could you imagine...

[zerombr]

I know it wouldn't be the absolute most powerful build ever or anything
but can you imagine a Paladin at epic levels. let's say...lvl 30

lvls 1-20 PLD (Every feat taken is Extra Smite) for 13 smites, if Extra Smite simply gives 1 extra per day (I forgot)

lvl 21 take Great Smiting, so each smite does 42 pts of damage
lvl 24 take it again
lvl 27 and again
lvl 30 and again so each of your 15-16 smites do +150 damage!

now I know that a good wizard or so can easily top that, but it's still impressive in my book

[Chronos]

You can reliably do more damage than that with a lower-level paladin. Instead of your smite-boosting feats, instead invest in the Power Attack chain and some mounted combat feats. Let's say that you have a level 15 paladin, with Power Attack, Shock Trooper, Mounted Combat, Rideby Attack, and Spirited Charge, plus one or two others. Your Smite is worth 15 damage. Using Heedless Charge, you Power Attack for full, adding another 30 damage. You're mounted and using a lance, so you do triple damage. Cast Rhino's Rush, and that's 4x damage. That's 180 damage on the attack from Power Attack and Smite alone, plus 4d8 from the lance, plus 6 times your Strength modifier, plus 4 times any enhancement bonuses or other bonuses you have to damage. And when the dust settles, you're out of full-attack range of the enemy, and possibly out of any attack range, if your mount is fast enough or flying, and you can do the same thing the next round (if the monster is still alive, of course).

[zerombr]

just pointing something out, that's all, something mildly different, if not totally workable. all this predictable power attack, leap attack, shock trooper, stuff is for the birds, if you ask me. *shrug*

[Bauglir]

Yes. Yes it is. These are some f***ing terrifying birds we're talking about. They will decapitate you with their wings. With parts of their anatomy not even designed for combat. I mean, think what they could do with a beak, or a claw. These are wounds that, if seen, would emotionally scar small children for life, assuming they got proper therapy. These wounds might even be so bad that they'd cause observers who weren't even targets to make saves vs. massive damage. It's a well-known fact that chickens, for instance, are, pound for pound, the second deadliest creatures in the world. Right after certain kinds of tigers.

On a serious note, yeah, that'll work. It is, though, really easy to imagine doing better earlier, so while it might be a playable build, it's nothing to be impressed with. Oh, and I know the first chunk of my post sounds derogatory, but the idea of birds with the feats just gave me a really funny mental image, which I had to expound upon at length. Actually, there's a character idea. Frenzied Berserker chicken...

[wadledo]

Actually, there's a character idea. Frenzied Berserker chicken...

You sir, have just become the bane of my players.

[Chronos]

just pointing something out, that's all, something mildly different, if not totally workable. all this predictable power attack, leap attack, shock trooper, stuff is for the birds, if you ask me. *shrug*I dunno; after the third or maybe fourth Extra Smiting feat, I think the original build gets a bit predictable, too. And while the mounted charger definitely has one thing he's best at, it's not his only option: Power Attack will work just as well with a sword, and also works against non-evil things.

[Quellian-dyrae]

And once again it's proven: the paladin's most powerful class feature is Was Designed To Take The Spirited Charge Feat (Ex).

[zerombr]

yeah I've started to believe that too, that a Paladin truly needs to go the mounted combat path, a real good lance is just deadly