Paladin/Favored Soul Optimization

[Corsec1337]

My group is about to start a new campaign so that means I get a new character! I'm just looking for some creative input to see if any one else can think of something I didn't. Note, the DM is still considering the variant paladin that does not cast spells.

Here are some of my groups house rules to consider.

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1)Energy resestance spells to not scale with level. Something like Energy Protection does scale and energy immunity is fine.
2)You get a feat at every odd level and a stat at every even level.
3)Their are no stat boosting items!
4)ToB is banned. Psionics is banned. Complete Champion is pretty much banned. If any item exists that copies an effect from a item in the DMG and is cheaper it is banned.
5)When crafting items, players may pay the exp cost instead of the caster.

Currently this is what it looks like:

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Human Paladin4/Favored Soul3/X13

28 pt buy
Str-14
dex-12
con-14
int-12
wis-10
cha-14

Feats:

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1-Power Attack, Cleave
3-Shield spec.
5-Divine Shield
7-Leadership, Weapon Focus

I've looked at the Fist of Raziel, War Priest, and Greyguard for prestiage classes. I understand that cleric is better than favored soul, but the charisma for the paladin saves/smite works well with the favored souls casting. I'm not too sure what to do with my feats totally because i'm not sure what I want to prestiage into. I'm taking leadership because I can get a cohort to take craft feats and I can pay for the exp from my character to craft. I'm supposed to be the main tank (the group I play with has a rotation we do for who plays what type of characters).

So, does anyone have any ideas for feats/classes?

[Renegade Paladin]

If any item exists that copies an effect from a item in the DMG and is cheaper it is banned.

Ummmm... Your DM does know that the very few times they do that, they do it on purpose, right? A lot of stuff in the DMG is overpriced for what it does.

(Now, even with that admission, they don't do it a lot; even when they recognize mistakes, they hate to alter the Sacred Core Material. However, the Magic Item Compendium changed the prices on a lot of non-core material; the rod/ring of arming comes immediately to mind.)

[Corsec1337]

Ummmm... Your DM does know that the very few times they do that, they do it on purpose, right? A lot of stuff in the DMG is overpriced for what it does.

(Now, even with that admission, they don't do it a lot; even when they recognize mistakes, they hate to alter the Sacred Core Material. However, the Magic Item Compendium changed the prices on a lot of non-core material; the rod/ring of arming comes immediately to mind.)

While what you said is true, his rebuttal is that the DMG is the base of all magic items in 3.5. Alot of the stuff in Magic Item Compendium is better than the core stuff. Merlyns spoon for example costs more than the ever ful mug and everlasting feed bag (i beleive i got the names of those two mistaken) together. More or less, if we ask for an item from magic item compendium he will open up the dmg to see if he can find an item compared to it and will usually shoot it down if it does.

[TempusCCK]

With that amount of feats every character gets, you should just play a straight war cleric. You have the feat to burn on the martial weapon proficiency for a greatsword and the like, so power attacking isn't going to be an issue for you. If you allow it, the SRD has the Cleric Variant where you get the Paladins Smite Evil instead of turn undead, which is a nifty little bonus and almost always worth it unless you're using turn attempts for DMM or those Divine Feats. (Turn undead gets' more and more useless as monster HD increases and the ability to kind of levels out higher up.) Other than that, you have a option all arlound going straight cleric and getting the much better spellcasting options.

[Reel On, Love]

While what you said is true, his rebuttal is that the DMG is the base of all magic items in 3.5. Alot of the stuff in Magic Item Compendium is better than the core stuff. Merlyns spoon for example costs more than the ever ful mug and everlasting feed bag (i beleive i got the names of those two mistaken) together. More or less, if we ask for an item from magic item compendium he will open up the dmg to see if he can find an item compared to it and will usually shoot it down if it does.

Man, that guy is missing the point so hard. The DMG was designed a long time ago, and its item design is frankly crappy. The MIC fixes a number of specific problems that years of play have exposed.

But then, the "No ToB, no psionics" thing makes me think he's got a hard-on for the core setup.

Try showing him These three parts of a Design & Development Articles on the MIC.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Don't multiclass a full caster. Either be a martial Favored Soul or Cleric, or stick to straight Paladin.

[Solo]

Clerics make better Paladins than Paladins themselves.

[Kurald Galain]

Wait, so this guy bans the tome of battle but allows Leadership? That is the single cheesiest feat in the whole game, and that's saying a lot!

Anyway, for some build advice -
* Don't take both Shield Spec and Power Attack, since the latter works best with two-handed weapons. Heck, shields suck in D&D, take a twohander and forget about shield feats
* Weapon focus is a trap. Don't take it, it isn't worth it.
* As a caster, you'll probably want some metamagic feats.
* Since stat-boost items don't exist, max out your charisma. Your scores are way too even, that's not necessary. I'd go for something like S4 D10 C12, I8 W8 X18. Get heavy armor rather than dexterity, and if you already have melee and spells covered you won't be needing skills much.
* If you're going to be a part-paladin part-caster, dip paladin two levels for the best abilities (i.e. the save bonus), then go caster all the way. Find a prestige class like Eldritch Knight (only divine) that gets you both full BAB and full casting.

[Kizara]

If you want to take favored soul over cleric and not feel like a complete idiot (cause you should), I suggest using my revision:

Favored Soul

-Gain Deity’s Weapon Focus at 1st-level and Deity’s Weapon Specialization at 6th-level (instead of as listed)
-Lose Reflex good saves.
-Gain Wings at 11th-level instead of 17th.
-Lose Elemental Resistances.
-Gain DR 5 at level 10, DR 10 at level 15, and DR 15 at level 20. DR is to Good or Evil.
-Gain the appropriate cure or inflict spell (depending on alignment) each level for free as a Spell Known, including mass versions.
-Gain Heavy Armor Proficiency.
-Gain Turn or Rebuke Undead at level 1.
-At level 6 gain the Luck Domain’s granted power (but not its spells).
-Casting is based off of Charisma in all respects. Restriction of spell level on spell swapping is removed.
-Lose Jump and gain Knowledge (religion), and Knowledge (the planes) as class skills.
-Gain Smite (opposite alignment) at 1/day at 5th-level, 2/day at 10th-level, 3/day at 15th-level and 4/day at 20th-level.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

If you want to take favored soul over cleric and not feel like a complete idiot (cause you should), I suggest using my revision:

Favored Soul

-Gain Deity’s Weapon Focus at 1st-level and Deity’s Weapon Specialization at 6th-level (instead of as listed)
-Lose Reflex good saves.
-Gain Wings at 11th-level instead of 17th.
-Lose Elemental Resistances.
-Gain DR 5 at level 10, DR 10 at level 15, and DR 15 at level 20. DR is to Good or Evil.
-Gain the appropriate cure or inflict spell (depending on alignment) each level for free as a Spell Known, including mass versions.
-Gain Heavy Armor Proficiency.
-Gain Turn or Rebuke Undead at level 1.
-At level 6 gain the Luck Domain’s granted power (but not its spells).
-Casting is based off of Charisma in all respects. Restriction of spell level on spell swapping is removed.
-Lose Jump and gain Knowledge (religion), and Knowledge (the planes) as class skills.
-Gain Smite (opposite alignment) at 1/day at 5th-level, 2/day at 10th-level, 3/day at 15th-level and 4/day at 20th-level.

If his DM won't allow MIC, Homebrew is probably out. Play a LG Cleric, call yourself a Paladin. You'll be far more powerful than we could make a Paladin/Favored Soul. Get an Artificer cohort (and if your DM allows that, he has no reason to ban ToB) and be happy.

[Cuddly]

Get an animated shield, asap. Best of both worlds.