32pt Half-Orc Paladin build - suggestions

[Danyaal]

Hi all

After a month or so of researching DDO and checking out builds I decided to take the plunge this weekend and signed myself up for an account.

This will be my first character and I've picked something that I can relate to/enjoy from my tabletop past as I learn the online game. I won't bore you with the backstory (not yet anyway ) but race and purity of class are integral as are 2hf and Hunter of the Dead prestige.

Sorry, that probably doesn't give you much room to manouevre, but what I'd really appreicate is any suggestions or pointers when it comes to stats, feats, enhancements etc. Have I made the most of the build points and APs available? Have I taken feats and enhancements at the optimum time? Have I taken the right ones once 2hf is accounted for?

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.09.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Ragda Sodsplitter
Level 20 Lawful Good Half-Orc Female
(20 Paladin) 
Hit Points: 342
Spell Points: 260 
BAB: 20\20\25\30\30
Fortitude: 20
Reflex: 10
Will: 10

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             18                    22
Dexterity             8                     8
Constitution         15                    16
Intelligence         10                    10
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma             14                    18

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 20)
Balance               1                    10
Bluff                 2                     4
Concentration         2                     3
Diplomacy             2                     5
Disable Device        n/a                   n/a
Haggle                2                     4
Heal                 -1                     0
Hide                 -1                    -1
Intimidate            2                     4
Jump                  4                     6
Listen               -1                    -1
Move Silently        -1                    -1
Open Lock            n/a                   n/a
Perform               n/a                   n/a
Repair                0                     0
Search                0                     0
Spot                 -1                    -1
Swim                  4                     6
Tumble               n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device      4                    15

Level 1 (Paladin)
Skill: Balance (+2)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Automatic) Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Aura of Good
Feat: (Automatic) Defensive Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Orc Orc Blood
Feat: (Automatic) Heavy Armor Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Heroic Durability
Feat: (Automatic) Light Armor Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Martial Weapon Proficiency (ALL)
Feat: (Automatic) Medium Armor Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Shield Proficiency (General)
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Smite Evil
Feat: (Automatic) Sneak
Feat: (Automatic) Sunder
Feat: (Automatic) Trip
Enhancement: Orcish Melee Damage I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness I


Level 2 (Paladin)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Feat: (Automatic) Divine Grace
Feat: (Automatic) Lay on Hands
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma I


Level 3 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Aura of Courage
Feat: (Automatic) Divine Health
Feat: (Automatic) Fear Immunity
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I


Level 4 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Balance (+1)
Feat: (Automatic) Turn Undead
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Turning I


Level 5 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might I
Enhancement: Paladin Improved Turning I


Level 6 (Paladin)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Remove Disease
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite I
Enhancement: Paladin Hunter of the Dead I
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness II


Level 7 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Orcish Melee Damage II


Level 8 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Balance (+1)
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Turning II


Level 9 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude II
Enhancement: Paladin Improved Turning II


Level 10 (Paladin)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Light I


Level 11 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II


Level 12 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Balance (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Paladin Hunter of the Dead II
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might II


Level 13 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma II


Level 14 (Paladin)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Enhancement: Orcish Great Weapon Aptitude III


Level 15 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Enhancement: Orcish Power Attack I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Turning III


Level 16 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Balance (+1)
Enhancement: Orcish Strength I
Enhancement: Paladin Improved Turning III


Level 17 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Unyielding Sovereignty


Level 18 (Paladin)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Extend Spell
Enhancement: Orcish Power Attack II
Enhancement: Paladin Hunter of the Dead III


Level 19 (Paladin)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Orcish Strength II


Level 20 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Balance (+1)
Enhancement: Paladin Weapons of Good
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Light II

Many thanks for taking the time to look this over - even if you just end up walking away with a sad shake of your head

[SiliconScout]

don't waste the time with 1 Diplomacy and 1 rank in heal at first.

Keep them in UMD and Balance or if you want drop them both in jump.

That is all that really jumped out at me at first glance.

[Battlehawke]

Looks good. A couple quick thoughts:

1) Skill Points. Need to narrow the field some. Balance is great for melee especially if you are ever going to tank. Also, UMD obviously is an easy "yes" with Pally, but on this toon might not be too effective and isn't as needed with use of LOH and CSW wands available to class. Jump is great but you can get by without it. Why not max Intimdadate? It's a class skill now and is very usable, even if you can't get it to an ungodly level. I would focus on Balance and Intimidate (max them) and if you get a +2 Intel Tome early add in UMD.

2) Feats look great and you have a tough choice. The only one that I struggle with is Extend. I do love it on m Pally, but, again if you are ever going to "tank", maybe you should think about Bastard Sword for when you are in Turtle mode and then obviously add the Pally "hate" Enhancement.

3) You could also go 18 Pally/2 Fighter and grab Bastard Sword and Shield Mastery and Extend/Improved Shield Master and be a very effective Tank and turtle up with Bastard and Shield (glancing blows, DR, and Shield Absorption) and run with Great Axe or Whatever in DPS mode when not the tank. It's a fun versatile build and with the HotU Neg Level Immunity makes a very nice tank.

4) Why not go with 20 Str and 12 Char if you are going 1/2 Orc?

5) Everything else looks pretty good.

6) Have Fun

[Danyaal]

Many thanks for the input. Nice to know the weeks spent trawling builds and playing with the character planner paid off, hehe.

I had trouble weighing up the benefits of 20 levels/capstone or 18/2 for extra feats - forum posts seemed to be fairly evenly split when it came to an opinion - so I stuck with the pure build.

Must admit, though, that I hadn't come across the bastard sword variation which certainly seems to add flexibility. Am I right in thinking that the Bastard sword gets all the benfits of the THF feats and orcish enhancements then?

18/14 for str/cha seemed the right balance with 2 strength only getting me +1 to hit and damage, but 2 more charisma getting me more divine powers (smite, divine might, lay on hands), uses of turn undead etc. Did I get that wrong or overlook something?

Once again - thankyou for takign the time to critique the build

[Indoran]

Dont use a level up in Con!!!!! get it higher with either equipment or tomes... if you are going for Half orc... aim to the biggest str possible. Also dont use the level up in cha!

Bastard sword is a pretty pathetic dps weapon that requires you to use a shield to benefit from the Twohander feats (shield is sucky dps so it makes no sense with H-orc) There is not such thing as an effective shield tank in the current game, but if you are interested in that maybe take intimidate skill.

Take improved critical slashing sooner... postpone the Two handed Fighting feats. I didnt take Extend on my pally and did fine (thx to equipment)... but its an ok feat.

With 14 Cha you will (with the use of a +2 cha tome) get access to divine might 2. divine Might is a good source of dps for a Pally. for divine might 3 you would have to start at cha 16 and add a +2 cha tome ...(waaaaay expensive investment due to -2 cha from race)

Maybe:

STR 20
Dex 8
CON 16
INT 6
Wis 8
Cha 12

as Hawke implied it's not a bad idea... but you will sacrifice access to Divine Might to get more to hit (increased STR).


The question is what do you want to run with this toon... it should be fine for everything easily except maybe epics (pallies suffer from lack of to hit in epics)

Also Dump int and put the lone skill point in balance or haggle (yes I know those are CC)... Heal is useless, diplomacy too. Put the points you get from dumping int in cha or con.

[FrozenNova]

Hunter of the dead is a rather limited prestige. The only point at which it helps you combat undead is at tier 3, adding an effective 10 dam a hit - whereby the only undead you'll be seriously fighting is the Abbot.

The real purpose of HoTD is to provide 1.1^3 healing amp. However, this is limited without extensive sources of other amp, such as human enhancements, due to the multiplactive nature of healing amplification stacking.

HoTD isn't useless, but it's place isn't on a half orc. On a human THF, you can combine hotd and human enhancements to reach 1.73 base amp, or 3.26 geared amp without finger necklace. This with quicken and maximize, torc and concordant opposition, allows the character to become a nigh invincible bastion of self healing.
However, with only one spare feat and no base amp bonus, hotd provides very little to a horc. KoTC is the expectation, providing a 24.5 geared damage bonus per swing versus EO raid bosses, and is a key feature that paladins are reliant upon to remain competitive with other melees.

Not bad otherwise. Drop con to 14, put that 1 in charisma, and spend a single levelup in charisma, others into strength. That will let you hit DM3, a worthy goal.
Take improved crit at 12.
With three skills - Go for intimidate, crossclass umd, and crossclass balance or jump. Ignore others, beside a rank in tumble.
I'd recommend slotting skill focus: umd at 18 in place of extend, unless you're confidently capable of maintaining nofail heal without it.

..And no, you don't want bastard sword. This is not a build with any serious AC potential, and you will never use a shield, especially not when tanking.