Kodraith's Sword and Board CHA Pally Build

[Kodwraith]

Note:
This build only works ABOVE level 23+ when you get Tier 3 Divine Crusader and can pick Helm as your Deity. Until then you level with with longsword + shield (and carry the 2HF line as a dead loss) OR with Greatword (and carry the shield line as a deadloss). Or do what I did and run GSword until 29, then LR/respec at 30. You can make it work from 1.

This toon is a hybrid designed for good survivability for solo reaper play for someone with OK gear and past lives. It does that just great. DPS is A-, but the whole package really works, especially with better gear. It's also a VERY forgiving build especially with the 13 points in EA. You have lots of heals and if you run away, you heal.

This is my build for a CHA based, effectively unkillable, BSword + Shield Pally that works with any race. I ran it for my first Dragonborn life, but it works with anything. You can even run it iconic if you want as it's not overly dependent on having the capstone from KotC, but I'd advise against taking more than two splash levels as the core 5 from SD is a lot of HP and PRR survivability. I tried Vanguard over SD and found the defense hit was too big. I never tried Vanguard over KotC but YMMV. You don't have a ton of AP on this build since Feydark locks down 8 of them.

CHA Based? What about STR? Your shield will do less damage and you will have less AP for picking up something like Haste boost from VKF. But you will also never fail a save.

Props to tseigner who independently came up with almost the exact same build but posted something formatted much more nicely.

Race: Any. Yes, any.
Stats:
STR: 15 min for bsword proficiency and THF line.
DEX: dump
CON: Max
INT: dump
WIS: dump
CHA: Max
All Level Ups in CHA

Skills: UMD, Intim, Heal, Concentration. Take what works for you. Intim is nice to get mobs to chase you, but you're not technically a tank. Although you can tank LE VoD with a competent guild.

Feats: (I don't have Completionist)
1 : Magical Training (and then swap to BSword prof anytime post level 20)
3 : 2HF
6 : Imp 2HF
9: Imp Crit. Slash
12: Greater THF
15: Shield Mastery
18: Imp Shield Mastery
21: OC
22: PTHF
24: Greater Shield Mastery
26: Perfect ShieldMastery
27: Precision
30: Embodiment of Law (or whatever you want here), With the Tier5 DC EoLaw is about 300-400 extra per hit.
30: Arborea

You have some flexibility around the order of feats if you want to put precision earlier.

Enhancements: 41 KotC, 31 SD, 7 Feydark (CHA hit/dmg). 1 wherever, racial whatever you have. I like Exalted Smite, and 1 point for the charge attack. I also hate running slowly so put points into SD for the tier4 run boost and aura.

The new ED system is what makes this build work. The only critical requirements are:
You must take a "magic" ED core for Magical Training. You must take at least Tier 3 Divine Crusader for Helm diety swap.

My loadout is:
DC: 37 for Tier 5s and Shield as favored weapons and Helm as diety and more strikethrough.
ED: 13 in Exalted Angel for the healing aura makes this build approximately unkillable in less than R3.
Fury: 6 for the epic strike and some MP.

Playstyle: Unless you have a healer, flip your EA heal aura on, Consecrate, then stand your ground and hit things with your sword. Complex, I know. I switch to the DC aura if I have a reliable healer. It's more damage by quite a bit.

Kodraith is my main but since I only play one or two nights a week, I am not an Uber toon at all. Standing self buffed in Reaper, I have around 230 AC, 200ish PRR, 140ish MRR and very little dodge (because I need a dodge augment). I have fort and will saves over 120+, 85+ reflex and no fail on will saves. But I also had 2.5k HPs, 180 odd melee power, 72% doublestrike and 200% strikethrough and 100+% fort bypass.

DPS is pretty good as this is effectively an AOE Melee toon, but not Sorc levels of good. But you are a solid all around build and can farm gear at R2 solo with no problem.

Gear:
I ran a 7 Summer/4 Winter set. Sharn Family/4 winter also works just fine. Heck, you could run a CC crafted set and be fine. The only thing you really need from the set is the Artifact Doublestrike.

Happy hunting.

[Kodwraith]

ED Variations of above:
So even though the feats and APs are pretty well set in stone on the above build, The EDs leave a lot of options.

You can also go only 13 points into DC for the tier 3 Helm diety and Core 3, then you have 40 odd points to do literally anything across one or two destinies. Fury + Draconic? Fatesinger + US? Go for it. Shadowdancer + Anything?

I am a bad player, so the EA Healing aura is life to me since I often am not really paying attention to my health. You literally only need 13 in DC and Magical Training for someplace. That's it.

[Kodwraith]

Note that if you want to run SWF with BSword, I recommend taking the SWF line instead of the 2HF line while leveling, then taking the 2HF mega feat at 31. You'll use your longswords while leveling (actually if you have a SoS, that still does the most damage of them all).

[Kodwraith]

U58 Update! Edit: I had no idea Strim was posting his update. I still haven't watched his vid but there's good ideas in his build too. Note also that this is basically a CHA based pally build that happens to be setup to use a bsword/shield but can use whatever. Strim's build is more of a specialized build that is deigned to exclusively use a shield.

This build picks up a bunch of other feats from dropping the explicit shield line feats. The advantage of this over the build in OP is you DO NOT need to respec at 31, you will "waste" a feat on magical training, but you then don't need to take a magical ED and don't need the feat swap to pick up Bastard Sword. This version also picks up Empower healing and Quicken/force of personality and some no fail saves (all your saves should be well north of 110). It still works with ANY race. I still recommend 13 ED points into exalted Angel for the self healing aura and no fail will saves. With good gear, this build is nigh unkillable in regular questing.


Note that this is effectively the "standard" 2HF build right up until 31 but with the addition of Magical Training (which you need for CHA/hit dmg until 20) and BSword at 30. If you want to just cruise on with Greatsword at cap, just don't take BSword at 30 and the build is still fine. If you want to run a SWF BSword style build, swap the 2HF feats while leveling to SWF, level with a longsword until 23, Take the Helm Favored weapon in Divine Crusader and then decide which way you want to go at 31. Take 2HF and Bsword or just stick with longswords and pick a different feat at 31.

The way I've been running it, I level this build with a Greatsword and then I cut over to BSword / Shield at 31. Note that you can also level with Longsword and Shield and In which case take the Shield feat line and swap in the 2HF feat at 31.

All level ups in CHA. If you have lots of tomes, you really only need 15 Strength, I'd recommend Max CON and CHA instead. A bit of Dex helps, but only so much.

Character name: Kodraith
Classes: 20 Paladin, 10 Epic, 2 Legendary
Race: Dragonborn· · · · · ·Alignment: Lawful Good

· · ·Start Tome Final · · ·Incorp:· · 10% · · ·Displacement:· · 0%
Str:· · 16· · 8 · ·24 · · ·HP:· · · ·2029 · · ·AC:· ·114
Dex:· · ·6· · 8 · ·27 · · ·PRR: · · · 163
Con:· · 16· · 8 · ·48 · · ·MRR: · · · ·55 · · ·+Healing Amp:· ·193
Int:· · 10· · 8 · ·18 · · ·Dodge: · ·0/25 · · ·-Healing Amp: 4294967266
Wis:· · 10· · 8 · ·20 · · ·Fort:· · ·228% · · ·Repair Amp:· · · 30
Cha:· · 20· · 8 · ·69 · · ·SR:· · · · · 0 · · ·BAB: · · · · · · 25
DR:
Immunities: Natural Disease, Magical Disease, Super-Natural Disease, Fear, Energy Drain, Freedom of Movement, Death Effects

Saves:
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Fortitude:· · · · ·92*
· vs Poison:· · · ·92*
· vs Disease: · · ·92*
Will: · · · · · · ·80
· vs Enchantment: ·88
· vs Illusion:· · ·82
· vs Fear:· · · · ·86
· vs Curse: · · · ·80
Reflex: · · · · · ·61
· vs Traps: · · · ·61
· vs Spell: · · · ·61
· vs Magic: · · · ·61
Marked with a * is no fail on a 1 if required DC met

Class and Feat Selection (Consolidated)
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Level Class · · · · · ·Feats
1 · · Paladin(1)· · · ·Standard: Two Handed Fighting
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Dragonborn Racial: Draconic Ancestry: Black
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Follower of Faith: Follower of the Silver Flame

3 · · Paladin(3)· · · ·Standard: Magical Training

6 · · Paladin(6)· · · ·Standard: Improved Two Handed Fighting

9 · · Paladin(9)· · · ·Standard: Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons

12· · Paladin(12) · · ·Standard: Greater Two Handed Fighting

15· · Paladin(15) · · ·Standard: Empower Healing Spell

18· · Paladin(18) · · ·Standard: Force of Personality OR Quicken.

20· · Paladin(20) · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up

21· · Epic(1) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Overwhelming Critical

22· · Epic(2) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Perfect Two Handed Fighting

24· · Epic(4) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Precision

25· · Epic(5) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Doublestrike


27· · Epic(7) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Epic Fortitude

28· · Epic(8) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Embodiment of Law


30· · Epic(10)· · · · ·Epic Feat: Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Legendary: Scion of Arborea

31· · Legendary(1)· · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Shield Mastery Specialty

32· · Legendary(2)· · ·Charisma: +1 Level up

Enhancements: 80 APs, Racial 6
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Dragonborn - Points spent: 6
Core1 Hardy I
Core2 Ability I: +1 Charisma
Tier1 Hard Scales - 3 Ranks
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Knight of the Chalice - Points spent: 41
Core1 Slayer of Evil I
Tier1 Extra Smite - 3 Ranks
Tier1 Improved Second Strikes - 3 Ranks
Core2 Courage of Heaven
Tier2 Divine Might - 3 Ranks
Tier2 Adept Combatant
Core3 Slayer of Evil II
Tier3 Ability I: +1 Charisma
Tier3 Holy Combatant II
Tier3 Exalted Smite: Exalted Smite - 3 Ranks
Tier3 Lead the Charge - 1 Ranks
Core4 Improved Courage of Heaven
Tier4 Ability II: +1 Charisma
Tier4 Knight's Training
Tier4 Censure Demons
Tier4 Vigor of Life I
Core5 Slayer of Evil III
Tier5 Holy Retribution: Holy Retribution
Tier5 Censure Outsiders
Tier5 Ascendancy
Tier5 Vigor of Life II
Core6 Champion of Good
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Sacred Defender - Points spent: 31
Core1 Holy Bastion
Tier1 Extra Lay on Hands - 3 Ranks
Tier1 Improved Sacred Defense I: Durable Defense - 3 Ranks
Tier1 Sacred Armor Mastery - 3 Ranks
Core2 Sacred Defence
Tier2 Improved Sacred Defense II: Resilient Defense - 3 Ranks
Tier2 Bulwark Aura - 1 Ranks
Tier3 Greater Sacred Defense I: Tenacious Defense - 3 Ranks
Tier3 Ability I: +1 Charisma
Core3 Divine Righteousness
Tier4 Ability II: +1 Charisma
Tier4 Swift Defense
Tier4 Greater Sacred Defense II: Hardy Defense - 3 Ranks
Tier4 Reinforced Defense I: Reinforced Armor - 2 Ranks
Core4 Redemption
Core5 Glorious Stand
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Feydark Illusionist - Points spent: 7
Core1 Find Familiar: Pseudodragon
Tier1 Familiar's Flourish I
Tier1 Illusory Weaponry
Tier2 Familiar's Flourish II
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[Kodwraith]

Also note that if you are a FR toon (PDK, DeepGnome, SDK, etc) instead of taking BSword proficiency directly, you can instead take Favored of Helm as a feat which gives you +1 to hit, BSword and favored weapon all at once.