Help Me With Building a Human Paladin (4.0)

My DM is starting a new campain tonight, and I need to make a good human paladin by that time due to roleplaying constraints. I do not mind this, but I am wondering what powers/ feats to take (and AC).

my stats are (prerolled, can not change)

17, 13, 13, 11 10 9 (still get +2 to one)

I will be getting armor of reistence +1 sometime tonight. any suggestions for equipment/ weapons (I have 99 gold, as it has been manadtory i at least get a sling for ranged) My team is going to be relying on me mostly not for healing but to do damage. please help

Lame stats. Point buy would have been better.

Ardent paladin.

Take Ardent Vow instead of lay on hands. +6 damage once a day (with 13 wisdom).

Main At will should be Ardent Strike, a decent choice for charging into melee.

Valiant strike may assist for engaging multiple opponents.

Heedless Fury is a 3W encounter power.

Blood of the Mighty is a 4W daily.

Stats should be Strength primary, followed by Constitution and Wisdom.
Wear heavy Plate. For a feat I would suggest an exotic 2 hander, perhaps Executioners Axe or Fullblade. Focused Expertise would be a decent 2nd choice, especially if you can gain a weapon that counts as a holy symbol.

With a fullblade you are looking at a +8 on your attacks (+10 when charging).

See if you can revoke your choice of resistance armor. Bad choice. You want damage, get a magic weapon ASAP.

An optimised Paladin would either focus on Charisma or Strength. Doing both hurts you. Constitution helps with longevity, and Wisdom helps with secondary features of powers.

Your stats are bad. Tell your DM he gave you bad stats. Remind him repeatedly. Tell him point buy is better. If you nag enough he might relent and let you make a proper Paladin. As it is, your power choices are limited when your character advances.

thanks for the help. er, what book is the ardent paladin in? I only own the phb 1 and 2 atm ^^' sorry

Divine Power

Most of $e classes need no help in optimization, bump points into the prime attribute and one of the secondaries, take Weapon or Implement expertise at 1st level and you are good to go. Paladin however was borked design. Divine Power made some fixes that made them playable again, especially the Strength Paladin.

Without Access to DP or DDI, you only real option is to use a charisma paladin. Just hope you won't need to make any basic attacks.

The bigger question is what does the group need? An Ardent paladin is going to help add DPS, but their marks aren't as painful for enemies to violate and they aren't going to have the wisdom to tap into some of the extra healing paladins can offer if the group needs you to be a little more leader-ish.

I'll second needing either Divine Power or the Character Builder--the feats and powers that were added are very nice. Is Virtuous Strike in DP? If not, that's the at-will you take so you can use your charisma skill for basic attacks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tankadin

The bigger question is what does the group need? An Ardent paladin is going to help add DPS, but their marks aren't as painful for enemies to violate and they aren't going to have the wisdom to tap into some of the extra healing paladins can offer if the group needs you to be a little more leader-ish.

I'll second needing either Divine Power or the Character Builder--the feats and powers that were added are very nice. Is Virtuous Strike in DP? If not, that's the at-will you take so you can use your charisma skill for basic attacks.

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In the first post he states the group requested damage.

That said, the second post is pretty spot on about what you should do to achieve that if you have access to Divine Power at all.

If this is not possible you will need to talk to your group quickly and see if you can either A) Change classes B) Have someone else focus on damage...like any striker for example.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sipex

In the first post he states the group requested damage.

That said, the second post is pretty spot on about what you should do to achieve that if you have access to Divine Power at all.

If this is not possible you will need to talk to your group quickly and see if you can either A) Change classes B) Have someone else focus on damage...like any striker for example.

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Or hang on until you can become a Morninglord and have the party Invoker and Avenger bring the radiant hate, but yeah. Apologies for the faux pas.

Alternately, one of the Half-Orc racial feats lets you add your strength modifier to your marks. Every little bit helps.

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Originally Posted by WinWin

An optimised Paladin would either focus on Charisma or Strength. Doing both hurts you.

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Repeating for emphasis. Only a very small set of Paladin builds can function as mixed attackers. Almost all of them are Dragonborn. And use point-buy.

In general, I'd have Charisma as high at all times, with a moderately high Wisdom, followed by Constitution. If you want to go Strength Paladin, then Charisma should be second, followed by Wis and Con. Str Paladins have better defenses overall compared to Cha Paladins, but they have weaker secondary abilities and practically need to take Mighty Challenge in order to keep their mark as powerful as a Cha Paladin's...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mando Knight

Repeating for emphasis. Only a very small set of Paladin builds can function as mixed attackers. Almost all of them are Dragonborn. And use point-buy.

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Meh, I'm currently playing a Human Paladin with 16 CHA and STR and she's doing fine. Sure, she's not optimized but that's the nice thing about 4E - you don't have to be totally optimized to be effective.

That said - with stats like that, you'll need to pick. Not having Divine Power is going to be a problem on that end, but unless your DM forbade you from using it, that's easy enough to fix.

Pick up DDI for one month for $10 - it has a fully updated character builder and everything. Honestly, your group should just share a single subscription and split the cost; if you have 4 people you can buy a year for a little less than $20 per person.

I have to agree that without Divine Power a damage dealing paladin isn't going to work nearly as well as a real striker. As an alternative, I built a PaladinBarbarian that ought to do better:

Spoiler

Show

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
level 1
Human, Barbarian
Build: Thaneborn Barbarian
Feral Might: Thaneborn Triumph

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 19, Con 13, Dex 11, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 13.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 17, Con 13, Dex 11, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 13.


AC: 16 Fort: 17 Reflex: 11 Will: 12
HP: 28 Surges: 9 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Diplomacy +6, Heal +5, Intimidate +6, Endurance +5, Athletics +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -1, Arcana -1, Bluff +1, Dungeoneering, History -1, Insight, Nature, Perception, Religion -1, Stealth -1, Streetwise +1, Thievery -1

FEATS
Human: Soldier of the Faith
Level 1: Armor Proficiency (Chainmail)

POWERS
Barbarian at-will 1: Devastating Strike
Barbarian at-will 1: Pressing Strike
Bonus At-Will Power: Howling Strike
Barbarian encounter 1: Avalanche Strike
Barbarian daily 1: Macetail's Rage

ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Javelin (3), Greataxe, Chainmail
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======

Yes, it's a Barbarian, but you've got multiclass Paladin for a lightweight mark and will do a lot more damage. You have my permission to roleplay as a holy warrior :smallwink:

Edit: switched toughness for chain armour, because 14 AC was a bad joke. If your party wizard has more HP (and armour for that matter) than you then blame you sucky stats.