Here's a Paladin I recently tested out who works up his Strength for Devastating Critical and a high AB, but still winds up with a decent Charisma in the end. Moreover, I actually built him in a way that can get him saving throws almost as good as a CHA-heavy Great-Smiting Paladin. This Paladin is a solid character and should please both STR- and CHA-build adherents.

I gave him 4 levels of Fighter for the WS and EWS feats. Since Paladins of Torm are allowed to multiclass freely with Fighter under the FRCS, it's a sound build RP-wise, as well.

Human Paladin 26/Champion of Torm 10/Fighter 4

Starting stats:

STR 15
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 14
CHA 14

Skills: Discipline is a must and should be maxed. After that, your call. I like Tumble and Taunt. Persuade for conversation-heavy modules.

Pre-epic progression:

All 5 ability increases in STR.

1-7) Paladin 1-7: Power Attack, Cleave, Weapon Focus (longsword), Divine Might
8 ) CoT 1
9) Paladin 8: Extra Turning
10-13) CoT 2-5: Great Cleave, Improved Critical (longsword), *Blind-Fight
14-20) Paladin 9-15: Divine Shield, Extra Smiting

Epic Progression:
21) Fighter 1: Epic Weapon Focus (longsword), Great Strength I (STR 21)
22) Fighter 2: Epic Prowess
23-24) Fighter 3-4: Weapon Specialization (longsword), STR +1, Great Strength II (STR 23)
25-27) CoT 6-8: Epic Weapon Specialization (longsword), Overwhelming Critical, Great Strength III (STR 24)
28) CoT 9: STR +1 (STR 25)
29) CoT 10: Devastating Critical (longsword)
30-40) Paladin 15-26: Great Charisma I, CHA +3, all 3 Epic saving throw feats, Armor Skin, *Epic Reputation (to help with Taunting)

* - feats can be replaced with something else if desired.

Final Stats:

STR 25
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 14
CHA 18

With ability-enhancing items I can get STR to 37 and CHA to 30, resulting in a respectable AB, a Dev Crit DC of 43, and enough CHA to still make the Paladin abilties and saving throw increases more than worthwhile. I still get 3 Smite Evil uses for a little extra *oomph* when needed, and I pretty much have all the feats I could possibly need, or want. After much fiddling with this build, I actually found myself having to take 5 pre-epic CoT levels because I didn't want to waste Epic feats on useless stuff like Epic Toughness and figured that stuff like Blind-Fight would be more useful early on.

With the Epic save feats, CHA enhanced to 30, and CON enhanced to 24 w/ Boots of Striding +10, my Fortitude save was 49, which will resist the Dev Crit of pretty much all Weapon Master builds one may care to throw at me. About the only thing that has a remote chance of Dev Critting me is a min-maxed Bard/RDD/Fighter. But when I face one of those, that's when a Ring of Fortitude +10 comes in handy.

Edited By Darth Baenre on 02/15/04 15:52:57

Edited By Cinnabar Din on 02/27/08 17:28