Lord.Sorasen
2011-09-18, 01:06 PM
So, I really love paladins so much. It is a thing with me. The dm in the campaign I'm going to be in basically feels about paladins the opposite way. But! He's willing to allow paladin characters if they can be amusing or otherwise interesting. It also doesn't hurt my case that the other two members of the party have 7 and 4 charisma.
For that reason I've decided to make my paladin a gnome (we have the rare case of a dm who loves gnomes). I know small paladins are really best for archery builds, but our group has a gunslinger as is: while I'm not necessarily against helping him out on that front, the party lacks a good front line type, and I'd like to fill that purpose. Right now, the style that really interests me is a critical hit based 2 weapon fighter, using the smite evil ability to bypass damage reduction. While I could see taking two kukri and the "improved critical" feat and calling it a day, I'd rather use a rapier/kukri combo for flavor purposes (in particular, I want to be ridiculous as possible.)
The problem is that past that I've only made a couple paladins in pathfinder (both archers), and have never made a critical hit build or anything of the sort.
Long story short I need some help building this guy. We're starting at level 1, no traits. I'll show you what I have so far:
Ability Scores [15 Point Buy]
Strength : 11
Dexterity : 16
Constitution : 16
Intelligence : 7 (I can up this if needed...)
Wisdom : 7 (but this stays)
Charisma : 16
Skill : Craft (painting)
Feat : Two weapon fighting
Alternate race features : Pyromaniac.
Divine Bond (eventually) : Weapon
Weapons : Rapier + Kukri
Armor : Lamellar, steel
Anyway I really don't know what else to do here. I need the dexterity to use two-weapon fighting, and I need to use gnome because I love gnomes like nobody's business, and I want to have 7 wisdom, but other than that everything is negotiable.
We can use everything in the pathfinder SRD, nothing in 3.5 (though if it's worth enough I'll try to ask) and no 3rd party material with the exception of Psionics Unleashed.
Note that our other two members are a swamp druid (plant domain) and an old (though with middle aged penalties) Svirfneblin gunslinger. Yes, it's a 2 gnome party. Our other person might be a tengu magus, but she's not really sure yet.
I guess I should also mention my general plans and questions that come with them:
- Because we're starting at level 1, produce flame via pyromaniac seems much better than the illusion things a gnome has (plus I want to be easily tricked for character purposes). Is this a bad idea?
- Do I want to get the keen enhancement on my weapons through divine bond, buy them, or take the improved critical feat? Do I want to do it twice for the sake of both weapons?
- I am counting quite a few feats that I'll end up needing just off the top of my head: two-weapon fighting, the two feats to improve that, I think there's another two-weapon fighting thing worth taking, weapon finesse, etc etc. Would it be a bad idea to take a dip in another class like fighter for the sake of getting more feats? When would I want to do it? Same goes for possible prestige classes.
- Actually, any prestige classes that would boost this sort of two weapon fighting style without making my smite evil and such completely useless?
- What should I particularly look out for with this fighting style?
- Any paladin archetypes that might help this fighting style? I couldn't really see anything I liked.
- My dm has stated that if I want, I can get a Barbazu Beard (though I'd need to explain why as a paladin I have one) and use it to do the whole multi-weapon fighting thing rather than two-weapon fighting. But that whole "provokes AoO" seems like it pretty much makes that stupid. Would I be wrong?
For that reason I've decided to make my paladin a gnome (we have the rare case of a dm who loves gnomes). I know small paladins are really best for archery builds, but our group has a gunslinger as is: while I'm not necessarily against helping him out on that front, the party lacks a good front line type, and I'd like to fill that purpose. Right now, the style that really interests me is a critical hit based 2 weapon fighter, using the smite evil ability to bypass damage reduction. While I could see taking two kukri and the "improved critical" feat and calling it a day, I'd rather use a rapier/kukri combo for flavor purposes (in particular, I want to be ridiculous as possible.)
The problem is that past that I've only made a couple paladins in pathfinder (both archers), and have never made a critical hit build or anything of the sort.
Long story short I need some help building this guy. We're starting at level 1, no traits. I'll show you what I have so far:
Ability Scores [15 Point Buy]
Strength : 11
Dexterity : 16
Constitution : 16
Intelligence : 7 (I can up this if needed...)
Wisdom : 7 (but this stays)
Charisma : 16
Skill : Craft (painting)
Feat : Two weapon fighting
Alternate race features : Pyromaniac.
Divine Bond (eventually) : Weapon
Weapons : Rapier + Kukri
Armor : Lamellar, steel
Anyway I really don't know what else to do here. I need the dexterity to use two-weapon fighting, and I need to use gnome because I love gnomes like nobody's business, and I want to have 7 wisdom, but other than that everything is negotiable.
We can use everything in the pathfinder SRD, nothing in 3.5 (though if it's worth enough I'll try to ask) and no 3rd party material with the exception of Psionics Unleashed.
Note that our other two members are a swamp druid (plant domain) and an old (though with middle aged penalties) Svirfneblin gunslinger. Yes, it's a 2 gnome party. Our other person might be a tengu magus, but she's not really sure yet.
I guess I should also mention my general plans and questions that come with them:
- Because we're starting at level 1, produce flame via pyromaniac seems much better than the illusion things a gnome has (plus I want to be easily tricked for character purposes). Is this a bad idea?
- Do I want to get the keen enhancement on my weapons through divine bond, buy them, or take the improved critical feat? Do I want to do it twice for the sake of both weapons?
- I am counting quite a few feats that I'll end up needing just off the top of my head: two-weapon fighting, the two feats to improve that, I think there's another two-weapon fighting thing worth taking, weapon finesse, etc etc. Would it be a bad idea to take a dip in another class like fighter for the sake of getting more feats? When would I want to do it? Same goes for possible prestige classes.
- Actually, any prestige classes that would boost this sort of two weapon fighting style without making my smite evil and such completely useless?
- What should I particularly look out for with this fighting style?
- Any paladin archetypes that might help this fighting style? I couldn't really see anything I liked.
- My dm has stated that if I want, I can get a Barbazu Beard (though I'd need to explain why as a paladin I have one) and use it to do the whole multi-weapon fighting thing rather than two-weapon fighting. But that whole "provokes AoO" seems like it pretty much makes that stupid. Would I be wrong?