Hi guys.
Here building a Pally and asking myself. What if i take UMD (maybe with the +3 of the Focused Study human alternative trait)?
It seems a good skill to take in terms of versatility, considering also the high CHA of the class, but maybe is not so strong for a 2 handed melee character.
What do you think?
Thanks in advance!
Nah, probably not worth it in my opinion.
Between the spells you can cast and use as wands (remember every spell on your spell list can be used as a wand without any check), the fact that your primary role is combat so you should be taking actions to move around the battlefield or swing your sword at the enemy, other class abilities like LOH to help your allies, etc....you're going to have plenty of things to be doing without worrying about whipping out a wand of something that isn't on your spell list to use.
Not to mention that until you get to a very high bonus it's not worth it to be non-reliably able to UMD something. You can't take 10 on UMD, so you need at least a +15 to have a decent chance of being able to consistently activate an item.
Simply isn't worth it in my opinion.
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In my experience, UMD is mostly used for out-of-combat utility (healing spells and buffs). If you have another character in the party that can use those items them without UMD, I'd generally stay clear of it.
For melee characters, though, there's also a case for using wands in place of ranged attacks. Once you reach mid levels, it's pretty common to have a few wands with offensive spells lying around, so you can fireball your enemies instead of pulling out a bow. Could be a lot of fun.
Unless you're interested in using wands for combat, though, I'd only pick it up if you're missing a wizard/cleric and there's no-one else in the party that wants to take UMD.
Cheers!
Landon
Landon makes a valid point. UMD is often best used out of combat for healing and buffing.
However, you get cure spells on your list so don't require UMD and your Mercies can remove many conditions. As for buffs, you get several decent ones on your spell list, so again could use a wand on scroll without needing UMD.
So yeah, as long as you have anyone else in the party with a higher amount of divine and arcane spell casting than you, your investment would simply be redundant to their abilities.
Thank you guys
The only problem with that is paladins don’t get many skill points. As a human you will get at least four per level is you put your favored class bonus. Paladins also don’t have many class skills and several important ones are not on the list. Perception is especially difficult for a paladin because not only is it not a class skill, and it is based on WIS which is usually a low priority to the paladin.
The minimum DC for use magic device is 20 which mean you need a good roll to even make it work. Also if you fail by 10 or more than you suffer a mishap. If you roll a 1 regardless of your bonus you still fail. This means that you usually want a bonus of at least 10 before you attempt to use the skill. Many devices require a 25, so a bonus of 15 would be safer. For example if you have a +10 and try and are trying to decipher a 1st level cleric scroll you have to roll a 16 or better for decipher it. On a roll of 6 or less you suffer a mishap. If you do not have at least an 11 WIS you also need to roll a second use magic device of 26 to use the scroll, again if you roll 6 or less you suffer a mishap.
This can be a very dangerous skill to use and it is best if you have a very high roll in it. If you are going to take this skill also take dangerously curious to get it as a class skill, and max out the skill. You probably don’t have the INT or WIS to use most spells so you will need to emulate that and the DC for that is the score you need +15.
