Hi guys, long time no see!
Our new group is starting (level 3), and I've always wanted to play (from a fluff perspective) a humorous gnome who ends up as a paladin for a lawful good god –– and spends his life trying to make the best out of this 'fate' into which he was dumped (some oracle or something).
So I want to play at tiny tanky dude sitting on a medium mount, who is overly bold, extremely funny and charismatic, wears heavy armor, and tanks/buffs/heals in fights. He doesn't do much damage, but he's annoying as hell. As race I would pick chaos gnome LA+1, buyoff, gives me a number of great charisma based cantrips, some immunities, and nice stats (except for -2STR), and fits the background well.
I'm now trying to find a build that would allow the character to work, which is not easy since ... well, Paladin. Cheese is probably ok because Paladin is so bad anyway ... the DM may just allow it if it's not too stupid (other players probably play much stronger classes). We're playing 3.5 so "take pathfinder paladin" doesn't work. Also, some sort of dragon theme may come into play later (the DM may give me the white dragonspawn template at some point)––dragon stuff is not a must, but ideas are appreciated. I also consider a dragon god like Bahamut, but don't know the DnD background very well in that regard so will have to read up on that.
We are level 3, so please don't suggest a build that becomes fun at level 17 or so
. No clue if we ever get there (probably not).
Stats32pt buy, after adjustment level 1: STR14, DEX12, CON14, INT12, WIS10, CHA18.
Feat options
- Dynamic priest is nice to make the paladin less MAD ... replaces WIS with CHA for casting (except for DC but that's not so important for mostly buffs). But if I only dip Paladin I wonder if this is worth it, or if I should take spell-less paladin AcF (Holy Warrior is the name I think).
- Dreadful wrath at level 1. -2 to everything all enemies in each combat do sounds pretty cool.
- The rest depends a bit on what I will go for ...
Build options
1) Paladin/Bard/? sounds like a build I would like to play, but I don't seem to be able to make it playable. Paladin 4 or 5, replace mount with charging smite so I do at least a little bit of damage with smite/lance without having to buy mount feats. Then go bard, and some PrC (sublime chord doesn't work because I can never qualify for the 5 billion skillpoints needed). Devoted Performer looks like a nice feat here, but not sure if worth it. The main problem is that I can't really be a tank in heavy armor and shield because that screws up the casting of the Bard, no? Same with the great snowflake wardancer feat that adds Charisma to hit but doesn't allow shield or medium/heavy armor. Also, my casting sucks terribly, and I am not sure if it's even worth to take dynamic priest for that one paladin spell I will have at level 4. Even with Charisma 26 I will be only able to cast 2 level 1 Paladin spells ... totally not worth a feat, no? Also, totally not worth Paladin levels beyond level 2 I guess. But 'charging smite' seems like a nice way to do damage with devoted performer feat + lance (compared to the 0 damage I do otherwise).
2) Spell-less Paladin + Knight + Hellreaver PrC (fiendish codex II). Pretty decent self-healing tank build, but does no damage and has no buffs. I would like to play him with more utility for the group, so don't really like it.
3) Paladin Sorcerer Eldritch Knight ... but I have never played a sorcerer so I don't really know how such a build would work out. Also, it doesn't really strike me as a Paladin phenotype (dude in shiny armor in melee), no? Any suggestions here? Chaos gnome would work incredibly well here.
4) I guess Marshal or Dragon Shaman are options, but they seem really weak. 1 level Marshal dip sounds fun.
5) ?
Thanks
Torvon
