Advice on building Half-orc Fighter / Paladin with crushing dump stat (6)

[Brookamus]

Hi there, I've been invited to join a mostly dungeon crawl campaign at 6th level, and I've never played a melee character before.

The character concept is half-orc who has always been trained as a fighter (and told that is all he could be because his lineage inherently tainted/evil. He is however, quite religious, and chafes under the cultural misapprehensions and prejudice he faces. Instead of being angry at everyone, however, he has thrown himself down the the other path -- trying almost to over assimilate and be "more English than the English." Being just a fighter "felt wrong" and when he encountered a half-orc inquisitor, he realised a paladin was his true calling. Thus, favored class is paladin, and he'll be a paladin from 3 onwards.
I've got 16,000gp to spend with no restrictions. My ability array is pretty good with one exception (or an "opportunity to role play"):
17,16,16,13,14,6

I'm torn on where to put the 6. If Int, I don't get any skills until 3rd level (and for role playing, I basically have to take knowlegde religion at least once). Dex could go as I imagine I'll be wrapped in full plate and likely will be more of a castigator paladin than a horse-riding one. Still, I worry about all those reflex saves and general clumsiness. Some of the paladin guides I've seen suggest Wis. Wis or Int seem to fit the character -- either dumb, or focussed and relatively bright, but no real clue about the world actually operates (or a flawed perception of it.)

I'm interested in being full on into Melee, so thought Critical Focus, Power Attack, Vital Strike, and Reward of Life (we have no cleric, so the cures come from me, the Inquisitor and a wand of CL).

Any adviceon what where to place my stats, what to buy (particularly for magic) and alternate feat choices would be welcome.

[Chess Pwn]

You can put it into int, you always get at least 1 skill point per level, and if you take a level in a favored class can choose skill point. So you could get 2 skills per level with a 6 int if you wanted.

[Mystic_Snowfang]

Why is your charisma so low for paladin?

edit oh they're rolled stats

I'd go with wisdom, based on his history. It's less of a flawed perception, and more of he's just not good at listening to his own feelings and needs, which is why it took him so long to figure out his true calling.

[calartnick]

Mystic_Snowfang wrote:

Why is your charisma so low for paladin?

edit oh they're rolled stats

I'd go with wisdom, based on his history. It's less of a flawed perception, and more of he's just not good at listening to his own feelings and needs, which is why it took him so long to figure out his true calling.

plus with a high charisma, the negative to will saves won't hurt quite so bad. I agree it's also an option for some interesting role playing.

[Chess Pwn]

Mystic_Snowfang wrote:

Why is your charisma so low for paladin?

edit oh they're rolled stats

I'd go with wisdom, based on his history. It's less of a flawed perception, and more of he's just not good at listening to his own feelings and needs, which is why it took him so long to figure out his true calling.

Those aren't his stats, those are his rolls.

[Mystic_Snowfang]

Chess Pwn wrote:

Mystic_Snowfang wrote:

Why is your charisma so low for paladin?

edit oh they're rolled stats

I'd go with wisdom, based on his history. It's less of a flawed perception, and more of he's just not good at listening to his own feelings and needs, which is why it took him so long to figure out his true calling.

Those aren't his stats, those are his rolls.

I figured that out, hence the edit.

I'm really not used to rolled stats.

[Brookamus]

Thanks Guys,

This is useful,I think I'll go Wis as the dump -- any advice on what magic/special items to buy with $16K? I have no spending restrictions, but I'll obviously need some good armour and the regular kit, but am wondering what to look for in terms spending on a sword (falchion at present, no surprise there) or stat bumps (a plus 2 strength or Cha buff,or both) and etc. If I have even a +1 sword, I think I'll be able to make it Keen next level (5th as paladin), so that is very attractive -- or maybe I should go +1/keen and just make it +2 next level. (I think that is 8300 or so, so not a small cost, but would lead to more criticals, which is v. cool).

Also, any thoughts on feats?

edit: I replaced Bardiche with Falchion.

[Mystic_Snowfang]

The sword sounds good. But instead of just having a +1 sword, give it a name, have it made from some sort of exotic material.

[Thac20]

You could put the 6 into Dexterity, and dip a level of Lore Oracle to use Charisma instead of Dexterity for AC and Reflex. You could also take the Noble Scion of War feat to use Charisma instead of Dexterity for initiative bonus.

[Cap. Darling]

+1 weapon(2300+),
+1 Fullplate(2650),
+2 str belt,(4000)
+1 resistance cloak(1000),
+1 deflection ring(2000),
+1 natural armor amulet(2000)
And a Quick runners shirt(1000)
14950 +weapon price gp.

[Gregory Connolly]

A wand of Bless Weapon is 750gp and a spring loaded wrist sheath is 5 gp. It will make you auto-confirm crits, though it will eat up a standard and swift to use it. I know more than one Paladin who prefers to let the enemy make the first move (if they can be redeemed) and this gives them something effective to do while giving enemies a chance to not pick a fight.

EDIT: This only works against evil foes, and it won't work with keen, but it will work with Improved Critical.

[Korlos]

Put the 6 in Constitution. You'll get to roll new stats.

[Cap. Darling]

Korlos wrote:

Put the 6 in Constitution. You'll get to roll new stats.

his stats are pretty good just the 6 is unhappy.

Another option is to take racial heritage(dwarf) and go Stone Lord paladin:) it wil be less awesome when it comes to saves but it will still be a paladin:)

[Crowface]

Brookamus wrote:

I'm torn on where to put the 6. If Int, I don't get any skills until 3rd level (and for role playing, I basically have to take knowlegde religion at least once).

FWIW, you always get at least one skill point per level regardless of your INT modifier.

[Korlos]

After I made the joke, I realized that between two classes with good fort saves, paladin bonus to saves, and d10 hit points, con might not be a bad place for it.

[Cap. Darling]

You can give up your darkvision for a extra skill point pr level that will give you Two pr level even with int 6. And with the City raised trait you will get +2 on knowledge local. And that will make you the very fitting arena breed subtype of half orc.
He is a buy the book paladin. A book he cannot read;)

[Brookamus]

This is awesome advice. Any thoughts on feats?

I'm interested in being full on into Melee, so thought Critical Focus, Power Attack, Vital Strike, and Reward of Life (we have no cleric, so the cures come from me, the Inquisitor and a wand of CL).

Also, can you have two ability mod items at once (i.e., str belt and cha headband).

Thanks again!

[Drogos]

You can certainly have two attribute modifying items, presuming they are in different item slots. The only downside is you only get one item per slot active at a time.

[Kigvan]

Brookamus wrote:

Also, can you have two ability mod items at once (i.e., str belt and cha headband).

Thanks again!

You sure can, and when you get even more money you can add additional attributes such as Con to your belt to have a Str+Con belt and a Cha headband.

[Aelryinth]

Wisdom is the logical dump stat. It basically offsets the +2 to Will saves from your Paladin good saves...but since you'll get Cha to saves anyways, it won't actually hurt you in the long run. It's the standard dump stat for a paladin, like Cha usually is for the fighter.

Plus, you can just buy Iron Will to offset the penalty if you like.

All other stats are useful. Wisdom is not that useful to you with Paladin saves and a good Will save.

Being 3 levels behind on Paladin means you are going to be behind on a lot of things, especially Mercies, Lay on Hands and Spellcasting.

Your objective should be to use your 2 extra Fighter feats to be a feat-intensive Paladin. An example would be a sword and board fighter, or an archer, both of which are feat intensive.

It should also be noted that the best feats for a Paladin are generally NOT combat feats, but ones that enhance paladin abilities.

You might still want to take Fey Foundling as a trait, for the boost to LOH, since you're going to be 3 levels behind on it.

So, my advice is a Sword and Board build for the 2 extra feats, or an archery build, grabbing the key bow feats.

==Aelryinth