Khopesh Wielding Paladin

[aeroplanefly]

So I'm looking to TR my tempest ranger into a paladin prior to TRing him a second time into a Helves Angel. I could easily go pure paladin, but I'm curious if there are any nice builds out there that would use Khopesh, improved crit slashing, and exhaulted smites to increase the multiplier through the roof.

Any suggestions?

[Asmodeus451]

need to know what i have to work with before whipping up a build

34 or 36 pts?

Past lives available?

Preferred Race? (or races to avoid)

Role you want to fill?

fairly obvious you want at least 10 pally to get pally PL, but what about other desired classes?

[aeroplanefly]

It will be my first time to TR, so 34 point build, previous life will be ranger

Prefer to avoid elf, halfling.
I'd probably end up taking human or h-elf, try to max AC instead of going for the khopeshes, but the possibility remains that I'll probably have a nice collection of khopeshes in my overflow bank after I TR, so I might want to instead go for DPS.

[stoerm]

I could do worse than point you to Junts' Guide to Creating Paladins. You'll find various TWF khopesh builds following the Advanced Builds and Sample Builds links.

[morticianjohn]

Well I TR'd a ranger into a paladin with khopeshes. I went with a 12/6/2 pally/fighter/rogue build although it's really mediocre. Hopefully I can share my experiences without making this post into a wall of text.

1st the build breakdown
for leveling purposes it was
1 rogue
2-7 paladin (DoS)
8 rogue
9-14 fighter (kensai)
15-20 paladin

Paladin saves + evasion is CRAZY good. By the time I got to crucible I could get a reflex save up to 40+ buffed. On this toon I've done elite monastery, elite enter the kobold, and other quests where the evasion + saves has been really, really good. The big downside to 2 rogue levels is the BaB lost other than that IMO it's all upside. I was able to get all traps including elite VoN 5 at level.

Power attack is difficult on this toon. I was doing hard abbot the other day and once I lost ship buffs I had to turn PA off. There have been many different times where I've had to toggle PA off. Far more than when I played a fighter. I'm sure that there is some gear you could craft (+4 to hit trinket or something) to help with this but make sure you plan ahead on this matter.

AC is nice. I've been able to have a useful (if not perfect) AC throughout the leveling process. Unfortunately it becomes a choice AC or DPS. When it's needed and/or useful AC is really, really good and this build can get there however, it's a huge pain and there are many sacrifices in terms of DPS that happen to make this possible. I would suggest that unless you can reach 75+ AC at level 20 then I would go for AC up until 16 or 18 and then dump it for max dps.

Paladin levels. At level 8 as a 6 paladin 2 rogue I could self heal pretty well with my wands, pots and cure light wounds spell. At level 14 those same wands pots and cure spells weren't getting it done. Now that i'm level 19 and I picked up cure moderate I can self heal a little better. If I was 18/2 paladin my self healing would be much improved with cure serious. Also this build misses out on Zeal, holy sword, DW, restoration and all the other lvl 4 paladin spells (many of which are useful).

Fighter levels. Added DPS in kensai 1 with specialization in khopesh. Also allowed me to get the feats to take combat expertise in addition to the DPS feats I needed.

All in all, I've had a ton of fun playing and leveling the build and experimenting with AC. I think that a pure paladin or an 18/2 paladin would have been more self sustaining and possibly been able to self heal with enough healing amp, cure serious and either maximize or empower healing but that would also cut into the number of feats on a feat starved class. So it would all depend on your playstyle. If you generally like to solo and/or be self sufficient I think a pure paladin would be best but if you like higher dps numbers with the restriction that you can't self heal well short of silver flame pots then I think you could find a split similar to mine.

Probably monk is better than rogue levels if you don't care about getting trap bonus. Probably some really good 12/8 monk split somewhere.

[Mubjon]

I am doing a Paladin/fighter going 14/6 DoS/Kensii 1

The fighter levels are for extra feats of course to get everything I want, level 14 paladin for the spells and of course holy sword.

It is a first life though so I did not have all the green steel or other equipment and it was 32 pt build.

[EpiKagEMO]

if your headed for pastlife, it'd be better off sticking with monk splash(evasion and feats). if not, try the classic 12 fight/6 pal/2rogue. powersurge works great

[Asmodeus451]

the Junts guide is a good place to start, but dont treat it as the Holy Bible of paladin building the way some do.

i'll see what i can work up if i get a bit of spare time. one BIG question though: do you want a Pure pally, or is splashing ok?

[JeisonBlade]

the Junts guide is a good place to start, but dont treat it as the Holy Bible of paladin building the way some do.

BLASPHEMY!!

the thing is, junts' guide is pretty much the ONLY one, so its a lack of options as well as being a pretty darn good read lol.

Anywho, I'd go with a nice straightforward build, either pure or a 2-monk splash for the evasion and feats (my fav). Also the unarmed fighting and stances is great at lower levels. Gives you enough feats that you dont have to compromise your choices, and evasion + pally saves is niiiice. I personally prefer hunter of the dead while leveling (defender is nice at higher levels, but the hunter's built in heal amp, ghost touch, immunity to neg levels are sweet)

Make sure you get yourself a pair of the ML 12 challenge khopeshes (esp if you can add masterful to start using them at 10), they are insanely awesome (dps + paralyzing + ability to customize = pure raging win). The other nonepic versions are meh (lower levels dont have paralyze, and ML 16 only adds +1 and slowburst, rather have the extra room for custom crafting)

[thealightykuku]

I'm currently leveling a TR pally on Cannith. I'm going with the 2 rogue splash which gives evasion, rogue haste boost and since you have high Charisma as a pally will allow you to get your UMD up to scroll raise dead and scroll heal at upper levels. My Pally is lvl 16 (14/2) a dual welder and currently uses the DoS prestige class becuz I like the extra HP and when a tank is needed I have no problem breaking out my swashbuckler from Crystal Cove. I might switch to KoTC prestige when he hits 20, but until then I'll keep my shield mastery feat and DoS prestige.

There is a build on Junts thread for the 18/2 rogue TWF build. His guide is very good and def. worth looking at. His builds are solid and you can tweak them to make them your own. If you are going to dump Wisdom like he suggests then I would suggest trying to squeeze in the force of personality feat. My level 16 pally's saves are all above 40, w/o force of personality my will saves would be in the dirt.

If you want to TWF monk splash might be the better way to go simply for the extra monk feats you'll get for taking 2 lvls of monk (although due to the restrictions on monk feats you'd prolly need to take either toughtness, TWF or power attack for the monk feats). My pally currently uses scimitars becuz a paladins lack of feats made me make tough choices on which feats I absolutely had to have at what levels (and that was with the extra human feat!). I'll be taking Khopesh @ 18 but simply couldn't squeeze it in earlier.

I will say this: Don't take Monk levels for the unarmed fighting. Paladins are powerful enough at lower levels you don't need unarmed fighting to be effective. It's actually pretty difficult to screw up a pally toon bad enough that they don't kick butt at low levels.

Think about Race as well. Humans get an extra feat, Drow get rapier enhancements and elfs get scimitar enhancements. But Pallys Action Points for enhancements are VERY VERY tight, meaning Drow and Elfs are gonna have to make sacrifices in their enhancement lines. Which is why I went Human instead.

To recap:

Race = If you want khopesh just go Human.

If You're gonna splash:

Monk = 2 extra feats +1 Wisdom through enhancements
Rogue = rogue haste boost, UMD, +1 dex through enhancements

The Choice Is Yours.

[WangChi]

Here's one I use that does 500-800 on a successful crit-smite, it's a first-life toon designed to tank the CAD in eChrono, and that's pretty much the only thing I built him for. Has evasion and monster saves, full TWF line, Improved crit slashing, khopesh proficiency and even oversized two weapon fighting so I can leave power attack on all the time. Makes an OK horoth tank in a pinch when an AC tank isn't available because the heal-amp is pretty high. Tanked Sulu as well when we didn't have a WF around. Haven't taken him into LoB yet, but that's on the to-do list. Does good enough DPS to not be a drag on the party, but def. not GREAT dps.

Half-elf, monk dilettante (monk dilly will net you 20% more heal amp via enhancements).

1-2 monk
3-20 paladin

Evasion
Two level 4 spells (zeal + cure serious/deathward/restoration)
Exhaulted Smite IV
DoS III or KotC III for tanking or dps depending on your plan

[tekkentroop]

If youre just TRing, go 18/2 pal/monk Helf with rogue dilletante and dual Khopeshs, fits your playstile with the other builds and the extra DPS from rogue dilly outshines the extra healing amp while leveling. Why monk? Paladins need the feats more than UMD, they can use cure wands and spells anyway, and got LoH for emergencies.