Warforged Harmonious Knight

[tricktroller]

Hey everyone!

So I was looking about and I really like the idea of a singing buffing paladin. I also like the idea of warforged. I know they get a cha and wis penalty but I'll eat that for roleplaying fun.

So here is the build I plan:

Harmonious Knight Paladin 1
Paladin
Paladin
Paladin
Paladin
Reforged
Reforged
?



Feats
1st Adamantine Body
3rd Song of the heart
6th
9th
12th

And here is where I am stuck. So, what my plans for the character are mainly will be to pump out lots of bonuses via inspire courage to the party while also being a big nasty wall of hp and ac. The reforged bit is mostly to make it easier for the party to heal me but it is mostly just something I added because I liked the idea.

So if you would please help me out :D.

The character will probably never attain a level beyond 12th or 13th at most. I want him to be fun and effective. (DM will not allow dragon magic)

[Vaz]

IIRC, Inspire Courage does not progress as if you were a Bard, it's just a 1/day ability, which doesn't benefit from Dragonfire Inspiration even with Draconic Heritage/Dragonborn Template

Want to do a Warforged Bardadin, there's a feat which allows the two to combine levels, I suggest looking at that.

Song in the Heart requires Bard 3 Minimum, or Paladin 6/Warrior Skald 1 with Smite to Song, Power Attack, Cleave. Song of the Heart, Badge of Valour, Vest of Legends, (with Bard 3

Consider this;

Warforged Harmonious Knight Paladin 6/Warrior Skald 1/Bard 3/Reforged 3/Anything Bard boosting 7

Take a Vest of Legends, Badge of Valour, Inspirational Boost spell

Feats;
- Dragontouched (Emerald Dragon)
- Power Attack
- Cleave
- Dragonfire Inspiration
- Song of the Heart
- Devoted Performer
- Words of Creation

This gives you Bardic Abilities as a Bard 17 (Vest of Legends granting 20 or 22 for bonuses depending on your DM, but there's no differences anyway), Bonus of +1 to all Morale effects (includes Rage Boosts!), +1 from the Badge (Applied last), +1 from Spell, +1 from Song of the Heart (total of 7+1 before Words of Creation.)

Apply Words of Creation.



Congratulations, you are now DFI'ng 15d6 Sonic damage on each attack. Make it Perform (Primal Scream/Tarzaning/Sing), and annoy everyone on the table by yelling at the top of your voice every time you Bardic Music.

[Piggy Knowles]

You ARE going to name this guy Gato, right?


IIRC, Inspire Courage does not progress as if you were a Bard, it's just a 1/day ability

Yeah, this. Harmonious Knight is still handy, especially for qualifying for feats (like, for example, Song of the Heart), but the IC that it grants isn't very good.

If you want to keep things pure paladin, I highly recommend From Smite to Song. This lets you spend a smite attempt to activate inspire courage as a bard of your paladin level. It scales significantly better than the Harmonious Knight's ability. You can build a pretty solid paladin 20 this way.

Words of Creation is neat, but that is going to be really hard to qualify for as a warforged. And I don't think DFI is worth it if you need to spend an extra feat to qualify. With 2-to-1 returns on Power Attack, every +1 of standard inspire courage is worth 3 points of damage, versus 3.5 points for the DFI version... it's a boost, and it adds up, but it's not worth two feats. You'll have way fewer bardic music attempts than the standard bard, too, so the standard trick of starting a regular IC song, stopping, and starting a DFI version won't really help.

I'd look at something like....

"Gato"
Warforged, Paladin 20
ACFs: Harmonious Knight, Underdark Knight

Starting Stats (28 PB): Str 16/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 6

1. Harmonious Knight1- Serenity
2. Paladin2-
3. Paladin3- From Smite to Song
4. Paladin4-
5. Paladin5-
6. Harmonious Knight6- Song of the Heart
7. Paladin7-
8. Paladin8-
9. Harmonious Knight9- Power Attack
10. Paladin10-
11. Paladin11-
12. Paladin12- Extra Smiting
13. Paladin13-
14. Paladin14-
15. Paladin15- Battle Blessing
16. Paladin16-
17. Paladin17-
18. Paladin18- Travel Devotion
19. Paladin19-
20. Paladin20-

Serenity switches everything that would ordinarily be Charisma-based to Wisdom instead, including Divine Grace and turn undead. You can find it in the Dragon Compendium.

You're not going to have the crazy out of this world bonuses a Words of Creation bard would, but you'll do OK. (If you can find a point buy that will leave you with 15 Int, 15 Cha and 14 Wis, plus still leave you with a half-decent Strength and Con, then by all means, get Words of Creation in there and drop Serenity!)

[Kuulvheysoon]

If you want to keep things pure paladin, I highly recommend From Smite to Song. This lets you spend a smite attempt to activate inspire courage as a bard of your paladin level. It scales significantly better than the Harmonious Knight's ability. You can build a pretty solid paladin 20 this way.

If you're going Paladin 20 anyways, might I suggest the Divine Spirit ACF found in Dungeonscape?

[Piggy Knowles]

If you're going Paladin 20 anyways, might I suggest the Divine Spirit ACF found in Dungeonscape?

Always a good choice, and could replace Underdark Knight in the build I posted. I like the mobility that Underdark Knight offers, but both are pretty handy.

[Vaz]

Sonic Damage ignores Hardness (hence the Gem Dragon Heritage), and you can choose not to DFI if you so wish. You're still, as you say, doing 1:3 returns with Power Attack, so it's either 15d6 Sonic Damage (14d6+1d6, Min>Ave>Max 15>52.5>90 damage ignoring hardness), versus 45 Damage straight.

You could take, I think it's Amethyst, to gain Force DFI is you're facing many incorporeals.