Forgottenrealm dwarf paladin help.

[Thyzon]

Hello, im creating a dwarf paladin as a backup character for a game in a forgotten realm setting. I have decided how to build him, he will be a no spell paladin/cavalier. And the race is gold dwarf

And the god he has chosen is clangeddin silverbeard.

Now to my question.
I have tried to read up on clangeddin and golddwarfs as much as possible but haven't found so much about how dwarf Paladins act or if there is any good order that will suit my character. I think my story would be that he is some kind of boarder guard for the dwarfs (since he will be mounted and focus on mounted combat)

Other suggestions is also welcome.
If it's needed to know we can use all complete books and the race of stones and the forgotten realm book aswell.

If more info is needed please ask and thank you for your time

[Waazraath]

I don't know if you are also looking for mechanical advice, but just in case: be careful. Paladin isn't the strongest class to begin with, and Cavalier focusses on a quite specific part of the paladin build, the mounted combat part. Since dwarves are medium, your mount is large; if you get into dungeons or buildings a lot, you won't be able to use the main focus of your build a lot. One of the things that is good about paladins is their spell list, especially with splat support. You trade it out (which is wise, if you're set on cavalier, since it doesn't increase spellcasting). But you'll loose out on the thing that makes the pally versatile and powerfull.

Some remarks, don't know if all is available given the books you mentioned (but you might try):
- I'd definitely go for one or two devotion feats, they are very strong. Probably law devotion, protection devotion or animal devotion (flying!); travel devotion is very strong as well, but not so with a mounted build.
- try to get asap a sudden stunning weapon from DMG2, it'll give you a strong debuff option to go with attacking
- there are very strong alternative mounts available, Diprotodon in Sandstorm, Drakkensteed in Dragon Magic, dunno if you can use them. Makes a mounted charge build a lot better though, if you have a mount that respectively is either much stronger then a warhorse, or can fly.

I personally woulnd't go cavalier, but go full paladin. Because then you get the spell rhino rush, which basicly does the same as the signature cavelier ability a few times / day (and extra multiplier when making a mounted charge attack) - but you also continue with smiting damage (that also gets multiplied), lay on hands, and paladin spells. The find the gap spell makes 1 attack / round a touch attack, which is great when you go for strong one hit charges (no pouncing) - makes power attack a lot stronger.

This will also depend a bit on who your party members are. If you're playing with an optimized druid, DMM-cleric and an incantatrix wizard, this build will be too weak to meaningfull contribute, I'm affraid. If you'll play with a fighter, monk and warmage, you'll do fine.

[Thyzon]

Thanks for the input, I know this won't be an optimized build but non in the party optimize very much we tend to focus more in playing interesting characters then optimized. Have also talked with my dm when I created this char so if I go no spells (that I suggested) I will get mounted combat as a free feat.

And cavalier gets bonus to lances and swords but since my dm thought that those weapons isn't very dwarvish those got replaced by dwarven battleaxe and dwarven warpike (think that is the names) and both of those weapons have higher damage so it means that I get a slight buff there.

We have also discussed to have a dire boar as paladin mount both for lore (since we thought that suited a dwarf better than a horse)

So build wise and mechanical I think we have a decent fun character. But advises and other people's thoughts is always fun.

Mainly I want to know more about dwarf paladin and their orders since most of the stuff I have found is about human Paladins, and also about about how a clangeddin paladin can behave.

[Waazraath]

If everybody is on about the same optimization level, no problem then. The boar sounds flavourful. As for a feat (mounted combat) as a trade off for spells: I think this is a bad deal. In (I think it is) complete champion, there is a paladin variant without spells, I think he gets free feats on lvl 4, 8, etc. instead of spells. And even that is generally considered to be a bad trade-off. So you might want to check with your DM if this is a possible option.

As for the fluff, and dwarf orders: which books do you have access to? I think there are some orders in Champions of Valor, which is a Forgotten Realms book. There are at least two (part) dwarvish orders mentioned, Berronar's Valkyries (female only dwarf paladin's) and the Cresent moon knights (half human / half dwarven), they are mentioned in the substitution levels, but there is a whole list of minor organisations later in the book, you might find more info there.

[Thyzon]

We used the paladin with no spell from complete warrior (at least I think it was that book) and I know it's abit of a trade off but it will suit what I want from the character better (at the beginnings was looking for a mounted fighter but ended up as paladin because of the fact that the paladin mount s much better then ordinary mounts) and the trade of wasn't only for the feat, I got the weapons aswell and the other stuff listed on the paladin without spells we looked at.

And as I said we are more about good role playing than playing the most powerful characters, we do fighting off course but our Dm also like characters with flavors (and also thought this can be a real fun character to have) and he often put us in difficult situation that still is suited for our group so I'm not worried about the usefulness part.

Our dm has mainly said that we can use the books I first listed but if we find something else that we want to use it is usually ok unless it's totally ridiculous or overpowered or something similar, and since this is for lore and we are in the forgotten realms those books should be fine, will read them and see if I find something we can use.

[Thyzon]

Good that i started to think about this cause my character just died so now I need to figure out how to play a dwarf paladin. Lorewise