Help with paladin

[skaught78]

I'm planning a paladin next life. I have been playing the game for about 10 years, but have only done Pally three timers, and that was a loooong time ago. I tend to stick to my fav 4 classes, Arti, Sorc, Ranger, and Barb. I don't know the first thing about Pally.

I want good balance between offense and defense. I'm thinking of going with war hammer in one hand and shield in the other. Not planning on doing much in the way of being a specialist in fighting undead, so not looking to beef up my turn undead ability.

Do I rely on STR as my prime stat, and should I put my level up points in STR, or elsewhere.

If I'm wearing heavy armor, is DEX important?

I have a good stock of armor, and gear, but have no shields and want to know if anyone can recommend some good shields to look for along the way.

Any other tips or advice on building a good pally would be great!

Thanks

[Enoach]

Much of the Paladin bonus comes from Charisma - Smite and Saves for example.

A strength based paladin is not a bad option, but don't neglect charisma.

On Dexterity I generally go with enough Dex to qualify for any dex requirement. Look at what your armor Dex cap is going to be and start from there.

[skaught78]

Much of the Paladin bonus comes from Charisma - Smite and Saves for example.

A strength based paladin is not a bad option, but don't neglect charisma.

On Dexterity I generally go with enough Dex to qualify for any dex requirement. Look at what your armor Dex cap is going to be and start from there.

Would you start your CHA at 18?

[unbongwah]

I linked some builds here. Your typical paladin will be STR+CHA-based. If you have Feydark Illusionist, you have the option of going CHA-based.

There are some niche-ier options out there, like a paladin archer of the Sacred Flame along with Horizon Walker. I'd like to try a DEX+CHA-based Tabaxi Sacred Fist when it comes out; Improved Nimble Cat grants DEX to damage with handwraps.

[skaught78]

If you have Feydark Illusionist, you have the option of going CHA-based.

OOh, now that sounds fun! I thought only PDKs had access to CHA to hit/damage.

[unbongwah]

I thought only PDKs had access to CHA to hit/damage.

For a long time, they were; PDK came out ten years ago. Favored Soul gained Grace of Battle (CHA to-hit/damage with Favored weapons) five years ago. Feydark Illusionist was added in Update 47 two years ago, right before the Feywild expansion came out.

Sorcerer Eldritch Knight gets CHA to hit but not damage; while Swashbuckler gets CHA to damage but not to hit. So bard+sorcerer is/was also an option.

[Tilomere]

I want good balance between offense and defense.

Paladins are designed to be near 0 DPS tanks. KoTC tree has 20 power, and Vangaurd tree has 19 with shield use. Both basically suck for dps, especially clearing groups.

If you want a balance of offense, you will want to multiclass for another classes offensive tree.

For example, 5 ranger DWS allows 135 ranged power built up with aimed shot, and 7 VKF allows using that power on daggers.

A balanced paladin build is then 5 ranger, 14-15 paladin (Vol if able), 1 rogue or arti?

Get SWF at first level before ranger autogrant TWF at second level locks it out.

Put points into DWS for ranged power, aimed shot, which you will use with a repeater to multi-proc

Put points into VKF for ranged power to daggers and fan of knives, which also benefits from impulse/kinetic lore/ranged power.

Grab some cleaves, or better yet start as a SDK and get the triple hit racial cleaves

Triple aimed shot as you close in, swap to dagger/orb and cleave, proc 100% spell crit offhand versatility, throw Fan of Knives to execute cleanup everything.

Harper Int to hit/dmg/KTA is better than Charisma because it also fuels trapping skills and spellcraft.

See PO build in arti forum.

Warning: This is what happens when someone non-uber makes a pure 20 melee paladin.