ac and weapon choice question

[eliman]

i was thinking of how to build my future paladin and i was just wondering if this was a good idea. im just wondering if going elf paladin and having max dex and getting weapon finnesse is equal to high str paladins. if i went high dex i would wear mithril light armor and such. i will also be going sword and board. im just wondering if end game the mithril armor and high dex ac is gonna be the same as high str and heavy armor.

my other question is what is a good choice for a weapon with a sword and board character. i was thinking like bastard sword and long sword. but i dont know if they would be good or the best choice.

thanks for the help.

[sigtrent]

Ultimately you are better off going with Strength than dex, especialy for a paladin.

The best base armor in the game is full plate. If you add the max dex and the base armor it is 9pts of AC, for mithral its 11. That is one point more than any other armor type. There are a number of armors at 8/10 and there is the Kunderak Delving suit (raid armor from the dragon raid) that is a 11, matching full plate.

So you can't really do better than full plate unless you have an incredible dex score.. Becaue you can get up to +5 on armor that makes mithral full plate worth 16AC with a dex of 16. To match that you need the Kunderak Suit and a dex of 22 or you need +7 armor bracers and a dex of 28.

When you go finesse you are giving up one feat, and a fair bit of bonus damage. You can gain a very small bonus to accuracy but its generaly quite small.

They only times I think finesse is a good idea is if you have another important use for it. For instance if you are going for evasion and a high reflex save, if you are going for two weapon fighting and arn't really a DPS character, or if you really want to be super accurate with ranged weapons but also want to melee. A sword and board paladin doesn't really fit any of those profiles.

Kopesh is pretty much the best one handed weapon. If you want to be an elf or dwarf, thier racial weapons are quite competative. Between rapier and long sword, rapier is ultimately the better weapon. It isn't that longsword or bastardsword are really bad, they just arn't quite as good as some of the other options. If you like the style of a long blade, go for it.

[KoboldKiller]

If you go Rapier then go Drow not Elf. Drow get rapier enhancements, Elf get the longsword. I go Human on my Palis now and take Khopesh.

[Barumar]

I agree with what other said above about STR based for a Pally, but I will add an explaination of why Khpoesh is better than Bastard Sword. Both take a feat as are exotic weapons, but the crit multiplier on a Khopesh is x 3, where it is only x 2 for a Bastard Sword! And as I would think improved crit/slashing would be a feat choice you will be looking for that crit damage to be as high as possible.

Personally, I took Bastard Sword proficiency when I first rolled my Paladin two years ago - still think they are cooler looking, and it fits in well with how I wanted my muman Pally to 'look', but have since taken Khopesh proficiency, and am adding to my collection constantly...

Barumar

[Jondallar]

It is possible to go max strength and get high dex and still have enough points in con wis and cha.

The only issue is you will be heavily gear dependant. I would also suggest taking 2 levels of rogue for evasion if you are going the high dex/light armor route. U can obtain a very high ac in light armor (just 1 less than Mith FP) and you only need a dex of 20 to fully utilize the ac benefit (+6 item, +1 rogue, +2 elf, +1 tome +10 base). This makes no need to take weapon finesse, as elfs get a starting base dex of 10. If you want more dex to be useful, you will need to aquire a daggertooth belt or take some fighter evels for fighter armor mastery 2, in which case you will need a base dex of 14 to gain full benefit and ac. My Paladin Holy Avenger is a strength based halfling (lil secret about halflings is str penalty is only equivalent to -1 damage)

She is geared to the nines, but and has 28 str, 24 dex, 18 con, 14 wisdom (no item), 10 int, 26 cha, 50 ac standing in typical gear w/ evasion and 362 HP 32 umd unbuffed, 54 undispellable ac self buffed without chattering ring or kundarak delving suit which would bring AC to 58 in def fighting mode totally geared and 62 ac if i ever get the ingredients and shards for my Holy good burst greensteel khopesh of AC+4.
An elf would be able to make a similar build that is ttoally endgame functional/useful, even with out every single piece of gear and tome I have used. If you go elf and strength based go with Longsword, if you go finesse go drow and rapier/short sword

[Oreg]

i was thinking of how to build my future paladin and i was just wondering if this was a good idea. im just wondering if going elf paladin and having max dex and getting weapon finnesse is equal to high str paladins. if i went high dex i would wear mithril light armor and such. i will also be going sword and board. im just wondering if end game the mithril armor and high dex ac is gonna be the same as high str and heavy armor.

my other question is what is a good choice for a weapon with a sword and board character. i was thinking like bastard sword and long sword. but i dont know if they would be good or the best choice.

thanks for the help.

I don't think I would use a feat on Bastard Sword unless you have some nice ones banked. You'd be better off with Kopesh or utilizing that feat for a Weapon Specialization or Weapon Focus line and just sticking with martial weapons.

[Blazer]

If you go Rapier then go Drow not Elf. Drow get rapier enhancements, Elf get the longsword.

Actually, the Elf Melee Attack and Elf Melee Damage enhancements apply to both longswords and rapiers. The Drow enhancements go for rapiers and shortswords.

[dior10276]

I have a 9 Pali/4 Fighter atm

Race : drow
Max dexterity and weapon finesse
Took all shortsword and rapier enhancements
I currently have 30 dex and should get 32 at some point, I am using mostly stat damage items atm. With plus 5 mith fp and plus 5 mith tower shield,
I am able to hit 55 with CE and barksin pot. I did have to take fighter armor mastery to increase dex bonus for armor though.
I am having way more fun with this one than my dwarf pali for sure. Not sure where this will end up, but lots of fun atm.