I am playing a paladin in Rise of the Rune lords. We just leveled to 9 and we have a ridiculous point buy:
Str: 16 (+2 racial,+2 levels, +4 item) 24
Dex: 16
Con: 16
Int: 10
Wis: 12 (-2 racial) 10
Cha: 16 (+2 racial)
Demon spawn Tiefling
Feats:
Fey Foundling
Power attack
Combat reflexes
Step up
I am swinging a +1 Keen Falchion and have a +1 Composite long bow (+6). My favored class bonus has gone entirely into extra healing on LOH.
The party consists of a casting cleric, gunslinger, fighter swinging an ax, a TWF rogue, and a synthesis summoner.
Some thoughts I had were extra lay on hands, Greater Mercy, acrobatic step, or following step.
Your input is greatly appriciated.
Yep, I skinned my knee when I fell last time.
Unsanctioned knowledge is nice but I would have a hard time adding 3 intelligence. Thanks for the ideas. If anyone else has other suggestions I would love to hear them.
I've enjoyed Greater Mercy, but my PC only has 4 Paladin levels, so I get a bigger relative boost from it. The Bodyguard feat might help boost people's AC. That could be important in the adventures ahead. Taking some kind of teamwork feat with other PCs might be fun too.
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Taking some kind of teamwork feat with other PCs might be fun too.
Paladins? TEAMWORK? WHAT IS THIS HERESY!??! YOU MUST BE READY TO SMITE YOUR ALLIES AS SOON AS THEY TURN DOWN THE ROAD TO THE DARK SIDE!
as a side note, paladins that take the tactician archetype are good for this, others, not so much, not enough feats imo
I like improved crit, but I see you have a Keen Falchion.
Blind fighting and Quickdraw are both good.
When you can afford a metamagic rod of lessear quicken spell, you want to be able to cast quicken divine favor and then full attack. You need quickdraw to do that. Quickdraw is also nice when you need to swap weapon or draw a new weapon. (Advice, I hope you have a backup melee weapon.)
You need to pick Nimble Moves if you want acrobatic step and I don’t think it is worth it.
Unsanctioned Knowledge is nice, but you need Inty 13 and there are so many good Paladin spells now, so Unsanctioned Knowledge is not that appealing anymore. Just boost UMD and you get by.
Extra lay on hands isn’t bad. Lot of people suggest Greater Mercy, but extra lay on hands is far better. At least at mid levels. I might be wrong, but I prefer extra Lay on Hands over Greater Mercy.
There are also feats that improves your auras. Might be worth looking into them
The reason to GI greater mercy > extra LoH is twofold
1. You gain 1d6+2 extra healing from it usually. That's at level 9 ~4 extra loh worth.
2. It opens the line to ultimate mercy.
I know, but I disagree.
If the OP plans on picking ultimate mercy, the greater mercy is rock solid, otherwise not.I think 2 more lay on hands is both better and more flexible than greater mercy.
Being able to use LoH more often is more useful than boosting LoH, since the idea with LoH is not to heal you back to full hit points. That is done after the fight. (Also, greater mercy doesn’t work if you have any conditions your mercies can remove.)
Extra LoH also gives you the chance of using channel energy.
BTW, Extra channel energy can be a good feat if the players use channel energy.
Improved critical is a good choice because it will work with bless weapon, where keen does not. Being able to automatically confirm a critical hit on a weapon with a 15-20 critical range is sweet.
I was just merely stating the reasons he would take greater mercy :3
Yes, I know. I just did the same. No hard feelings? :D
Eh, I think Greater Mercy is a better feat than Extra LoH for the simple fact that most of a paladin's LoH are going to be used to heal himself and a lot of what the mercies affect the paladin is iummune to. Since he's got Fey Foundling, that adds 1d6+2 as Rorek stated. Also as Rorek stated, it is a pre-requisite for Ultimate Mercy. Granted, My paladin took both feats, but then I didn't take Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, or Step Up. With all that and 20 Cha, at level 7 I'll be able to take (and use) Ultimate Mercy.
Better is a matter of taste, so I guess we are both right :)
Now as for "paladin's LoH are going to be used to heal himself and a lot of what the mercies affect the paladin is immune to. "
My Paladin hasn't only picked mercies she is immune to. She picked sickened and Diseased and will probably pick Poisoned or Cursed.
The Point of mercies is that you can also help others, Helping them with stuff like diseases and that will cost you uses of LoH. Or should I say, if you are going to pick mercies that you are immune to then you do it because you plan to help others that are not immune to those conditions, right? And if you help others that will cost you uses of LoH.
As for healing per day:
Healing per day for a level 9 Paladin with 18 char
Extra LoH
4d6+8=22 x 10 timers per day = 220 HP per day
Greater Mercy. providing the Paladin don’t have any conditions his mercies can remove
5d6+10=27,5 x 8 times per day = 220 HP
Level 10
Extra LoH
5d6+10=27,5 x 11 timers per day = 302 HP per day
Greater Mercy, providing the Paladin don’t have any conditions his mercies can remove
6d6+12=33 x 9 times per day = 297
The bonus d6 becomes more redundant as you level up. It is more a matter of taste, if you like to be able to heal more often and heal less or the other way around.
Extra lay o hands actually grant your more healing per day and is also more flexible, but if the OP plans to pick Ultimate Mercy then Greater Mercy is good. I personally think Ultimate Mercy is pointless, especially if you have a cleric or oracle in the party.
Anyway. Both feats are excellent.
I'm curious about why people like Ultimate Mercy so much. I took it because it seems cool for my PC to be able to bring back the dead with Lay on Hands. It doesn't seem like a very effective or efficient feat though. Here are some potential problems I see with Ultimate Mercy:
- Somebody needs to die before you can use it
- That somebody can't be you
- Many players prefer to make a new PC when they die, so you might end up only using the power on NPCs or not at all
- After using it you'll probably be at least nearly out of LoH for the day
- The only mechanical advantage you seem to gain is that the PC you bring back saves 5,000gp (and it would probably be impolite to ask for it)
- The DM might feel more empowered to slaughter PCs since "you can bring them back for free" (not strictly true since Restoration is still expensive)
Overall I've enjoyed having the feat, but it hasn't been terribly useful. I've certainly saved us some gold, but I probably could have saved more with a crafting feat.
I'm curious about why people like Ultimate Mercy so much. I took it because it seems cool for my PC to be able to bring back the dead with Lay on Hands. It doesn't seem like a very effective or efficient feat though. Here are some potential problems I see with Ultimate Mercy:
- Somebody needs to die before you can use it
- That somebody can't be you
- Many players prefer to make a new PC when they die, so you might end up only using the power on NPCs or not at all
- After using it you'll probably be at least nearly out of LoH for the day
- The only mechanical advantage you seem to gain is that the PC you bring back saves 5,000gp (and it would probably be impolite to ask for it)
- The DM might feel more empowered to slaughter PCs since "you can bring them back for free" (not strictly true since Restoration is still expensive)
+1
and lets not forget it cost 10 LoH, so no LoH no raising PC. At least not that day.
Improved Initiative is always a good one. A bit weird but with that keen falchion it would be a good idea for the paladin to kill things first rather than hope to get lucky and go before enemies.
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Q. Are you eating a lot of AoOs moving through big monster reach to deploy your 5' weapon?
Solution 1: downgrade the falcion to a scimitar, and strap a +3 shield.
Solution 2: retrain an older feat to Dodge, and take Mobility at 9th.
Do both, and you're enjoying AC+*10* versus those reach AoOs, and cake-walk attrition fights. (This will greatly help in non-evil encounters when you can't smitesplode in two hits.)