We continued our dichotomy of paladin vs cleric to test how they did against things other than undead, and things went almost exactly as expected.
The cleric of course built for Channel Smite and Holy Castigation. Also went fighter dedication for some feats and armor.
The paladin went with a blade ally build for crit specializations, and focused on Feint when flanking wasn't an option with a single move.
The results were skewed a bit, since we had a bard in the party offering up Inspire Heroics for that +3 [omfg I've been saying this since my Power Attack thread] which enabled and facilitated actually having the ability to crit on a secondary attack. Combined with flat-footed, that was a +5 overall which made the difference in combat utility.
Where the paladin could crit, it mattered. The player however said he understood that he was having fun, but not because he was playing a paladin, only because of how the game's engine worked and only because he had a bard there for support.
The cleric player had way more options and Channel Smite worked like a charm and let him not only take giant chinks out of the enemy HP pools, but clearly stole the role away from the paladin who otherwise could not smite but one time.
That one time that the paladin's smite kicked in really mattered though, as one of the huge demons swung on the bard, and teh paladin was able to defend him with a crit from Retributive Strike which through the enfeebled condition actually downgraded a crit into a regular hit, preserving the bard and our ability to fight. But for the whole 'adventure' this ability triggered once, and the paladin otherwise really didn't have what felt like any unique options to enhance his role in combat.
Somewhere I have all the notes for healing/damage across the fights, I can dig them up if anyone cares.
Just curious: how far did you get through Undarin with this setup?
First encounter poses additional (Disarm-related) problems for any characters using weapons, strongly favoring your cleric, while 2nd encounter has issues with high DC/save mechanics. Next ecnounters Are way easier if you survive long enough. Now I am curious as how other groups managed to get through these challenges.
Not far, my Batman character had his night ruined by the blood demons because they screw thrown builds over.
Sucked.