Help With E6 Paladin Build

[YossarianLives]

Hi everyone!

This week I'm making a new character for an upcoming D&D 3.5 E6 game, but I'm at a bit of loss for what build to use and I can't find paladin handbooks online. They all seem to be on the now defunct WotC forums. The DM is open to pretty much any official source. We use 32 point buy. I'm fairly flexible, I have just a few requirements.

-I want to play a real paladin. I have no problems with crusaders but I'm looking to play the actual paladin class.
-For roleplaying reasons, I don't want to play a small-sized race, which pretty much rules any potential supermount builds.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Desert Half-Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs), optionally Dragonborn of Bahamut, Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric) 1/ Paladin 5.

Use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150.

Cleric domains are Knowledge Devotion, Law Devotion, and Inquisition. Get the spontaneous domain casting ACF in PH2 for Inquisition so you can prepare Cure Light Wounds in your 1st level domain slot.

Use the Half-Orc Paladin 3 substitution level in Races of Destiny. Paladin ACFs are Charging Smite in PH2 and Divine Counterspell in CM.

Put max cross-class ranks in Intimidate until you hit Paladin 3, spend all your skill points at that level on it as a class skill, and then keep max class-skill ranks in it after that at cross-class cost. Use those Cloistered Cleric skill points to put one rank in each Knowledge skill that will benefit Knowledge Devotion (Arcana, Dungeoneering, Local, Nature, Religion, and the Planes), and spend two skill points on the Never Outnumbered skill trick in CS.

Unfortunately this character is quite MAD, a positive ability modifier in every stat, so with 32-pointbuy you can go Str 14, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 14, so after racial adjustments Str 14, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14. You can put your level-up point in Cha to qualify for Imperious Command, and there are those E6 feats that increase your ability scores that should come in handy. Magic items have no caster level prerequisites for creation by default since the DMG errata (SRD link (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#casterLevel)), and the items that grant even a +6 Enhancement bonus to an ability score can be created by a 3rd level character. The listed caster level on a given item is only what it has when discovered as loot, created magic items always have a caster level equal to that of their creator (which does not have any effect on the listed price of arms/armor, rods, wondrous items, or rings by default).

Feats are Dreadful Wrath (PGtF), Practiced Spellcaster (Cleric), and Divine Defiance (FCII). Additional feats past 6th level should include Extra Smiting (CW), Power Attack, and whatever else you think would be useful. Flaws could be useful, in which case I would probably get Power Attack and Combat Reflexes at 1st. Also consider taking Imperious Command from Drow of the Underdark.

When you get some in-game downtime or if beginning play higher than 1st level, say your character visited the Otyugh Hole in CS to get Menacing Demeanor without spending a feat on it.

This build does several things:

Dreadful Wrath technically has no HD limit for what it can affect, and the Shaken debuff is fairly significant. Plus anyone who can apply another Shaken condition, such as with Intimidate, can escalate their condition to Frightened. This escalated condition lasts until all contributing conditions end per the Rules Compendium, so just a 1-round Shaken effect makes them Frightened until they're no longer affected by Dreadful Wrath. Half-Orc Paladin 3 gives you Aura of Awe, giving opponents within 10 ft. a -2 penalty vs fear effects. Try to get armor with the Fearsome property from Drow of the Underdark, a more recent version than the one in Magic Item Compendium, which allows you to use the intimidate skill as a move-action instead of a standard action. Imperious Command makes your intimidate checks cause the affected opponent to cower for one round, and then be shaken on the following round. Never Outnumbered allows you to affect every opponent within 10 ft. with your intimidate check once per encounter. Stacking fear effects is extremely powerful in the lower levels, particularly E6, and they get even better when multiple characters use them, but having a character capable of applying the shaken condition twice is more than sufficient.

You can spend a turn undead use from Cleric to activate Divine Defiance, which allows you to counterspell as an immediate action. This can be used to activate Divine Counterspell, which makes a dispel check that benefits from your Inquisition domain, so the bonus will be equal to your character level, or character level +2 with Kn: Arcana 5+ ranks. Any item that increases your effective level for turn undead should also contribute to this dispel check (Ephod of Authority in MIC is 800 gp and gives +1). This enables you to counterspell when needed without readying an action or sacrificing any of your normal actions.

Charging Smite adds two damage per Paladin level in addition to the normal effects of Smite Evil, which already adds your Paladin level to your damage. That means you'll get +15 damage when using Charging Smite at Paladin 5, and you can prepare Rhino's Rush in whatever Paladin spell slots you get to double your damage on a charge. Per the Rules Compendium a wand takes the same action to activate as the casting time of the spell it contains, so you can get a wand chamber in your weapon with a Wand of Rhino's Rush and use that as often as you want. Don't forget that Knowledge Devotion always adds at least +1 to your attack and damage rolls. With Power Attack and Armbands of Might, you can take -2 to hit for +6 damage two-handed, and with a moderate Str 18 and a +2 Greatsword, you'll deal 4d6+60 damage on a Charging Smite with Rhino's Rush.

You'll get a few 0-1st level Cleric spells per day, and can use wands of any spells that appear on the Cleric spell list. With Wis 12 you can put Endure Elements on yourself every day, cast Omen of Peril every day, and have Cure Light Wounds at a caster level of 5th for emergencies, in addition to the 0-level spells. You'll want Wis 12 to get a 1st level Paladin spell slot anyway.

Overall, this gives you an extremely capable character who's effective at debuffing and controlling groups of opponents, good at dealing single target damage especially to evil opponents, and he's going to be the MVP when the party is fighting enemy spellcasters.

[Flickerdart]

-For roleplaying reasons, I don't want to play a small-sized race, which pretty much rules any potential supermount builds.
Alternate special mount guidelines in the back of the DMG are basically "anything that's ridable and CR -3 or -4 if flying." There's no requirement that you must be riding the creature at all times, however. A 6th level paladin can have a lycanthrope of a Large 5HD animal as his special mount, which "folds up" into a convenient human-shaped follower whenever you are in a confined space. Core candidates for the position are dire wolverine (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direWolverine.htm) and lion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lion.htm). The wolverine is stronger, but its rage might be a problem.

[YossarianLives]

Okay, that sounds great. Thank you.

Any other suggestions would be very
much appreciated.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Take the Serenity feat from Dragon Compendium to base your class features off Wisdom to reduce MAD (or Dynamic Priest from... Dragonlance, I think, to key your casting off Cha). Or better yet, just be an Illumian (Races of Destiny) and use the Aeshkrau combo to base bonus spells off Strength.

Take the Harmonious Knight substitution levels (Champions of Valor) and From Song to Smite (same) to pick up Inspire Courage, which can be boosted in all the normal ways. Mystic Fire Knight is another possibility.

[Talionis]

Sounds to me like you want Paladin 4/X , Paladin 5/Beastmaster 1 is a Super amount build that is pretty strong in E6. But you sound like you don't really want a mount badly, jumping out at 4 will definitely make you feel like a Paladin.

I'll suggest paladin 4/Marshal 1/Evangelist or some other Prestige Class This link may help http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?204298-E6-Prestige-Class-Guide

A thought is 5 Paladin/1 Pious Templar to pick up Metttle ability... It's not shabby and with 6 BAB you qualify for many of the tactical feats, it's a big advantage of playing a full BAB class in E6.

Also suggest that a level of Warblade or Crusader would give you a recharge mechanic for maneuvers, which you can get second level maneuvers with feats. You said you wanted to be a Paladin so I didn't initially suggest it, but a splash of initiator can be fun and add a lot to an E6 character, without overwhelming it. In many ways I prefer a splash of Initator a lot more than to optimize initiator. And it probably gives you something reasonable to trade for Paladin 5, if you are completely precluding it you might pick up a level of Knight.