U48.4 Paladin Vanguard Build

[dogsoldier]

Here is what I am running to try out the Vanguard updates and the new Shield Feats. It probably does not need all of that INT, but I like my skill points, and losing it would only net +2 in CHA, so it is a trade off. It is fun to play, and seems like pretty good DPS, attack speed is quite good. I am level 16 so far. Illusory weaponry from Feydark is pretty great, you do not have to swap weapons for oozes and rust monsters. I am a little disappointed that Feydark does not give CHA to hit/dmg for shields. The T5 Shield Rush attack was disappointing to me, so I dropped it; if it functioned like another type of Shield Charge it would be great.

Action points and feats are very tight, it would be nice if Vanguard got a couple of free feats (couple of shield feats in the cores or something) like KotC gets with the Cleave attacks. Also, it would be nice if Divine Might were moved into the Defender tree so that Vanguard could ignore KotC if they wanted to, like KotC can ignore Vanguard.

Edit: Updated spells to include resurrect.

U48.4 Paladin Vanguard
Paladin 20
Lawful Good Human


Stats
. . . . . . . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . 12. . . .+8. . . .4: CHA
Dexterity . . . .8. . . .+8. . . .8: CHA
Constitution. . 16. . . .+8. . . 12: CHA
Intelligence. . 16. . . .+8. . . 16: CHA
Wisdom. . . . . 10. . . .+8. . . 20: CHA
Charisma. . . . 16. . . .+8. . . 24: CHA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: CHA

Skills
. . . . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Concent . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Heal. . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Intim . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Diplo . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. . .22
Balance . . . . . . . . . . ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 2. 11
UMD . . . 2. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. . .11
Spot. . . . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. 10
Jump. . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 1. . .1 . . 10
Tumble. . 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .24. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9


Feats

.1. . . . : Shield Mastery
.1 Human. : Magical Training
.3. . . . : Exotic Weapon: Bastard Sword
.6. . . . : Two Handed Fighting
.9. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
12. . . . : Improved Shield Mastery
15. . . . : Greater Shield Mastery
18. . . . : Improved Two Handed Fighting
21 Epic . : Greater Two Handed Fighting
24 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
26 Destiny: Perfect Shield Mastery
27 Epic . : Improved Shield Bash
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic . : Completionist
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

.1 Deity. : Follower of: Sovereign Host
.6 Deity. : Unyielding Sovereignty


Spells

Cure Light Wounds (4), Divine Favor (6), Lesser Restoration (14), Bless (18)
Resist Energy (8), Righteous Command (10), Angelskin (16), Remove Paralysis (19)
Cure Moderate Wounds (11), Resurrect (12), Magic Circle Against Evil (19), Remove Curse (19)
Holy Sword (14), Zeal (15), Death Ward (19), Cure Serious Wounds (20)

Enhancements (80+3 AP)

Vanguard (41 AP) To the Fore!, Shield Combat I, Vicious Shield I, Shield Combat II, Vicious Shield II, Shield Champion Shield Specialization, Unbalancing Shove II
Shield Specialization, Brutality III, Stunning Shield III
Shield Specialization, Follow Up III, Fatal Bulwark
Shield Specialization, Armor Mastery III, Shield Charge III
Shield Specialization, Disorienting Smash II, Armored Strength, Brutal Impact
Sacred Defender (22 AP) Holy Bastion, Sacred Defense, Divine Righteousness, Redemption Extra Lay On Hands III, Durable Defense III, Sacred Armor Mastery III
Resilient Defense III
Tenacious Defense III, Charisma
Swift Defense
Knight of the Chalice (10 AP) Slayer of Evil, Courage of Heaven Extra Smites I, Improved Second Strikes III
Divine Might III, Exalted Cleave: Melee
Feydark Illusionist (7 AP) Find Familiar: Fox Familiar's Flourish I, Illusory Weaponry
Familiar's Flourish II
Human (3 AP) Damage Boost Improved Recovery

[Ninety]

Why do you have divine favor and prayer?

[NemesisAlien]

WHy sword and board need two handed fighting?

[Cashiry]

Suggest going PDK with this build, 3ap to get Cha hit and damage in racial tree.

Swap the feat Magical Training out and grab Tower Shield, Also going PDK and going with Helm as Deity gives you BS, so opens up another feat for ya.

also since you took Direcharge, may want to look at spending 23 points in Falconry to get No Mercy at T4 and conditioning(5% quality hps) at T3, sprint boost T2


anyways just a suggestion.

[dogsoldier]

Why do you have divine favor and prayer?

Good point, they do the same thing basically. The planner does not show the option to add raise or resurrect as spells, I will swap out prayer for resurrect, which is what I actually have slotted.


WHy sword and board need two handed fighting?

Bastard Sword gets Strikethrough, and the THF line adds to the strikethrough chance.


Suggest going PDK with this build, 3ap to get Cha hit and damage in racial tree.

Swap the feat Magical Training out and grab Tower Shield, Also going PDK and going with Helm as Deity gives you BS, so opens up another feat for ya.

also since you took Direcharge, may want to look at spending 23 points in Falconry to get No Mercy at T4 and conditioning(5% quality hps) at T3, sprint boost T2

anyways just a suggestion.

I already have 3x PDK lives, but yeah that would be more AP and feat efficient, especially considering I have exactly the number of AP needed for CHA to hit/dmg with Bastard Swords, Greatswords, Shortswords and Longswords. Interesting idea on falconry, had not considered that, but I think I would have to give up most of the defender stuff, and I want the 20% HP boost, 10% movement speed, and raise/resurrect added to spell book from defender.

[Ninety]

I think your sacred defender enhancements could use some adjustments. The tenacious defense (20% hp) is good for heroic levels, but you get 25% if you turn on epic def fighting when you hit level 20. They don’t stack.

Resilient def is a bit of an overkill as well.

Edit: You have to many points into UMD. 0.5 point would be enough at cap to cast anything you could want as a cha based character.

[dogsoldier]

I think your sacred defender enhancements could use some adjustments. The tenacious defense (20% hp) is good for heroic levels, but you get 25% if you turn on epic def fighting when you hit level 20. They don’t stack.

Resilient def is a bit of an overkill as well.

Edit: You have to many points into UMD. 0.5 point would be enough at cap to cast anything you could want as a cha based character.

Epic Defensive Fighting would not work for my playstyle, touch range for spells would mean that I would not be able to heal party members except for LoH. I tend to cast a lot of cure spells. One of the reasons for going CHA based is having high saves, an extra 3 from Resilient Defense is nice.

You may be right about UMD, but with my decision on having so much INT, I have the skill points to spare. If I did this again, or if I respec, I would probably swap starting INT and STR values, since sadly Feydark does not add CHA to Shield damage, and would end up with fewer skill points.

[Ninety]

Epic Defensive Fighting would not work for my playstyle, touch range for spells would mean that I would not be able to heal party members except for LoH. I tend to cast a lot of cure spells. One of the reasons for going CHA based is having high saves, an extra 3 from Resilient Defense is nice.

You may be right about UMD, but with my decision on having so much INT, I have the skill points to spare. If I did this again, or if I respec, I would probably swap starting INT and STR values, since sadly Feydark does not add CHA to Shield damage, and would end up with fewer skill points.

So, since you have all the shield enhancements, I’m assuming you are going in, intimidating, shield blocking/bashing. Then for the stuff that can’t be intimidated, you are swinging with strikethrough and the bastard sword? Why not cast cures between fights, and loh during? It would work with epic def fighting, and you could then change the ap to the +6 sacred bonus to con, which would be probably close to a +200 hp change, depending on gear and such.

The 4 shield feats are giving +10% doublestrike, +20prr, +20%shield AC. Depending on gear and such, I don’t know if the doublestrike is needed. My str based two weapon Pali hits 98% double strike without this feat chain (as an example) The melee power bonus doesn’t stack with the 2 handed fighting feat chain, so I left that off (or it’s not supposed to, don’t know if it does or not). None of the vanguard enhancements require the shield feats.

I’m having a hard time seeing why the shield feats are in there based on that. With the lower str and Dex, it’s not a shield bashing type build or high AC build for that matter. So just changing perfect shield mastery alone (-5 prr, -20% shield AC) for deific warding(+10 prr & mrr + stacking prr/mrr on hit), would be a gain on prr/mrr, or changing it to perfect two weapon fighting would be more doublestrike if you need it.

[dogsoldier]

I am not convinced on Epic Defensive Fighting myself, again, I cast cures way too much for that to be viable, for me.

Perfect Shield Mastery also adds +1W to shield dmg, which despite not being STR based, shield bashing (either automatically, or through active attacks) happens enough to be an important part of the DPS.