PFS - I Want a Paladin / Hell Knight

[Angel Hunter D]

Like the title says, I want a Paladin X/ Hell Knight X for PFS. He's going to be my back-burner low level beat-stick for when I want to play it easy with the new guys. I've always wanted to play a Hell Knight, and until the other day Paladin hadn't occurred to me because it never interested me before. Now I'm seeing some interesting synergy (I think that's the right term) and could use some feedback/opinions on what I'm thinking here. Will it do the job of fun/dumb tank? or did I accidentally make something terrible again?

Race: Ifrit or Half Elf (Darkvision and fire resistance are cool, as are SLA. But 2 favored classes is boss for multiclassing)

Stats (Ifrit)
Str:16 Dex:12 Con:14 Int:12 Wis:6 Cha:16

Stats (Half-Elf)
Str:18 Dex:12 Con:14 Int:12 Wis:7 Cha:14

Traits: Fiery Gaze (or Adopted - Fiery Gaze); Blade of Mercy

Build Option 1

Feats[Paladin - Oath of Vengeance 6/HK - Order of the Godclaw 4]
1-Fey Foundling
3-Power Attack
5-Extra Lay on Hands
7-Cornugon Smash
9-Extra Lay on Hands
11-Extra Lay on Hands

Gear: Hellknight Plate, Tower Shield, Longsword OR Gamin the Mistforged

Build Option 2

Feats[Paladin - Oath of Vengeance 6/HK - Order of the Godclaw 4]
1-Fey Foundling
3-Splintering Weapon
5-Power Attack
7-Cornugon Smash
9-Extra Lay on Hands
11-Extra Lay on Hands

Gear: Hellknight Plate, Tower Shield, Terbutje (Great Terbutje if Half-Elf) [Have a bunch of plain (can they be Obsidian or Stone?) Terbutje, and 1 Blood Crystal Terbuje]

[Lady-J]

greater mercy would be better than extra layonhands give you an extra 1d6 healing when not useing a mercy theres also a feat you can take instead of blade of mercy it allows you to attack for lethal but if you reduce an enemy to below 0 you instead reduce them to -1 and they auto stabalize i cant remember the name atm though

[Angel Hunter D]

Oath of Vengeance let's me turn 2 Lay on Hands into another Smite, that's why I was thinking of taking the extra ones. And that feat sounds good, but a trait seems much cheaper.

[silverrey]

The "Iomedaean Enforcer" from Divine Anthology actually flows right into becoming a Hellknight very well. It gives the more Lawful flavor without really loosing anything. It also adds a bit more fluff to the combination which can be nice as well.

[Angel Hunter D]

the enforcer sounds cool, but I don't have that book, is it an archetype? what's it do?

[Rysky]

You get Detect Chaos, Smite Chaos, and Aura of Order instead of the normal Paladin abilities.

[Angel Hunter D]

Ah, those are fun. I was kinda thinking the 2 different smites would make me more flexible though. But doubling down could be cool too.

[Rysky]

Yeah, with Hellknight it would continue in advancement (I believe?) so you'd have one strong smite instead of 2 different ones.

[Douglas MacIntyre]

greater mercy is primarily the best route to ultimate mercy as a way to raise the dead without a ton of troubles (still neg levels but a big discount)... it does not make you the healer but it does make you popular when someone falls all the way over.

I got to try it out when our cleric fell over dead on the first enocuter of a multi tabler - when you burn all your lay on hands at level 6 be afraid for the rest of the scenario!

[CBDunkerson]

Oath Against Chaos allows you to use one smite chaos + one lay on hands to smite evil instead. That way you've got full power smite against everyone except LG, LN, NG, and NN.

[The Sideromancer]

You can't get favoured class bonuses from a prestige class, so I'm not sure why you want half-elf for this particular multiclass.

[0o0o0 O 0o0o0]

Think about a good Domain power. At Hellknight 3 you get a Discipline and you can pick a domain from Pentamic Faith from Godclaw. War, Travel and Law might be useful.

Sideromancer is right, you can't have a prestige class as favoured, so don't worry about that in your race choice.

If you are playing a Hellknight for PFS you may as well invest in the excellent Path of the Hellknight book.there is great lore and you will see how truly weird the crazy nazis in the Godclaw are. They aren't as awful as some, just bonkers zealous. order of the Gate seem to be very fond of being evil and the whole point of Order of the Nail is to be incredibly racist. They looove racism.

Anyway, the mechanical point of getting the book is that you can get the Godclaw Reckoning feat instead of one of your Extra Lay on Hands. They work just like Deific Obedience. Godclaw reckoning makes you have to flagellate yourself every morning. In return, you get an extra hit point from healing spells and Bane, Bless, Tireless Pursuit and Wrath as SLAs 3/day. And some other stuff you won't see because PFS.

[Nomadical]

Sideromamcer is correct, but there's a new feat in the just released Paths of the Righteous called Favored Prestige Class. It has a variety of benefits, including as the name implies allowing you to get the 1 hp or 1 skill rank (but specifically not any alternate FCB) when taking a level of a prestige class. TBD if it will be Society legal.

[Angel Hunter D]

thanks for the input guys, completely missed the bit about no FCB from prestige classes.

I have Path of the Hellknight, it was the whole reason I decided that Godclaw was the way to go, although the reckonings seem pretty week for PFS because I don't get the first boon until lvl 12. Can't go wrong with Travel Domain though.

Oath against Chaos is more appealing if the smite chaos stacks with the Hellknight ability. Smite references class level though so I'm not so sure it does?

Going for Ultimate Mercy seems like a huge investment, it's cool but not what I'm going for.

As for the other part of the build, Longsword or Terbutje?

[Rysky]

Do you want to kill stuff or do you want to painfully kill stuff?

[Angel Hunter D]

Painfully Kill stuff sounds like more fun, but it'd require me getting a wand of Mending and having cooperative team mates.

Also, A friend of mine has been tossing around the idea of putting Broken Wing Gambit on this guy (and him being a tactician with Paired Opportunist). But if I'm reading that right then I can't take it until lvl 7? and Cornugon Smash gets delayed until lvl 9 then, which sucks.

[Theconiel]

If you do decide to play s half-elf, remember that Hellknight is a prestige class, so it cannot be a favored class.

[David knott 242]

I guess you haven't seen the Favored Prestige Class feat in Paths of the Righteous then?

[Theconiel]

David knott 242 wrote:

I guess you haven't seen the Favored Prestige Class feat in Paths of the Righteous then?

Indeed I have not. That opens up some interesting new possibilities for the PC that I plan to make a Dragon Disciple (if I ever get a chance to play that PC again).