Hey everyone. Hope you're all doing well.
My friend recently invited me to play in his Curse of the Crimson Throne game he'll be running soon. I wasn't sure what to play at first, and was fiddling with the idea of a magus, and then to zen archer (until I found out the party had a monk already), then to the idea of a human paladin, since we were rolling for stats and I got quite a good roll.
If I recall, my rolls were:
11
12
15
14
14
16
They can be placed in any slot, of course, and I didn't put them in that order, because ew.
Anyway, I've been taking a look at all the archetypes, and decided I might be a Warrior of the Holy Light, since I've never been too tied to spellcasting with paladins and I like lay on hands and interesting abilities like that. Thinking my Campaign Trait will be the Religious Unhappy Childhood one; I used to be raised by Lamb, but found a holy symbol of Sarenrae and started attending sermons in the church and became quite dedicated to the worship of her. After Lamb beat me and wrecked my holy symbol, I decided to flee his care and became adopted by the church where I assisted in healing the sick and injured. Was a rough childhood, but my character found great joy in helping those who needed help.
So my traits are: Unhappy Childhood (Religious), Strength of the Sun, and Caretaker (Our GM is allowing us one campaign trait and two of our choice).
I took a look at the Holy Tactician which seemed really cool, until I noticed I lost my Divine Bond. I didn't much like that idea, so I backed out of it. As far as my role in the group goes, I wanted to be something of a protector and someone who could actually take hits, because the party seems to so far be: A monk, a sorcerer, a melee bard, and a rogue. None of which seem readily able to take a few hits and live too long. I don't really want to forsake defense or combat ability one way or the other if I can help it, but with certain things, I'd probably be convinced of their worth.
Just curious, without spoilers or too much assistance (cuz I don't want to be literally prepared for everything, metagame style), anything cool anyone else has made as far as paladins go, or mix and match archetyping? Any feats anyone has used that they find quite interesting, fun, or useful?
Thanks everyone! :)
Your ideas are appreciated!
Hi, I'm about to GM CCT and have read 5 out of 6 books.
Paladins fit and will do quite well in this campaign. I don't think any particular archetype will help more than others, there's a variety of challenges. To me there's nothing wrong with the vanilla paladin.
I could probably suggest feats/magic items/ability choices to counter the AP, but I think it would ruin it if you had the counter to everything.
If you're looking for interesting paladin builds/feats, you should search/post in other forums.
Yeah, suppose the adventure path board is a little specific for something so broad... Well, at least a little bit less specific. Will try in the Advice board as well :)
Yep a paladin certainly works for the AP. Not sure how much your GM has told you about Korvosa or what you have read. Abadar is a prominent Church in the city don't recall much in the way of Sarenrae. Iomadae is another one that is reasonably prominent IIRC.
Stay away from Oath of Vengeance unless you want to see a GM cry. Paladins can already trivialize some encounters in this AP, and an Oath of Vengeance will have a Smite for every situation.
I am a little concerned about the Warrior of the Holy Light archetype as you give up your spell casting ability. Meaning you can't use wands to heal the people in a party that has little-to-no healing. By healing, I don't just mean hit-points (as the Bard can help there), but status removal, ability recovery (from poisons or diseases or such), things like that. Having a Cleric or Oracle, or even a Paladin with a Wand of Lesser Restoration can mean the difference between a harrowing escape and a TPK. With your lack of spell casting ability, and no other 'healers' in the group, this is something that concerns me both as a player in Pathfinder, and a GM who is currently running Curse of the Crimson Throne and will be starting Skeletons of Scarwall this Sunday.
It may be a different archetype I was looking at, but with Warrior of the Holy Light, I gain increased uses of Lay on Hands, and an ability to heal everyone near me as if casting restoration, but that might have been the hospitaler. Likely not taking an oath, as I actually didn't want spellcasting. To me, Paladin spellcasting always seemed very lackluster and I like the idea of making a more martial paladin able to wield divine powers and abilities, I guess...