Halfling Dragonmarked pure paladin

[urialdw]

I am looking at making a Halfling Dragonmarked Pure Paladin and want to know what some good starting stats would be. 28 point billed using kopeshes (have a failed attamp and fighter that has decent collection for a lowbie). This is what I am thinking.

STR 14
DEX 10
CON 10
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 16


The problem with this build is I would not be able to case any spells and would like to. and suggestions would be great.

[Dariun]

I think you can cast spells if you get a +4 wisdom item.

What are you going to do for feats? If you take the 3 dragon marks, that doesn't leave much for boosting combat. 2-4 fighter levels would help with that if you can stomach being impure.

[Gennerik]

Indeed, having an item that will add to your Wisdom will let you cast all the spells a Paladin has access to with just a +4 item. I found it very difficult to actually fit a +4 Wisdom item on my Paladin, but he's triple-classed and needs a bunch of items to fill the role I have him at. For a straight Paladin, it shouldn't be that bad fitting a +4 Wisdom item somewhere. I'd be cautious about going Khopeshes without having a couple of Fighter levels, especially if you go with Dragonmarks, much like Dariun said, because you just won't have very many feats to play around with. Right now, you'd have four of your six total feats spoken for. You'd probably want to pick up Toughness, since your Constitution isn't that high (though easily survivable at 10 with other items), meaning that you only have one feat left. Getting two levels of fighter would at least allow you to get the +1 Strength enhancement and two additional feats. Otherwise, I'd probably stay away from using Khopeshes if you definitely plan on staying pure Paladin and having all three Dragonmarked feats.

Your ability scores are survivable. I started with scores very close to those, and as long as you keep a decent AC for the first part of the game until you can augment your Constitution and HP, you shouldn't have too much trouble.

[Impaqt]

I'd start STR and CHR both at 15. THat way you can Even out STR with TOmes and Even out CHR with your Enhancments.

[amysrevenge]

I have a similar build. His feats are:

3 x Dragonmark
Empower Healing
EWP Bastard Sword (I respecced my fighter to khopesh and had the full suite of big 5 basties lying around)
Improved Crit Slashing


He is fun to play, but horribly ineffective. I don't play him outside guild groups. The main thing I do with him is healing, and status effects (wounding, disrupting, vorpal, strength sapping, crippling, smiting, etc.), not DPS. Although with Divine Favor and lots of Smites, I can do bursts of DPS in a pinch.

Mike

[wolfy42]

Few suggestions:

First....well your a halfling...why not go with finessable weapons?

This lets you drop your strength down to 12 (guessing a 28 point build) and pump your dex up instead.

Go weapon/shield and max intimidate so you can get enemies to pound on your in a pinch.

Pure paladins can get a decent boost to their AC (especially after the next mod when the bulwork boosts will be cheaper).

I also suggest you go 2 fighter/14 paladin (possibly 2 fighter/2rogue/12 paladin which is even better or if your eally want to mix it up 10 pally/4 fighter/2 rogue (gives you evasion AND high saves along with weapon spec in your finessable weapon along with fighter armor boost 1 so you can wear mithril chain shirts through most of the early game for high AC).

Go with intimidate and possibly with shield mastery/improved shield mastery so you can turtle up (And heal in a pinch!).

Going the dex route lets you actually boost cha more with levels if you want instead of dex OR strength (because you can boost dex with halfling enhancement I and II and rogue enhancement I.

In fact going the pally 10/fighter 4/rogue 2 you could use these starting stats for a 28 point build:

Str 12 (06)
dex 17 (08)
Con 12 (04)
Int 10 (02) (Max UMD if you take 2 rogue levels...it'll be worth it trust me).
wis 08 (00)+4 wis item (6 is possible later) will let you cast lvl 2 paladin spells which is the most important)
cha 15 (08)

You get 3 enhancement points to dex from halfling I and II and rogue I.

You get 3 enhancement points to cha from paladin enhancements.

That makes your base dex eventually 20, and your base cha eventually 18.

You then have 4 points from leveling you can choose to split between them however you like.

Mithril chain shirt with fighter armor mastery 1 lets you have an AC bonus of 7 from dex which requires a 24 dex. That is possible with just a cats grace and not even a +6 dex item (or any tomes etc)....cats grace is free for a 30 minute buff from the guy in the middle of the marketplace.

Mithril chain shirts are not that expensive.

Boosting dex higher will only increase your AB...which isn't that important in this build. Therefore I would suggest boosting your cha instead.

This has 2 effects.

First it boosts your healing through lay on hands, your turn abilitities and other paladin abilities including your saving throw bonus from devine grace (4 extra points = +2 to all saving throws and this makes evasion more useful).

Second it boosts your UMD skill a bit more. If you take 2 rogue lvls with even a 10 int you can keep UMD maxed at each lvl (and also keep intimidate maxed as well). UMD has many uses included letting you use certain items that are alignment restricted (your forced to be lawful good as a paladin) and other that are race restricted. It also lets you use wands and scrolls including the ability to raise dead or cast heal on people after you use up your halfling dragonmarks.

With a high UMD you can later decide to go with two weapon combat (you'll have the dex for it easily) and use shield spells to get your AC up a bit. This will give you a bit more of a punch using wounding weapons etc..although in that case you may want to boost dex after all (the penalty to hit with two weapons will hurt with only a 24 dex).