Asking for some advice/sanity check on a Dhampir Paladin for the Carrion Crown adventure path. First off, I know this character will be sub-opt, and I'm ok with that. It seems flavourful and great for the setting, I just want it to not be woefully terrible. Seems like a great chance to play a Paladin with an internal light/dark struggle.
The DM we have is reasonably flexible when it comes to bending on the rules to make a rich and flavourful character. So I'm exploring some PFRPG street-legal and potential home-brew options. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Character core:
Moroi-born Dhampir. 20 Point-buy. Standard Paladin.
After racial mods: Str 17 Dex 10* Con 12 Int 13* Wis 8 Cha 17
Depending on the feat chains targeted, Dex and Int could be swapped.
Theme: lots of temp HP.
Feats: Fey foundling, Life Dominant Soul, Blood Drinker, Blood Salvage. Combat feats could be Power Attack and Endurance>Diehard>Combat Expertise>Stalwart>Imp.Stalwart (or Step Up feat chain, Combat Reflexes, etc.)
Item needed: Amulet of Channeled Life. (1/2 LoH as temp HP) Maybe Conte Tiriac could donate one. He could be my Vampires-Anonymous sponsor!
As an aside, it's my understanding that temp HP from different sources do stack.
Max Temp HP table: (it takes 7 levels to get enough feats...ouch)
L7: 22 = 10(blood) + 0.5(3d6+6)(LoH)
L8: 26 = 10(blood) + 0.5(4d6+8)(LoH)
L9: 30 = 15(blood) + 0.5(4d6+8)(LoH)
L10: 35 = 15(blood) + 0.5(5d6+10)(LoH)
L12: 44 = 20(blood) + 0.5(6d6+12)(LoH)
L15: 53 = 25(blood) + 0.5(7d6+14)(LoH)
Modus Operandi: Tank, draw fire, LoH self to full-effect (in combat, 1/2 of which will be temp HP). Drink blood of dead humans to top up temp HP, bottle it for up to 6 hours if DM allows, gentle repose bottled blood if possible to extend it's expiration date (or best before in Canada :P). The ace-up-the-sleeve of this build is that negative energy heals for 1/2 too. Harm spell? Yes please!
Paladin (Sacred Servant)
Chosen domain: Redemption** (yes, I just made that up)
**Consider the Undead subdomain for clerics.
Daily power: Allow a touched target to be healed by negative energy for a short time.
Level 8 power: Permanently allows the cleric to be healed by negative energy (and positive energy too!).
These are generally intended for a naughty-necromancer to heal themselves and their undead lackeys.
Now consider a subdomain that does the exact opposite, and allows for healing by positive energy. Is this broken and unreasonable? (I actually think it's not overly powerful... weaker than the undead subdomain powers for a naughty-necro) but it would allow the paladin to fully heal himself using Lay on Hands without lots of feats, but it would be clumsy until the level 8 power kicks in (level 11 for a sacred servant). This would allow him to take whatever feats he wants.
Not sure what domain spells this made-up domain would have, I didn't think that far ahead. Vampiric Touch at 3rd would certainly fit the vampire theme, but might be OP.
Keen for feedback :)
Honestly, for the Dhampir my suggestion would be to play the Archer Paladin with the Divine Hunter archetype. Bonus to DEX and CHA and a negative to CON works pretty well for this.
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I second the archer Paladin idea. With + Dex and +Cha you'll be great at it, and the con hit is neglegeable because you're fighting at range and should not be taking all that many hits to began with. Conversely, if you REALLY want to do melee and don't mind being evil then you may want to consider Anti-Paladin. They get negative energy effects such as negative channeling and a negative energy version of lay on hands, which means that a Dhampire Anti-Paladin will possess self healing abilities a Dhampire Paladin doesn't. Finally, if you're set on melee Paladin then ask your DM if you can use alternate heritages. There is a specific Dhampire heritage, Moroi-born, I believe, that gives you +2 Str, +2 Cha, -2 Con. Yeah, the con hit is still bad, but the bonus strength is far, far better then bonus dex for a melee fighter, so the stats are slightly better for a melee Paladin then the stock dhampire's at the least.
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I was already thinking of Moroi-born heritage (perhaps I just didn't make it explicit enough, my bad). The ability scores I outlined above consider the bonuses to Str and Cha. I wasn't planning on blood drinking living humans, just read ones via blood salvage. Some next RP potential IMO.
I was leaning toward a melee build as I will likely serve as the party tank. (Other party members aren't well defined yet, 4 party members total. This paladin, a rogue, a psion, and the last person he no idea yet).
The temp HP build was an attempt to offset low Con and negative energy affliction, albeit a heavy investment. The custom domain Sacred Servant was trying to do the same thing at a lower investment.
Any thoughts on which build (street legal vs custom) to go with, or even both of them together, since they are stackable?
I guess playing a dhampir is the best way to destroy the partie's trust score. More so if he is a paladin and thus must not lie about his true race.
But everything their own.
dot
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If you're drinking the blood of your enemies, it makes the thread title very misleading.
thats what i thought...
If you're drinking the blood of your enemies, it makes the thread title very misleading.
Lol. My bad.
Asking for some advice/sanity check on a Dhampir Paladin for the Carrion Crown adventure path. First off, I know this character will be sub-opt, and I'm ok with that. It seems flavourful and great for the setting, I just want it to not be woefully terrible. Seems like a great chance to play a Paladin with an internal light/dark struggle.
** spoiler omitted **
The DM we have is reasonably flexible when it comes to bending on the rules to make a rich and flavourful character. So I'm exploring some PFRPG street-legal and potential home-brew options. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
...
I've been contemplating a similar race/class combination and think your build looks good. Since you've reiterated that you prefer for the character to focus on melee rather than ranged combat, and also mentioned that your DM may be flexible, I encourage you to consider my idea here, where I describe how the Advanced Race Guide (ARG) and the Distant Heritages section of Bastards of Golarion suggest how easy and reasonable it could be to improve the playability of a dhampir player character by removing Negative Energy Affinity and the defense race trait Resist Level Drain.
This simple swap would be balanced per the ARG, simpler than your custom domain, and enable your character not to worry the party with how to heal their tank. What do you think?
Asking for some advice/sanity check on a Dhampir Paladin for the Carrion Crown adventure path. First off, I know this character will be sub-opt, and I'm ok with that. It seems flavourful and great for the setting, I just want it to not be woefully terrible. Seems like a great chance to play a Paladin with an internal light/dark struggle.
** spoiler omitted **
The DM we have is reasonably flexible when it comes to bending on the rules to make a rich and flavourful character. So I'm exploring some PFRPG street-legal and potential home-brew options. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
...
I've been contemplating a similar race/class combination and think your build looks good. Since you've reiterated that you prefer for the character to focus on melee rather than ranged combat, and also mentioned that your DM may be flexible, I encourage you to consider my idea here, where I describe how the Advanced Race Guide (ARG) and the Distant Heritages section of Bastards of Golarion suggest how easy and reasonable it could be to improve the playability of a dhampir player character by removing Negative Energy Affinity and the defense race trait Resist Level Drain.
This simple swap would be balanced per the ARG, simpler than your custom domain, and enable your character not to worry the party with how to heal their tank. What do you think?
Interesting proposal, thanks for bringing it up!
I'd say it seems balanced and reasonable (particularly when considering that you also give up a very attractive benefit - resist level drain - to give up it's negative energy affinity).But call me old-fashioned (or perhaps a masochist), I like needing to seek an in-game way around the negative energy affinity, which I see as a key indicator of the cursed nature of a dhampir. Feats, domains (even if made-up) feel like in-game sacrifices of the character, or paths that they have chosen to deal with their curse. I enjoy the mechanical influencers of RP, like blood drinker, so as the "driver" of the character I feel similar temptations, or frustrations to what the actual character would feel.
But I truly appreciate the ideas! I always learn something new from reading these threads, and thought I would kick one off to learn more about this dhampir paladin character concept. Let's hope he doesn't die too quickly in Carrion Crown!