Does this work as a 'paladin'?

[Kenneth]

Paladin 2/cleric 8/ Divine Oracle 10.


You get Cha to saves, smite, 9th level cleric spells and evasion thats better than evasion oh and uncanny dodge.

and with your ability to cast all those cleric spells you are pretty beastly in Melee.

[Manateee]

For sure. Paladin is spelt "Pal 2/Clr X"

[Hirax]

Unless you're really tight on feats, prestige paladin is better. If your DM is generous, he might allow owning a battle bridle (Magic Item Compendium) with a mundane mount to qualify you. If you can qualify that way, cleric8/prestige paladin2/divine oracle10 would be strictly better.

[TroubleBrewing]

Prestige Paladin is so, so sweet. Getting those smexy Paladin spells on your list... Holy Sword, I'm lookin' at you.

[erikun]

Smite for +2 damage isn't going to matter... at all, really, at 20th level. +CHA to a single attack might, but as a Cleric, you might be focusing more on Wisdom.

Cleric/Prestige Paladin or Cleric/Crusader/Ruby Knight Vindicator (or just all of it together) would probably be a better paladin. I mean, it's not bad - you're still an 18th level Cleric, and a Divine Oracle to boot - but Divine Grace is about all you're getting from the Paladin levels.

[sonofzeal]

Unless you're really tight on feats, prestige paladin is better. If your DM is generous, he might allow owning a battle bridle (Magic Item Compendium) with a mundane mount to qualify you. If you can qualify that way, cleric8/prestige paladin2/divine oracle10 would be strictly better.
I prefer to take that third level of Prc Pally. It's nothing huge, but +1 caster level and +1 BAB and good HP and +1 Ref/Will and two situational class features are usually worth it unless you're in a rush for something in particular in Divine Oracle.

[Hirax]

I agree 100%, I was mostly juxtaposing it with the OP's proposed build. There's a lot that could be done with those excess cleric levels.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd prefer just Cleric 6/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10, considering Smite Evil isn't going to be a significant bonus and you can cast Greater/Superior Resistance and have excellent saves all day. Better to get those higher level spells earlier, and maybe dip (Prestige) Paladin after the first or sixth Contemplative level.

[Elric VIII]

My personal favorite paladin build uses Cleric with Ordained Champion and Sacred Exorcist. Mostly, I like it because you get a bunch of great class features and full Smite progression (and it doesn't even need to be against Evil).

Really, all you get from the Paladin 2 is Divine Grace and Evil-dar. You can be a perfectly good paladin with Cleric 20, and call yourself a Paladin.

[TroubleBrewing]

If we're talking specific builds, I like Cleric 9/Death Delver 1/Sacred Exorcist 10. Grabs you a TON of TU attempts to fuel DMM.

[Manateee]

My favorite "Paladin" is definitely
Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 1/Ordained Champion 3/Prestige Paladin 3/Knight of the Raven 10
for 9th level spells, 2 turning pools, a mount, base 19 BA and a huge swath of abilities to back it up.

Smite for +2 damage isn't going to matter... at all, really, at 20th level. +CHA to a single attack might, but as a Cleric, you might be focusing more on Wisdom.
Bit of a tangent: I keep seeing people treating people treating the Paladin's Smite as its defining feature. I've never found it more than incidental, except on a build that went way out of its way to focus on smiting. With only a handful of uses per day (talking about pallys, not OCs) and conditional targeting, that doesn't seem like a practical direction for Paladin optimization. With Rhino's Rush and a built-in mount, the paladin typically excels at ensuring that the things it can hit end up dead - the extra damage seems like overkill.

Do most people find that the Paladin (or classes with similarly limited uses) meaningfully benefits from the ability?

[Elric VIII]

My favorite "Paladin" is definitely
Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 1/Ordained Champion 3/Prestige Paladin 3/Knight of the Raven 10
for 9th level spells, 2 turning pools, a mount, base 19 BA and a huge swath of abilities to back it up.

Bit of a tangent: I keep seeing people treating people treating the Paladin's Smite as its defining feature. I've never found it more than incidental, except on a build that went way out of its way to focus on smiting. With only a handful of uses per day (talking about pallys, not OCs) and conditional targeting, that doesn't seem like a practical direction for Paladin optimization. With Rhino's Rush and a built-in mount, the paladin typically excels at ensuring that the things it can hit end up dead - the extra damage seems like overkill.

Do most people find that the Paladin (or classes with similarly limited uses) meaningfully benefits from the ability?


It's just fun to jump on the table and yell "SMITE EVIL" while violently crushing your DM's miniatures with a hammer.

Other people do this, right?

[TroubleBrewing]

It's just fun to jump on the table and yell "SMITE EVIL" while violently crushing your DM's miniatures with a hammer.

Other people do this, right?

Well, no. My DM has two black belts.

But for non-D&D games, yes. Yes I do. :smallbiggrin:

[sonofzeal]

My favorite "Paladin" is definitely
Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 1/Ordained Champion 3/Prestige Paladin 3/Knight of the Raven 10
for 9th level spells, 2 turning pools, a mount, base 19 BA and a huge swath of abilities to back it up.

Bit of a tangent: I keep seeing people treating people treating the Paladin's Smite as its defining feature. I've never found it more than incidental, except on a build that went way out of its way to focus on smiting. With only a handful of uses per day (talking about pallys, not OCs) and conditional targeting, that doesn't seem like a practical direction for Paladin optimization. With Rhino's Rush and a built-in mount, the paladin typically excels at ensuring that the things it can hit end up dead - the extra damage seems like overkill.

Do most people find that the Paladin (or classes with similarly limited uses) meaningfully benefits from the ability?
I used it. But then, I took Martial Study: Emerald Razor, and Power Attack, with a two-handed weapon. Even Power Attacking for all my BAB, I was still guaranteed a hit thanks to Smite; without it I would have been looking at a a small-but-not-insignificant chance to miss on my big attack. Given that I apparently can't roll above a 6 to attack, and wasn't using DMM to enter every fight prebuffed to the nines, I found that extra bonus quite relevant.