Paladin - THF / Tank

[Sojourner]

Going to be running as a member of a 1st-life static group, so a tank build may be more viable than if he was blasting through stuff with pugs.

Want to be THF for DPS, with a decent fallback to tanking abilities when needed. Healing is a nice extra, but will be other healers in the static group as well.

Planning on taking 2 fighter levels just for the extra feats.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.16.01
DDO Character Planner Home Page

18-Paladin / 2-Fighter, Lawful Good Human 

Abilities: (32 Point)
Strength             14          22 (14 base, 5 level, 2 feat, 1 tome)
Dexterity            10          10
Constitution         16          16
Intelligence         12          12
Wisdom                8           8
Charisma             16          18 (16 base, 2 tome)

Skills:
1-15) Balance, Intimidate, Jump, UMD
16-20) Balance, Concentration, Intimidate, UMD

Feats: 
1) Power Attack
1h) Toughness 
3) Cleave
6) Empower Healing
7f) THF
8f) IC: Slashing
9) ITHF
12) Shield Mastery
15) Great Cleave
18) GTHF OR Improved Shield Mastery

Enhancements: 
Human Adaptability Strength I 
Fighter Strength I 
Racial Toughness II 
Paladin Toughness II 
Human Improved Recovery II 
Paladin Devotion II 
Paladin Armor Class Boost I 
Human Versatility III 
Fighter Haste Boost I
Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Follower of the Sovereign Host 
Unyielding Sovereignty 
Paladin Defender of Siberys III 
Paladin Bulwark of Good III 
Paladin Courage of Good I 
Paladin Focus of Good I 
Paladin Resistance of Good III 
Paladin Divine Might III 
Paladin Divine Righteousness I 
Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Paladin Exalted Smite II 
Paladin Extra Smite Evil III 
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands III 
Paladin Extra Turning I 


## Enhancements, broken down by level taken
Level 1 (AP: 4/4)
Paladin Toughness I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Paladin Focus of Good I

Level 2 (AP: 8/8)
Follower of the Sovereign Host
Human Improved Recovery I

Level 3 (AP: 12/12)
Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Paladin Resistance of Good I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Racial Toughness I

Level 4 (AP: 16/16)
Paladin Courage of Good I
Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Paladin Devotion I

Level 5 (AP: 20/20)
Paladin Toughness II
Paladin Divine Might I
Paladin Extra Turning I

Level 6 (AP: 22/24)
Human Versatility I
Paladin Divine Sacrifice I

Level 7 (AP: 28/28)
Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Fighter Haste Boost I
Paladin Defender of Siberys I

Level 8 (AP: 32/32)
Racial Toughness II
Human Versatility II

Level 9 (AP: 34/36)
Paladin Devotion II

Level 10 (AP: 38/40)
Unyielding Sovereignty

Level 11 (AP: 44/44)
Human Improved Recovery II
Fighter Strength I

Level 12 (AP: 48/48)
Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Paladin Exalted Smite I
Human Adaptability Strength I

Level 13 (AP: 50/52)
Paladin Bulwark of Good II

Level 14 (AP: 55/56)
Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Paladin Resistance of Good II

Level 15 (AP: 60/60)
Paladin Defender of Siberys II
Human Versatility III

Level 16 (AP: 63/64)
Paladin Bulwark of Good III

Level 17 (AP: 68/68)
Paladin Exalted Smite II
Paladin Resistance of Good III

Level 18 (AP: 72/72)
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Paladin Divine Might II

Level 19 (AP: 75/76)
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands III

Level 20 (AP: 80/80)
Paladin Defender of Siberys III
Paladin Divine Might III

[hcarr]

Feats

I would move metamagic earlier and thf feats later. Would suggest maximize over empower heal if only taking one meta to boost healing.

skills

I only put 10 skill points into jump on any char. your str should more than cover the armor check penalty and wear an item you will have more jump than you will need. and can be capped with the spell from a caster.

Max umd. If you stay at cap it will be usefull and you will not regret having it. umd lower level sheild wands and fireshield scrolls will save you alot of damage.

enhancements

I would drop toughness 3

take some devotion and put the rest into smites.

ac boost is meh only last 20 seconds. 6 ap is really expensive for recover 3.

If you dont find yourself hitting the divine might regularly i would drop 3 and only run with 2. I did that because I usually only hit it on end fights and went for the always on dwarven axe damage.

[Kinerd]

Human Versatility is an incredibly powerful enhancement for 1 AP.

I would drop all of Divine Might because it's just so slow. I'm also not in love with the combo of Extra 3 Exalted 2 Divine 2, that's 7 AP for not much. Maybe keep DM 2, 2-1-1 Ext-Exa-DS to get HV 4.

GTHF and an EWS for a glancing OH weapon as epic feats? If not, I would drop the Cleaves for those.

[EllisDee37]

Overall it looks pretty good. Various thoughts:

I prefer empower healing to maximize, but a case can be made for either. With the low healing you'll be getting from this build, maximize is probably a better choice.

Speaking of healing, I'd want either quicken (tough to fit in, expensive) or maxed concentration. I ran a self-healing pally (and ranger) that had neither and self-healing was a major hassle. Even if melee attacks would break concentration, maxing it at least lets you heal through archers.

You took shield master early to qualify for the prestige, but there's no real need to. With the build as written you can take your prestige at 7 thanks to the fighter level granting tower shield proficiency.

Divine Sacrifice is mostly for the crit multiplier. Just take it to tier I.

I agree on human versatility I. It's super nice to be able to hit fighter haste boost and human vers damage boost at the same time for boss fights.

Personally I'm a fan of divine might, and take it to III on my pally. I generally keep it running 24/7, but since mine is a HotD I get a crazy amount of turns. Somewhere around 22.

Take Improved Crit at level 8. That's the whole point of taking a fighter level at 8. heh.

[Paleus]

Would suggest maximize over empower heal if only taking one meta to boost healing.

One caveat to this suggestion. I had maximize for heroic levels on my pally, but switched to empower healing for epic levels. One reason, rejuvenation cocoon. This benefits from empower healing but not maximize. I find with it I rarely need csw or loh. Its a good healing spell when damaged and a good spell to even toss prior to mixing it up.

[Sojourner]

He'll be running in a static group, so the self-healing isn't as critical as it would be running solo. If I can find a +2 INT tome, that would get some concentration points. Otherwise, maybe an item if there is room for one.

Also going to stick with empower and take a couple devotion enhancements rather than maximize.

Sounds like Divine Might is a preference thing, so will stick with it for now, and decide if I like it after I've used it for awhile.

Divine Sacrifice II seems to be an extra 2d6 of light damage and an extra 1x crit multiplier. For 2 points, that seems worth it.

Had a single point left over - so the options are: 1 Extra Turning for Divine Might, 20 more Spell Points, +2 to Confirm Crits, Fighter Haste I. Can't remember how the # of boosts you get works, is the total separate between fighter and human (5 each) or is it combined (5 total). If separate I'll probably do Fighter Haste, if combined probably either Crit Accuracy or Extra Turning.


Couple of changes to the build (edited above) based on feedback:

• Take the points left over after maxing jump and put them into concentration.
• Move empower healing to my level 6 feat (CLW starting to get weak and CMW not available yet)
• Use the fighter tower shield proficiency at level 7 to get the prestige enhancement.
• Bring Improved Crit down to level 8.
• Somehow I missed GTHF, so level 18 will be either GTHF or Improved Shield Master - depending on how the group is going and whether I'm needing extra damage or defense. Although the extra 5% doublestrike from ISM is nice also.
• Added 3 level of Human Versatility and 2 levels of Devotion enhancements.
• Dropped Paladin Toughness 3 enhancement

[jortann]

He'll be running in a static group, so the self-healing isn't as critical as it would be running solo. If I can find a +2 INT tome, that would get some concentration points. Otherwise, maybe an item if there is room for one.

Hit me up in game for the tome... chances are I got one in the bank collecting dust.

[EllisDee37]

Divine Sacrifice II seems to be an extra 2d6 of light damage and an extra 1x crit multiplier. For 2 points, that seems worth it.

No, it's only the extra 2d6 light damage, which isn't worth it. The extra x1 crit multiplier is already granted by the first tier.

Regarding boosts, fighter haste and human vers (ie: damage) have separate counters and cooldowns. You can use both at the same time, five times each.

[Kinerd]

Divine Sacrifice II seems to be an extra 2d6 of light damage and an extra 1x crit multiplier. For 2 points, that seems worth it.

It's only the extra 2d6 light, which at 3 seconds cooldown on a THF works out to a little over 2 DPS. Not 2% (hopefully, anyway), just 2.

I didn't notice that you didn't have Fighter Haste Boost. Absolutely get that: it's even better than Damage Boost 1, only costs 1 AP, and can be used simultaneously with and on a different counter from Damage Boost.

[Sojourner]

Yeah. Removed the Divine Sacrifice II since it doesn't extend the crit range like I was initially reading as doing. Used those two points to add the Fighter Haste Boost since it's on a separate cooldown. And also Fighter Critical Accuracy I, since there was a point left over.