Paladins and AC

[Zyerz]

I want to build my first pally and I have doubts on how to spread my points in a way I don't make him squishy nor have a crappy LOH and Turning...
And how can I boost my AC with enchanments and skills

Thanks!

[Alcides]

Building AC on a Paladin takes a while. Anyway, here's a list of thing that can help boost your AC until you find/make Uber(tm) Gear.

Easy Stuff
Bulwark of Good 4 (+5)
Barkskin Potion (+3)
Shield of Faith Potion (+3)
Chaosgaurde (+2)
Dodge Feat (+1)
Combat Expertise (+5)

If you're going the TWF route and don't wear armor, you could drop 2 levels of Monk for Wisdom to AC, 2 Feats, Evasion, +3 Saves.

You can increase the Maximum Dexterity bonus of your armor with the following:
Dwarven Armor Mastery 1 (+1 Max Dex Bonus)
Dwarven Armor Mastery 2 (+2 Max Dex Bonus)
Dwarven Armor Mastery 3 (+3 Max Dex Bonus)
Daggertooth Belt (+2 Max Dex Bonus)

[Ralmeth]

Hi Zyerz,

Building a Paladin can be tricky, and there are some good builds on the Paladin forums that you could pattern your character after. One big question is, do you want to be DPS focused, or tank focused? If you want to be DPS focused, you can work some AC into your build but you don't necessarily have to have a top-end AC. If you want to be tank focused then you'll want to look at picking up some difficult to find AC items as well as take the easy ones, like Alcides mentions.

Ralmeth

[William_the_Bat]

Well, by far the easiest way to get a decent AC on a paladin is to use a shield, but shield users are limited a bit in the damage department. If you really want to be DPS focused, a shield is probably not going to work for you. If you want to be harder to kill without splashing monk and grinding a lot of hard-to-get items, a shield can take you a long ways.

A shield-using pally does not need much dex, so you have the points to put into cha, and possably a bit into wisdom so you can cast spells without having to wear a wisdom item.

Don't neglect the cha, as many of the paladin's key abilities run off it. In fact, since the upcoming Divine Might IV enhancement will require a base cha of 20, I'd advise no lower than 16 base cha, and once they start dropping post mod 9 keep your eye out for a +4 cha tome.

I like having wisdom on my pally, as I'm a bit starved for equipment slots, I wish I'd had a +2 wisdom tome available back when I made him, as starting with 14 wisdom does take a lot of points.

Alternately you could roll a dex based monk splash pally and end up with good AC eventually, assuming a lot of high end items.

for enhancements, bulwark of good will directly increase your AC, as well as that of anyone standing near you. It's pretty nice to have. In mod 9 you will be able to take the defender of sybris prestige line and get even more AC as well as some other cool bonuses. I took the tower shield feat on my pally in anticipation of this.