Howdy yall,

So I've been knocking this idea around in my head for a while, and with the release of Sacred Fist, I might finally be able to make it a reality. For a long time, I've wanted to create a sort of "green knight"; mostly along the lines that DnD 5e portrays as an "Oath of the Ancients" paladin. Not a druid per se, but rather a holy knight who roams the land as a friend and protector of the forests/nature. Hence, a "Holy Rover".

DISCLAIMER: This is not a min-maxed build, but instead, attempting to optimize a specific flavor build.

The goal is to have a Paladin/Ranger hybrid build, something that can (almost) completely swap between a bow or melee fighting style. This can be done on the fly, but would likely require an enhancement respec to specialize in one or the other. It MUST have Paladin and Ranger as the dominant class, so it fits the idea of a "holy rover". I like the idea of elf, but I'm leaning towards Tabaxi for gameplay reasons. I might do this as human since I still need my racial PL for that.

The rough ideas are as follows:

Sacred Fist 14/ ranger 6
PBS, IC:Ranged, Zen Archery, Gtwf, Knight's Training, IC:Slash, Precision

Sacred Fist 12/ranger 6/monk 2
PBS, IC:Ranged, Zen Archery, Gtwf, IC:Slash, Twd, Dodge, Mobility, Precision

Ranger 12/Sacred Fist 6/monk 2
PBS, IC:Ranged, Zen Archery, Knight's Training, IC:Slash, Twd, Dodge, Mobility, Precision

For ranged, I'd almost certainly be using T5 Horizon Walker with the capstone. I'd likely splash into Deepwood Stalker for the lv 6 core Sniper Shot, possibly more for Aimed Shot (facilitates high Archer's Focus stacks while moving). For a while I debated going without Sniper Shot, but the rotations just work better with it in; and since SF doesn't give a ranged option for Exalted Smite, I don't have another strong DPS clicky without it.

For melee, I'm really split. Ideally, this toon would use longswords. I did a variant a few years ago that dipped into Ninja Spy to use shortswords, but recent additions, such as the new ED's, have expanded my options. The 12 SF/6 rgr/2 mnk build is pretty much locked into Vistani, since it loses both Holy Sword and Tempest/DWS lv 12 cores. I'm not sure on the damage difference between T5 Tempest with 100% offhand, versus T5 Vistani with capstone.

I noted the heroic feats with each split to give an idea of what options I'm looking at. In most cases, if I have to choose between ranged focus or melee, I default to ranged. I'm not certain on epic/destiny feats yet, but I'd probably take Combat Archery and Elusive Target for all builds, and likely Perfect Twf as well as Legendary Aim.

For additional context, I tend to solo up to lv 29, or pug as I feel like it. I haven't done much raiding since the Epic Destiny rework, outside of a solo elite Chronoscope. I'd like to have a build that can contribute in endgame content to a degree though, even if it's not R10 raids. I anticipate soloing mostly as melee, but grouping/raiding in whichever style works better for the content.

I'd be happy to post a build later this evening for any of the splits I noted above if someone wants more information.

Please help me decide on the most effective version of this idea! I'm open to suggestions or ideas where I might have overlooked something.