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I am potentially going to play Rise of the Runelords in about a month or so and I only have an overall view of some things to expect (almost GMed it at one point) I do not know what to expect in the middle 80% and like it that way.
In not knowing what other players might be bringing to the the table, I thought I would build 3 or 4 characters so I can play whichever best fills the gab.
In terms of the tank/Damage per round guy, I am thinking about a sword and bad Human Cavalier (order of the dragon) armed with a shield and bastard sword (exotic weapon feat taken at 1st lvl) and can either fight on horseback or on the ground.
Does anyone have better ideas for a front line PC?
Dwarven Ranger with a beef against Giants? (Much like Harsk, the dwarven Ranger iconic.)
A ranger in the party wood be handy as there's quite a lot of wilderness sections plus if you predict well the favoured enemy could give you lots of buffs throught the path.
A healer of one form or another is always obvious I'd go with a cleric for an extra damage dealer.
A thief is obvious in a party too, also a dedicated spell caster too.
I'm currently gming a rise of runelords campaign. These are the classes that I feel like will do very good in the campaign:
1) Bard - he is always useful, and there is a lot of knowledge checks in the game. If you wanna a little more power you can grab Skald
2) Ranges - same motives above
3) Mage, sorc or other full caster - there are a lot of powerful items for these classes
4) paladin - well he'll do fine in a lot of moments! Or because of his saves or because fear immunity. And in this game there are a lot of evil people, so smite will shine...
General excellent choices for this AP:
Standard Bard
Rangers with favored enemies from among Goblins, Giants, Undead and Humans and favored terrains chosen from among Urban, Forest, Mountains and Underground.
Casters who effectively target humanoids.
Wizards and Witches of any type.
When we made our run, the front-liner was a Barbarian Tank, built from Urban Barbarian and Invulnerable Rager archetypes, focused on maximizing DR. He was very, very effective in that role. Another group I know leaned heavily on a Paladin and he shined in this AP more than I can ever remember seeing a Paladin shine short of Wrath of the Righteous. Good AP for the class if you and your GM see eye to eye on how to run them.
Dwarven Ranger with a beef against Giants? (Much like Harsk, the dwarven Ranger iconic.)
Always wondered how this AP would go with an all-Dwarven party.
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Slowly, at speed 20'? :D
Doesn't the Fighter have abilities that slowly eliminate armor penalties to Dex and the like?
Possibly the best class to go with is Paladin. There are a multitude of situations where the Paladin's abilities are handy. I'd probably go with a decent Charisma and Strength (14 in each, possibly a 13 in Wisdom, and 12 in Constitution) as the Charisma modifier to saves is quite handy. (Aasimar are also a useful race for Paladins, but perhaps borderline overpowered).
Another rather interesting class to take would be Swashbuckler. Seeing you'd reach level 17 at the end, you'd have a character who would be doing significant amounts of precision damage and which would prove quite interesting to run. :)
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Doesn't the Fighter have abilities that slowly eliminate armor penalties to Dex and the like?
Possibly the best class to go with is Paladin. There are a multitude of situations where the Paladin's abilities are handy. I'd probably go with a decent Charisma and Strength (14 in each, possibly a 13 in Wisdom, and 12 in Constitution) as the Charisma modifier to saves is quite handy. (Aasimar are also a useful race for Paladins, but perhaps borderline overpowered).
Another rather interesting class to take would be Swashbuckler. Seeing you'd reach level 17 at the end, you'd have a character who would be doing significant amounts of precision damage and which would prove quite interesting to run. :)
There are but the tower shield would create a 2nd source of dex being maxed. I have looked at the tower shield archtype but you eventually trade weapon training for the removal of the -2 attack penalty which is even worse later on. I also do not like most of the fighter archetypes.
I was just wondering if people actually saw the tower shield as being worth using.
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Our RotR party consists of a Ranger (two weapon) with goblin and giant as favored enemies, a drow rogue [(yeah, our Drizzt stand it (uhggg)], a Paladin, and a Sorcerer/Oracle (me). Our paladin rocks and our ranger is fantastic. The rogue is okay, and I get plenty of chances to nuke things with smaller AoE spells; but so far this has been an awesome module for the fighting types.
We are currently somewhere in the middle of Skinsaw at the moment. We've picked up a couple of new players trying out shaman and warpriest characters. So far, I think the Paladin and Ranger are the best choices though. They're moping up the bad guys big time.
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Thought about doing a ranger. Can't get myself to really play a paladin due to being locked in on LG and having to adjust my not even close to LG play style to fit into LG. I would rather build a cleric who vital strikes with channel smite and power attack but question if the primary attack bonus could get high enough for more than 30% hit chance.
This is the one AP or multi-level campaign that I have tried building a character for and they are not the tanks of the group type builds. Yes, I enjoy playing tanks and fighters usually provide the best option for how I wish to build the pc.
Try War Priest. Sort of like a lite Paladin.
That said, Paladins are LG, but that Law? Is Church Law more often than not. There are Paizo books out there on Paladins and their codes... and it's more interesting than the "lawful goody two-shoes" Paladin of old.
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Try War Priest. Sort of like a lite Paladin.
That said, Paladins are LG, but that Law? Is Church Law more often than not. There are Paizo books out there on Paladins and their codes... and it's more interesting than the "lawful goody two-shoes" Paladin of old.
You say "lawful goody two-shoes" Paladin of old like it's a bad thing. Some of us dinosaurs like our paladins holier than thou and butt-kicking evil-with extreme prejudice.
Our RotR party consists of a Ranger (two weapon) with goblin and giant as favored enemies, a drow rogue [(yeah, our Drizzt stand it (uhggg)], a Paladin, and a Sorcerer/Oracle (me). Our paladin rocks and our ranger is fantastic. The rogue is okay, and I get plenty of chances to nuke things with smaller AoE spells; but so far this has been an awesome module for the fighting types.
We are currently somewhere in the middle of Skinsaw at the moment. We've picked up a couple of new players trying out shaman and warpriest characters. So far, I think the Paladin and Ranger are the best choices though. They're moping up the bad guys big time.
Obviously, like most full casters, you'll get your chances to really shine later on. At the point in the story you're in, I'd expect that Ranger and Paladin to both be rocking pretty hard.
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OK, here is a quick mop up of a female aasimar paladin. No archetypres for the paladin, just vanilla. And vanilla aasimar as well. I trade the 12 wisdom for a 12 intelligence so I could have the extra skill point and since paladins already have good/great will saves and she will have the +2 racial bonus on perception.
Any serious feedback is appreciated, good, bad, or just fine tuning.
Race: Aasimar
Gender: Female
Class: Paladin
Starting Stats (20 PB)
Strength 16
Dexterity 14
Constitution 14
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 10
Charisma 12
Ability Score Increases:
LVL 4 Strength
LVL 8 Strength
LVL 12 Dexterity
LVL 16 Dexterity
Starting Languages: Common, Celestial, Thassalonian
Traits
Armor Expert Trait (Overall Armor Check penalty decreased by 1)
Deft Dodger (+1 trait bonus on Reflex Saves)
Feats
LVL 1 Exotic Weapon Prof. – Bastard Sword
LVL 3 Weapon Focus – Bastard Sword
LVL 5 Shield Focus
LVL 7 Dragoncraft
LVL 9 Covering Shield
LVL 11 Dodge
LVL 13 Versatile Channel
LVL 15 Channel Smite
LVL 17 Extra La on Hands
I like the idea of one handing a bastard sword rather than a long sword. Although, I do have three level 1 pfs characters I could try this on first to see if I really like it.
Skills (2 + Int Bonus + Favored Class Bonus)
- First ten levels worth
LVL 1 Craft (Armor), Heal, Knowledge: Arcana, Perception
LVL 2 Craft (Armor), Heal, Knowledge: Arcana, Perception
LVL 3 Craft (Armor), Heal, Knowledge: Arcana, Perception
LVL 4 Craft (Armor), Climb, Heal, Perception
LVL 5 Craft (Armor), Heal, Perception, Spellcraft
LVL 6 Heal, Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft
LVL 7 Heal, Knowledge Religion, Perception, Sense Motive
LVL 8 Heal, Knowledge Religion, Perception, Spellcraft
LVL 9 Heal, Knowledge Religion, Perception, Spellcraft
LVL 10 Heal, Perception, Sense Motive, Spellcraft
Kind of a combination of morals between Lady Brean of Tarth and Lord Eddark “Ned” Stark of A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones to non-book readers) with the looks of Katee Sackhoff (best known for her parts in Battlestar Galactica and the movie: “Riddick”)
Initial Backstory
Born to a Varysian blacksmith who had migrated to the river kingdoms and the common women he married there, (unknown name) was the fourth of seven children. With all seven children surviving the gauntlet of things that plague and end the lives of many children before adulthood, she often found herself being ignored as other got easy attention. In seeking attention, she would often find her way to her father’s smithy and seek her father’s teaching and ask to help. Soon enough, her requests won her father over and he taught her what she could take in on crafting armor. As she got older, she had her own work station at her father’s side. As her parents and adult siblings started dying off, she found that she was not aging as she should. When her last brother died, the blacksmith shop was passed to his son and (unknown name) felt the need to return to her father’s homeland. Having well known of the existence of evil while nestled in the small area of no-where she was, her travels opened her eyes to the extent of evil that plagues the world.
Development of skills, traits, and feats taken after level 11
The 5 ranks in craft (armor) and 3 ranks in knowledge arcana are required for dragoncrafting which is a side flavor addition I wanted to add since there are several dragons that could potentially be killed. I wanted this in order to be able to harvest items from the bodies of the dragons and either use them (the blood as a poor man’s way of removing a negative level and the scales for dragon scale armor and shields) or to sell. The 12 to 15 ranks in heal she will have will satisfy the requirements in extracting the materials from the dragon bodies. Since she will be on some level, the tank, I am wanting ranks in perception (on no worse than a three fourths scale). I figured that the fourth skill rank could float between certain skills like spellcraft, knowledge religion, and the like. If I end up taking toughness, the favored class bonus point will be going to hit points starting with level 4. As she gets high up in level, she will develop the ability to use her lay on hands ability to cause damage to her opponents through her weapon and that is why the choice for the last three feats.
For those still reading, I have been watching game of thrones again on I-Tunes and have always had a thing for Katee Sackhoff so that is why the somewhat inspiration.
I'd suggest this instead, seeing that a Strength of 14 isn't really that much worse than 16. Ultimately you'd only lose a +3 to damage for normal attacks, and magic items can rectify that:
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 12
Wisdom: 8 + 2 Racial = 10
Charisma: 14 + 2 Racial = 16
This gives you a +3 to all saves and helps with Smite Evil. I'd also increase Charisma over Dexterity, as you can always get a belt or use other buff spells to boost Dexterity.
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I do want a strength of 16 due to carrying capacity as well as counteracting penalties to climb and swim if they are ever needed. I can drop dex to a 12 to start with and have charisma have the 14 to start. I can upgrade cha through magical items later on so strength and dexterity will most likely get the point upgrades every 4th level.
Any ideas on feats or anything for that path?
Thanks for the help so far.
Muleback Cords are a very handy magic item that don't cost a great deal (1,000 gold) and can significantly increase your carrying capacity. It treats you as if your strength is 8 higher. There's also the Handy Haversack which costs 2,000 gold and is something I recommend for most players.
dwarves don't take encumbrance penalties to movement, and they're awesome to boot:)
If you've already got a player in the party who can channel energy then I would recommend the Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Also, you won't be sorry if you take the Fey Foundling feat at 1st level.
Also, if you pick up the Aasimar splatbook (Blood of Angels) you will find there is the Angel-Kin subrace that grants +2 to STR and CHA which is perfect for a Paladin.
It would allow one of these arrays:
STR 18, DEX 10, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 16
STR 18, DEX 13, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 14
STR 18, DEX 10, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 08, CHA 16
STR 18, DEX 13, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 08, CHA 14
STR 18, DEX 12, CON 14, INT 07, WIS 12, CHA 16
STR 18, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 07, WIS 12, CHA 14
Some players playing Paladins dump INT but I find it frustrating to only get 2 skill ranks per level. If you dumped INT instead you don't lose any more ranks going from 8 to 7 so you might as well dump it all the way.
dwarves don't take encumbrance penalties to movement, and they're awesome to boot:)
The only problem being the Charisma penalty.
That said, you could go with this build then:
Str: 15 (7)
Dex: 12 (2)
Con: 15 (3, Racial)
Int: 12 (2)
Wis: 9 (-4, Racial)
Cha: 14 (10, Racial penalty)
Level 4, boost Strength. Level 8, boost Constitution. The Wisdom penalty isn't quite as bad because you'll have immunities to charms and domination and the like eventually.
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I already have 2 dwarven builds set up in case we need a cleric or ranger. I want some flavor differences in the options I bring. But, if the group decides on an all dwarf group, I will keep a dwarf paladin in mind.
In terms or the back slot, I am a sucker for the cloak of resistance for better saves.
A high-charisma Paladin doesn't need a Cloak of Resistance. Let's face it, a good Paladin build goes with beefing Charisma - either through devices, or beefing up stats. Not only do you get bonus spells, you get a boost to saves and also a benefit to Smite.
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Obviously, like most full casters, you'll get your chances to really shine later on. At the point in the story you're in, I'd expect that Ranger and Paladin to both be rocking pretty hard.Our RotR party consists of a Ranger (two weapon) with goblin and giant as favored enemies, a drow rogue [(yeah, our Drizzt stand it (uhggg)], a Paladin, and a Sorcerer/Oracle (me). Our paladin rocks and our ranger is fantastic. The rogue is okay, and I get plenty of chances to nuke things with smaller AoE spells; but so far this has been an awesome module for the fighting types.
We are currently somewhere in the middle of Skinsaw at the moment. We've picked up a couple of new players trying out shaman and warpriest characters. So far, I think the Paladin and Ranger are the best choices though. They're moping up the bad guys big time.
Oh, I get my moments too. Especially since Qakisst is not shy about stepping in and taking a shot at somebody in melee. And so far we haven't gone up against such crowds that I need a bigger AoE spell that Burning Hands. Though it will be nice to be a 6th level sorcerer (caster level 8) when I make 8th level. We're almost to level 7 now.
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Feats
LVL 1 Exotic Weapon Prof. – Bastard Sword
LVL 3 Weapon Focus – Bastard Sword
LVL 5 Shield Focus
LVL 7 Dragoncraft
LVL 9 Covering Shield
LVL 11 Dodge
LVL 13 Versatile Channel
LVL 15 Channel Smite
LVL 17 Extra La on Hands
You can't take most of the feats on the Weapon Focus tree because they require actual fighter levels so don't waste a feat on Weapon Focus for a paladin. Take a feat that opens up more possibilities or increases damage potential. With your strength of 16 you're already rocking a +4 attack bonus at first level and at least a +7 when you hit third level (you're getting a masterwork bastard sword, right?). Having that extra +1 from Weapon Focus is nice, but not really necessary for a non-fighter with full BaB.
Our Paladin took Power Attack, but she's rocking a greatsword. If you don't like Power Attack, just getting Weapon Focus out of your planned feat path lets you move several of the feats you want up two levels. Shield Focus will be better than Weapon Focus, and then you can bring Dodge up to an earlier slot. That gets you a +2 to your AC by 5th level if you want it. Extra Channel is also very useful if your party lacks a full cleric. There are just so many things more useful that a +1 to attack.
You can also probably push Dragon Crafter farther back in your planned feat progression too. I doubt that you'll have a chance to be crafting from dragon parts until after 10th level.
I would also replace Channel Smite with something more useful. You can already cause massive damage to undead by just channeling or by smiting. Channel Smite restricts that to just one undead creature, and if you miss it you lose the two lay on hands since you have to make the decision before your attack role, which always seemed a silly use of two lay on hands to me.
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I had added the weapon focus not really for the primary attack but more on the other swings when she full round attacks.
I forgot that what was wanting to use versatile channel for only works with neutral clerics so it and channel smite are both gone.
I know extra lay on hands is good if we do not have a primary healer but is the extra mercy feat even worth taking? Some of the higher level ones seem possible to double dip but at the cost of a feat seems too harsh.
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I'm not enough of a paladin player to say, but I would go with extra channel before extra mercy, and possibly even before extra lay on hands. ELoH gives you two LoH. Extra channel gives you four LoH that can only be used to channel; but channel affects everybody you're heeling or all undead you're fighting that are in range. That won't make you a great healer in combat but it's a heck of a lot more healing after combat.
As for the bump for full round attacks, if that's why you're taking weapon focus it can probably wait till 11th level. Our paladin is rocking a +10/+5 at sixth level with only a +1 weapon. That gives her a fair chance with the secondary attack. You should be about the same when you get to 6th level, so a +1 from weapon focus will be a slight help, but definitely a help. That's a tough call though, as there are a lot of good things you can do with feats.
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I haven't been a paladin player before because I never liked the forced LG alignment. But I have started playing one in pfs as my next pc and I am kind of having fun with her.
I really do not want extra channel unless I take selective channel and at that point, I feel as if I might as well play a cleric (already have a dwarven crusader cleric build just in case). In terms of the extra mercy feat, I was just curious if anyone actually sees it as being more than barely above worthless.
I do know that through bonded weapon extraa, I will have better than average extra damage bonuses (holy, flame and then flaming burst, ect) when not smiting evil. I just want to be effective at hitting neutral alignments and evil when not smiting. I guess I am just too used to my pfs vanilla fighter and his +20/+15/+10 at 11th level and needing a 5 on the die to hit some creatures on his first swing.
In terms of other feats that could be kept or removed, the covering shield feat is there basically for extra protection against the Dragon breath weapon of the dragons I know are in the AP. I am keeping dragoncrafting for the ability to harvest things from the bodies of any of the dragon's we might kill. An alchemist would be needed to turn half the raw materials into certain items but I could always either sell the raw materials to an alchemist or pay him to turn them into actual items. A big part of it is being able to harvest the Dragon scales to turn into my paladin's shield and either sell the others as materials or turn into armor and sell.
Oath of Vengeance swaps out channel energy for the ability to smite more often. It is really good.
Also, I highly recommend using Fey Foundling as your first feat. It is great for Paladins. Your self healing gets about 50% more effective.
Also consider greater mercy.
With the healing power here you don't need to bother with a shield and can go with greatsword or nodachi.
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I don't think the first dragons show until module 5, but it is entirely possible that one could show up in 4. I'm pretty certain none will show up in 3 or earlier. We're currently in the middle of Skinsaw somewhere and just made 7th level. The GM has assured me that we're right on schedule with the AP and we should make it to 8th level by the time we start the next module. So if your taking the Dragon Craft with specific plans to harvest dragon parts, hold that off until level 9 or level 11. No later than level 11 though.
Peet is right that if you're not going to be doing channel and aren't too worried about healing, Oath of Vengeance would work well and gives you a good reason to take Extra Lay on Hands. And you probably won't need to worry too much about your too hit capabilities at 11th level then either. You should have a 20 strength if you get a belt of giant strength by then and at least a +3 weapon, right? That gets you to a 19/14/9 and there won't be much you can't tag with that. Especially if you max out the number of smites you can do a day with Oath of Vengeance. You'll be rocking a +20 or more then without weapon focus, and there are a lot of evil creatures to smite in Runelords.
That's starting to sound like a really good build. Work to maximize your lay on hands and take Oath of Vengeance and you'll be a rocking good front liner.
Here's trick for you. Drop your wisdom 1 point and put that into charisma. When you hit 4th level put your stat bump into charisma to get it up to a +2 modifier. That will give you another lay on hands for the smiting and emergency healing, and counter the -1 to will saves for having a 9 wisdom with the extra +1 your divine grace will grant you.
@Ulfen Death Squad
I have two excellent Paladin builds for this AP - one quick question first to determine which I'll post; does your GM allow and would you have any interest in running a Tiefling Paladin?
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@Ulfen Death Squad
I have two excellent Paladin builds for this AP - one quick question first to determine which I'll post; does your GM allow and would you have any interest in running a Tiefling Paladin?
Tieflings are just not my cup of tea. As much as I do not mind people playing them, not my thing. The only thing I know the gm does not allow is the leadership feat and would work something out with those playing cavaliers.
Pretty much going with Angelkin Aasimar Paladin (Oath of Vengeance Archtype) with plain Aasimar if flavored types not available. I will post a re-edit in an hour or so.
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Found out that the AP will not start until early January which will give me some time to fine tune some things on this build if necessary.
Angelkin Aasimars will be legal but I will include the regular Aasimar build as well, just in case. They pretty much are the exact same in terms of feats and end results so I will only include the regular Aasimar ability scores and by level increases at the end.
Name: Unknown
Race: Aasimar (Angelkin)
Class Paladin (Oath of Vengeance Archtype)
Str 18 (16 + 2 Racial)
Dex 11
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 14 (12 + 2 Racial)
Ability Score Increase
LVL 4 Dexterity
LVL 8 Charisma
LVL 12 Charisma
LVL 16 Charisma
Traits
Armor Expert
Reactionary
Starting Languages: Common, Celestial, Thassalonian
Feats
1 Exotic Weapon Prof: Bastard Sword
3 Dodge
5 Shield Focus
7 Extra Lay on Hands
9 Dragoncraft
11 Covering Shield
13 Greater Mercy (Ultimate Magic, 152)
15 Ultimate Mercy/Other
17 Extra Lay on Hands/Ultimate Mercy (Ultimate Magic, 158)
Mercies
LVL 3 Sickened
LVL 6 Diseased
LVL 9 Cursed
LVL 12 Paralyzed (Toss up between Blindness and Paralyzed)
I realize that by 12th level, most of the options for the level 9 and level 12 mercies can be done by spells as well. Cursed was the only mercy that appealed to me as a 9th level mercy and Paralyzed seemed to win out because I can prep remove blindness/deafness as a spell and choose as needed on the sport without having to spend a Lay on Hands use.
One question I do have is if Ultimate Mercy would be useful as a feat barring it requires 10 uses of available Lay on Hands uses to cast a raise dead spell. I can live with the temporary negative level that goes away after 24 hours. But is the raise dead casting worth the cost of 10 uses of Lay on Hands?
Regular Aasimar Build
Str 16
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 10 (10 - 2 + 2 Racial)
Cha 15 (13 + 2 Racial)
Ability Score Increases
LVL 4 Strength
LVL 8 Strength
LVL 12 Charisma
LVL 16 Charisma
Skills outlook at Level 5
climb and swim bonuses will be before armor check penalty is factored in
when bonuses might differ based on type of Aasimar (Angelkin/Normal
Climb------------- +5/+4 = 4/3 + 1 + ACP
Craft(Armor)------ +9 = 1 + 5 + 3
Diplomacy--------- +2/+4 = 2 + 0 + 0/2
Heal-------------- +10/+8 = 0 + 5 + 5/3
Knowledge(Arcana)- +3 = 1 + 3 + 0
Perception-------- +5/+7 = 0 + 5 + 0/2
Swim-------------- +5/+4 = 4/3 + 1 + ACP
ACP = Armor Check Penalty. With the Armor Expert Trait, the check penalty should be -5 once I get the masterworked shield and masterworked full plate armor. By the time I get to level 5, I will hopefully have a belt of Giant Strength +2 so it should be at 0 for both skills at worst.
I plan on running Perception up as high as I can. I plan on bumping Heal up until it reaches a +17. I have heard that knowledge History is a must have and sense motive might be a bonus to have besides knowledge History. I plan to make adjustments accordingly based on what the party has in their front line skills. The 5 ranks in craft armor and 3 ranks in knowledge arcana are required for Dragoncraft as prerequisits so I will need those (although their placement between level 1 and 8 can change). Heal will be needed as well for Dragoncrafting and as an aid for HP regeneration during 8 hour sleeps.
I do plan on avoiding a mount and having my weapon be bounded. If I can purchase an Adamantine Bastard Sword at the time I hit level 5, I will be happy. The hope filled plan will be to have a +3 Holy Flaming Burst Adamantine Bastard Sword (+2 flaming Burst added through bonded weapon enhancements). But my plan can change accordingly.
I do want to thank those of you who have placed thought into assisting and much appreciated thanks to those of you who have brought forth adjustment and movement ideas.
I don't think your feat chain is especially effective. You are putting way too much into defense. A number of issues:
I would consider not getting the EWP: Bastard Sword feat as your first feat. It is only a +1 to your overall average damage and that's pretty poor for a feat. If you really must do EWP for a one-handed weapon I would go either Falcata or Katana. Smite evil damage multiplies on a crit so you should be fishing for crits in combat. If you want to play a katana paladin there is actually a country in Tian Xia which is largely inhabited by Aasimars, and being "Asian" can actually give the GM an in angle for your character. I won't say more than that. FYI there is also a LG god in the Tian pantheon that has Katana as a favoured weapon. The main advantage of a bastard sword over these is that they would be easier to find.
However it is also worthwhile to note that with access to Martial weapons that you already have, a cracked Opalescent White Pyramid (Ioun Stone) costs 1500 gp and turns a weapon into a martial weapon for you. So 1500 gp will spare you the cost of a feat; you can probably afford this by level 3 (especially if someone in the party can craft). Use a scimitar or longsword until you can get one of these.
This frees up a feat slot with which I would take Power Attack. Fighting one-handed reduces your damage output noticeably and you need to focus on ways to increase your damage output. Power attack scales by level, making an all around great feat.
FYI if you get the Divine Bond (weapon) ability then when you boost your weapon to +4 (or just use a +4 weapon) it will bypass DR/Adamantine. You can get an adamantine weapon if you want, but it's not a priority for you. Paladins are great for dealing with DR.
I would put Greater Mercy much earlier, preferably 3rd level. You are able to wear heavy armor; once you have +1 full plate and a +1 heavy shield your AC will be 23 (or 24 with DEX 12) which is plenty for low level, and it will rise as you get better stuff. Remember that you don't want your AC to be too high. The idea behind a paladin is that he draws fire away from everyone else (because he can self-heal); if you are too hard to hit then opponents will just go and attack your allies. So I wouldn't be spending feats on making yourself harder to hit. As a Paladin, you WANT to be hit. Every hit on you is a hit that someone else doesn't have to suffer, and you can take it.
Likewise, covering focus isn't that great for a Paladin. Your saves are already good; normally reflex saves are the least important to lose; they tend to cause HP loss but only rarely have nasty status effects. And you can soak the damage. If you were going to try to boost saves I'd boost Will or Fort instead. Or just don't worry about your saves; get extra lay on hands instead. Boosting CHA and getting a cloak of resistance should be more than enough.
Dragoncraft is interesting, but questionable... there are dragons in this AP, but not that many. Talk to your GM about whether this one will be worth it. If you can buy dragon parts in a marketplace, then it could be cool.
BTW, unless you think it is cheesy, consider the Fey Foundling feat at 1st level. That's the only time you can take it. It's awesome for Paladins.
"But is the raise dead casting worth the cost of 10 uses of Lay on Hands?"
Oh yes, absolutely. Note that you will probably be doing this on a day when you are not adventuring; you have withdrawn from the dungeon, etc. You also save the party 5000 gp which is not chump change. You totally want this by 11th level if your CHA is high enough for it. Note that permanent bonuses from magic items count, though you lose access to the feat temporarily if you lose the item.
Here's my feat chain suggestion:
1. Fey Foundling
3. Greater Mercy
5. Power Attack
7. Vital Strike OR Extra Lay On Hands OR Weapon Focus
9. Improved Critical
11. Ultimate Mercy
13+... Gravy
You could swap around greater mercy and power attack. If you are wondering why use Improved Critical, look at the paladin spell bless weapon.
EDIT: Regarding skills...
Yes, perception is good. But with a WIS of only 10 and not having it as a class skill, you will never be that outstanding at it. Still worth ranks, but don't expect miracles.
For this AP, someone with Knowledge: History is good, but again, your INT is only 12 and it's not a class skill. This is a great skill for the wizard.
Don't expect too much from a Paladin in the skills department. If you really want to play a skilled divine warrior, consider the Inquisitor class instead of a Paladin.
Regarding Mercies...
Removing paralysis is nice, but remember that you won't be able to do this to yourself, since you are already paralyzed. The main focus of lay on hands is to use them on yourself.
Peet
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Thank you for your info.
The two main reasons why I am taking dragoncraft are for the Dragon scales to either turn in as material for armor of turn into armor myself and for the dragon blood. Bathing in 3 vials of dragon blood removes 1 negative level. Can only be done once a week but the bathing is helpful, especially if we have no cleric or caster able to remove negative levels. The other stuff collected can either be sold to an alchemist or given an material component for the creation of an item.
Yeah, I saw that and its a very good price since a restoration to restore negative levels costs 1000 gp in materials.
But it looks like you can just buy these things. If dragons' blood only costs 60 gp per vial, why would you take a feat to make it? Just buy some in Magnimar or wherever.
Dragonhide Armor isn't particularly interesting. Actually making a suit of Dragonhide full plate requires hide from a colossal dragon (or possibly multiple dragons; talk to your GM). It also takes forever. Assuming a craft skill of 10, taking 10 on your craft checks would allow you to finish a suit of full plate armor in about 40 weeks - the better part of a year. You will not have that much free time in this campaign.
You can also just buy dragonhide armor if you want. It costs double what normal armor would cost, which isn't that much really. But Dragonhide armor provides no benefits other than making energy resistance properties cheaper to impart. You will be much better off getting mithral or adamantine armor.