Character build questions

[Cleitanious]

Preface: I'm not a professional power-build character builder.

I've been thinking it about it most of the day. I've done some tests in character planners and came out unconvinced. Overall it appeared marginally different between the builds I tried.

First, Paladin or Fighter. My character's personality is more Paladin, but a chivalrous fighter would suit him as well. Are the special abilities and spells worth trade off and vice versa? If I'd be significantly more effective with one class over the other, I'd choose that class.

Sword & Shield or Two-swords. I know, totally different. But, I can't make up my mind. How much more survivability does a shield actually offer? Would tanking without one be viable? Is the damage output of dual wielding significant? On paper the difference was negligible.

Strength or Dexterity build. I suppose this question only applies when dual wielding. Do I get more AB and Damage from a pure strength build, a dexterity focused build or somewhere in-between?

[stoerm]

The differences are subtle but important, and aren't easily comparable numbers. In the planner the stats, HP, AC and other number might look similar, but for example enhancements make a big difference. Feats are visible in planners, and they are very significant. Sometimes numbers might look only slightly different, but are very important, and the gaps become bigger once you add gear and buffs, which are again not immediately obvious from planners.

I won't go into detail but if I had to recommend you either pure paladin or pure fighter, I'd pick paladin due to survivability and self healing from lay on hands and spell points. The power players here will say neither is good pure. Paladin is regarded by optimizers as a class to splash (2 levels for divine grace) whereas fighter can be either a splash or main class, but never pure - they'd want to multiclass some paladin, monk etc. levels.

A shield does add survivability, but only versus physical damage (notwithstanding the shield defletion feat). On the other hand it's a burden against other kinds of threats, eg. it kills your reflex saves, and if I'm correct the shield's maximum dexterity bonus also puts a cap on dodge chance. Additionally, S&B is still the weakest fighting mode. As a sum, shields are useful but optimal only situationally. Against some raid bosses S&B is great, versus others not at all. The solution is to take a mix of shield and 2HF feats, use a two hander in most situations and S&B when that is required.

I'll leave others to correct me and to answer the other questions.

[Cleitanious]

The differences are subtle but important, and aren't easily comparable numbers. In the planner the stats, HP, AC and other number might look similar, but for example enhancements make a big difference. Feats are visible in planners, and they are very significant. Sometimes numbers might look only slightly different, but are very important, and the gaps become bigger once you add gear and buffs, which are again not immediately obvious from planners.

I won't go into detail but if I had to recommend you either pure paladin or pure fighter, I'd pick paladin due to survivability and self healing from lay on hands and spell points. The power players here will say neither is good pure. Paladin is regarded by optimizers as a class to splash (2 levels for divine grace) whereas fighter can be either a splash or main class, but never pure - they'd want to multiclass some paladin, monk etc. levels.

A shield does add survivability, but only versus physical damage (notwithstanding the shield defletion feat). On the other hand it's a burden against other kinds of threats, eg. it kills your reflex saves, and if I'm correct the shield's maximum dexterity bonus also puts a cap on dodge chance. Additionally, S&B is still the weakest fighting mode. As a sum, shields are useful but optimal only situationally. Against some raid bosses S&B is great, versus others not at all. The solution is to take a mix of shield and 2HF feats, use a two hander in most situations and S&B when that is required.

I'll leave others to correct me and to answer the other questions.

Thanks for that

[HawkFest]

First, Paladin or Fighter. My character's personality is more Paladin, but a chivalrous fighter would suit him as well. Are the special abilities and spells worth trade off and vice versa? If I'd be significantly more effective with one class over the other, I'd choose that class.
I don't know about the fighter class, my character being a "pure" Paladin (until now). What I can tell you is that a paladin can be very, very tough to get beaten anywhere you have skeletons, wraith, ghosts, undead and such (e.g. the class area spell Turn Undead is very powerfull), as well as evil opponents in general. If you can put you hands on a Turn undead/Holy/ghost sword (easy to find, aquire or craft), you'll be almost invulnerable if you play the Paladin wisely with most evil/undead/ghost/wraith stuff. BTW, I've never used shield class skills/spells with the Paladin. And I must say that my character is only at level 9 (1st time I play D&D O.)...

[unbongwah]

Have a look at my Sacred Defender and Dwarven Defender threads for two takes on S&B builds.