Holy sword/shield knight help

[Haluesen]

Alright, first time making a thread here in the playground, let's do this!

Okay I am making a character for story purposes and really want some help from anyone who can setting this guy up. This is mostly as a hobby/just for fun sort of thing, so there aren't very many rules. It is mostly a strong concept I want to get going.

-The character is a prince banished from his lands, a holy knight in shining armor sort of guy. I want to make him an effective sword and shield user, and potential some sort of divine powers whether that is spells or extraordinary powers. He will be between levels 5 and 8 for the start of his tale, gestalt character. Again, this is mostly just a set up for fun, though if I ever do put him in a campaign I will be using this as a baseline.

-The character will be strictly 3.5, and I have access to a long list of books which means a lot of options plus I guess whatever is easily at hand online. Really I am just bad at making choices when there are so many options available to me, and I haven't played long enough to be good at optimizing a character.

-That above said, I am not aiming for a character that is overpowered, just generally very effective. Haven't rolled stats yet though. Concept and RP more important than statistics.

And so, yeah. Anyone have good interesting ideas?

[RMS Oceanic]

A simple holy warrior without getting too obscure would probably be a Paladin//Cleric. A Paladin is the classic holy knight character, while backing it up with the Cleric gives him a better range of spells to use.

If you go with this, the one obscure-ish feat I'd recommend is Dragon Compendium's Serentiy. All the Paladin's Charisma-based abilities use Wisdom instead, dropping the number of stats you need to worry about elevating.

[Xerxus]

Fighter/Cleric?

[Haluesen]

@RMS Oceanic: I suppose the idea works. I've always been wary of the Paladin, their smite ability has just never been favorable to me. But a small dip into it or a prestige class that builds on it could work... :smallbiggrin:

@Could possibly work. It is already sounding like cleric is my best option for him, even just a bit of it.

[Xerxus]

Or Favored Soul/Fighter, for a more thematic feel. A cleric is supposed to be a clergyman.

[Komatik]

Crusader or just straight melee Cleric. Both?

[Fates]

You could alternatively use a knight (Player's Handbook II) rather than a fighter or paladin for any of those options. They're generally regarded as somewhat weak (slightly above paladin), but I've always liked the class anyway- it's got very good flavor, and their code of honour is less restrictive than a paladin's (IE it doesn't really matter how your allies act). They get a few abilities to do with challenging people to single combat, etc, and get mounted combat and a bonus to AC when using shields.

[Haluesen]

Hmm certainly all interesting options..it is just very hard to decide. But that at least narrows down the choices somewhat. I think I might prefer knight to paladin, but crusader would definitely be different. I've never tried to ToB options.