defender of siberys build idea

[FuzzyDuck81]

How does this look for a DoS build idea? Was after a character with good intimitanking & survival capabilities plus high UMD rather than outright DPS (but putting all ability raises into STR to reduce gimpiness).

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Babieca 
Level 20 Lawful Good Human Male
(1 Fighter \ 18 Paladin \ 1 Rogue) 
Hit Points: 338
Spell Points: 330 
BAB: 19\19\24\29\29
Fortitude: 25
Reflex: 17
Will: 20

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             16                    24
Dexterity             8                    10
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         14                    16
Wisdom                8                    10
Charisma             16                    20

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 20)
Balance               3                    16
Bluff                 3                     5
Concentration         2                     6
Diplomacy             7                     9
Disable Device        n/a                   n/a
Haggle                7                     9
Heal                 -1                     0
Hide                 -1                     0
Intimidate            7                    33
Jump                  7                    16
Listen                3                     4
Move Silently        -1                     0
Open Lock             3                     4
Perform               n/a                   n/a
Repair                2                     3
Search                2                     3
Spot                  3                     4
Swim                  7                    11
Tumble                3                     4
Use Magic Device      7                    28

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Human Bonus) Least Dragonmark of Sentinel
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Shield Mastery


Level 3 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Force of Personality


Level 4 (Paladin)


Level 5 (Paladin)


Level 6 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Lesser Dragonmark of Sentinel


Level 7 (Paladin)


Level 8 (Paladin)


Level 9 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Mental Toughness


Level 10 (Paladin)


Level 11 (Paladin)


Level 12 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack


Level 13 (Paladin)


Level 14 (Paladin)


Level 15 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons


Level 16 (Paladin)


Level 17 (Paladin)


Level 18 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Mastery


Level 19 (Paladin)


Level 20 (Paladin)
Enhancement: Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Haste Boost I
Enhancement: Extra Dragonmark Use I
Enhancement: Extra Dragonmark Use II
Enhancement: Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement: Fighter Armored Agility I
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Strength I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Deneith Intimidation I
Enhancement: Deneith Intimidation II
Enhancement: Human Versatility I
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good III
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good IV
Enhancement: Paladin Focus of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice II
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite I
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands III
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys I
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys II
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys III
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Fighter Intimidate I
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion I
Enhancement: Paladin Energy of the Templar I
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma I
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma II
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness I
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness II

Was also considering dropping starting charisma to 16 & putting the points into DEX for higher AC, but figure with tower shield the max dex bonus will be limited to +4 anyways. Could also drop the 2nd dragonmark at higher levels in favour of something else like combat expertise.

[Gercho]

Let me say, your feat selection is really odd.

Shield mastery, not worthy, improved shield mastery, ditto
Force of personality, totally unnecessary, you have enough st as a paladin.
Mental thoughness, the mana you get from that wont make any difference for you, and you dont have feats to spare.
Marks of sentinel dont seem worthy either, not sure what they do, but could be shield of faith and prot from energy? shield of faith doesnt stacks with protection, and you can umd your prot from energy...
I would advice to get instead, ce, extend spell, the 3 thf line (so you can ditch some good damage when tanking is not really needed), and you still have one spare feat, you can go dodge if you can manage dex 13 (lowering int to 12 (+1 tome for ce) and str or cha to 15 (and a +1 dex tome))
Keep in mind that with a mithril tower shield, + the dos enhanements you can get higher than +4 max dex bonus, so starting dex 12 wont be lost.

[Ralmeth]

Paladin 18 / Rogue 1 / Fighter 1 is a great DoS build, and is what I use for my main. The build works very well, and your stat distribution looks good. The full ranks in UMD from the Rogue splash is awesome. At high levels you can use heal scrolls, raise dead, teleport, etc.

I do agree with Gercho about your feat selection though. Improved crit slash, toughness and power attack are good, but all of the others you can probably swap out.

Shield Mastery:
I'm currently using the shield mastery feats,. These are 'meh' and am seriously considering to swap these out. It is nice to have more shield blocking DR when you are tanking, and I keep wishing these feats would do more (for example to increase your DPS...say for example each one would add a 5% attack speed bonus when in S&B mode), but at only 3 shield blocking DR each I think it would be more useful to have something else.

Force of Personality:
Your saves should be fine without this.

Mark of Sentinel:
Your intimidate should be fine without these. Primarily you will be using intimidate on trash mobs and you will want to hate tank the big bosses. I think these feats are good on a fighter where they want to focus on really high intimidate scores (which you will not get to on a Paladin).

Mental Toughness
Build yourself a SP greensteel item and you will have plenty of spell points. Currently I'm over 500 SP and this is plenty.

Instead, you will 100% definitely want to take Combat Expertise. That is 5 points of AC for only 1 feat. If you're in DPS mode, use power attack. If you're in tank mode, turn CE on. Extend and SF-UMD are also helpful.

There are three other routes you could consider for the extra feats.
1) First, you could pick up the THF fighting chain. This will be the easiest way to get an even better DPS mode. If so, you won't need to rearrange your starting attributes. You won't have the Pally capstone so this won't be as good a DPS as a pure Pally, but it should help.
2) Secondly, put in more dex and pick up the TWF chain. Always a good choice, but you will have to lower some other stats to start dex at a 15.
3) Lastly, you could go with Junt's concept of picking up maximize, empower healing and quicken along with a concordant opposition greensteel item and the torq for awesome self-healing.
This concept sounds very interesting, though I haven't tried it yet myself. However you will not have as a good of a DPS mode. The heal scrolls are great from a high UMD, but they have a long casting time and you can be knocked out of using them, which usually requires you to tumble away to get a heal scroll off.

Good luck!
Ralmeth

[FuzzyDuck81]

I've made a dwarven stalwart defender intimitank (i know, not as high intimidate as human could get but great AC & DR while blocking, as well as 2wf DPS mode) & was thinking a little too much of how i built that i reckon - wasnt paying attention when i read the DoS features & that it increases hate generation (even when not in the stance if I'm reading it right) rather than boosting intimidate.

Will redo the feats (take 2wf chain, PA, extend spell, CE, 1st 2 tiers of passage dragonmark & imp crit) and put the skillpoints from intimidate into maximising balance & pumping open lock a little for when I'm soloing.

[kelabb]

I

Will... open lock a little for when I'm soloing.

Disable Device is more important than Open Lock. Closed doors won't kill you, traps can. Don't ignore, the Open Locks, but I'd put in 2 DD to 1 OL myself... or even 3. You can always try again with a door or chest... once you blow the trap you're in a world of hurt!

[Ralmeth]

Fuzzy, that sounds like a good idea. I have a couple of other suggestions based on my experience:

Skill Points
In my opinion, I would put max points into open locks at 1st level and then not put any more points into it. With a good open lock item and some good thieves tools you will be able to open most of what you will need (though sometimes with a little time at it). Also, I would not put any points into disable device. As Paladin get very limited skill points, you just won't have enough skill points available to be able to disable traps (or find them for that matter). Instead, you should really focus most of your skill points on intimidate and UMD. I would put max points into these. With your remaining points put these into balance, jump and tumble. All three of these are helpful.

Dragonmarks of Passage:
On a human, I really like the 1st tier of the Dragonmark of passage. You will be blazingly fast at low levels, and I think a lot of people overlook how useful this feat is while leveling up. However once you get a good striding item (25% or higher), you can then afford to swap this out for something else. Keeping this would be helpful to not have to bother with swapping your striding boots in and out, and I'm always for making life easier on myself, but that's about all it will get you. DDoor would be nice to have on the 2nd tier and with no DDoor scrolls that you can purchase this could be handy, but you also have fairly limited feats and I would probably leave DDoor for an arcane to handle.

Another feat to consider later on would be khopesh. This will increase your DPS, and even if you don't have any good khopeshes saved up, you can make your own with Holy Sword!

Stat Distribution
On a 32 point build, as I've thought about this extensively, to have enough room for TWF I think the best stat distribution would be one of the two following. Option 1 will give you 20 more total skill points at level 20 for jump, balance or tumble, but option 2 will give you an extra strength point.

Option 1:
Strength: 14
Dex: 15
Con: 14
Int: 14
Wis: 8
Char: 14

Option 2:
Stength: 15
Dex: 15
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 8
Char: 14

Good luck with it.