Paladin Feats

[Avor]

I'm starting a new character, a paladin, but I'm looking for something a bit different. Things like Celestial mount, any tips?

[Kizara]

This is astoundingly good:

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=761045

I'm SERIOUS, its well-presented as well.

Also, Holy Liberator has a celestial mount.

[ladditude]

Crusader from ToB is similar to a paladin. No spells but you get some smites, full BAB and other nifty stuff.

[Renegade Paladin]

Crusader from ToB is similar to a paladin. No spells but you get some smites, full BAB and other nifty stuff.
Okay. What does that have to do with feats for a paladin?

Anyway, going back to topic, what level are we talking about?

[Avor]

I was looking at that class a bit, got to read up on a few little things. I'm not too keen on how their manuvers and stances work.



what level are we talking about?

Up to level 3 likely, but I'm just thinking ahead a bit more.

[Kizara]

Power Attack, Divine Might.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Book of Exalted Deeds. Paladins are practically exalted by definition (or ought to be), so it shouldn't make roleplaying a lot more difficult. Some nifty feats there.

Definitely second Power Attack and Divine Might. Can't be a paladin withou those.

[Renegade Paladin]

You mean you're starting at level three, or the campaign is only likely to advance to level three?

If the latter, I'd actually recommend Improved Smiting from Complete Divine. PA isn't that much of a benefit at low level. If you're likely to get to high levels, PA and Divine Might are solid choices.

Keep in mind that if you want a mount other than a warhorse, the DMG has rules for that, including rules on gaining more powerful base mounts if you wait a few levels, like a druid can with his animal companion.

[Proven_Paradox]

At low levels, power attack isn't that good, but cleave is awesome. Going further than that, Divine Might is great too. If you're actually using your paladin spells much, there's a feat in CChamp that reduces the casting time of standard action spells to swift--almost enough to make me care about paladin spellcasting! However, even with that option, thier spell list is so underwhelming that I usually try to get something else in place of spells. CChamp has a good ACF that trades spellcasting for a few fighter bonus feats, for example.

It'd help to know what books you're working with.

[metalbear]

I don't know if they brought it up for 3.5, but defenders of the faith back in 3.0 had some cool variant mounts. For example, dire lion is you wait an extra three or four levels.

[Yvian]

I had fun playing a hafling paladin with a ridding dog mount, splashed with levels of hafling outrider and caviler. Basically a highly mobile scout that could hit for high levels of damage and then scamper off – and could not be hit. Power Attack, Ride by Attack, Spirited Charge, etc. There were some downsides. I could not hold ground. I could not support my party I needed lots of space. Being a small creature solved some of those problems [zipping under tables in an inn] but not others [trying to stop a herd of Minotaurs from charging the spell casters].

I would recommend to figure out what your strong suit is going to be. Mounts? Front Line Fighter? Turn Undead? (There are some nice feats tied to Turn Undead)

[flip89]

You could do the full mounted paladin... Lance is the best weapon for this

Mounted Combat
Ride-by Attack- Do not provoke attacks of opportunity from target your charging
Spirited Charge- x3 lance dmg
Power attack
Improved bullrush (prereq for shock trooper)
Shock Trooper (tactical feat CW)- Heedless charge- while power attacking instead of taking penalty of BAB on attack roll, take penalty on AC

Strengths
This character can be devistating against bosses esspecially evil ones which you can add smite onto both. It can even be more improved on if you use the lvl 1 paladin spell Rhino's Rush(SC) which gives you another x2 damage while charging.

Weaknessess
This character has extremely low AC due to heedless charge making him a one hit wonder. Cannot make character to a Minimum lvl 6 using 1 of 2 lvls of fighter and/or flaws.

Suggestion
I made this character even more efficent by making him a small creature. Even though this decreased his str, it gave him the option of a meduim mount which can go everywhere! Tight spaces won't restrict this small character! Also taking extra smiting feat and having perals of power lvl 1 are good to have so you can do this over and over again.

[comicshorse]

Divine Vigor, actually get some use out of those Turning attempts

[elliott20]

comichorse, all the divine feats uses those turn undead attempts. Divine Might, Divine Shield, etc, etc, etc.

Another question is how much of a number cruncher is your GM and the rest of the party. If they don't bother tweaking at all, go with what inspires you visually. If they do passive crunching, go with one of the basic concepts presented in this thread to be prepared and have a trump card but don't go overboard with it. Spend the rest of your effort on flavor and on the funner things you'll want to do with your character other than fighting. The only time I would suggest you go with a supremely dedicated build is when you know your GM and your party are going to munching out their characters/encounters. Because when you do such a dedicated build, you don't leave yourself much room for anything else to be developed for a long, long time.

[nerulean]

I quite like Law Devotion from Complete Champion, but it really only comes into its own at higher levels.

[Renegade Paladin]

I don't know if they brought it up for 3.5, but defenders of the faith back in 3.0 had some cool variant mounts. For example, dire lion is you wait an extra three or four levels.
They printed that in the DMG. My favorite is griffon at level 8. :smallbiggrin:

[Person_Man]

IMO, the main reason to be a Paladin and not a different similar but better class (Crusader, Knight) is the Mount. Believe it or not, your Mount is your most powerful class feature. If you take Leadership, Dragon Cohort, or a variety of different PrC that boost it into something other then a horse or dog, it essentially becomes a second PC that you control. So, here are my picks:

Leadership or Dragon Cohort (Draconomicon): Duh.

Mounted Combat->Ride by Attack->Spirited Charge: Basic mounted combo. Skip Trample, its not worth it. Alternatively, you could find a flying mount with a breath weapon or other special abilities, and just hover above your enemies while using an archer build.

Sword of the Arcane Order (Champions of Valor): You can memorize Wizard spells in your Paladin or Ranger slots.

Battle Blessing (Complete Champion): You can cast Standard action Paladin spells as Swift actions. Invest in the Spell Compendium and similar spell rich splat books.

Remember, your mount has the Share Spell ability.

Put these together, and you have a mobile, hard to kill, tag team Gish build. At high levels, you can even Share Spell Polymorph and compete with the big boy casters.

[elliott20]

IMO, the main reason to be a Paladin and not a different similar but better class (Crusader, Knight) is the Mount. Believe it or not, your Mount is your most powerful class feature. If you take Leadership, Dragon Cohort, or a variety of different PrC that boost it into something other then a horse or dog, it essentially becomes a second PC that you control. So, here are my picks:

Leadership or Dragon Cohort (Draconomicon): Duh.

Mounted Combat->Ride by Attack->Spirited Charge: Basic mounted combo. Skip Trample, its not worth it. Alternatively, you could find a flying mount with a breath weapon or other special abilities, and just hover above your enemies while using an archer build.

Sword of the Arcane Order (Champions of Valor): You can memorize Wizard spells in your Paladin or Ranger slots.

Battle Blessing (Complete Champion): You can cast Standard action Paladin spells as Swift actions. Invest in the Spell Compendium and similar spell rich splat books.

Remember, your mount has the Share Spell ability.

Put these together, and you have a mobile, hard to kill, tag team Gish build. At high levels, you can even Share Spell Polymorph and compete with the big boy casters.
You know what, forget what I said, just do that instead.

[Miraqariftsky]

I'm starting a new character, a paladin, but I'm looking for something a bit different. Things like Celestial mount, any tips?

Alrighty, here're my suggestions...

Power Attack and Cleave: ever-useful feats for any martial character

Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack and Spirited Charge: combine them all with a mount and a lance and you're set up for some serious damage-dealing as well as evoking the classic image of a knight in shining armour riding through a sea of swords, long lance held couched and steady, spearing through foes and fading back only to charge once more. Afternote: it might be wise to take the Short Haft feat if yer going for this build so that ye could use the lance even in close quarters.

Extra Smiting and Improved Smiting: If yer a paladin laying on the righteous rage, ye never can get enough smiting done, so this should help.

Battle Blessing: casting a spell takes only a move action instead of a standard action.

[Albonor]

My advice? 4 levels of Cleric, 1 level of fighter, Prestige paladin after that (UA). You start with a CL of 5 with CLERIC spells and add the spells only included on the paladin spell list. Sure, your smite evil are a bit more limited but other than that almost all of your paladin class features are as strong as if you had started as a level 1 paladin. And FORCING you to take Mounted combat isn't that bad, same with loosing 1 BAB and 4 hp on average.

By the way, you end up turning undead better than a regular paladin, with access to level 6 cleric spells at level 18.

Go for that I say.