StoneLord Paladin - Advice

[gcShad0fx]

So I am currently playing in an all dwarf dungeon delve here in Lincoln, NE. We have a rogue, two fighters, and two stone lords, one a typical shield tank, and then you have mine. I was kind of hoping to build this guy up to a decent damage dealer, able to hold his own when hit.

32 point build - 1600 gold, No magic item beyond +1
Stats are as follows
STR 18
DEX 13
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 14

Wields a +1 Dwarven long hammer, and has a standard battleaxe, warhammer, and standard steel shield.

He wears a helm, and banded +2 mail.

feats taken
1 - power attack
3 - Cleave

4 - ability increase - STR

Any suggestions. maybe i should have built him a bit differently? I've got an idea to rebuild him as a straight paladin. Stone lords seem great as pure tanks. But since I'm wanting to pump out dps, and enjoy the damage reduction a lot for when i do get hit.

[gcShad0fx]

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[master_marshmallow]

32 point build? like dnd style or pathfinder? how did you get those stats? only thing i would do different is max out CON a bit more
cleave doesnt seem that useful tbh, are you planning to take cleave through? or goblin cleaver?
i would reccommend Fight On instead, especially at lower levels it seems really good

stone lord actually seems really good since dwarves take that hit to CHA, tho ive only skimmed the stonelord archetype, it seems neat but so different from regular paladins that its almost a different class

probably a good thing tho, i dont think theres a variant of dwarf that doesnt take that hit to CHA so straight paladin is always gonna be at a disadvantage

[Seranov]

The only problem I see is that a +1 weapon, a +2 heavy armor, and some assorted other gear would be waaaaaaaaaay more than 1600g.

Cleave is okay, but I suggest using a reach weapon and grabbing Combat Reflexes as a Stonelord.

[master_marshmallow]

low dex makes combat reflexes not that good....

[Seranov]

Nothing stopping you from getting a Str/Dex or even a Str/Dex/Con belt, which would help. The fact of the matter is that a Stonelord will be planted in one place, trying to stop things from going around him, and 2 AoOs with a big nasty reach weapon are very good at accomplishing this.

[P33J]

cursory glance, you're using a 37 point buy

+17 for the 18
+3 for the 13
+5 for the 16
+2 for the 12
+0 for the 12
+10 for the 16(-2 racial for total of 14)

your weapon costs ~2350 for the +1 Masterwork Long Hammer
~4300 for the +2 banded mail

stone lord is cool but it's a tank class not a damage class. If you can figure out your buy , I would consider going Oath of Vengeance Paladin (makes sense with Dwarf looking to reclaim their home etc.) And smite all the things.

[P33J]

Also, by dropping STR to 16 you'll give yourself 7 points back, which means you're actually giving yourself 2 points back for your buy, which you can use to up DEX to 14 or WIS to 14 for truly massive saves lol.

[Seranov]

Yeah, I seemed to accidentally skipped over the part about doing damage.

The Stonelord's not really much good for doing damage, because instead of the awesome full-combat Smite Evil, you get the 1 round Stonestrike (though you do get quite a few uses of it, and it works on pretty much everything, which is pretty cool). It's great for Sundering and such (my Stonelord is built more towards doing damage so he can effectively hold the attention of baddies, and intends to get Imp and Greater Sunder as he gets higher in levels) but it's not really a DPR build.

The fact that you can't really root yourself in place and do a lot of damage (things will move away from you, and they can withdraw right the hell out of your range, even with a reach weapon) can be partially mitigated with proper placement (chokepoints are your friend!) and using LoH w/ the Fatigue mercy after level 6 (though you don't really have many uses of it) but there's no guarantee that they'll be there when you need them.

If you really want to do damage, I would also suggest the Oath of Vengeance Paladin, because it's an awesome archetype for being the hardass beatstick Defender of Good and Law.

[Gallyck]

Im going to make one for PFS soon. Dorn- Derger wielding one. With combat reflexes and darting viper.

[gcShad0fx]

thanks for the Intel, it is using pathfinder system, original stats were
17 str (+1 Stat increase level 4)
16 con (+2 Dwarven Racial)
14 dex
12 int
10 wis (+2 Dwarven Racial)
12 cha (-2 Dwarven Racial)

32 point buy = 13 (str) + 10 (con) + 5 (dex) + 2 (int) + 0 (wis) + 2 (cha)

I actually didn't chose the armor, i use a Dwarven Longhammer, which is a reach weapon. Definitely want to pick up Combat Reflexes. i do intend on doing the straight cleave. With weapon specialty feats like focus and such. anything to increase damage.

[master_marshmallow]

focus increases attack bonus, not damage fyi

[gcShad0fx]

increases the chance to do damage, granted focus doesn't add to the damage like you state.

[Seranov]

To hit generally increases damage more than straight +damage, anyway. At least until you can only miss on a Nat 1.

[master_marshmallow]

2 handed power attack is still a decent route, even without smiting going on, and i really like the flavor

[WerePox47]

Ud be better off as Oath of Vengeance Paladin for straight damage output.. Dwarf isnt the greatest race for it, but i assume ur minds made up there.. I would use a high crit weapon over a reach one, falchion or nodachi.. Feats power attack, furious focus, greater mercy, extra loh, crit focus, extra loh, stag critical will get u too 13th level and ud be a beast.. Smite all day...

[gcShad0fx]

it's an all dwarf adventure! i looked at the oath of vengeance paladin, looks really good without losing many strong paladin abilities. thanks so much for the advice! definitely going to be trying that very soon!

[Victor Zajic]

gcShad0fx wrote:

thanks for the Intel, it is using pathfinder system, original stats were

17 str (+1 Stat increase level 4)
16 con (+2 Dwarven Racial)
14 dex
12 int
10 wis (+2 Dwarven Racial)
12 cha (-2 Dwarven Racial)

32 point buy = 13 (str) + 10 (con) + 5 (dex) + 2 (int) + 0 (wis) + 2 (cha)

I actually didn't chose the armor, i use a Dwarven Longhammer, which is a reach weapon. Definitely want to pick up Combat Reflexes. i do intend on doing the straight cleave. With weapon specialty feats like focus and such. anything to increase damage.

It looks like you added 2 to your charisma instead of subtracting two. In order to have the stats you posted, you would need to start with the following array

Str 17 (13 points)
Dex 14 (5 points) [your first post listed dex as 13(3 points)
Con 14 (5 points)
Int 12 (2 points)
Wis 10 (0 points)
Cha 16 (10 points)

That's 35 points total, or 33 if dex is 13.

I would go Toughness and Power Attack for your first two feats.