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Heya, everyone, just looking for some advice on some feats to take for a paladin. Our party's cleric said he'll take care of in-combat Channel Positive Energy, so I won't need to take any channel-related feats.
That out of the way, I know for sure I'm taking:
H. Tower Shield Proficiency
1. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Swords)
3. Shield Wall [Teamwork]
I've been looking into Channel Smite, Extra Lay on Hands, Extra Mercy, Shield Focus, Toughness, and Weapon Focus (Bastard Swords) once opportunities become available. Any other suggestions/recommendations?
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Heya, everyone, just looking for some advice on some feats to take for a paladin. Our party's cleric said he'll take care of in-combat Channel Positive Energy, so I won't need to take any channel-related feats.
That out of the way, I know for sure I'm taking:
H. Tower Shield Proficiency
1. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Swords)
3. Shield Wall [Teamwork]I've been looking into Channel Smite, Extra Lay on Hands, Extra Mercy, Shield Focus, Toughness, and Weapon Focus (Bastard Swords) once opportunities become available. Any other suggestions/recommendations?
I'd move away from the Bastard sword unless it is a Roleplay choice. Paladins have a meaty bonus to their damage from Smite. Unlike Sneak Attack, it is multiplied on a Critical. Therefore a slightly lower damage dice weapon with a greater threat range is going to stand you in better stead overall.
If you're not too bothered about the shield (don't forget that Pallys can heal themselves as a swift action) I'd go with a Falchion for 2d4 18-20/x2 with 1.5 Strength damage.
If you want more AC then you can't go wrong with a Scimitar 1d6 18-20/x2.
The loss of the to hit bonus from using a Tower Shield is nasty, let alone the Armour Check Penalty. Assuming you have the Inteliigence necessary then Combat Expertise is a far better choice as it can be turned on and off unlike a tower shield and the AC bonus also adds to your touch AC. Your flatfooted won't be too much of a problem as you're in Full Plate.
Heya, everyone, just looking for some advice on some feats to take for a paladin. Our party's cleric said he'll take care of in-combat Channel Positive Energy, so I won't need to take any channel-related feats.
That out of the way, I know for sure I'm taking:
H. Tower Shield Proficiency
1. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Swords)
3. Shield Wall [Teamwork]I've been looking into Channel Smite, Extra Lay on Hands, Extra Mercy, Shield Focus, Toughness, and Weapon Focus (Bastard Swords) once opportunities become available. Any other suggestions/recommendations?
If you are going for strong defense with your feats then you can't go wrong with shield focus, Toughness, and Extra Lay on Hands for the healing. I have found with my Paladins that Mobility is very useful in that it allows you to go to enemies where smite may be effective without taking aoo's.
On the other hand, if you want more offensive power then go for Weapon focus, improved critical, power attack, cleave, greater cleave, and lunge. If you want an exotic weapon try the Falcata in the APG. The x3 crit combined with smite is a deadly combination.
I'd rethink Bastard Sword. Bastard Sword only give a +1 avg dam over a longsword, Weapon Focus will likely give more damage. If you also take power attack that +1 to hit translates directly to a +2 to damage with PA. If you don't plan on taking Imp. Crit. A longsword is better than scimitar unless your doing more than dice+18 damage per hit. So damage wise think of how much time you will spend north of that cutoff.
I would also rethink Tower Shield. The to hit bonus is harsh plus it will interfere with spellcasting and Lay on Hands, both of which require a free hand. If you want to specialize in defence, (IMO the best defense is a good offence) you will need a plan to make sure that baddies can't just walk around you and attack lower AC party members. After all, what good is an infinite AC if nothing bothers to attack you because they know they'll miss?
If you have the Dex, Combat Patrol is a good way to always be sure you can put yourself between your party and your foes. Following Step is also good for chasing foes that try to move away from you after you attack them.
Really, though, unless you DM is kind enough to have all your foes mindlessly bang their head against your shield because they only hit you on a 20, you should find that you will prevent a lot more damage to your party by simply killing things as fast as you can. The three proven best Pally builds for this are, in no particular order: Archer, THF, S&B/TWF(shield bash) Feats will mostly be the same as a fighter with the same combat style.
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Remember the shield wall (teamwork) feat. The cleric (me) in the group will also have a heavy shield, the two of us together will keep the enemies off the Alchemist and Illusionist. The ability to provide full cover to both of us with that feat is also beneficial since our reflexes will suck (low dex characters)
Remember the shield wall (teamwork) feat. The cleric (me) in the group will also have a heavy shield, the two of us together will keep the enemies off the Alchemist and Illusionist. The ability to provide full cover to both of us with that feat is also beneficial since our reflexes will suck (low dex characters)
For one, being adjacent for teamwork makes it that much easier for baddies to get around you than if you spread out a little to maximize your threatened area.
Two, If the baddies can't hit the Pally, they'll probably hit the Cleric instead. So the Pally's high AC is pretty moot. A heavy shield will grant the cleric the same teamwork bonus without the penalty to hit or a feat cost.|
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The bastard sword/tower shield combo's a roleplaying thing rather than mechanical- I'm not in it for the mathematical superiority of sword and shield, it's just a friendly game among friends. Only one of them's using a door and a four foot long sword.
Ramdragon: Thanks for the suggestions- looks like I can balance defense and offense with Shield Focus, Extra Lay on Hands, and Weapon Focus (with Toughness just in case I roll poorly on a few Hit Dice.) Think Channel Smite and Extra Mercy would be worth taking eventually?
I have never seen the need for the Extra Mercy feat. In my experience, by the time you might want to invest a feat in Extra Mercy, you are due to get a new Mercy. Channel Smite is decent if you fight lots of single enemy encounters, but not that useful if you fight lots of groups.
Also, if your cleric is taking care of the healing role, I'd not take Extra Lay On Hands. If you are taking so much damage that you are using up your LoH swift-action healing yourself, then the problem isn't not having enough LoH uses. I'd encourage looking at your team's tactics at that point.
Personally, I'd replace Extra LoH with Power Attack, simply because the number of Smite-able enemies may not be constant and Power Attack allows you to boost your damage when fighting things that aren't evil. Also, it stacks with Smite, so use it do destroy those Smited foes (the attack bonus from Smite should more than compensate for the penalty from Power Attack).
Also, be aware you need a hand free to lay on hands, so that means either a light shield, or a cestus/brass knuckles/spiked gauntlet
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Also, be aware you need a hand free to lay on hands, so that means either a light shield, or a cestus/brass knuckles/spiked gauntlet
For other members of the party yes RAW. For yourself it is a DM Call.
I'd allow the Pally to touch himself with the hand wielding his sword.It isn't as though he needs to make actual physical contact to flesh as that's be impossible anyway with gauntlets.
Have you chosen a race?
Have you decided between a bonded weapon or mount?
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As a paladin the best level 1 feat in my opinion has to be Fey Foundling the adbility to add 2 to each dice of healing you get makes both the clerics channels and your lay on hands far stronger. I'd probably take it in place of the tower shield prof as it can only be gained at level 1 and the -2 to hit of the tower shield won't feel so nasty at level 3.
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Blueluck asks the corrcet thing here.
What do you want to do later? If you want to go mount, it would be stupid to go towershield ex.
Also. Your race has much to say. If you are an elf, you should go elven curve blade.
I have played a paladin in pathfinder from level 1 to 18. Your MAIN damage is the bonuses from smite evil. Which means - the more attacks the more damage. So. If you want to smite hard and efficient. Either go ranged or two weapon fighting.
My paladin was a human. And Desna our religion. So i dual wielded starknives.. And later two kukries.. I dealt alot of damage.
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Heya, everyone, just looking for some advice on some feats to take for a paladin. Our party's cleric said he'll take care of in-combat Channel Positive Energy, so I won't need to take any channel-related feats.
That out of the way, I know for sure I'm taking:
H. Tower Shield Proficiency
1. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Swords)
3. Shield Wall [Teamwork]I've been looking into Channel Smite, Extra Lay on Hands, Extra Mercy, Shield Focus, Toughness, and Weapon Focus (Bastard Swords) once opportunities become available. Any other suggestions/recommendations?
I know you have a concept, but I'd really like you to consider this as another option:
You want to take Fey Foundling as your first feat, Power Attack and Deadly Aim and then as many Extra Lay on Hands feats as possible.
Lay on Hands grants you the ability to self-heal as a swift action, an ability unmatched by any other martial class. Fey Foundling dramatically increases its potency in that capacity. If you go Oath of Vengeance (which you should, especially if someone else is handling your channelling), you'll find additional uses for all those LoH's in the form of extra Smites, making Extra LoH both the most valuable defensive feat AND the most valuable offensive feat you can have.
A Human Paladin, Oath of Vengeance (for instance) should look something like this
Feats:
1st - Fey Foundling (which I re-flavored as Auspicious Birth)
1st - Power Attack
3rd - Greater Mercy
5th - Deadly Aim
7th - Extra Lay on Hands
9th - Extra Lay on Hands
11th - Extra Lay on Hands
13th - Extra Lay on Hands
15th - Extra Lay on Hands
17th - Extra Lay on Hands
19th - Extra Lay on Hands
Replace Deadly Aim with Combat Reflexes if you decide to use a reach weapon, but as it stands above, you'll be the ultimate tank, dangerous at range, pretty much unkillable, un-mezzable and have all the Smites you need when facing evil foes. Highly, highly reccomended.
As an aside, your first spell (probably your first two) should be Hero's Defiance to lock in that 'unkillable' thing... at second level take Litany of Righteousness to give you tremendous alpha-strike ability. Also the Oath of Vengeance option will eventually get you Blessing of Fervor which is a scary good spell for a martial type to have.
To give you an example of what I mean, at 13th level, with a 20 Charisma, you would have 19 uses of Lay on Hands a day. Now some of these you can use to fuel extra Smites with Oath of Vengeance on top of the 5/day you're already getting, but if you don't, then you will be able to heal yourself - as a swift action - for 7d6+14 (21-66) points of damage 19 times a day. That averages out to about 730 extra hit points a day to work with on top of whatever your Cleric is giving you. That allows your party healers to focus more on protecting the other members of your group and lets you freelance a little more in combat.
At 20th level, the number of 'extra' hit points tops out at 2,552 a day for a Paladin with a 24 Charisma, and that's in addition to removing potentially crippling conditions.
Of course, that's on top of all the other things your Paladin can already do. Ultimate Mercy and Radiant Charge remain options for those 17th and 19th level slots, but honestly I'd reccomend sticking to Extra LoH... being able to Smite pretty much at will is a nice compliment to being pretty much unkillable.
As a paladin the best level 1 feat in my opinion has to be Fey Foundling the ability to add 2 to each dice of healing you get makes both the clerics channels and your lay on hands far stronger.
Also. Your race has much to say. If you are an elf, you should go elven curve blade.
If you choose to go elf - which is not optimal but optimization sholdn't be the end-all be-all - you can also take advantage of their favored class option to make those Lay on Hands even more potent. I had someone run a female Elven Paladin (Oath of Vengeance) with a bow and a curve blade as her weapons and she was dynamite.
As a paladin the best level 1 feat in my opinion has to be Fey Foundling the adbility to add 2 to each dice of healing you get makes both the clerics channels and your lay on hands far stronger. I'd probably take it in place of the tower shield prof as it can only be gained at level 1 and the -2 to hit of the tower shield won't feel so nasty at level 3.
I cannot find Fey Foundling in any Pathfinder source. Where is it from?
As a paladin the best level 1 feat in my opinion has to be Fey Foundling the adbility to add 2 to each dice of healing you get makes both the clerics channels and your lay on hands far stronger. I'd probably take it in place of the tower shield prof as it can only be gained at level 1 and the -2 to hit of the tower shield won't feel so nasty at level 3.I cannot find Fey Foundling in any Pathfinder source. Where is it from?
Says right at the bottom of the link. Inner Sea World Guide. Campaign setting book.
The thing with paladins, like clerics, is that they don't have that many feats, so you want to make sure the ones you pick fit a theme. Attacking, defending, healing, something else -- but you don't get to take all of them, so you have to focus.
If you are not the primary healer, Radiant Charge is really cool. Many will say it isn't optimal---this is a ROLE-Playing game, not an Optimizing game---but it makes for a nice denoument vs. the BBEB.
A good feat for any De-Buffer is Cornugon Smash. When used in conjunction with a Cruel weapon you can make them Sickened and Shaken just by hitting them. It will make spell casters much more effective as they will have a -4 to All their saves and they will have a -4 to hit and a -2 to damage.