Paladin builds.

[Magdela]

Hello Playground,

I am decent on making builds. They are usually casters or clerics though and I would like to give a Paladin a try. The problem is I have no idea where to start.

We are in a Frostburn setting, possibly in a world where there is a big ocean around the planet that divides Frostburn and Sandstorm with Stormwrack in the middle and the Greyhawk setting around the circle. Its a pretty sight, but it will mostly be a Frostburn campaign.

We are all starting at 7th level and we are a mostly Good party with no evil members as of now. It is a low magic setting, as the world's magic was screwed up bad by some huge war involving the Eberron campaign setting. Warforged exist, just not many casters left. They are hated. So the party consists of:

A fighter into order of the bow initiate.
A druid.
A warforged fighter into something mauler class from CW.
Another Paladin. (same backstory as me, but she is a maybe)

Anyway, I want advice on a Paladin build that focuses on being independent and buffing himself moreso than other party members. He came to the frozen wastes to recover an ancient relic for whats-his-face (travel god...farghlein I think) and came prepared as such but instead chose to stay to help the people.

The DM will allow a Drakensteed. Is it actually any good? I can't figure out if I can trample the enemy and lance them at the same time.

Also, I'm leaning towards Knight of the Iron glacier but lack Frostburn right now and wanted your guys opinions if it is any good.

Sincerely,
Magdela

PS. No TOB

[Magdela]

No advice, at all?

[Fenryr]

Paladins requiere almost every abitlity score. Be prepared. If any book is allowed, try Dragonlance: Legends of the Twins. Has a feat to make your casting score Charisma.

Paladin's Handbook.

[mootoall]

Why bother making your casting score Charisma when you could just make everything else off Wisdom with Serenity from Dragon Mag? Wisdom is a much better score to have.

[PollyOliver]

Hrm...I don't really play paladins, but one question for you--is spell compendium available? There are some nice paladin buffs there.

Again, I'm not much of a paladin player so maybe I'm wrong, but knight of the iron glacier looks really...meh. It's got a nice mount, but it gets advanced by paladin too, so after that first level it doesn't give much. After that first level, you basically get a method of spending a really long time to give your allies a +2 morale bonus on attack and will saves and fear immunity, eventually give yourself the same and a few other goodies against a single enemy, and get an initiative and spot/listen bonus while in frostfell. And it costs two essentially wasted feats to get into.

If you can spare the feats, it might be worth that one level to get the mount, but after that you're probably better off in paladin if you've got spell compendium, which is really saying something.

[Snails]

Stats matter so much that I hesitate to give detailed advice without knowing what you got. Quite frankly, the class suffers so badly from Multiple Ability Disorder that it is on the weak side with even a 32 point build.

That said, here are some pointers...

You will need to decide how much to invest in mounted charge attacks. Spirited Charge can be very powerful. It is not necessary, but the Cavalier PrC is attractive in the long run.

Getting a mount that can pick up Fleet of Foot (CW) would also be a good buy, if your DM is not stingy. (Your PC would ready a charge for the last moment; your mount uses Fleet of Foot.) Note that Dex 15 and Run feat are not necessarily trivial for a mount.

Jump Attack would be great if you can get, but probably will not happen.

Myself, I have played a Paladin through mid-levels and I never bothered to get a single mounted combat related feat, well, not directly. My build is more of a generalist with Power Attack, Divine Might, Extra Smiting, Battle Blessing, Awesome Smite. Note that this "non-charge" build is still no slouch at mounted charges, because I have Divine Might and Smite Evil bonuses to burn.

[gorfnab]

Here's a whole thread on Paladin builds: Waazraaths paladin build compendium

[Draz74]

If you're trying to use the actual Paladin class and make it fight well, you have to choose between two main strategies: Crit-fishing or mounted charging.

Crit-fishing involves using a weapon with a big threat range, probably a Falchion. (Elven Courtblade is even better if you have feats to spare, but that's unlikely.) Use Bless Weapon on it constantly (buy a LOT of Level 1 Pearls of Power) to auto-confirm crits. Then pump up your non-dice bonus damage using things like Divine Might, Collision and Bloodletting weapon enhancements, and of course Power Attack and Smite. Definitely get the Travel Devotion feat so you can full attack more reliably. I personally think Improved Critical is worthwhile on this type of build, rather than Keen, because it interacts more compatibly with other crit-boosting tricks. For high levels, there are some other cool weapon enhancements that trigger on a crit, such as Slowing Burst and Enervating.

Mounted Charging, of course, is the well-known PHB feats, culminating in Spirited Charge, using a lance and (if allowed) giving your lance the Valorous enhancement. Personally, if you don't want your DM to hate you, I'd say avoid any Pounce-cheese (except the Lion's Charge spell, if Paladins get it). With quadruple damage, you'll still be one-shotting most things, especially when you use Smite.

Either way you go, you'll want to eventually pick up the Battle Blessing feat to make your spellcasting change from slightly-pathetic to AWESOME. And either way you go, Serenity is a nice feat if you can squeeze it in somewhere, and dump your CHA in favor of sky-high WIS. Note that Serenity doesn't work on the effect of the Divine Might feat, though.

You're probably not going to like this, but it's also somewhat recommended to trade away your Mount in favor of an Alternate Class Feature. If you want a Mount, you're better off grabbing another one using Leadership or Wild Cohort. In place of the mount, pick up Healing Spirit, or Charging Smite if you plan to be charging a lot. Or there's one other decent one, but I forget what it's called or what book it's from (Drow of the Underdark???).

[PollyOliver]

Paladins don't get lion's charge, but they do get rhino's rush. Which if you're not going for pounce is quite nice.