I reworked this after attempting the build online.

Rogue 11/Cleric 15/Paladin 14

Why Rogue 11: Improved Evasion or Crippling Attack plus a late rogue level for skills

Why Cleric 15: Level 8 spells

Why Paladin 14: Level 4: Holy Avenger, pre-epic Base Attack

Human, Lawful Good

STR 15 to 24
DEX 10
CON 10
INT 14
WIS 14 to 18
CHA 14

1 )Rogue 1: Knockdown/Blind Fight
2 )Cleric 1
3 )Cleric 2 Extend Spell
4 )Paladin 1 (STR 16)
5 )Paladin 2
6 )Rogue 2 Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
7 )Cleric 3
8 )Rogue 3 (STR 17)
9 ) Paladin 3 Improved Knockdown
10) Cleric 4
11) Paladin 4
12) Rogue 4: Improved Critical (Greatsword); (STR 18)
13) Paladin 5
14) Paladin 6
15) Paladin 7: Combat Casting
16) Paladin 8 (STR 19)
17) Paladin 9
18) Paladin 10: Improved Combat Casting
19) Paladin 11
20) Paladin 12 (STR 20)
21) Cleric 5: Great Strength I (STR 21)
22) Rogue 5
23) Cleric 6
24) Rogue 6 Epic Prowess; (WIS 15)
25) Cleric 7
26) Rogue 7
27) Cleric 8 Epic Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
28) Rogue 8 (WIS 16)
29) Cleric 9
30) Rogue 9 Great Strength II (STR 22)
31) Cleric 10
32) Rogue 10 Improved Evasion (WIS 17)
33) Cleric 11 Great Strength III (STR 23)
34) Cleric 12
35) Cleric 13
36) Paladin 13 Armor Skin (STR 24)
37) Cleric 14
38) Paladin 14
39) Rogue 11
40) Cleric 15 Epic Fortitude (WIS 18)

It is lean on feats. You could let go of knockdown, blind fight, and improved knockdown for some metamagic feats (take combat casting earlier) but this is at its essence a buff/melee build. Knockdown gives you more opportunities for sneak attacks.

Taking the 12 paladin levels pre-epic puts you at a base attack of 28, only two off the max.

Domains: Trickery and your preference. Strength probably works best.

Strength Divine Power buff at levels 3 and 4 (extend spell) and stoneskin

Trickery gives the Invisibility line of spells, ending with the excellent Improved Invisibility and will help with any traps/locks in a pinch.

Casts Level 8 cleric spells
Casts Level 4 paladin spells (Holy Avenger)
Max out UMD for using every device in the game, including arcane scrolls.

Skills, 40+ in concentration, discipline, listen, spot, spellcraft, tumble and UMD. You might have enough skills to either max out taunt or add to the balance of your rogue skills.

Spells: You get an extra slot due to WIS of levels 1,2,3, and 4 spells, cleric and paladin (which lets you take only 14 levels of paladin and so maximize rogue skills without waiting too long for improved evasion).

Total Cleric Spells:
Level 1: 7
Level 2: 7
Level 3: 7
Level 4: 6
Level 5: 5
Level 6: 4
Level 7: 3
Level 8: 2

Lots of slots, and lots of versatility with the metamagic feats to fill up the spellbook with useful buffs.

Cast Ultravision and load up on Darkness spells to generate sneak attacks.

You get an excellent Darkfire boost, Bull's STR to up your damage, Eagle's Splendor to up your paladin charisma based skills (divine grace for saving throws, smite evil, lay on hands), all the good Cleric buffs to augment AB/damage, Holy Avenger, and a good number of spells per day. The 15 Cleric levels serve to max out many of the effect/level buffs as well as providing decent spell durations.

Sneak attack is an acceptable 6d6. If you choose Crippling Attack instead of Improved Evasion, you add a certain meanness to the melee character.

You can go longsword with the build and end up with the same critical range and add a shield, which can be very nice.
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We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender - Winston Churchill What are the unbuffed ammount of AB, AC, saves etc?
Quote: Posted 06/23/05 17:06:41 (GMT) -- Ithacan
16) Paladin 8 (STR 19)
17) Paladin 9
18) Paladin 10: <b>Improved Combat Casting</b>
19) Paladin 11
20) Paladin 12 (STR 20)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you need to be lvl 21+ and have 25 concentration to get impr. combat casting? hmm, yup. so you switch improved combat casting to your level 39 feat, let go of epic fortitude (you have pretty good fortitude saves anyway, actually) and add empower spell or a combat feat (toughness or dodge might help the build).

The Base Attack should be 28, 2 off the max. Add 7 for the strength bonus to get to 35, add one for weapon focus and another for epic weapon focus and another for epic prowess and you get to +38 with no buffing. 4 attacks per round, critical range of 17-20 (15 to 20 with keen). Divine Power, Strength Domain, Bull's Strength will add to this and the quite acceptable damage that the character can dish out.

I am sorry but I haven't been able to build this past level 12 yet. It is a fun build but I am thinking that it is going to be extremely hard to put off leveling to level 5 as a cleric. Darkfire. I'd personally drop improved combat casting for this build.

You can use defensive casting mode to get the same effect once you have high enough concentration. You don't have any other combat mode feats (power attack, expertise, etc...), so you don't really gain anything by not using defensive casting mode all the time.

frees up two feats for whatever you'd like to take. hmm, i like it. it's really more of a buff build anyway, at least at the early levels. that really would help the build -- it is quite lean on feats. hmmmmmmm... so you could take toughness and dodge pre-epic, helping your ac and hps, and still take epic. . . reflexes are probably your worst save with all of the fortitude you get as a pre-epic paladin. soooooo:

1 )Rogue 1: Knockdown/Blind Fight
2 )Cleric 1
3 )Cleric 2 Extend Spell
4 )Paladin 1 (STR 16)
5 )Paladin 2
6 )Rogue 2 Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
7 )Cleric 3
8 )Rogue 3 (STR 17)
9 ) Paladin 3 Improved Knockdown
10) Cleric 4
11) Paladin 4
12) Rogue 4: Improved Critical (Greatsword); (STR 18)
13) Paladin 5
14) Paladin 6
15) Paladin 7: Dodge/Toughness
16) Paladin 8 (STR 19)
17) Paladin 9
18) Paladin 10: Empower Spell
19) Paladin 11
20) Paladin 12 (STR 20)
21) Cleric 5: Great Strength I (STR 21)
22) Rogue 5
23) Cleric 6
24) Rogue 6 Epic Prowess; (WIS 15)
25) Cleric 7
26) Rogue 7
27) Cleric 8 Epic Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
28) Rogue 8 (WIS 16)
29) Cleric 9
30) Rogue 9 Great Strength II (STR 22)
31) Cleric 10
32) Rogue 10 Improved Evasion (WIS 17)
33) Cleric 11 Great Strength III (STR 23)
34) Cleric 12
35) Cleric 13
36) Paladin 13 Armor Skin (STR 24)
37) Cleric 14
38) Paladin 14
39) Rogue 11 Open Epic Feat (Epic Reflex or Epic Skill: Discipline/Concentration/UMD)
40) Cleric 15 (WIS 18)

Anything else? Thanks for the input. I thought the dispel on hit for the holy sword spell was level dependant, making 14 levels of paladin only reliable to dispel pre-epic casters.
Quote: Posted 06/25/05 00:11:12 (GMT) -- Deltutammatre

I thought the dispel on hit for the holy sword spell was level dependant, making 14 levels of paladin only reliable to dispel pre-epic casters.

I'd bet you are correct. Just leveled the build to 18. The build does not have the requisite dexterity for dodge, so toughness is a pretty easy call. Now I have leveled to 29 and have some thoughts err hindsight. I think there is little to no reason to take any paladin levels post epic. take paladin to level 8 to maximize the ab (2 off max pre-epic) and get the 4 attacks per round (you really only need four levels to do that if you don't mind your ab being 3 off the pre-epic max). You can then take Cleric to 19 and Rogue to 13. If you wanted to have one late-level paladin class to take discipline to the max, you could do that and still cast level 9 cleric spells (Rogue 13, Cleric 18, Paladin 9). Trading a level 9 cleric spell for the paladin's level 4 holy avenger spell just doesn't make any sense to me, plus you get a bonus rogue feat this way and another sneak attack d6.
Quote: Posted 07/05/05 16:01:07 (GMT) -- Ithacan

Now I have leveled to 29 and have some thoughts err hindsight. I think there is little to no reason to take any paladin levels post epic. take paladin to level 8 to maximize the ab (2 off max pre-epic) and get the 4 attacks per round (you really only need four levels to do that if you don't mind your ab being 3 off the pre-epic max). You can then take Cleric to 19 and Rogue to 13. If you wanted to have one late-level paladin class to take discipline to the max, you could do that and still cast level 9 cleric spells (Rogue 13, Cleric 18, Paladin 9). Trading a level 9 cleric spell for the paladin's level 4 holy avenger spell just doesn't make any sense to me, plus you get a bonus rogue feat this way and another sneak attack d6.

Correction: Taking Paladin to 8 pre-epic puts your AB three off max, taking it to 4 pre-epic puts it 4 off max. Either way gets you 4 attacks/round.