Paladin build

[cyberguy]

Currently I have a Drow Paladin level 8. I have been reading that splashing 2 levels of monk would be benificial to a Paladin. I used wisdom as my dump stat in the build so I have a wisom of 8 currently (well 9 with and item soon 11 with a +3 wisdom item next level, may eat a +1 wis tome to get it to 12). My question is would it be too late to take a monk level or 2 and would it be worth it to splash at level 9 or later? Is my wisdom too low to get the benefits of monk with a low wisdom?

[Thelmallen]

Currently I have a Drow Paladin level 8. I have been reading that splashing 2 levels of monk would be benificial to a Paladin. I used wisdom as my dump stat in the build so I have a wisom of 8 currently (well 9 with and item soon 11 with a +3 wisdom item next level, may eat a +1 wis tome to get it to 12). My question is would it be too late to take a monk level or 2 and would it be worth it to splash at level 9 or later? Is my wisdom too low to get the benefits of monk with a low wisdom?

The benefits of splashing 2 monk levels are three-fold: evasion, 2 extra feats and you add your wisdom to AC. Just getting the evasion and feats are worthy of considering splashing, in my opinion. However, to be able to maintain an AC of what you'd enjoy with +5 mithral FP or DT armor and a +5 heavy shield, you need your wisdom, dex and armor bonus to be around 24/25 as you can only wear cloth armor . If you take a DT robe/vestments, you get +6 armor bonus, meaning you need 18 or 19 points from dex, wisdom and bracers (chaosgard) to equal your AC benefit from the plate armor.

Also, knowing what path you're intersted in helps a bit as a Defender of Siberys is really geared to being in plate armor but a Knight of the Chalice can get a fine DPS machine in cloth armor. The other thing to take into consideration is whether you want the capstone, which isn't bad (but not great) for paladins. It would help if you'd post your stats or build so we can look at your character as a whole.

[cyberguy]

I pretty much started with these stats

Strength 15
Dexterity 16
Constitution 12
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 8
Charisma 17

I took a +1 tome of dex for ITWF and I am putting stat points in strength.

I am thinking of going Knight of the Chalice route ( currently Hunter of the Dead but I am respecing soon). The thing is, I want my Paladin to be a bit more versatile, not just a DPS machine. I want a good AC, Good DPS, the ability to raise dead and self buff to save mana points for the cleric (only 10 int so UMD will be very low, thats why I am looking at the paladin raise dead ability). I am going TWF route with him. Current feats are

Toughness
TWF
ITWF
level 9 I will take improved critical

I dont have a lot of gear, money or tomes as I am a newer player. So with the monk splash I will get extra feats, bt since I dont have much wisdom I wont have the AC bonus. Would it be better to splash fighter then or should I just stay pure Paladin?

[rimble]

You don't NEED to worry about Wis-to-AC. You can still wear armor, and benefit from Evasion and two additional Feats.

[sephiroth1084]

Personally, I'd advise anyone considering multi-classing to plan their build from level 1 with that in mind, as deciding to do so partway through a character's life tends to result in a poor fit for the new class levels.


Going full 20 paladin will net your more damage on most attacks, and the monk splash with a low Wis will only subtract from your AC, but if you will be able to achieve a pretty high Reflex save, then Evasion will still be worthwhile.

I'd advice against splashing monk now--either splash something else, reroll or see your current build through until you have a better sense of what you want out of the character. Just noticed your stats...

If you end up going KotC, you probably won't end up with much AC anyway, so monk won't have any bearing on that. TWF detracts even more from your AC, and, honestly, being an AC tank requires a lot of grinding and a fair amount of planning. DPS-wise, the capstone will be better than any splash.

Aiming to be able to raise dead is noble, but you can try to acquire one of the few items that have raise dead clickies on them eventually, to replace the enhancement points.

The choice, as I see it, really comes down to whether you'd like to be a little more survivable or deal quite a bit more damage at the end of the game? The capstone adds something like 3d6 damage to your attacks vs. most of the important monsters you'll be facing in the lvl 15-20 range. It also makes Divine Might IV and Divine Sacrifice III available, which are also worth a lot of DPS.

I say, keep a good shield on you, to swap to in the situations where you need the AC or blocking DR, pick up Power Attack down the road, maybe Extend and/or Empower Healing (or Maximize) and go with a DPS paladin who can do some self-healing and buffing.

[Thelmallen]

You don't NEED to worry about Wis-to-AC. You can still wear light armor, and benefit from Evasion and two additional Feats.

Fixed that to clarify a bit for him. As Rimble says and I stated earlier, the feats and evasion are worth the splash itself to some. I was just pointing out the math to you regarding maintaining a comparable AC. As it stands, with DT vestment/robes, chaosgard, dex and wisdom modifiers, you'd have 6+2+7+3 (assuming a 24 dex and 16 wisdom) = 18 from armor compared to 15 for DT + 9 for shield = 24. You'd lose some AC but it's possible you wouldn't get to a 'meaningful' AC anyway. If you want to totally throw out AC as an option (and I largely have for my tempest paladin) at end-game, the feats and evasion may well be worth it.