Unoptimized Build (Core + MiC & SC)

[LordOfCain]

Current build: Half-Gold Dragon Paladin 2. Where can I go with this build? I was thinking cleric because of all the spells!!! Domains? This is a paladin worshipper of Pelor. Thanks. House ruled that you get HD and skill points for LA.

[smasher0404]

Can you give us more details on your character? What specific race your Paladin is? What stats/ feats did you take? etc. Does your definition of Core mean just the PHB/DMG/Monster Manual, or does it mean anything found off of the SRD.

As for an actual suggestion, I personally, unless you have a really high wisdom, would not recommend going into Cleric because it really doesn't offer you much, the Half-Dragon Template doesn't really boost your primary casting stat, and the two levels of Paladin you already have aren't reliant upon Wisdom like a Cleric is typically.

If you aren't locked into Cleric and you really want to throw more spells around and you have the charisma for it you could go into Sorcerer onto Eldritch Knight. Not really the best option with Half-Dragon and Paladin Combined locking you out of higher level spells, but at the cost of 3 base attack bonus (which if you were already at full base attack bonus won't miss your iterative attacks) you gain access to plenty of buff spells, your primary casting stat also boosts your Paladin class features and at 20th Level you will have access to 6th level spells.
The Build would then be Half-Gold Dragon X Racial Hit Dice 3/Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight 9. Which would result in a Base Attack Bonus of +17 or +16 depending on the Base Attack Bonus of the Half-Dragon Hit Dice and 7th level spells.

[nedz]

Bardadin ?
Paladin / Bard / Eldritch Knight
Now there are far better PrCs out of core, but this is a basic setup.

[Troacctid]

I mean, what do you mean, unoptimized? Do you mean deliberately bad? Do you just not care if it's good or bad? If you don't want to optimize the character, why come to us? If you just want to know your options and don't care whether those options are optimal, then the answer is "Do whatever you want." I expect you'd probably go straight Paladin, or maybe into a prestige class. Or else you'd multiclass into some other class, if that's what you want to do--probably one with a compatible alignment, but there's nothing stopping you from becoming an Ex-Paladin either. If you picked a more powerful option, the character would be more powerful; if you picked a less powerful option, the character would be less powerful. *shrug*

[Fouredged Sword]

Here is what I would do. Play up the dragon flavor and go claw based gish. Be hard to hit, hard to force into failing a save, and claw things to death.

Half-Dragon LA+3 / Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 4 / Abjurant Champion 5

Buy off a point of LA at 9th, 15th, and 18th. Your final build looks like

Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 4 / Abjurant champion 5 / Eldrich Knight 9

[LordOfCain]

Can you give us more details on your character? What specific race your Paladin is? What stats/ feats did you take? etc. Does your definition of Core mean just the PHB/DMG/Monster Manual, or does it mean anything found off of the SRD.

As for an actual suggestion, I personally, unless you have a really high wisdom, would not recommend going into Cleric because it really doesn't offer you much, the Half-Dragon Template doesn't really boost your primary casting stat, and the two levels of Paladin you already have aren't reliant upon Wisdom like a Cleric is typically.

If you aren't locked into Cleric and you really want to throw more spells around and you have the charisma for it you could go into Sorcerer onto Eldritch Knight. Not really the best option with Half-Dragon and Paladin Combined locking you out of higher level spells, but at the cost of 3 base attack bonus (which if you were already at full base attack bonus won't miss your iterative attacks) you gain access to plenty of buff spells, your primary casting stat also boosts your Paladin class features and at 20th Level you will have access to 6th level spells.
The Build would then be Half-Gold Dragon X Racial Hit Dice 3/Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight 9. Which would result in a Base Attack Bonus of +17 or +16 depending on the Base Attack Bonus of the Half-Dragon Hit Dice and 7th level spells.
Human. Currently wearing full plate and tower shield and a longsword. PHB, DMG, and MM. I was going to use sorcerer but my build currently heavily utilizes armor so... arcane spell failure chance might not be that pretty... Looks like 85%...

[Fouredged Sword]

Cleric is a solid option if you want magic but do not want to deal with ASF.

I have another option for you. Still spell.

Wait, I know it's crazy, but you can take it at level 3 (your first sorcerer level). Any spell you cast using still does not suffer ASF. Here is what you are basically doing.

In the morning, before you don your armor, you cast your all day buffs. These don't need still spell because they are all cast before you don armor.

Then you have spells you cast that do not have somatic components to begin with. Dimension Door, for example, has only verbal components. You can cast it in armor all day. Truestrike is the same way. Now, fill your list with all the gishy spells you can find without a S in the component list.

Now, you will want some spells that don't have hour/CL durations and do have somatic components. This is what still spell is there for. You can still take those spells. You just cast them out of the next spell level and as a full round action. This will still be worth it for many of your buffs.

You won't ever be a full caster, but if you want to be an arcane flavored paladin style class you could do worse than a still spell focused Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 4 / Eldrich Knight 10 / Spellsword 4.

You cap out at 7th level spell slots, so you can cast 6th level still spells. You end up with 18 points of BAB. You are casting in full plate, and all your spells function when you are grappled or ties up or any of the other ways people hold down spellcasters (you still need to worry about silence, at least some of the time).

I would be tempted to take Eshew Material components and silent spell just to ensure that nothing can ever fully cut you off from your ability to cast outside a AMZ.

[Troacctid]

Spell Compendium does have a lot of decent Sorcerer spells without somatic components. You have Blades of Fire, Critical Strike, Master's Touch, Swift Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, and Benign Transposition at 1st, and Bladeweave, Greater Slide, and Swift Fly at 2nd. That's actually pretty reasonable. I am personally a big fan of Bladeweave on gishes.

[nedz]

...You won't ever be a full caster, but if you want to be an arcane flavored paladin style class you could do worse than a still spell focused Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 4 / Eldrich Knight 10 / Spellsword 4.
Not core

...
Half-Dragon LA+3 / Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 4 / Abjurant Champion 5

Buy off a point of LA at 9th, 15th, and 18th. Your final build looks like

Paladin 2 / Sorcerer 4 / Abjurant champion 5 / Eldrich Knight 9

Not core either

[Troacctid]

Spell Compendium is in the allowed sources.

[nedz]

Spell Compendium is in the allowed sources.

Yes spotted that after my first edit — so removed the quote almost immediately.

[Fouredged Sword]

Yeah, those PRC's are not core. LA buy off is in the SRD though.

[torrasque666]

Yeah, those PRC's are not core. LA buy off is in the SRD though.
OP has defined their "core" as PHB, DMG, and MM1. SRD can be dropkicked down a well for all it matters to this.

[Grod_The_Giant]

So you're... From the houserule you mentioned I'm guessing Half Dragon 3/Paladin 2, for ECL 5? Casting isn't great because you'll be so far behind the curve after 5 levels of other classes. On the other hand, there aren't exactly good PrCs available either, so... Yeah, Cleric would be fine. Otherwise I like Ranger in core for actually getting combat ability and skills. Some Rogue never hurts... Honestly, just take the first few levels of every martial class; in core that's about the best you'll do.

[Flickerdart]

I am assuming that you want to fight stuff in melee. Your paladin levels lock you into Lawful Good, so you can't go barbarian, which is a shame. Ranger is not a bad idea - take 3 levels of ranger, qualify for Horizon Walker, and then take 6 levels of that. The ability you want is Shifting Planar Terrain Mastery, which gives you dimension door every 1d4 rounds. You can stay in the class for a few more levels and get Tremorsense 30 or 20 cold resistance, but dimension door is the main attraction.

You can round out the build with fighter levels, for bonus feats, or more ranger.

[nedz]

I am assuming that you want to fight stuff in melee. Your paladin levels lock you into Lawful Good, so you can't go barbarian, which is a shame. Ranger is not a bad idea - take 3 levels of ranger, qualify for Horizon Walker, and then take 6 levels of that. The ability you want is Shifting Planar Terrain Mastery, which gives you dimension door every 1d4 rounds. You can stay in the class for a few more levels and get Tremorsense 30 or 20 cold resistance, but dimension door is the main attraction.

You can round out the build with fighter levels, for bonus feats, or more ranger.

Aligned (Planar) is pretty good: just say no to Blasphemy

[Flickerdart]

Aligned (Planar) is pretty good: just say no to Blasphemy
I don't think Blasphemy will come up all that often in a game where Half-Dragon is viable. Then again, he doesn't have many other options - ranger levels 4 and 5 (as well as 7, 8, and 10+) are disappointing, fighter levels gimp his skills, and there's not much more he can get out of paladin.

[nedz]

I don't think Blasphemy will come up all that often in a game where Half-Dragon is viable. Then again, he doesn't have many other options - ranger levels 4 and 5 (as well as 7, 8, and 10+) are disappointing, fighter levels gimp his skills, and there's not much more he can get out of paladin.

Well it does cover an opposing alignment specific spell or ability — which is a hard to get ability. I rate this higher than the Fire or Cold Resistance options, but YMMV.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You can stay in the class for a few more levels and get Tremorsense 30 or 20 cold resistance, but dimension door is the main attraction.
Dimension Door every 1d4 rounds is, like, the one good non-casting thing in core. The rest of Horizon Walker's last five levels are still probably better than anything you'll get out of a mundane base class, though.

[Fouredged Sword]

The sad part is the power play is to go cleric 15.

[LordOfCain]

I used paladin 2 because of divine grace. I forgot why I used half gold dragon but i probably just liked the strength adjustment without the loss of HD. My Cha is 19 I believe.

[Troacctid]

If you're replacing the LA with HD, then Half-Dragon is totally worth it for a melee character, and I'd even see if you could add Half-Celestial as well.

[LordOfCain]

The current party is:
Half-Gold Dragon Human Paladin 2 (Me)
Half-Gold Dragon Elf Ranger 2
Gnome Bard 5
Half Celestial Home-brewed Elf Cleric 1
??? Elf Fighter/Rogue Multiclass 5 (Don't know specifics)

[Flickerdart]

If you're replacing the LA with HD, then Half-Dragon is totally worth it for a melee character, and I'd even see if you could add Half-Celestial as well.

Dang, I didn't think of that - he can grab more templates! Half-Celestial is awesome when you get HD instead of LA.