TRing into pally. U11 Dilemma

[Orange-Silk]

So, I'm TRing my gimpy AA kensai into a more interesting char who's less of a one trick pony, so I figured the hectic playstyle of a paladin would keep me awake during harry beating.

Going for a 18Pal/2Rog human KoTC TWF build, for UMD, evasion, SA and because I can't stand to look at half-elves for too long (made even worse by the fact they look back at you now with the U11 UI changes).

My initial featlist was this:

1- Toughness
1- TWF
3- Prof Khopesh
6- Extend
9- ITWF
12- GTWF
15- Icrit
18- PA
Stats: 16 STR 15 DEX 14 CON 16 CHA 8 INT 8 WIS (+2 tomes lying in Bank)

But then read a bit on the changes to DoS and they look fantastic, so figured "Sure, drop extend, pick up shield mastery, madstone shield and I'm a useful dmg mitigation tool", the idea of playing a KoTC DPS that for a enhancement respec fee turns into DoS when the guild needs him is really tempting, but I was wondering, how realistic is it?, how much of a tank would the char end up being?, would it be useful DPS since I sacrificed the capstone?.

My actual question can be summarized as... am I spreading it too thin?

(The char does make it to decent/awesome UMD while the monk splash practically loses the skill or reduces me to blur wands, take that into account)

[dkyle]

If you just want to play a Pali, that looks fine.

But Palis' time to shine was about two years ago. I rolled up something very similar to what you've outlined, but got tired of it and TR'd him into a Barb.

If you're looking for a hectic melee class that really excels in the current game, Monk is what you're looking for. Even more button mashing, not confined to Evil Outsiders that are less and less integral to endgame, and unarmed damage is great against all the new fortification all over the place.

[FrozenNova]

DoS paladins contribute dps somewhere below abysmal, pair of khopeshes or not.
Same goes for KoTC's against non-EO's, unfortunately.

The monk splash doesn't 'practically lose the skill'. Granted I need a sizable amount of swapins for nofail heal - but given the sheer healing potential of a paladin with metamagics it's not something I find myself sorely lacking.

A DoS with shield with no AC isn't anything special in terms of tanking capacity. Somewhat less incoming damage, somewhat easier to heal than a non-human barbarian - but the pure barbarian isn't killing his damage output in the process.

A nice approach to ACless tanking at the moment are the heavy fighter/monk hybrids. Plenty of hitpoints from toughnesses, plenty of amp from monk enhancements, alongside shadow fade being better than shield mastery with tower shield at proventing damage - while still being a powerful kensei with Tactics offhand procs and high DC's. A 12 fighter/7 monk/1 rogue will keep your umd, too.

[deathtouch]

The Original poster did mention that he was going to go DOS and not KOTC, so that he won't be limited to fighting just evil outsiders.

Your build looks fine, just don't expect to be running around waterworks or low level content TWF though. Make sure you take Rogue at 1 to maximize your skill points.

I am currently doing the same kind of thing with one on my paladins, having gone from Fighter>KOTC>DOS, 36 point build really helps out as does having tomes waiting.

[Orange-Silk]

Well, I didn't think much of AC considering it's becoming less and less relevant on the end game, the LoB on normal easily hits a 90 AC char... So 20% dmg mitigation from a shield should do wonders, though the shadow fade thing sounds fun too...

Now, I was left wondering... Is either going full-tank monk splash or doing mediocre DPS on things that aren't evil outsiders the only choice I have if I play a pally? Is the class really that dead?

I'm certainly not going AC on any char anytime soon, since it requires fantastic gear planning and acquiring abilities so that fighter/monk build really sounds tempting, though I'm not so sure about his aggro...

Anyways, since tanking seems to be out due to lack of dmg mitigation and absolute lack of DPS, what would be a viable DPS evasion pally build? or is it really impossible?

[kurai_123]

DoS paladins contribute dps somewhere below abysmal, pair of khopeshes or not.
Same goes for KoTC's against non-EO's, unfortunately.


I've had a paladin before and i didn't find his dps to be too horrible. I wouldn't say that my build was really uber or anything. Am i just really mislead as to what average dps should be? so i have to ask: What do you consider "normal dps" for a twf khopesh user?