Is a Shield Bashing paladin possible?

[13ones]

So I've had this concept in mind for quite some time. Basically I want to build a knight in shining armor who is just as able to beat you to death with his shield as he is his sword. I'm well aware I can get better mileage out of a Two-handed, Reach, or even Archery paladin but this sword and board concept is just something I cannot pass up.

Legal material: Core, APG, UM, UC, UE, ARG, ACG, All current bestiaries. The only thing I don't have access to is unchained and OA.
25 point buy. Sessions to take place at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and finally 20.

Any help getting this sucker off the ground would be appreciated.

[Doc_Maynot]

Warpriest would be your friend.
It has basically the same flavor of the Paladin (if you go LG), and you can take weapon focus in both the Long Sword and Heavy Shield, which would make their damage die the same class based sacred weapon die. Pick up Improved Shield Bash and the rest of the Shield Mastery line, and you are golden. Word of Advice, see if Bashing and Shield Spikes stack in your game, if they do take them both. If they don't still take them both.

[NightbringerGGZ]

The main problem with a Paladin build is that you'll need ALOT of feats for a dual-wield build. I'd suggest going with just a Shield, using it as both a weapon and an way to gain AC bonuses. The only feat you absolutely need is Improved Shield Bash, so you can retain your AC bonuses

The main goal with this build is to boost your shield damage up to silly levels. A Spiked Heavy Shield with the Bashing property is a 2d6 weapon as a starting point. On a Strength-based Paladin with Smite, you have a pretty nasty starting platform for dealing damage. Remember that you can enhance the spikes separately from the Shield, so you can add the Impact property to boost the weapon to 3d6 damage.

If you wanted to go with a Sword & Board build, I would actually suggest Ranger or Slayer as there are Combat Styles which will aid with that build and allow you to pick up most of the feats you'll need with minimal Dexterity.

Alternatively, if you just want to go with a pure Shield Bash build I would highly recommend War Priest. With Weapon Focus (Heavy Shield) you'll get baseline dice scaling on your weapon. Toss on Shield Spikes, Bashing and Impact for a combined +4 Size increase to your damage dice. You could go sword & board with Warpriest, but the class is already quite MAD to start with so I'm not a fan of adding TWFing into the mix.

Oh, and for more of a Paladin feel to the class, you could go with a Champion of the Faith (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/warpriest/archetypes/paizo---warpriest-archetypes/champion-of-the-faith). Note, this actually isn't restricted to any one allignment, so you could have some fun with this class.

[Kantolin]

If you take your average greatsword based build, take improved shield bash, hold your shield firmly in both hands, and shoulder check people like you're Captain America without the throwing...

...then the character will work as well as the greatsworder, minus one feat, with slightly less damage and somewhat more AC. This will work fine, especially when most of your damage comes from strength-and-a-half or power attack or whatever. (Unless that lost feat is super duper mandatory to function)

[Captain Morgan]

Shield builds are doable in PF, and can actually be pretty awesome. People have mentioned ways to up the damage dice tremendously. The feat Shield Slam lets you apply a bull rush every time you hit an opponent, which knock people prone and put them or provoke AoOs from allies if you take Greater Bullrush. Shield Master will eliminate your TWF fighting penalties, and saves you tons of money on enchantment cost.

The big problem is you need loads of feats:

--TWF (and therefore Dex 15)
--Improved Shield Bash
--Shield Slam
--Shield Mastery
--Power Attack
--Improved Bull Rush
--Greater Bull Rush
--Improved TWF
--Greater TWF

It's not as though you NEED to have all of that, but it's still rather feat intensive for a straight Paladin.

Warpriest isn't a bad alternative, as mentioned. Ranger has some archetypes focused on fighting specific evil things, so it could do a Paladin like thing. It can also get Shield Mastery as early as level 6, and bypass the Dex Requirement of TWF. The shield champion Brawler is of course great for a Captain America build, but even just 2 levels nets you Brawlers Flurry for TWF minus dex requirements, and letting you get full STR damage to each hit. You'll probably need to use a less traditional sword in your sword hand though.

Or you can just make a Two Handed build with a heavy shield. :) The more you want to commit to kicking ass with the shield though, the harder it will be to avoid dipping.

EDIT: A 2 level Brawler dip effectively nets you 3 bonus feats (Double Slice, TWF, and something of your choice), and something else dandy like Martial Flexibility or a Mutagen. Flurry with a shield and a temple sword in full plate! Flurry also provides some flexibility not present in normal TWF, because you can choose to make all your attacks with one weapon rather than the other. The unarmed strike stuff may not be especially relevant but it doesn't suck to have a nonlethal option sometimes.

[Psyren]

A ranger dip can help you with the TWF Dex requirement.

[Extra Anchovies]

Ask your DM if you can play a Warpriest, but with the generic combat feats at 3/6/9/12/15/18 replaced by ranger combat style feats at 2/6/10/14/18.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Does your DM allow 3.5 material? The feat Agile Shield Fighter is perfect, since it gives you TWF with a shield without a dex penalty. There's also a magic item (I forget the name) that gives you improved TWF, unless I'm mistaken.

If not, it's not the end of the world. You may need to splash a level or two of fighter (or ranger, depending on your Dex), but TWF is decent on a paladin-- Smite makes up for the attack penalty and adds to every damage roll.

[Captain Morgan]

A ranger dip can help you with the TWF Dex requirement.

I'd probably go Brawler over Ranger, unless you can predict any types well enough to lever favored enemy. (Assuming you don't mind using a Temple Sword for your Knight flavor. It's statistically identical to a longsword though, so maybe your DM will just let you refluff.) You get:

--A more versatile TWF, as long as you don't mind using somewhat specific things in your weapon hand
--Full STR damage when doing so
-- An additional bonus feat, your choice
--A 20 minute mutagen that boosts your accuracy, damage, and AC by +2.

Biggest edge the Ranger has is more skills, and frankly you don't play Pally if you want to be good at skills.

[NightbringerGGZ]

I'd probably go Brawler over Ranger, unless you can predict any types well enough to lever favored enemy. (Assuming you don't mind using a Temple Sword for your Knight flavor. It's statistically identical to a longsword though, so maybe your DM will just let you refluff.) You get:

--A more versatile TWF, as long as you don't mind using somewhat specific things in your weapon hand
--Full STR damage when doing so
-- An additional bonus feat, your choice
--A 20 minute mutagen that boosts your accuracy, damage, and AC by +2.

Biggest edge the Ranger has is more skills, and frankly you don't play Pally if you want to be good at skills.

Well, Rangers do get access to Instant Enemy (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/instant-enemy) at level 11, so if you can start off in the mid-levels it is worth going for. A friend of mine is actually playing an Shield Ranger (Heavy Shield, Light Shield) with TWFing and it is very amusing to see in play.

[RolkFlameraven]

If you want to be a 'Knight in shining Armor' you could go Warder from PoW, grab Silver Crane for the 'Holy Warrior' if needed and use Iron Tortoise for your shield bashing needs.

Herm, just noted its not legal sadly, so never mind. The class is on D20PFSRD though so you might be able to talk to your DM about it, maybe?

[Captain Morgan]

Well, Rangers do get access to Instant Enemy (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/instant-enemy) at level 11, so if you can start off in the mid-levels it is worth going for. A friend of mine is actually playing an Shield Ranger (Heavy Shield, Light Shield) with TWFing and it is very amusing to see in play.

Oh, yeah, if you are not going Paladin then full Ranger gets a lot more viable. I meant Brawler was preferable for a dip.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Oh, yeah, if you are not going Paladin then full Ranger gets a lot more viable. I meant Brawler was preferable for a dip.

My misunderstanding then. Although by playing around with builds I'm starting to think pure Warpriest would be the way for OP to go. You'll need a Dex+Str belt, which will be expensive, but you could go down the TWFing feat chain if you wish. Alternatively, Vital Strike with a 6d8 attack at mid levels is quite compelling, especially since your damage dice will keep scaling.