3.5 Paladin Spell Selection?

[ChaoticDitz]

Title pretty much says it all. What are the most useful spells for a Paladin to acquire and use? We'll assume Paladin of Honor for simplicity's sake. All official splats and sourcebooks allowed including Dragon magazine, no 3rd-party.

[kardar233]

Rhino's Rush is extremely good for Paladin chargers. Devastating Smite from Forge of War is decent for non-chargers. SotAO gets you True Strike/Wraithstrike, which can help land that important Smite.

[Artillery]

If you actually plan on casting non-swift action spells as a Paladin, Battle Blessing is definitely a good feat to take, makes standard action spells have a swift action cast time, drops full round cast to standard action. Means you can use some spells and still get in a full attack.

Bless Weapon is great, auto confirm crits against evil.
Protection from Evil, just a good level 1 spell in general and lowest level way to get protection from mind-affecting things.
Cure Light Wounds, its on your list so get a wand.
Divine Favor because luck bonuses are nice.

All these are better with battle blessing because swift action casting is great. Swift action wand usage is also great.

There are also lots of spells good for specific builds, for instance on a charger Rhino Rush is a great spell.

[Dunsparce]

Some of the spells my Paladin use aren't the best, but I've found uses for them, and I'll list the ones that are Paladins exclusive or near-exclusive:

-Silverbeard: +2 sacred bonus to AC, Diplomacy Bonus with dwarves. My Paladin can speak dwarven and is from an area where dwarves are abundant, so it's a character thing.

-Smite of Sacred Fire: Adds 2d6 damage to successful attacks, but you have to hit each turn. Requires using a smite to activate but it's quite useful and it's a swift action even without Battle Blessing

-Divine Sacrifice: If you have a lot of HP to spare, this is a good one to add extra damage.

-One Mind, Greater: Bonuses to Listen and Spot, the Scent Ability, and +2 to Hit and Damage for both you and your mount

-Heal Mount: It's a potent healing spell that only works on your special mounts.

-Divine Fury(Spell Compendium verions) +5 HP per caster level that lasts an hour and +4 sacred bonus to Strength

-Holy Sword: You have to delve in quite a bit into the class to get it, but it's useful to use if, for example, you need a bludgeoning weapon but all you have is an un-enchanted greatclub. Also good for magical weapons as well, but the change isn't as drastic

Battle Blessing is a must if you want to get the most out of your spells

I also agree with the above spells listed.

[Gwendol]

Bless weapon (on a Falchion, obviously)
Protection from Evil
Rhino's rush
Bull's strength

Sword of the Arcane Order to get arcane spells.

For heavy spellcasting you will find inspiration here:
http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3407376