Stonelord Paladin: Shield or Two Handed Weapon?

[Reksew_Trebla]

I’m building a Dwarf with the Stonelord Paladin racial archetype. I need to know if a shield is worth it. As a Dwarf, I can use Dwarven Exotic Weapons as though they were Martial Weapons, and I think there is a shield that is dwarven that can be used as a weapon.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Why not Two Handed Shield?

[blahpers]

War-shield, dwarven

Edit: Light weapon, though, so good for two-weapon fighting but not so much for two-handing.

[Avoron]

Personally, I'd go with a dwarven longhammer or dwarven dorn-dergar so you can get more attacks in without having to break your defensive stance. With heavy armor, a natural armor bonus, a dodge bonus, a Con bonus, d10 hit dice, scaling DR, and lay on hands, I think your defenses will be fine.

[master_marshmallow]

What do you need from this paladin? You will find shields and pumping your AC counter intuitive to your roll as the guy who takes hits if the enemies are discouraged from hitting you.

I'm a fan of the dorn dergar, with Adventurer's Armory 2 there's some feats now that can change the weapon into and out of a reach weapon for added versatility.

[Grumbaki]

Two handed. Assuming Str16, Dex12, Power Attack, and scale mail at lvl1:

Warhammer and Heavy Shield: +3 Hit, 1d8+5
AC: 18

Earthbreaker: +3 Hit, 2d6+7
AC: 16

-2 AC, but on average doing +5 damage. Once your Str hits 18 the gap widens.

And besides...too much AC and low damage means being ignored. Fairly high AC for large amounts of damage? Enemies will actually attack you. Which you and your party want.

——

But if you can’t choose.

Lvl1: Power Attack
Lvl 3: Furious Focus
Lvl 5: Shield Focus
Lvl 7: Shield Brace

Use a halberd. You now have a shield and a two handed weapon.