The Decent Paladin/Tempest build, thoughts?

[Lockeshank]

Hey Folks,

Name's Lockeshank and this is my First post on these here forums.

I've been lurking and reading quite a bit but never felt a real urge to post anything until now.

Not too long ago I came up with a build partly on the fly as the U5 came about. With the whole tempest nerf and double hit, I thought to myself, why not add tempest with some pally Zeal. I looked around to see if I could find a build around it, surely someone must have thought about this and made some kind of build. Nothing I found (correct me if I'm wrong) was quite like what I had in mind.

On those grounds I started researching and figuring out what I wanted out of the character, I wanted ranged to be an option and realized that it will be doing quite alright burst dmg considering Divine might adds to your ranged dmg, and Ill have plenty of ranged skill from being lvl 6 ranger. I wanted good twf skill to do some decent dps as a Pally, plus to work with the tempest offhand procs and Zeal's double strike boost. Preferably with an ok AC so you can backup tank.

I'm guessing the character would work more towards a support role decent in everything but "maybe" not excelling in anything. Should be doing just fine with soloing.

Writing from work so I don't have my build calc info here, but loosely:

Paladin 14 / Ranger 6

6 ranger gives you:
2x favored enemy's
Wild empathy
Bow strength
Die hard
Rapid shot
Many Shot
Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Two Weapon Fighting
2x lvl 1 Spell slots (Rams, Resists)

14 lvls of Pally gives you:
Divine health
Fear immunity
Divine Grace (should give u some decent saves)
3x lvl 1 spells
2x lvl 2 spells
2x lvl 3 spells
1x lvl 4 spell (Zeal!)
(paladin toughness enhancments helpin drows con)

Starting stats on my current version of this is a Lawful Good Drow:
(Off the top of my head)
Str:16
Dex:17
Con:12
Int:8
Wis:8
Cha:16

All ability lvl ups in Str.
Focus on UMD and Balance.

2x "Enter appropriate Rapier here" and an "Appropriate bow" would be the basic wep setup.

Thinking that the smite dmg with the decent charisma, + the two weapon fighting bonus tempest gives you, + zeal, should give a decent dps output. Would miss out on Divine might 3 because of lvl restrictions, but would still give the ability to boost both melee and ranged dps if you so choose to. He will be able to do backup healing, rezing, buffing, nice auras and have decent saves and AC. and then a choice of Paladin pre, I'd prob go KoTC end game for dps boost, and DoS for some handy extra defence mid lvls.

What do you think? Worth creating? How would you do/change it?

I appreciate any constructive criticism.


/Lockeshank

[quickbunnie]

Funny thing is, this build existed before U5 as the sacred bonus to melee alacrity from Zeal stacked with the Tempest I (insight?) bonus. I believe it was the fastest attacking toon when not haste boosted. I didn't see too many running around and I got the impression that it was a relatively uncommon build, but I certainly have heard of people building toons around that same lvl split. I have not heard of the effectiveness of the build post U5, but the "double" nerf to tempest I and zeal for TWF'ers may have turned some people off of this build.

As for your specific build, looks pretty good overall. I would consider putting fewer points into dex and more into con if you can. Certainly at least go 16 dex, 13 con at least. +1 tomes become easy to obtain later on, and you will undoubtedly get them if you stick with this build (even +2 tomes are relatively easy to get at end game). This will qualify you for GTWF, and give you 20 extra HPs at lvl 20.

You'll tank fine early on (like many melee builds), but I don't think you'll be able to hit tank-worthy AC numbers by end game, so you'll want to focus on DPS. Focusing on DPS also means focus on TWF, rather than ranged combat. Drow and rapier is a good choice, as is khopesh for any TWF build - but this build is tight on feats, so probably stick with rapiers. Ranged combat will be getting a rework in a subsequent update, but as of right now, you can't keep up with the long manyshot cooldown. So its useful situationally, such as against the Demon Queen, and pesky enemies on ledges, but should not be your main source of DPS.

This build should hit very good DPS numbers, especially against evil outsiders. It should also have some solid saves with divine grace, some self healing with wands/divine spells/lay-on-hands. Good healing amp, paladin hit dice and toughness enhancements will also improve survivability. You lose out on evasion, but hopefully will at least be able to save on most reflex saves for half damage.

Pretty good job on your homework, keep reading the forums - they are invaluable.

[DrNuegebauer]

Looks good.

Take jump as a level 1 ranger spell and take resist energy on your paladin to get the 30 points of resist.

And I second the 13 con thing.

[Lockeshank]

Thank you for the feedback! Much appreciated.

I was always a bit worried about the con, thinking that maybe racial toughness plus the paladin toughnesss would make up for it.

I'll try to collect my data and post this build incase someone else might be interested in it.

thanks