Worried about overshadowing

[Dr.Gara]

In the space of a the next few weeks, me and a couple friends of mine will be starting a 3.5 game. I've rolled up a Warblade, while one of the other players has rolled a Paladin. I'm really worried that I'm going to completely blow him out of the water and make him useless. I've not played the class before, so I don't know how real of a threat that is, but is there anything short of completely gimping myself I can keep from making him totally redundant?

[Eldaran]

Highly optimized Paladins can compete fine with a Warblade, just point him towards Complete Champion. Much better making his character better than your character worse, and short of straight up making stupid decisions like dumping strength you're not going to gimp a Warblade much.

[prufock]

Yeah, it really depends on his build. Paladins are good mounted combatants; can get Battle Blessing, Sword of the Arcane Order, and Mystic Fire Knight; divine feats for turn undead utility. A paladin should be able to keep up, and despite both being tanky classes, can fill slightly different roles in the party.

[rexx1888]

im currently playing witha paladin thats about as useful as a ten foot pole. Thing is though, he was that way long before i multicalssed into warblade, and i was a fighter first.

paladins are a bit of a mess as a base class, so i imagine its a bit of hit an miss on whether they are useful. Having said that, they also get spells. Those are always good, so who knows :P

[The Trickster]

You should be alright as long as you keep your eyes peeled for any issues. Te tier system recommended that players stay within two tier levels with each other anyway, which you are doing. Are you rolling stats, or using a point buy system? If you are rolling, it is possible that the paladin may have better stats, which will bring you closer together. Also, let the paladin shine in social encounters, via diplomacy.