Paladin casting help

[frost890]

I have a Paladin and I want to use some of the casting more, but what I run in to is most of what I want to cast my spells on would be a waist. this is because my caster lvl sucks. I am using Templar from defenders of the faith as my PrC. my GM let it stack with the paladin. My question is there a feat that lets me increase my caster lvl? how its written is 10+ spell level+ cha(+3). I want to use command but the things I want to use it on often have spell resistance (blue dragon with a wand of fireball) and I want to use the spell command to make it drop the wand. Any advice? I know there is spell focus, but I was wondering about anything else?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Divine characters have tons of ways to boost CL, the easiest ways being Practiced Spellcaster (CArc) which gives you a +4 CL boost limited by your HD and Divine Spell power which allows you to spend a turn attempt to increase your CL.

Having said that, Paladin Casting sucks if you aren't self buffing, their offensive spell list is quite limited so you should stick to buff spells (get Battle Blessing if you can btw, swift action spells are awesome).

[Kelb_Panthera]

Dusk is right. Trying to use offensive spells as a paladin is doomed to end in sadness. If you absolutely must try, practiced spellcaster and spell penetration give you static bonuses to get through spell resistance, and divine spellpower can get you a temporary boost. Honestly though, just don't bother. Buff up with the good paladin spells and go to town with your holy avenger.

[Psyren]

For a more caster-y paladin, try PrCing into Divine Crusader. It's got extremely easy qualifications for you, 9th-level spells in 9 levels (from one domain), and is Charisma-based. You can even continue advancing your Smite as well by PrCing into Fist of Raziel from there.

[toapat]

How to cast as a Paladin:

Grab all the Mystic Fire Knight substitution levels
Get Sword of the Arcane Order, Battle Blessing, and Serenity feats
Get a reincarnation from the Orc in the House Jorasco Enclave in Stormreach. Wish him into existance if he doesnt.
Use Pious Templar from Complete Champion, it is slightly better then Templar from Defenders of the Faith, and is the 3.5 updated version

[Snowbluff]

Strand of Prayer Beads (Karma Bead) and Ankh of Ascension give some nice boosts as well.

[Dusk Eclipse]

How to cast as a Paladin:

Grab all the Mystic Fire Knight substitution levels
Get Sword of the Arcane Order, Battle Blessing, and Serenity feats
Get a reincarnation from the Orc in the House Jorasco Enclave in Stormreach. Wish him into existance if he doesnt.
Use Pious Templar from Complete Champion, it is slightly better then Templar from Defenders of the Faith, and is the 3.5 updated version

AFAICT Battle blessing doesn't work with wizard spells from SOTAO, they are called as Wiz spells cast from Paladin Slots

[Snowbluff]

Yeah, but you can pick up nice Swift spells like Wraith Strike.

[toapat]

AFAICT Battle blessing doesn't work with wizard spells from SOTAO, they are called as Wiz spells cast from Paladin Slots

its very DM dependant whether SotAO works with Battleblessing, let alone that SotAO is left openended asto whether it grants them as divine spells, or if you can use a spellbook

[Hirax]

You sound like you want to be more of a caster. If you're at a stage where it's still possible, I'd recommend you use the paladin prestige class variant in Unearth Arcana on a cleric chassis instead of the paladin base class. Consider cleric2/divine church inquisitor4/prestige paladin3. You get all the best paladin features in 3 levels (special mount, divine grace, aura of courage, etc.), and 2 of those levels will advance your cleric casting. You also can use your cleric slots to cast paladin spells, just like they were on the cleric list.

[Psyren]

If "non-paladin Paladins" are fair game, I'll plug my super-paladin build as well. Quoting myself ftw:


My favorite route for Favored Souls is to make them into a "Super Paladin."

FS 7/Dragonslayer 1/Sacred Exorcist 1/PrC Paladin 2/Fist of Raziel 9

Gets:

- 18th level Favored Soul spellcasting (9th-level cleric spells, Cha-based)
- Can learn both Paladin and Cleric spells
- Turn Undead 3+Cha times/day (can power Divine feats)
- Cha to all saves (as Paladin)
- Fear immunity (as Paladin)
- Lay on Hands (as Paladin, 5*Cha HP/day)
- Smite Evil 6/day (auto-confirm criticals, holy bolts chain to 5 evil targets within 30 feet, reflex DC 15+Cha)
- Proficient with all Martial Weapons, Heavy Armor and Tower Shields
- Permanent Magic Circle vs. Evil
- Double damage to evil constructs/objects


You don't get the mount, though of course you have 9th-level spells so you can Planar Ally whatever you want to ride.

Dragonslayer is optional - you could take an 8th FS there instead - but DS gets you the martial proficiencies 2 levels earlier, tower shield proficiency, and fear immunity. The entry feats aren't great, however.

Finally - since you are a gish, you don't have to worry about attack magic. Use your spells to buff and heal instead. This means you can dump Wis entirely, especially with fear immunity, strong will saves from FS, and Divine Grace.

[Diarmuid]

You sound like you want to be more of a caster. If you're at a stage where it's still possible, I'd recommend you use the paladin prestige class variant in Unearth Arcana on a cleric chassis instead of the paladin base class. Consider cleric2/divine church inquisitor4/prestige paladin3. You get all the best paladin features in 3 levels (special mount, divine grace, aura of courage, etc.), and 2 of those levels will advance your cleric casting. You also can use your cleric slots to cast paladin spells, just like they were on the cleric list.

I'm AFB ATM so I'm relying on the WotC website version of Prestige Paladin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040206a), but I dont see the bolded section listed anywhere. Was it updated somewhere to include the Paladin spells in Cleric spell slots part?

[Hirax]

It's not in the class section itself, it's part of the overview of variant prestige classes as a whole. It's posted on the SRD here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm).

[Diarmuid]

SRD is blocked too (odd that WotC itself isnt...).

Thanks Hirax!

[Psyren]

I'm AFB ATM so I'm relying on the WotC website version of Prestige Paladin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040206a), but I dont see the bolded section listed anywhere. Was it updated somewhere to include the Paladin spells in Cleric spell slots part?

Check the other thread where you talk about PrC Paladin - I gave you the rules quote that allows this over there.