level 40... PvP or PvM

This build is a slightly different take on the old bard/paladin/pale master. With the PM immunity to critical hits, I figured some DR was in order. My first thought was dwarven defender, but the AB came out way too low. I figured paladins have spells that boost AB so why not go for paladin as the melee class instead. Hence this combo was born. It works best as a dwarf, but you could go human instead to eliminate the XP penalty, in that case you would lose two great strengths for great constitutions, but you would pick up 43 more skillpoints for UMD or taunt, so it would likely be a latteral move. The build should work best in a low to mid magic environment where devastating critical has been banned.

While it is pretty playable at every level, because of the XP penalty and alignment shifts I consider this more of a level 40 build. It is similar to The lord of Doom and Pain by bloodymerc and Undead Death Dealer by SomeElvenDude. However neither of these builds have the hitpoints and DR of this build, hence I felt it was unique enough to post.

Advantages

-Immune to Critical Hits, Paralysis and Fear. Always nice to have.
-Good AC. He can manage a 67 with +5 equipment.
-Level 4 paladin spells. He also has enough levels to keep from being dispelled by anything other than a Mordenkainen's Disjunction or holy avenger.
-Good Buffed AB. His unbuffed AB is low but bless and aid alone raise it to fair level and they last forever. Chuck in prayer and divine favor for a cleric level AB. The only sore point is the limited number of castings.
-9 points of damage reduction. It won't cancel damage from attacks but it will take the edge off and works well with the imunity to critical hits.
-Lots of Hitpoints. Over 600 is always nice.

Disadvantages

-Low reflex and will saves. Vs. spells they aren't that bad, but they are pretty bad against non spell effects. Luckily immunity to paralysis and fear help a bit with the will save.
-XP penalty from level 27. It isn't the worst XP penalty and the build is pretty playable from there, but it's still there.
-Two alignment shifts. You have to shift from lawful to non-lawful which is the tough shift, then from good to non-good which is trivial by comparison.

Eternal Knight

Race Dwarf

Alignment Lawful Good to Start

Base Attributes
STR 16
DEX 8 (Another card carrying member of the CPC)
CON 17
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 6

Attribute Bonuses
Levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 increase constitution
Levels 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 increase strength

Final Level Distribution
Bard 4
Paladin 26
Pale Master 10

Level Distribution and Feats
Level 1: (Paladin 1): Weapon Focus (Scimitar)
Level 2: (Paladin 2)
Level 3: (Paladin 3): Knockdown
Level 4: (Paladin 4)
Level 5: (Paladin 5)
Level 6: (Paladin 6): Blind-Fight
Level 7: (Paladin 7)
Level 8: (Paladin 8 )
Level 9: (Paladin 9): Improved Critical (Scimitar)
Level 10: (Paladin 10)
Level 11: (Paladin 11)
Level 12: (Paladin 12): Improved Knockdown
Level 13: (Paladin 13)
Level 14: (Paladin 14)
Level 15: (Paladin 15): Extend Spell
Level 16: (Paladin 16)
Level 17: (Paladin 17)
Level 18: (Paladin 18): Toughness
Level 19: (Paladin 19)
Level 20: (Paladin 20)
Level 21: (Paladin 21): Epic Weapon Focus (Scimitar)
Level 22: (Paladin 22)
Level 23: (Paladin 23): Epic Prowess
Level 24: (Paladin 24): Epic Damage Reduction I
Level 25: (Paladin 25)
Level 26: (Paladin 26): Armor Skin Alignment Change to NG
Level 27: (Bard 1): Epic Damage Reduction II
Level 28: (Bard 2)
Level 29: (Bard 3) Alignment Change to TN
Level 30: (Pale Master 1): Epic Damage Reduction III
Level 31: (Pale Master 2)
Level 32: (Pale Master 3)
Level 33: (Pale Master 4): Great Strength I
Level 34: (Pale Master 5)
Level 35: (Pale Master 6)
Level 36: (Pale Master 7): Great Strength II
Level 37: (Pale Master 8 )
Level 38: (Pale Master 9)
Level 39: (Pale Master 10): Great Strength III
Level 40: (Bard 4)

Final Attributes
STR 24
DEX 8
CON 22
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 6

AB and Damage
(no buffs, mundane scimitar)
41/36/31/26 7+1D6 (15-20 x2)

(+12 to Strength, bard song, bless, bless weapon, deafening clang, divine favor, aid, prayer, holy sword, +5 keen scimitar, haste)
61/56/51/46/61 21+1D6 (12-20 x2) +5 (magic) +3 (sonic) +2D6 (divine vs. undead) +1D6 (divine vs. evil)

AC
25 (no buffs, no equipment)
36 (Full Plate, Tower Shield)
67 (+4 to Dexterity, +5 Full Plate, +5 Tower Shield, +5 Ring of Protection, +5 Amulet of Natural Armor, +5 dodge boots, Haste)

Final Saves (Vs. Spells)
Fortitude 28 (39)
Reflex 15 (26)
Will 18 (29)

Hit Points 642 (max. every level)

Damage Reduction 9 points

Skillpoints 180
Concentration 43 (49)
Discipline 43 (50)
Perform 11 (9)
Spellcraft 43 (45)
Tumble 40 (49)

Skillpoint Distribution
Level 1: Concentration 4, Discipline 4, Save 8
Level 2: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 10
Level 3: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 12
Level 4: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 14
Level 5: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 16
Level 6: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 18
Level 7: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 20
Level 8: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 22
Level 9: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 24
Level 10: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 26
Level 11: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 28
Level 12: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 30
Level 13: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 32
Level 14: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 34
Level 15: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 36
Level 16: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 38
Level 17: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 40
Level 18: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 42
Level 19: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 44
Level 20: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 46
Level 21: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 48
Level 22: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 50
Level 23: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 52
Level 24: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 54
Level 25: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 56
Level 26: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Save 58
Level 27: Discipline 1, Perform 5, Spellcraft 28, Tumble 30
Level 28: Concentration 2, Discipline 1, Spellcraft 2, Tumble 1
Level 29: Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Perform 1, Spellcraft 2, Tumble 1
Level 30: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 2
Level 31: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 4
Level 32: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 6
Level 33: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 8
Level 34: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 10
Level 35: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 12
Level 36: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 14
Level 37: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 16
Level 38: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 18
Level 39: Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 20
Level 40: Concentration 1, Discipline 11, Perform 5, Spellcraft 1, Tumble 8
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Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do. Nice build Mith! I was working on a build with the same lvl split, although I haven't gone for EDR but for higher STR and consequently AB. Paladin's buffs anyhow bring the AB back to good levels and some more, so that EDR is worth going for... and it's all the sweeter coupled with crit immunity. The alignment change isn't hard at all, and you end true neutral, which never hurts.

I'm just worried of my paladin and yours sparring together, the results might be catastrophic given their clumsiness

Kudos to this new creation of yours. All hail the Eternal Knight (great name, btw).


Cheers,
Kail
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Heavy metal
Or no metal at all
Whimps and posers
Leave the hall! Nice build. The name and build is quite similar to my own Eternal Crusader Though it is also quite different. The number of Pally levels makes your build undispellable (except from the usual suspects). Crit immunity and DR makes it strong in any environment, but it comes mighty late. To bad about the CHA too, but as has been said, can't have it all.

Again, nice build.
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Dragonlance ROH is back, better than before! and I spend a little time here WoG

Edited By Grimnir77 on 09/01/06 18:14

well done. the only thing is the cha, which is the price you pay for having AB and DR with this combo. Only two alignment shifts...its the best you can hope for in this situation.

Betcha its fun to RP too.

-cs
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"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."
Quote: Posted 09/01/06 11:09:15 (GMT) -- Kail Pendragon
I'm just worried of my paladin and yours sparring together, the results might be catastrophic given their clumsiness

Reminds me of the Clumsy Paladin's Club's last annual meeting when the Order of Awkward Blackguards attacked. Of course we knew in advance they were coming, they have the trouble we do with horses, so they walked leading their horses behind them and they aren't exactly quite on the march. So we had time to prepare for the attack.

Well, we sealed up the castle and put archers on the wall, which in retrospect wasn't a very good idea. During training one knight put his eye out when his bow string snapped, three knights put arrows through their feet, and some of them missed their targets and hit the kegs of ale we were saving for after the meeting. Needless to say morale was low.

Then the attack came, oh it was horrible to behold. They charged towards the castle from the top of the hill, but a couple of them collided fell. Then a few more tried to jump over the prostrate pair and fell over. Soon there was just a mass of tangled blackguards rolling and cursing their way down the hill. I suppose if we had a moat that would have been it right there, but after a few of our own members rolled down that hill, we had it filled in. You know that spiked black armor they favor? Well immagine trying to pull yourself out of a pile of similarly armored warriors, when you aren't that coordinated to begin with. Just a mass of flailing warriors, clobbering each other as they tried to pull themselves free.

With victory within our grasp the call went out for boiling oil. Some of the members managed to get a cauldron up to the wall and throw it onto the pile of blackguards. The screams were horrible, but the oil had lubed up the blackguards and the survivors were starting to get free. Now we should have counted the bows when we took them back from the Paladins, because one of them kept his bow and decided to put a flaming arrow into the mass of oil slick knights. We all screamed, "No!" as he notched the fiery projectile to his bow and fired, but he actually hit them and set them on fire.

Unfortunately, when he raised his bow in triumph, he knocked over the flaming brazier he had used to light the arrow. That in itself wouldn't have been that bad, but the knights who had carried the cauldron of oil up to the wall had splashed half of it all over the place. Before long the entire castle was aflame and we had to abandon it.

Luckily for us the blackguards had stowed a cache of ale with their horses, so at least we didn't have to be sober while our castle burned. Thank Torm, we were able to sell the horses to pay for the repairs, for some reason we just can't get an insurance provider. All things considered, probably the best outcome we could have hoped for.
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Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.

-cs As this character is not a WM, wouldn't it be a good idea to switch the scimitar with a weapon doing more base dmg? battleaxe, warhammer and or longsword would seem to be a better choice?
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Be realistic...
Quote: Posted 09/03/06 10:33:36 (GMT) -- Kalmar_Oxin

As this character is not a WM, wouldn't it be a good idea to switch the scimitar with a weapon doing more base dmg? battleaxe, warhammer and or longsword would seem to be a better choice?

On the contrary. WM is better for those weapons, since it gives a crit boost that keen and improved crit can't. With those two on a scimitar you have a 12-20 crit ratio, which is already more than enough, especially because against many enemies you won't ever hit on less than a 12.