Build request: Pure TWF Drow Paladin

[Nordenfeldt]

Greetings:

I have my first second TR, and have 36 points to spend, and I have always wanted to try out the Drow Pally, but had heard it took too many stat points to make it worthwhile. Well, I would like to request a build from the various forum geniuses. Note: I did see a template for a Drow pally in one of the build guides, but it was three years old, and not 36 pts, so not sure if it was up to date...

req:
-Pure paladin to 20.
-Presumably TWF (rapiers or rapier and SS)
-Drow race, unless there is some reason i cannot see why they suck
-HotD idealls, KotC if better. (love the haling amp)
-Have some +2 tomes, no +3s or higher.

Many thanks in advance...

[Jasparion]

You dont ever get 36 points to spend as Drow. If this is your 2nd life you will get 30.

In terms of Drow and TWF - you really should consider splashing some levels of Rogue and Fighter. Evasion and Feats really do make a huge difference.

I would really only go Drow Pally after 2 lives to get the full 32 points, and with a bunch of +2 tomes. Str, Dex, Con, Cha really are needed. Int is nice. Wis is really neither here, nor there. Starting with 12 Con isnt too bad if you have Evasion, and made better with +2 or more Tome.

But if you must go pure, then it will be a struggle. You need high Dex, high Str, moderate Con and moderate Cha and dont have the safety of Evasion.

[unbongwah]

You dont ever get 36 points to spend as Drow. If this is your 2nd life you will get 30.

I presume the OP means he has a 2nd lifer he's about to TR again, in which case he'll have a 32-pt drow.

[unbongwah]

BTW, standard drow TWF pally build:

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

Level 25 Lawful Good Drow Female
(20 Paladin \ 5 Epic) 
Hit Points: 387
Spell Points: 300 
BAB: 20\20\25\30\30
Fortitude: 20
Reflex: 16
Will: 11

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 25)
Strength             16                    24
Dexterity            16                    18
Constitution         12                    14
Intelligence         10                    10
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma             16                    20

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Dexterity used at level 5
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 20
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 20
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 20
+4 Tome of Charisma used at level 20

Level 1 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 2 (Paladin)


Level 3 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 4 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR


Level 5 (Paladin)


Level 6 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting


Level 7 (Paladin)


Level 8 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR


Level 9 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Piercing Weapons


Level 10 (Paladin)


Level 11 (Paladin)


Level 12 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Level 13 (Paladin)


Level 14 (Paladin)


Level 15 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack


Level 16 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR


Level 17 (Paladin)


Level 18 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Cleave


Level 19 (Paladin)


Level 20 (Paladin)
Ability Raise: STR
Enhancement: Paladin Weapons of Good
Enhancement: Drow Weapon Damage I
Enhancement: Drow Weapon Damage II
Enhancement: Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice II
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite I
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite II
Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite III
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands III
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil I
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil III
Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil IV
Enhancement: Paladin Knight of the Chalice I
Enhancement: Paladin Knight of the Chalice II
Enhancement: Paladin Knight of the Chalice III
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion I
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion II
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion III
Enhancement: Paladin Devotion IV
Enhancement: Paladin Energy of the Templar I
Enhancement: Paladin Energy of the Templar II
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness I
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness II
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might I
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might II
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might III
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might IV


Level 21 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Great Cleave


Level 22 (Paladin)


Level 23 (Paladin)


Level 24 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Overwhelming Critical


Level 25 (Paladin)

For 32-pt build, I'd start either CON 14 or CHA 18 (particularly if you don't have +4 CHA tome). Also, instead of CL/GC/OC, you might want to take a couple of metamagics to enhance self-heals (e.g., Quik+Max).

[Merlin-ator]

Drow are considered a poor choice because they get less stat points after TR (since they effectively have 6 points pre-spent), take a racial CON penalty, and can get less Toughness enhancements, leading to an overall lower HP total than say, Humans or Dwarves. They're good for first life, though I would hesitate to use them for pure melee without a little thought - you should never start with less than 14 CON and that takes up a fair amount of build points. You shouldn't use Drow for Paladin, they're stretched enough with stat points already. Combine that with the fact that paladins are far better tanks than damage dealers, and you're walking on thin ice. Paladins are also feat starved, so you may not want to go pure, instead splashing 2 Monk or 2 Fighter.

[eachna_gislin]

Greetings:

I have my first second TR, and have 36 points to spend, and I have always wanted to try out the Drow Pally, but had heard it took too many stat points to make it worthwhile. Well, I would like to request a build from the various forum geniuses. Note: I did see a template for a Drow pally in one of the build guides, but it was three years old, and not 36 pts, so not sure if it was up to date...

req:
-Pure paladin to 20.
-Presumably TWF (rapiers or rapier and SS)
-Drow race, unless there is some reason i cannot see why they suck
-HotD idealls, KotC if better. (love the haling amp)
-Have some +2 tomes, no +3s or higher.

Many thanks in advance...

As long as you understand it's not a Uber DPS build, drow paladin is very fun. My pally's 2nd life was drow and I enjoyed most of it. My only caveat was that I found enough monsters had Damage Resistance against piercing weapons that I felt like I was "always" seeing yellow numbers. I eventually swapped her feats around to give me khopesh usage, and even without the racial boosts to my weapons she was fun.

I don't much like swapping between two weapon sets (rapiers and short swords) PLUS covering all the DR types in them. If you can handle your weapons it should be fine.

As a small bonus, you can use a pair of Turbulent Epees as your boss beaters (from the Missing chain if you have the pack). They have aligned and metalline traits, as well as doing random elemental damage. Since they're bound to account they're good for a single life run to save bank space.

Paladins are an interesting class, they're very "fun" but not necessarily all that great at killing things. Make sure to take Divine Might right up to 4 (need charisma 20) and use Divine Sacrifice ALL THE TIME. As long as you have your buff spells/SLAs up (Divine Might, Zeal, etc) and use your two special attacks when you can (Divine Sacrifice and Smite Evil/Exalted Smite Evil) you'll do just fine. Basically, when in combat I try to make sure Divine Sacrifice is "always" on cooldown (excepting situation where I'm dangerously low on HP), and I save 3 smites for boss-types and burn the rest on trash.

Junt's guide is still good: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=218542

Also, I like these builds: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=316749

Both have drow TWF versions

Something I'd suggest: Don't put more points in Charisma or Dex than you need, but also make sure to subtract tomes. In the case of the TWF chain, you need 17 dex, so...if you have a +2 tome already, only take a 15 Dex to start. For Charisma, you want to end up with 20 (if possible). If you happen to have a +3 charisma tome already, your starting Charisma should be no higher than 17.

Factoring in tomes will give you more points to put into Con and Strength. Also make sure you have enough Int to at least get +1 skill point at start (plus whatever extras you get from tomes).

Dump Wisdom (or at least set it no higher than 10). Any actual leftover build points after taking care of the above are better spent in Intelligence over Wisdom. Paladins "want" Jump, Balance, Concentration, and Intimidate at a bare minimum, but cannot normally afford all 4. UMD is also nice for them with their high charisma, as is Having Diplomacy as well. You're not getting those on an Int 8-10.

If you have your Charisma 20 worked out correctly, put all leveling points into strength.

Those are my experiences with Paladins in general, and drow in particular.

[DrakHar]

Eh... I really don't like spending 4 AP for the last tier of divine might. I don't see how it's worth it at all. To be honest, I'm not fond of divine might in general. During boss fights, you lose DPS by activating it. I still take it to 2 or 3, even when I have the cha to take divine might 4. There's just so many things to spend on in paladin, and that's last on my list. The smiting line past exalted smiting 1 also becomes way too expensive. Divine sacrifice and extra lay on hands are much better buys.

I'd recommend hunter of the dead. Right now, though, drow pure paladin isn't that good... but it is fun. I have one on the Thelanis server. My non pure human paladin is much better, though, objectively, in literally every way.

[Kinerd]

The reason you are not seeing is enhancements:
Drow: +2 damage to second-class weapons (not dramatically second class for a paladin, but still second class)
Human: 30% heal amp, 25% damage boost
Half-elf: 20% heal amp, 25% damage boost, 10.5 SA damage

The stat bonus is not that helpful because CHA is currently not that useful for a paladin. DM is overrated, and nothing else stresses innate CHA so heavily. INT is obviously unhelpful for a DPS build. DEX is good but has a pretty firm ceiling, and a human can get there easier: 15 Dex / 14 Con = 14 human build points, 15 drow build points.

The feat bonus from human is not as useful due to the 2 (soon to be 3) epic feats, but it can still be handy. And if you find you don't care for it, don your Charisma -14 Helm and make a half-elf.

Consider also DoS: if you don't use a shield, your threat increase is not terribly destructive, and in cases where it is problematic you can always drop stance. Str, Con, and HP have the advantage of working 100% of the time, as opposed to whatever% of the content you happen to run is evil outsider. HotD is perfect for soloing or otherwise being self-sufficient, but it gives you basically nothing in traditional groups.

.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend you try out a first life drow and helf paladin before doing anything with this one. You are not prepared for the enormous increase in xp required for a third life especially at the top end, and being stuck with an inferior character has resulted in many abandoned characters. The benefit derived from the increase in stat points from first to third life is tremendously overrated, even for paladins. Consider unbongwah's build. The difference between 1st and 3rd lifer is 25 HP. Somehow, I think you'll be able to manage.