Need help building 2 party members

[Apollishar]

We are getting ready to start a campaign in Ravenloft. The two party members are going to be a Paladin and a Cleric, both level 8. The campaign is going to revolve around a Necromancer BBEG. It is supposed to carry us to level 13. Any suggestions on build?

Limited to Core, PHII, Complete Divine, and Complete Adventurer, standard WBL

[Averis Vol]

is this journey to castle ravenloft?

[Apollishar]

No. Custom campaign.

[DarthPeleus]

No. Custom campaign.

Cleric is easy. They're just plain great all around.

Paladin friend will need help to be any good, however. I don't really have a huge number of paladin builds atm, but perhaps a mounted combat build? Lances get x3 damage on a charge with Spirited Charge feat.

Ashworm Dragoon is a pretty sweet PRC for them.

[Apollishar]

Sorry. Forgot to edit OP about books allowed.

Core, PH II, Complete Divine, Complete Adventurer

[Zarake]

Cleric is easy, as for the Paladin...
Mounted charger might work, though unless he is small going inside will make him pretty useless.

[Averis Vol]

ohh, then i can help. if it was i'de have to respectfully back out due to having played journey to castle ravenloft. first of all its CASTLE ravenloft and i dont think your pally mount would do well in those halls, so ide replace it with something more useful like the dungeonscape variant for paladins, you get a bunch of spirits, one heals for 2x you LoH one grants dr and diehard i believe another grants some combat buff....regardless they'll work better then your horse. for the cleric ide go with divine counterspell if your BBEG's a necromancer. its from complete mage and its pretty self explanitory. as for stats make sure both have a good cha for turning, and for LoH in the pallys case. then deck yourselves out in full plate and choose spells that protect or work best against evil, holy weapon circle of protection against evil and so on and so forth. other then that, your characters your own enjoy

EDIT: oh crap, didnt see that stuff, uhh go radiant servent of pelor for the cleric and just deck out your pally with a big holy sword and some nice fullplate and go for divine crusader (complete divine pg 33) ? core-ish pallys are fairly weak sad to say, and that varient is what i take every time to make them passable.

[Apollishar]

Edited OP. Limited on sourcebooks

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Cleric of Pelor (or equivalent), Human is easiest, go Cleric 6/ Radiant Servant 2 starting out, after Radiant Servant 5 you switch to Contemplative. Domains should be Sun and Healing, with the PH2 ACF to spontaneously cast Healing domain spells instead of Cures which should work with the Radiant Servant healing-domain-only free Empower. Get the Glory domain via Radiant Servant, and whatever seems appropriate by the time you hit Contemplative.

Feats should be Extend Spell (1), Extra Turning (1), Persistent Spell (3), DMM: Persistent (6), and probably more instances of Extra Turning. Get max ranks in Concentration and Kn: Religion, anything extra should probably go toward Spellcraft and Heal.

Items should be a Phylactery of Undead Turning, Circlet of Persuasion (which works on Cha-based turning checks), a Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend, plenty of holy symbols, heavy armor, heavy steel shield, and a mundane club. Every day use the rod to cast Magic Vestment on your armor and shield, and the Complete Divine version of Spikes on your club. Use DMM: Persistent with Divine Power. He can destroy undead of up to 16 HD in a single greater turning, and against other opponents he's a juggernaut of destruction.


For the Paladin - call me crazy - I'd start Spellthief 1/ Paladin 7, and take all future levels in Paladin. Get enough Jump ranks to take Leap Attack at 6th, and get a Wand of Wraithstrike preferably in a wand chamber (+100 gp to weapon cost, holds one wand, you can activate the wand while holding the weapon, Dungeonscape). You can use the wand freely due to the Spellthief level, the only limiting factor would be your Cha score which should be high anyway. Consider taking the feat Devoted Inquisitor at 3rd, so if you Sneak Attack on a Smite they'll have to save vs daze, but forget it if you expect a lot of crit-immune foes. Get 4 ranks in Spellcraft with that Spellthief level to pick up Practiced Spellcaster: Paladin at 9th.

Use the Charging Smite ACF in PH2, keeping in mind that you'll add +1 per Paladin level for normal Smite, and an additional +2 per Paladin level for Charging Smite. You'll want to Wraithstrike, charge in with Power Attack, Leap Attack, and Charging Smite, and most likely obliterate a given foe in a single swing. Items should include Armbands of Might, some decent magic armor and weapon, and preferably an animated shield, with a few extra Wands of Wraithstrike just in case you can't buy more later. Note the rewording of Leap Attack in the Complete Adventurer Errata (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20040125a). Keep in mind that the Armbands of Might give you +2 damage for using Power Attack, and Leap Attack increases the damage you gain from using Power Attack. So if you two-handed Power Attack for -x, you'll get 2x+2 extra damage, which if using Leap Attack will instead be 4x+4 extra damage. This character will be entirely focused on melee damage, so compared to the above Cleric he'll need these over-the-top hits just to be useful.

[Zarake]

What about a halfling outrider archer paladin?

[Apollishar]

@Biff

Thanks. I like those builds. Gonna wait for some alternate opinions, but I do like

[Apollishar]

Bump!

Need more opinions

[zlefin]

what optimization level are you seeking?
and does the pally have to stick to paladin levels and paladin-based prestige classes?

edit: hmmm; only thing I got is make sure his main weapon has bane (undead)
bane is only +1 cost modifier, so with +1 base it's only +2 price, affordable for his wbl.

[Apollishar]

Trying to optimize for anti undead. High optimization for that, and mid optimization that works for anything else. Pally is ok for Pally themed PrC