grabbing Power Attack. In mellee I would rock my Falchion or Greatsword. In ranged combat I would rock a bow. Once I had Manyshot, I would grab improved crit and go from there.
H Power Attack
1 Point Blank shot
3 Precise Shot
5 Rapid Shot
7 Manyshot
9 Imp Crit Falchion
11 Critical Focus
13 Staggering Critical
....
This is a solid build. It requires 17 Dex to work, but is very solid. The upside of this build is that you get all of the key feats for both builds. The downside is you miss out on little stuff like Step Up and Cleave.
Any other ideas on keeping versatility rather than optimizing one route?
The hardest part of covering multiple routes is having a useable attack bonus in each.
Fighters have some trouble with that - they are rather guided (with weapon training/focus/spec/gfocus/gspec) towards focusing on utter mastery of a single weapon. However, weapon training does branch at 9th, giving them some broadening. They also have plenty of feats to burn on the "make this route more effective" front.
Barbarians are hit somewhat hard on this front - rage adds only to strength, not dex, making melee by far their focus. However, with only medium armor (and usually light), they are often built with at least okay dex scores, which keeps them from being horrible. But they lack many feats to use.
Paladins, despite lacking feats (somewhat more so than Barbarians, as they have other good choices like Extra Channeling/Lays/Mercy to take), Paladins can be quite good as John Spalding pointed out. Unlike Rage, Smite works on all attacks forms (though fewer targets of course). I'm playing a Paladin now with a 9 Str and an 18 Dex, and can switch hit just fine (lack of Precise shot evens them up somewhat).
Rangers have it the easiest, with almost as many feats as fighters, not needing to meet prerequisites, *and* Favored Enemy, like Smite, works on all attack forms. Like barbarians, their armor options tend to emphasize dex a bit as well. Biggest trouble for a Ranger is when they are not facing a favored enemy, if they are too balanced between attack forms, they might have trouble ramping up a very good attack bonus. Same for Paladins against non-evil actually.
Plenty of ways to keep your options open - choose useful feats that aren't tied to an attack form for the most part.