Critique my build!

[Galacktic]

Alright! Playing in a game of Wrath of the Righteous soon, going Paladin.

I'm using a GM okay'd custom race (Bonus feat, bonus in strength/cha, malus in con, other things) and going a TWF Oath of Vengeance Paladin with Shielded Gauntlet Style.

So here's my eventual feat path:

1) Weapon Focus: Spiked Gauntlet
1 Bonus) Shielded Gauntlet Style
3) Prodigious TWF
5) Monstrous Mount (This one isn't really negotiable! I want my griffon with animal companion progression. Mostly for theme.)
7) Power Attack or ITWF
9) Shielded Gauntlet Attack
11) Power Attack or ITWF
13) GTWF
15) Shielded Gauntlet Master
17) Double Slice
19) Not a clue! Maybe throw Extra Lay on Hands in here somewhere?

My party is a Theurge (from Kobold Press) and a Warpriest focused on Desna/Starknives. All of us are worshippers of Desna, as well.


Also of note! Our DM has banned Path of War classes/maneuvers, and DSP psionics, but the feats are fair game. As is Spheres of Power and Akashic Mysteries. He mostly just wants us out of our comfort zones a bit.

[Florian]

A bit problematic. Very costly on the needed PB values, very low damage profile until mid-levels and it´ll take some time until the shield bonus will be noticeable enough.

Write something about how you´ve planned your mythic path progression.

[Galacktic]

A bit problematic. Very costly on the needed PB values, very low damage profile until mid-levels and it´ll take some time until the shield bonus will be noticeable enough.

Write something about how you´ve planned your mythic path progression.

I was mostly looking at Dual Path Champion/Marshal. I'm going full strength spec, so it's not like I need weapon finesse or anything.

I was thinking Fleet Charge for my Champion ability, Dual Path for the Mythic feat, and I was thinking Clarion Call for my path ability?

I'm not certain past that.

What would you suggest for the feat path then? I'd still like to keep Shielded Gauntlet Style for theme, along with Monstrous Mount, but I'm open to suggestions.

Oh, and I have a 25 point buy

[Elricaltovilla]

You're pretty solidly hamstringing yourself using Shield Gauntlet Style. If you're going pure strength, how are you planning on meeting the prerequisites for TWF and related? You realize those have some pretty hefty dex requirements right?

You'll be stuck with a +1 shield bonus to AC until 15th level, you have no way to ignore Dex requirements for the feats you want to take, your weapon damage will be subpar, you won't be getting any real returns on your STR investment, you have no support for the shield aspect of your gauntlets (meaning you'll be losing that completely negligible +1 AC any time you try to twf anyway), and you're not even working your greatly desired griffon mount into the build at all.

Exactly what kind of fighting style are you trying to use? What are your goals for this character in combat? There are far, far more effective ways to accomplish what I think you want to do.

[Galacktic]

You're pretty solidly hamstringing yourself using Shield Gauntlet Style. If you're going pure strength, how are you planning on meeting the prerequisites for TWF and related? You realize those have some pretty hefty dex requirements right?

You'll be stuck with a +1 shield bonus to AC until 15th level, you have no way to ignore Dex requirements for the feats you want to take, your weapon damage will be subpar, you won't be getting any real returns on your STR investment, you have no support for the shield aspect of your gauntlets (meaning you'll be losing that completely negligible +1 AC any time you try to twf anyway), and you're not even working your greatly desired griffon mount into the build at all.

Exactly what kind of fighting style are you trying to use? What are your goals for this character in combat? There are far, far more effective ways to accomplish what I think you want to do.

Prodigious Two Weapon Fighting from Path of War. Path of War feats are available, so I can mostly ignore dexterity for that purpose. I was planning on Gauntlet/Scimitar, upgrading it with Keen or something later.

Maybe drop the style feats, but grab a few other things. I'd still like to keep the TWF aspect, so I could do something like grabbing Radiant Charge and Improved Critical for my scimitar later?

[Elricaltovilla]

Prodigious Two Weapon Fighting from Path of War. Path of War feats are available, so I can mostly ignore dexterity for that purpose. I was planning on Gauntlet/Scimitar, upgrading it with Keen or something later.

Maybe drop the style feats, but grab a few other things. I'd still like to keep the TWF aspect, so I could do something like grabbing Radiant Charge and Improved Critical for my scimitar later?

Prodigious Two Weapon fighting is not on the list of feats you posted. Maybe I should take the time to introduce myself given that you'll be looking at some of the stuff I wrote then. I'm Elric, I helped write Path of War: Expanded.

EDIT: Let's talk fighting style. You want Strength TWFing, yes? I can work with that. Scimitar means crit-fishing usually, there are things that can be done with that as well. The more info you give me on the character concept, the better I can help you.

[Galacktic]

Prodigious Two Weapon fighting is not on the list of feats you posted. Maybe I should take the time to introduce myself given that you'll be looking at some of the stuff I wrote then. I'm Elric, I helped write Path of War: Expanded.

Yeah, that was my bad. I just forgot the word! But, Path of War feats are on the table, just not the disciplines/maneuvers. No DSP psionics either. We all just default to that as a group and the DM wants us to try something new this time. Akashic and Spheres of Power are 100% fair game though, but I'm set on playing a Paladin.

Generally my build is strength focused TWFing, using my griffin to get in close (or a mythic power which will let me get in) and then I'd be fighting mostly alongside it rather than atop. The griffin is primarily a flanking buddy. I was looking at grabbing the critical powers from Champion and trying to get some crit fishing in with the scimitar. It's not a very efficient build, but I'm trying to keep generally on the same optimization level as the rest of my group (which is around low-mid OP)

[Vhaidara]

I personally recommend skipping GTWF. It's kind of an awful feat: When you make a full attack, you get an extra attack at effectively -12 (-2 from TWF, -10 from matching your third iterative).

Shielded Gauntlet style is a dead feat if you plan on TWF, since you lose the AC bonus when using both. Shielded Gauntlet Attack isn't bad, but honestly going to be a weak feat for most of the game. When you finally get to Master, you've got something, but that something begs the question of why not just take a Heavy Steel Shield, Improved Shield Bash, Shield Focus, and Defensive Expertise (PoW) to get your shield bonus to Touch AC and, for most of the game, a better damage die, and not lose your shield bonus when attacking?

Also, your build still doesn't include Prodigious TWF

[Galacktic]

I personally recommend skipping GTWF. It's kind of an awful feat: When you make a full attack, you get an extra attack at effectively -12 (-2 from TWF, -10 from matching your third iterative).

Shielded Gauntlet style is a dead feat if you plan on TWF, since you lose the AC bonus when using both. Shielded Gauntlet Attack isn't bad, but honestly going to be a weak feat for most of the game. When you finally get to Master, you've got something, but that something begs the question of why not just take a Heavy Steel Shield, Improved Shield Bash, Shield Focus, and Defensive Expertise (PoW) to get your shield bonus to Touch AC and, for most of the game, a better damage die, and not lose your shield bonus when attacking?

Also, your build still doesn't include Prodigious TWF

Edited in now. So that frees up a few feats, at least. So maybe something like this?

1) Weapon Focus: Spiked Gauntlet
1 Bonus) Shielded Gauntlet Style
3) Shielded Gauntlet Attack
5) Monstrous Mount
7) Shielded Gauntlet Master
9) Power Attack
11) Prodigious Two Weapon Fighting
13) ITWF
15) Double Slice
17/19) ???

[Florian]

Try to focus on immediately useful feats first, clump long chains with a higher number of prereqs together for later. So TWF, Power Attack, Double slice first, set up your basic TWF routine till 8th and then switch to going into Shielded Gauntlet and pick those as soon as available.

[Elricaltovilla]

You really don't want the shield gauntlet style feats. Take a look at your list. You're trying to TWF with a scimitar and a gauntlet, and you don't even get Prodigious TWF until 11th level. That's book 3 of WotR. You're spending 3 feats to get a +1 shield bonus to AC you won't have 90% of the time and a weapon that does less damage, with a worse crit rate and no notable benefits than your other weapon. You could drop all three feats and equip a buckler and you'd lose an average of 3-5 damage per hit with your gauntlet.

I suggest something like this:

1. Prodigious TWF
BF1. TWF
3. Double Slice
5. Power Attack
MF1. Mythic Power Attack
7. Monstrous Mount
9. Improved Two Weapon Fighting

Beyond this point you're pretty flexible. But with this feat progression, you've got everything you want by 9th level, leaving you with more flexibility in the future. It's also important to note that you have mythic feats as well. The only one I suggested was Mythic Power Attack, but there are others that are good options as well.

[JKTrickster]

Which campaign trait are you taking? I suggest taking the one called Stolen Fury.

You have a malus in Con? Damn that's rough huh....

Did you think about Fey Foundling feat? Such a nice ability for a Paladin, but you don't seem to have room for it.

[Florian]

Been rethinking that a bit.
Your other two party members can use divine buff spells, so you´ll probably not need all that many Paladin spells for that. For example, learning the Mythic Augmented version of Divine Favor turns it into a group buff and is available once you hit mythic tiers, so around level 5.

Going with the Tempered Champion archetype would let you drop spellcasting in exchange for feats, war priest weapon progression and converting LoH to more Divine Bound. It´ll also work fine with Oath of Vengeance.

That would free up space to go DEX > CHA > STR > CON with Weapon Finesse, Improved Shield Bash and up to Shield Mastery and Bashing Finish, replacing the missing STR with Greater WeapSpec along the way.

[Necromancy]

Two weapon fighting from the back of a flying mount... In armor... Low dex

Good luck on those ride checks bud!