Best Past Life for a Paladin?

[noneill]

I love playing my Paladin that I have had since head start. So much so that I am going to TR him soon. I am thinking of going Barbarian and then TR'ing a second time back to Paladin so I would end up with a 36 point Paladin with the passive Paladin and Barbarian past life feats. Possibly selecting the Barbarian feat Berserker's fury if I go THF. Or I could just TR once to a 34 point Paladin.

Anyone have any thoughts on the most usefull past life feat for a Paladin?

[der_kluge]

I'm thinking of TR'ing my cleric into Paladin. It seemed like the most logical choice.

[Dylvish]

Past Life: Fighter
You were a fighter in a past life. You occasionally find yourself filled with the urge to bark orders to your fellows in combat. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to attack rolls and +1 to the DC's of your tactical feats. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- Paladins get some difficulty to hit (compared to the other martial classes). That +1 hit and DC is very nice.
FEAT - +1 armor dex bonus, +2 intimidate, +4 to hit clicky.

Past Life: Cleric
You were a cleric in a past life. You occasionally feel the presence of the divine. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to the DC's of your Conjuration spells, +1 Turn Undead attempt per rest, and you Turn Undead as if you were two levels higher. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- While the Turn Undead DC is not much use, more TU's per rest is pretty handy for some specs.
FEAT - 11d4 clicky heal 5x per rest. nothing dramatic, but handy for a paladin to add to the insta heal arsenal.

Past Life: Monk
You were a monk in a past life. You occasionally find yourself contemplating the mysteries of life. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to damage rolls. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- +1 damage. On every hit. In particular if you go TWF. This is not a bad deal.
FEAT - Evasion clicky 1x per rest (great oh sh#* button), increased Unarmed damage (meh for pally).

Past Life: Paladin
You were a paladin in a past life. You occasionally find yourself overcome with righteous fervor. Each time you acquire this feat you gain 5% more health when affecting by positive energy. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- Its just my opinion, but another 5% healing bonus > the barbarians 10 hps.
FEAT - Divine Favor clicky 3x per rest.

Past Life: Barbarian
You were a barbarian in a past life. You occasionally find yourself filled with a nearly irresistable urge to smash boxes. With your head. Each time you acquire this feat you gain 10 additional hit points. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- Not much to say.
FEAT - +20 hps at level 20 (nice), +2 intimidate, and Rage clicky 1x per rest. On a paladin im not as sure how good this would be. Can we cast our instas while raged?

Past Life: Bard
You were a bard in a past life. You occasionally find yourself humming a merry tune. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 to saves vs. enchantments and illusions, and +1 Bardic Song usage. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- More saves.... for a paladin *chuckle*. Ok so the passive is not great. However...
FEAT - +1 to cha skills (intimidate), +1 DC to enchantments (useless to pally), Inspire Courage 3x per rest (this is nice).

Past Life: Ranger
You were a ranger in a past life. You occasionally find small animals in your backpack. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 damage with ranged weapons and +2 to elemental resistances. This feat can be stacked up to three times.
--- +2 more elemental resistances is always handy.
FEAT - +2 spot skill, and Barkskin clicky 3x per rest.

I think the big thing to figure out is, are you going to use a TR feat or not? If you are, then there are a couple of rather handy ones that would synergize nicely with the Pally. I personally like the Cleric and Monk myself.
If you are going with the passive only, it changes. I would lean towards Monk, Fighter, or Cleric.

Just my tastes and opinions however.

[noneill]

I am TWF now so feats are hard to come by. Unless I can make my SoS epic I will probably want to end up TWF again. So most likely I would only have room for the passive feat.

I just read that the Barbarian past life feat now only grants +4 str and + con on the actually clicky so that does not look so good anymore. As far as casting goes, I can case while under the rage spell but not while under the madstone rage. I can still use Diving Might while mastoned. I believe LOH. I have extend so I cast Zeal, Divine Favor etc first then madstone and the madstone is gone before the spells.

The monk +1 damage would be the most consistently usefull passive feat. Now would I enjoy playing a monk to 20? I don't know, I haven't played one at all. I do not really have any monk gear in the bank.

Fighter +1 to attack would come in handy, there are times when I have turn PA off now because of missing. I have the right gear to make leveling easy. I might actually be able to take the TR feat. I have OTWF now but if I dropped that for the Fighter Past life feat the +1 to attack partially makes up for that in normal situations and when fighting tougher things I could use the 3xday +4 to attack and be better than with OTWF.

If I just go Paladin each time ,the heal bonus is hard to beat. Plus, I really have exactly the right gear to make leveling easy and if I decide to only do 1 TR instead of 2, that will be ok.

So, I think I am down to choosing between Paladin and Fighter.