Paladin ACFs

[kardar233]

Looking for Paladin ACFs, specifically ones that replace the Special Mount, but others welcome.

Currently it's only a 5th level Paladin that I'm looking at and I'm not really intending to go much further, so I'm dubious of things like Holy Warrior, as I'm really only getting one bonus feat.

Character is a THW Power Attack (Leap/Shock etc.), with meh (12) WIS but awesome CHA.

[Amnestic]

Charging Smite (PHB2) gets brought up a lot to replace the special mount. Gives Paladin Level*2 to smite damage, and if you miss on a smite when charging, that smite usage is not...uh, used.

[kardar233]

Is it worth much if I'm not going to be going past 5-6? Do you think the bonus feat from Holy Warrior is much compared to 1st-level spells, and more importantly, divine spellcasting (and thus magic item use) capability? Any other ACFs you might advise?

[Shade Kerrin]

Depends, really. Paladin spells are specialized to Paladin tasks, so unless you have a spell or two specifically in mind for use(especially since you only get the 1st level range), getting an extra Divine feat might be useful to you. what's your charisma like?

Edit: Awesome, apparently, so I will suggest aiming for that divine feat. +Charisma to something should be useful, yes?

[Ezekiul]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19791967/DnD35Index-Classes-Base theres a large selection of alternate class features for different classes in here

[supermonkeyjoe]

Divine Spirit (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070209a) is my favourite mount alternative, nice healing boost to start with, then a small combat boost, nice defence boost and the level 20 ability give a 1/round auto-resurrection to anyone within 30', much better than a horse.

[eclipsic]

Check out this thread:http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80249, specifically, this bit:
"Example 2 : Sword of Celestia paladin from DR349. Basically, Heaven sends you a sword instead of a horse. You summon it from Hammerspace into your hand to whack away at bad guys. You can improve it as if you had Craft Arms and Armor. This class saves you some money on your weapon, which is nice."

[Diarmuid]

Charging Smite (PHB2) gets brought up a lot to replace the special mount. Gives Paladin Level*2 to smite damage, and if you miss on a smite when charging, that smite usage is not...uh, used.

Just a quick clarification, Charging Smite adds an additional 2 damage per Paladin level (combined with the normal damage bonus for Smite Evil) making the bonus damage 3 * Paladin level.

[Vent Reynolt]

Aww, Why would you ever want to get rid of the special mount class feature, it is pretty much the Paladin's strongest class feature.
*(I may be a little biased since my longest running character is a Paladin/Cavalier that specialized in mounted combat.)

For that same character though, I found the Holy Warrior ACF to be more useful than even second level Paladin spells (plus it reduces the MAD by removing the Wis requirement). The two feats that I picked up with Holy Warrior were Law Devotion (Complete Champion), and Sacred Vitality(Libris Mortis)

For someone going with Leap Attack/Shock Trooper, keeping your spellcasting might be the best option since Rhino's Rush is a first level Paladin spell.

[Jude_H]

DM's Paladin's Handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870162/The_Paladins_Handbook_--_2007&post_num=3#338342914) is Paladin-specific with quick rundowns and critiques on the various variants and ACFs. It's also really handy if you're trying to build a charismatic melee character and can't think of just what to do with that last feat or equipment slot.

[The Glyphstone]

Aww, Why would you ever want to get rid of the special mount class feature, it is pretty much the Paladin's strongest class feature.
*(I may be a little biased since my longest running character is a Paladin/Cavalier that specialized in mounted combat.)

For that same character though, I found the Holy Warrior ACF to be more useful than even second level Paladin spells (plus it reduces the MAD by removing the Wis requirement). The two feats that I picked up with Holy Warrior were Law Devotion (Complete Champion), and Sacred Vitality(Libris Mortis)

For someone going with Leap Attack/Shock Trooper, keeping your spellcasting might be the best option since Rhino's Rush is a first level Paladin spell.

Cause unless you go straight Paladin (which is a very bad idea), or one of the very few classes that stack with Paladin for mount levels (such as Cavalier), the mount is near-worthless. Its HP can't even stand up to half damage from enemy AoE attacks, and any mounted warrior can be made useless by killing the mount. Plus, Medium characters fighting indoors can't fight mounted either, making trading out the mount even more attractive.

[Jude_H]

There's always Leadership, but unless you have spells to share, the cohort being the Mount is rarely beneficial.

[T.G. Oskar]

I know the question is a bit late, but: what do you intend to do with the Paladin levels?

Divine Spirit is great if you intend to exchange your mount but remain within the Paladin class, because it offers a few excellent abilities for up to four combats, which generally are the amount of combats you'll probably get during the encounter (not to mention you'll be collaborating a lot more). However, it won't do much if you go away early on, because you'll only get one single ability which will progress depending on whether you progress Lay on Hands or not.

Holy Warrior is a bit of a double-edged sword. It's great if you're getting divine spellcasting levels since, although you'll be losing most of the Paladin-exclusive spells, you'll still have enough spellcasting to deal with. On the other hand, having access to wands of Lesser Restoration, CLW and Paladin-exclusive spells (such as Righteous Aura or Sacred Haven from Spell Compendium) might be more worthwhile than a single extra feat. The access to all divine feats salvages an otherwise unassuming option (because the list of other feats either reinforces the idea of mounts, or smites, or fighting with a two-handed weapon. Furthermore, you won't get another feat up until level 8, whereas with a dip in Fighter you can get two feats (or one feat and Dungeon Crasher) and you can reserve one of your general feats for a divine feat, plus keep your access to wands and scrolls.

Odd that few people didn't mention Underdark Knight; the 5th level ability provides an untyped bonus to land speed of 10 feet (not bad, since it equalizes your speed in heavy armor AND it stacks with Haste or another speed boosting ability) and provides either low-light vision or darkvision if underground. The fact that the land speed bonus remains permanently is a decent exchange, and you get bonuses on checks you wouldn't support otherwise (Balance, Check and Jump).

[kardar233]

This is for a Gestalt campaign, starting at level 8. One side of the gestalt must be a stealth-based class. I'm building Rogue8//Paladin of Tyranny5/Ghost-Faced Killer3, with the aforementioned power attack build and working on Fear mechanics. I intend to go into Avenging Executioner for a few levels and finish into a ToB class, or maybe RKV.