Overcoming mediocrity: help a pally out!

[Sandslice]

So our GM went for dice rolls (4d6k3) for character generation. The results were, obviously, varied:

- Halfling rogue (10/19/10/18/12/18) - 44(!!) PB equivalent
- Elf druid (10/14/13/18/18/13) - 39 PB
- Human barbarian (18/16/15/12/12/10) - 31 PB
- Grippli bard (8/16/10/12/13/16) - 18 PB
- Gnome earth-elem sorcerer (4/18/12/14/9/16) - 20? PB. The closest PB-legal build would be 22. (Yes, I considered 18->20 in either Con or Cha. High initiative and ranged-touch / crossbow options seemed better.)

That's the rest of the party.

----

Our heroine - not my character, I'm the sorcerer - is this:

- Aasimar paladin of Iomedae (11/10/11/12/15/15) - 10 PB.

Blessed with faith and determination, she's bravely faced down our foes with a stout shield and a stout heart... but as you can see, precious little in the way of martial competency. Having survived Assassins, a Ghoul, some Kobolds, a few wild animals, a mighty Hydra, and a gang of vicious Bounty Hunters, we've somehow managed to make it to level 2.

Things will, of course, get rougher. So is there anything we can do to help this noble soul out? Besides confusing her relatively new player with thoughts of (variant) multiclassing or retraining to a more stat-appropriate class, that is. Archetypes, feats, etc?

Or, alternately, is there anything I can do with spell selection etc to help "big sis" thrive and perhaps survive?

[Ikorus]

Why so much wis? Cha to saves means keeping at 10, or going 12, totally viable. Reshuffle them numbers.

11 str/15 dex/12 con/10 int/11 wis/15 cha

Iorian (/Enlightened) paladin https://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Paladin Iroran Paladin with agile amulet of mighty fists or handwraps should work with those stats.

It's also way harder for a DM to f@~+ you over on your code like they LOVE to do, and their smite variant works on non-evil targets letting their damage be more consistent overall.

Additional tricks can be picked up with clever multiclassling like oracle or monk (unarmed strike feature should stack so that wont be a problem).

I forget the specifics right now because its 4 AM, but one oracle mystery has a revelation that adds charisma to all knowledge checks (still need at least 1 point to make a check), and two others allow variations on cha to AC and CMD that SHOULD stack.

If she goes monk, Scaled Fist has better damage while focusing in on that charisma, or water dancer will allow for TRULY HILARIOUS amounts of AC. Also consider Sohei Monk to always be able to act in the surprise round. It only takes a one-level dip, and she can stick with paladin the rest of the way. But just mono-paladin should be fine too. No matter what, as an a aasimar it's probably best to go azata-blooded.

As far as spells go, do you mean for her (paladin) or yourself (sorcerer)? Either way I defer to others here, but i think it's important to clarify.

[Meirril]

Hmm...it isn't a good stat array for a paladin, but it isn't something you need to run from either. At least the saves are going to be solid.

Instead of focusing on being a striker, shift to being a buffer. Take Divine Fighting Technique as soon as possible. The version for Iomedae lets you trade a full round action for +2 to hit, skills and saves that stacks with most other bonuses. After you hit 5th level the ability lasts 2 rounds each time you use it.

Also pick up Weapon Focus: long sword (which should be the paladins favored weapon if you are RPing hard), and Dazzling Display. Make sure you keep your intimidate maxed out so you can demoralize your opponents to debuff your opponents.

At 4th you want to even out your charisma. At 8th you probably want to boost wisdom instead of piling more points into charisma. Or you could pick up your con by 1 for the extra hp.

Alternatively, check and see if your GM is ok with your paladin dipping 1 level into Synthesist Summoner. This will let you stack the eldlion's stats onto the paladin to replace her Str/Dex/Con.

My suggestion would be a Quadraped with the Hooves, Pounce and Natural Armor evolutions. This way your level 1 paladin, level 1 synthesist would be able to make 1 weapon attack at full BAB, and then 1 bite and 2 hoof secondary natural attacks (-5 to hit) each round. Also the Quadraped would change the paladin's physical stats to 14 str and dex, 13 con.

After the dip into synthesist I'd stick with advancing paladin levels. This is a fairly strong build since the paladin can self heal as a swift action and the synthesist eldelion gives the paladin some bonus hp and can stick around as long as the paladin is willing to spend her hp to do so.

The big downside to all of this is not being able to wear armor. The GM might allow the paladin to buy armor she can wear in her synthesis form, so ask. Otherwise this character can't get an armor bonus from wearing armor while synthasized with the eldelion.

[Sandslice]

Meirril wrote:

Hmm...it isn't a good stat array for a paladin, but it isn't something you need to run from either. At least the saves are going to be solid.

Instead of focusing on being a striker, shift to being a buffer. Take Divine Fighting Technique as soon as possible. The version for Iomedae lets you trade a full round action for +2 to hit, skills and saves that stacks with most other bonuses. After you hit 5th level the ability lasts 2 rounds each time you use it.

Also pick up Weapon Focus: long sword (which should be the paladins favored weapon if you are RPing hard), and Dazzling Display. Make sure you keep your intimidate maxed out so you can demoralize your opponents to debuff your opponents.

At 4th you want to even out your charisma. At 8th you probably want to boost wisdom instead of piling more points into charisma. Or you could pick up your con by 1 for the extra hp.

Alternatively, check and see if your GM is ok with your paladin dipping 1 level into Synthesist Summoner.

Synthesist is, sadly, not allowed - nor master summoner, nor the Vigilante class. I think almost anything else can be asked about, at least.

As for Divine Fighting Technique, that would definitely help a great deal. I'll get her thinking about it in-character too. Thanks! (:

[WagnerSika]

This is exactly why we do not roll for stats anymore. One player has 44 point buy and another 10! Level playing field indeed.

[Ikorus]

WagnerSika wrote:

This is exactly why we do not roll for stats anymore. One player has 44 point buy and another 10! Level playing field indeed.

No kidding. Doubly bad because paladin is such a MAD class. But I think we put enough options on the table that theres a few ways this can end up workable anyway.

I'm sure theres more too. That's one of the good points of this game.

[Cavall]

We roll for our stats. Three times. Then pick one set and everyone gets that set.

Maybe go reach user? You've got 4 front lines if the druid goes pet. Your pally friend may do well with a strong reach weapon and still have the ability to smite and heal and buff.

Not quite as Heroic but certainly more viable and vastly more durable.

[gnoams]

Some of your players have excessive bonus stats, she has npc stats. Not saying you can't have fun playing a sidekick, but that's the best she can hope to be. Your GM screwed you with awful house rule character creation. If you're not having fun with it, then this is a problem that needs to be solved out of game, not in.

[Sandslice]

Responding to all.

1. @Ikorus:

"Why so much Wis?" Standard aasimar racial boons, since the player (being new) didn't know that alternate race traits / heritages were in play. Heck, even I didn't until finding out that the bard had Princely (of course, for the diplomacy buff.)

As for Irori / enlightened pally, I'm not sure how much of a backstory change it would be. That said, it's an option I'll keep in mind for people for future games. :)

2. @WagnerSika:

Yeah, it is the peril of dice-roll character creation. I mainly discovered it because when we reach level 3, I'll almost certainly be poked as much as the GM for build advice - and 3's kind of a busy level for most of us.

3. @Cavall:

The druid did indeed go pet, and might even start summoning now that the duration isn't "wink in, strike, get ignored, wink out."

4. @gnoams:

Hence my call for aid. Our paladin might be an ordinary girl, but it needn't be so with a good plan. And we are having fun; just want to make sure it remains so within d20's core assumptions. (:

[Scavion]

Switch to Agathion Blooded if possible for +2 Con/+2 Cha.

Sacred Servant Paladin archetype

Use feats for Toughness, Extra Lay on Hands, Greater/Ultimate Mercy, Bodyguard, Combat Reflexes. Fey Foundling if you are allowed to retrain.

Be a pain in the ass to kill and try to keep everyone alive.

Or short easy fix, subtly take more dangerous actions until you get your character killed so you can reroll.

[Ikorus]

Potentially no retcons at all!

You can ask your DM to slip one of these into her share of the treasure later and make everything happen in-universe.

https://aonprd.com/MagicArtifactsDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Hourglass of Transfiguration

It doesn't even have a price, so it wont cut into any spending she wants to do.