Am I in over my head with options? - Help needed

[One Step Two]

Hello everyone,

I'm a long time lurker of these boards and am in need of some help.

As of right now, I am part of a group that is currently embarking upon the Worlds Largest Dungeon (3.5 rules). Before I go any further here's my character so far.

Korvan Dragonborn of Bahamut (Human) , Fighter 2nd level
I have taken the Dragonborn ability to have Darkvision to 30ft and increases in power with more HD.

Str 18, Dex 14(16-2 from racial), Con 16 (14+2 from racial), Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 13

26hp

Feats: Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (longsword), Combat Expertise

Skills and other stats are somewhat Irrelevant for my current dilemma.

As of right now, my GM has given me the option to go down the path of a Prestige Paladin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigePaladin).

As of my own number crunching, if I take fighter 2 / cleric 3, taking mounted combat as my 3rd level feat, and plan to increase my wisdom by 1 later on, I will get access to 6th level divine spells, and I would concieveably dedicate other attribute raises to increasing my Charisma to get some more power out of the paladin abilities.

Originally I had no intention of being little else than a single class fighter who carried a leagacy weapon (stats of which are unknown at this stage), and possible taking some levels of the Legacy Champion prestige class.

As the only Melee front-runner along with our monk, I am worried that if I do go down the path of the prestige paladin I may be hampering myself somewhat to operate in a front-line capacity untill I get there, along with the fact that I would be spreading myself somewhat thin as a prestige paladin is certainly better than a normally paladin, but at the same time a paladin just isnt as hard as a fighter can be.

Details about the party which may be of relvence
2 clerics (one is cross-classing into rogue), 1 sorcerer, 1 rogue, 1 Fighter/rogue, 1 monk, and myself.

If anyone can offer a little advice or opinion about my dilemma would be greatly appreciated, if you need any more details, just let me know.

Thanks!

[shadzar]

:smallconfused: Not to poop on your build, but is there places to ride in WLD?

Isn't that 700 pages of maps worth of dungeon?

What benefit does mounted combat give you IF there is no place to ride often? Is it a requirement for a later feat you wish to have?

[One Step Two]

:smallconfused: Not to poop on your build, but is there places to ride in WLD?

Isn't that 700 pages of maps worth of dungeon?

What benefit does mounted combat give you IF there is no place to ride often? Is it a requirement for a later feat you wish to have?

Mounted Combat is a requirement for Prestige Paladin, which I forgot to mention was another concern of mine, another is that the nature of the dungeon doesn't allow anything to leave, so once I summon my mount, it's there till we leave, or die. That said there are some sections in the dungeon large enough to suit mounted combat. (There are places where frost giants roam apparently.)

I may however may be able to talk my GM into letting me by-pass this for something more useful.

[shadzar]

Ah paladin. Do mounts work like in OOTS? Not the Pokeballs, but appear and disappear via extraplanar means?

If so it shouldn't be that much of a problem right?

[One Step Two]

Pokeballs would be sweet as, but even those in the OOTs is just a method of summoning them from and dismissing them to the celestial plane. Once the mount is there, it's there.
Our GM specified that summoning monsters to help will be pointless because they can't leave once they are there, and when they figure it out, they'll probably attack you. Hopefully, my loyal steed will be an exception to that aggression.

[shadzar]

:smalleek: Well that seems harsh. I guess that sucks then if the mount can't die an be resummoned the next day. I would ask for clarification since it is a paladins mount we are talking about....a lawful good creature yes?

It isn't like you are summoning celestial bears until they die, but more like a familiar....

:smallconfused:

Anyway, that would be my only concern about it, as you can tell I am not all that well versed in 3.x, but if you are fine with no mount having the paladin class then it is up to you if you don't need/want it.

[Eldariel]

Well, as a rule, casters do everything better so the Cleric-levels should provide you with a power boost. However, with Prestige Paladin and Fighter eating to your casting, you'd have to wait a long time to get any of the true goodies. Also, your Charisma is your "dumpstat" (with that insane stats, it's sorta unfair to call it one, but it's still notably worse than the rest), making Paladin decidedly subpar.

Really, it seems like Prestige Paladin would gain you very little besides the gimped casting; you can't make much use out of the Paladin-abilities due to your limited Charisma and the fact that the Mount is an ill fit for the dungeon, and the gimped casting just isn't all that good. While with those stats it's still not horrible, it's among the worst options you seem to have available.


In WLD, I'd definitely go Dungeoncrasher Fighter. The ACF is in Dungeonscape (surprise, surprise) and allows you to break things more easily, be more resilient to traps and most importantly, Bull Rush people to walls for Massive Damage™ (4d6+2xStr on level 2, 8d6+3xStr on level 6). Replaces your 2nd and 6th feats, so sorta something you could take now.

If you truly need a tank, that feat would go a long way as it makes you much more resilient to non-opponent dangers the dungeon contains too, and allows you to control opponents better (place them where they don't trouble your party), and smash the living out of them (you need Power Attack and Improved Bull Rush, of course - seems like a different road than what you've taken, but Fighter picks feats up quick and your present feats outside Weapon Focus will be useful in the future anyways).

[One Step Two]

Well, as a rule, casters do everything better so the Cleric-levels should provide you with a power boost. However, with Prestige Paladin and Fighter eating to your casting, you'd have to wait a long time to get any of the true goodies. Also, your Charisma is your "dumpstat" (with that insane stats, it's sorta unfair to call it one, but it's still notably worse than the rest), making Paladin decidedly subpar.

Really, it seems like Prestige Paladin would gain you very little besides the gimped casting; you can't make much use out of the Paladin-abilities due to your limited Charisma and the fact that the Mount is an ill fit for the dungeon, and the gimped casting just isn't all that good. While with those stats it's still not horrible, it's among the worst options you seem to have available.


In WLD, I'd definitely go Dungeoncrasher Fighter. The ACF is in Dungeonscape (surprise, surprise) and allows you to break things more easily, be more resilient to traps and most importantly, Bull Rush people to walls for Massive Damage™ (4d6+2xStr on level 2, 8d6+3xStr on level 6). Replaces your 2nd and 6th feats, so sorta something you could take now.

If you truly need a tank, that feat would go a long way as it makes you much more resilient to non-opponent dangers the dungeon contains too, and allows you to control opponents better (place them where they don't trouble your party), and smash the living out of them (you need Power Attack and Improved Bull Rush, of course - seems like a different road than what you've taken, but Fighter picks feats up quick and your present feats outside Weapon Focus will be useful in the future anyways).

I managed really good rolls for my stats, but yeah, my concern was that my charisma was sort of a ball and chain around my leg, if I had any fore-thought to taking this route, I would have re-thought it.

That said, it's a little odd that you mention the prestige paladin levels eating caster levels, the fact that it continues to give me divine spell casting levels as a cleric makes it infinetly better than a regular paladin, but not so good as a cleric, with fighter 2/cleric 3/prestige paladin 15 I will be casting as an 11th level cleric with 6th level divine spells. This is of course way down the line, but it didn't seem like a huge hamper to me, considering the boost it is over a regular paladins spell casting.

But I will raid my friends book pile for dungeonscape, Dungeoncrasher sounds very interesting to me.