Author Topic: A Mystic Fire Knight and his (celestial) Horse (Read 4297 times)

serrasin · « **on:** March 02, 2014, 02:31:04 PM »

So basically we have a Forgotten Realms game running right now and I'm playing a Paladin of Mystra looking for relics to return to reliquaries and protect. Think Indiana Jones in full plate. I started the character as a Crusader, and although the class was quite fun, I found that it didn't fit the concept quite like I would have liked. In addition I felt far more powerful than the rest of the group and I didn't want that to be a problem. So I have reworked the same character and concept into a paladin, with the rest of the party is a rogue, a ranger, a cleric, and a warlock.

I built him as a Mystic Fire Knight (makes sense) so I can learn and memorize arcane spells into my paladin slots. While with a paladin I would normally focus on a charger, I have opted to keep the mount and even made it celestial with the planar ACF instead of the Greater Dispel class feature. I'm getting to the point of dotting my Ts and crossing my Is, and thought I might swing by for a review.

Most specifically, I am unsure of my character's feats, and the feats of the mount. I am also really lacking options for ranged combat. Currently I am taking the 4th level MFN acf which trades turning for extra spells per level which will pay off more next level. I was thinking of exchanging that back out and then taking Magic Devotion to enable ranged touch attacks? I am also concerned with my character's ability to 'adventure'. He has no athletic or perception skills, so finding and recovering aforementioned relics could prove to be... awkward. I was hoping that some of you might see a few suggestions that I could work with.

Also, does anyone know of a divine prestige class which has full bab and casting advancement? Preferably with some interesting class features? That paladin well turns a bit dry after level six. My GM will let me advance my mount's HD by making him a leadership cohort later.

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Waazraath · « **Reply #1 on:** March 02, 2014, 03:34:39 PM »

"Also, does anyone know of a divine prestige class which has full bab and casting advancement? Preferably with some interesting class features? That paladin well turns a bit dry after level six. My GM will let me advance my mount's HD by making him a leadership cohort later." --> try the divine adaption of the Abjurant Champion, great fun with luminous armor and the shield spell, also nice other class features.

As for feats: SotAO and Battle blessing are great, but I would take them later, like level 9 and 12. In the early levels a pally has so few spells (even with the extra spells from the acf), that the benefit is small. If you want to use the mount, I'd go for mounted charge optimization, use the 2 feat slots for Ride by attack and Spirited charge, and you have decent damage. That works great with smite and power attack, and there are plenty of ways to boost it.

Another route is to keep turn undead and pick a few divine or devotion feats, some are very strong. Unfortunately Magic Devotion starts with "once per day", which makes it suck quite a lot imo. Rather go for animal devotion, so you can fly to enemies you can't reach, while ones on the ground you can reach easily with your mounted speed.

serrasin · « **Reply #2 on:** March 02, 2014, 04:22:31 PM »

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts!

I was not aware that there was a divine version of the Abjurant Champion; do you have a link available? Or should I just use the same class and exchange all instances of arcane for divine?

Yeah, Im with you on the charging stuff; it seems to be the paladin 'thing'. I was just wanting to do something a bit more dynamic to mix it up with spells such as the Transposition line and setting up combos with my mount or other players as such. SotAO is fairly central to my concept, but I can probably sideline Battle Blessing until it can do more work.

I missed that limitation on the Magic Devotion. That's a shame as it otherwise really had the potential to add some nice depth or options. I guess I'm kinda stuck with a bow for ranged, but that just always felt awkward to me.

Gazzien · « **Reply #3 on:** March 02, 2014, 04:35:58 PM »

Quote from: serrasin on March 02, 2014, 04:22:31 PM

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts!

I was not aware that there was a divine version of the Abjurant Champion; do you have a link available? Or should I just use the same class and exchange all instances of arcane for divine?

Yeah, Im with you on the charging stuff; it seems to be the paladin 'thing'. I was just wanting to do something a bit more dynamic to mix it up with spells such as the Transposition line and setting up combos with my mount or other players as such. SotAO is fairly central to my concept, but I can probably sideline Battle Blessing until it can do more work.

I missed that limitation on the Magic Devotion. That's a shame as it otherwise really had the potential to add some nice depth or options. I guess I'm kinda stuck with a bow for ranged, but that just always felt awkward to me.

You can expend two Turn Undead uses to get another use of Magic Devotion.

Jackinthegreen · « **Reply #4 on:** March 02, 2014, 04:38:55 PM »

When adaptations are mentioned for prestige classes, it's referring to the "Adaptations" section below many PrCs and classes in general that give suggestions on how to change things up for the PrC if the version presented isn't quite what you'd like to go for.

The adaptation portion for the Abjurant Champion is found on page 52 in Complete Mage. If you're curious which spells benefit from the Abjurant Armor ability, I wrote a quick index here. Basically for the paladin only Luminous Armor from Book of Exalted Deeds will benefit, but since it's a divine version you might be able to expand it a bit to include such spells as Golden Barding.

Now that I look at that, I'm going to search through all spells that grant a shield bonus to see if there are any that are missing from that list in case it's useful for a divine adaptation. Edit: Nope. The only divine spell I can find that grants a shield bonus is Summon Warforged Champion, which is a 9th level spell only available to clerics with the Warforged Domain.

serrasin · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2014, 04:51:48 PM »

Quote from: Jackinthegreen on March 02, 2014, 04:38:55 PM

When adaptations are mentioned for prestige classes, it's referring to the "Adaptations" section below many PrCs and classes in general that give suggestions on how to change things up for the PrC if the version presented isn't quite what you'd like to go for.

The adaptation portion for the Abjurant Champion is found on page 52 in Complete Mage. If you're curious which spells benefit from the Abjurant Armor ability, I wrote a quick index here. Basically for the paladin only Luminous Armor from Book of Exalted Deeds will benefit, but since it's a divine version you might be able to expand it a bit to include such spells as Golden Barding.

Now that I look at that, I'm going to search through all spells that grant a shield bonus to see if there are any that are missing from that list in case it's useful for a divine adaptation.

Excellent! Thankyou very much. I assume that the class's boosts to the spells would work with the mount's shared spell ability.

Ok, I just reread the entry for the Magic Devotion and it works like I first thought. I guess that at this point I need to choose between an extra spell per level or this

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Waazraath · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2014, 05:34:03 PM »

Quote from: Jackinthegreen on March 02, 2014, 04:38:55 PM

When adaptations are mentioned for prestige classes, it's referring to the "Adaptations" section below many PrCs and classes in general that give suggestions on how to change things up for the PrC if the version presented isn't quite what you'd like to go for.

The adaptation portion for the Abjurant Champion is found on page 52 in Complete Mage. If you're curious which spells benefit from the Abjurant Armor ability, I wrote a quick index here. Basically for the paladin only Luminous Armor from Book of Exalted Deeds will benefit, but since it's a divine version you might be able to expand it a bit to include such spells as Golden Barding.

Now that I look at that, I'm going to search through all spells that grant a shield bonus to see if there are any that are missing from that list in case it's useful for a divine adaptation. Edit: Nope. The only divine spell I can find that grants a shield bonus is Summon Warforged Champion, which is a 9th level spell only available to clerics with the Warforged Domain.

Doesn't it work with wizard spells that are gotten through Sword of the Arcane Order, like shield?

As for magic devotion, even with extra uses, I still think it's a bad deal... that would be, what, 5 uses / day? Turn undead can be used to get much stronger effects, most devotion feats last 1 minute with one use, not only for one effect...

Jackinthegreen · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2014, 05:38:49 PM »

Magic Devotion really isn't worth it. The damage isn't very good, plus it using two Turn attempts is just plain nuts for what its effect is. The extra spell per level is much more flexible and powerful for you.

Waazrath, I think it would, but given that it'd be an adaptation if used for divine stuff it might not. It's up to the DM, especially since SotAO isn't as clear as some would like it to be on how the spellcasting interacts with other stuff.

Hm, on that note I'm thinking of a paladin ACF a la Mystic Ranger. To the word processing program!

serrasin · « **Reply #8 on:** March 02, 2014, 06:06:35 PM »

I agree that the damage is a little... limp, but I rather liked it for being a ranged option and a touch attack mostly.

My GM and I are considering the spells added from Sword of the Arcane Order to be divine. He is even letting me cast them with no spell failure and through Battle Blessing. Transposition or True Strike are much more fun when they're a swift action.

Any thoughts on Awesome Blow for my mount? I don't like that it offers a save, but with Divine Sacrifice or it's Smite I figure the DC would get up there. Knocking an enemy back 10ft and prone seems like a good set up for a charge to me. I was also thinking about giving the mount the Mage Slayer line since killing evil casters is likely in the job description and the horse has enough speed to be able to engage quickly.

Also, if my mount Awesome Blows a mob away while the pc is on it's back, would that provoke an attack from him?

X-Codes · « **Reply #9 on:** March 02, 2014, 08:50:00 PM »

Paladin Sword of the Arcane Order that hunts down evil wizards and has a focus on Mounts...

My brain will not get rid of the idea of, like... a Paladin 6/Ranger 1/Stalker of Kharash 4/Scout 4/Divine Abjurant Champion 5, even though nothing about that build actually legitimately works.

Would be amazing if it did, though. Maybe it's time for me to hit the word processor, too.

No, uh... a dip into Beastmaster (Complete Adventurer) and then taking the Devoted Tracker feat might be worthwhile to give you mount a really hefty boost, although I can guess you're not a Halfling and, therefore, can't take the easy Halfling Outrider dual-progression Supermount! semi-cheese. Then again, maybe you're not really that focused on the mount, in which case you might want to look at Cavalier. Downside there is no spellcasting, even though it's totally appropriate with Paladin spells...

Gray guard is also an option, but it's not a full caster. It's the only Paladin PRC that advances basically every Paladin feature, though.

serrasin · « **Reply #10 on:** March 02, 2014, 09:36:00 PM »

Well I don't know about a focus on mounts per se, but its more that I decided not to trade out the mount to Charging Smite and upgraded to a celestial mount because that sounded more useful than Cure Disease. In a couple of levels I'll get Leadership so that it doesn't lag too far behind in features/HD.

Really what I want the character to be doing is to focus on weaving quickened spells between charges and other beat downs. Buffs, mobility, and the odd Divine Sacrifice.

Im still stuck on the mounts feats though.

Idea 1: Beating and knocking prone
Power Attack
Improved Bullrush
Awesome Blow

Idea 2: Anti-mage Missile
Blind-fight
Mage Slayer
Pierce Concealment

Idea 3: Blood hound
Track
Improved Scent
Uncanny Scent

Any other thoughts or ideas?

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Author Topic: A Mystic Fire Knight and his (celestial) Horse (Read 4297 times)

serrasin

A Mystic Fire Knight and his (celestial) Horse

Waazraath

Re: A Mystic Fire Knight and his (celestial) Horse

serrasin

Re: A Mystic Fire Knight and his (celestial) Horse

Gazzien

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Jackinthegreen

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serrasin

Re: A Mystic Fire Knight and his (celestial) Horse

Waazraath

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Jackinthegreen

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serrasin

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X-Codes

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serrasin

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