+ Great Smite V (+156 x 3 smites (or, 468 + (3 x 40-50 (or, 150) = 618) --
Other:
• Paladin: o Turn Undead (HD): 31 +2d6 o Bless Weapon: +2d6 damage vs. Undead o Lay-on-Hands (Positive Energy Damage): *Cha. Bonus x Pal. Level (or, 11/12 x 26 = 312) Note: also dubs as healing power, and equivalent to a heal potion
• DRAGON: o Breath Weapon, Fire (6d10 Fire Damage (or, 60 total), Cone Effect)
*DEFENCE VITALS: AC (naked/mundane armor): 18/26 +4 Mage Armor +2 Cat's Grace -- AC 32 +11/12 Divine Shield (with Aura of Glory & Eagle’s) -- AC 44 (self-buffs & mundane plate); a shield would add +3 AC, but doesn’t seem to need one.
Note: at 26 level Paladin, this character has access to some great buffs (i.e., AB, AC, Saves, and also immunities), and is also essentially dispelable. For a quick overview of those spells, click here: Click Here
The Tale of the Dragon Slayer (Condensed Version) By Deborah Tyr
A long time ago, in a part of the world now known as Great Britain, there was suffered a dragon infestation. Dragons were blamed for all the chaos in nature, and it was believed that dragons were out to destroy humans. Few who encountered a live dragon lived to tell the tale, but there were survivors of the dragon wars. Be they innocent villagers whose entire village had just been destroyed by dragon quake or dragon fire, or brave and noble knights who made it their life’s mission to save human-kind by chasing after the dragon beasts, there were Britons who witnessed these beasts with their own eyes: thar be dragons, indeed.
One of these brave and noble knights was the Dragon Slayer, of noble blood and kind of heart, who was specially commissioned by the King to hunt down the dragons. Wherever they struck, wherever they roamed, the Dragon Slayer was out to protect the people, and secure justice for the land. He was a hero of the people, a legendary knight, and his appearance alone gave the people hope, where they had none before. The Dragon Slayer was their champion and, when he fought, he fought with all the hope and the prayers of the people: they were in his heart, as he was in theirs. And for the people, he delivered: slaying dragons all about the lands.
Big ones, little ones, red, green, and blue: he did it for the people. His name was shouted all across the land, a hero he was, and the people loved him for it. But the dragons knew of him, too.
One day, while the Dragon Slayer was camping out in the woods on a dragon hunt, an ancient red dragon came upon him and knew instantly who he was. In one foul breath of fire, the ancient red blew, and then swallowed up the Dragon Slayer whole, including his tent: an evil red, for sure, but by no means stupid.
Gasping for breath, and rudely awoken from his rest, confused, the Dragon Slayer had but a few seconds to react, before becoming a pile of dragon goo. Quick thinking, the Dragon Slayer pulled out a blade, a tiny dagger, from his breaches, and set quickly to work.
With great strength and tenacious ferocity, the Dragon Slayer slashed at the Dragon’s innards, and with a great gush of blood pouring forth from the Dragon, the Dragon Slayer managed to cut his way through. The evil red was dumb founded and confused, seriously wounded; it hesitated, not knowing exactly what to do.
Reaching, quickly, for his blade, which he had hung earlier that evening in a tree before turning in, the Dragon Slayer reacted. With thundering speed, great strength and precision, the Dragon Slayer’s blade came crashing down upon the evil red’s throat, and in an instant, it was over. The red came crashing to the ground, dead, its blood flowing, like a river, and splattering the Dragon Slayer thoroughly. Although he had been victorious, yet another dragon downed by his blade, another notch for his belt, the Dragon Slayer also fell to the ground, exhausted and burned, and covered in dragon blood. He could barely breathe.
No one knows exactly how much time passed while the Dragon Slayer lay out in the woods, but many say that the ordeal changed the Dragon Slayer forever. Some say that the great and legendary Dragon Slayer died that day; others insist that that’s simply not true. What is known is that the effects of the dragon blood is magical, filled with potent properties, and that such properties worked their magic on the Dragon Slayer, bringing him back to life from the brink of exhaustion, by mixing in with his own blood, and in short, rearranging his molecular structure.
One day, awoken from his woodland slumber, he heard music: dragon music, and was surprised to see that he could not only breathe fire, but had also sprouted wings; dragon fire and dragon wings. Born of the human kin, he was now dragon kin; half-human, half-drake. Where his adventures next took him, no one can be certain: that he’s still out there, somewhere, slaying the evil dragons, in between performing his dragon song is what the people believe.
Added bolding and italics - Kail Pendragon Edited By Kail Pendragon on 06/11/06 05:07:18
If you prefer more Bard in your Dragon Slayer, and to see the full version of this Story (which is full of great dragon information from around the world, and cool dragon lore) click here: Click Here
Edited By TyrTemplar on 07/02/06 05:30
"He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
This is a nice variant, but I believe your other one is more doable. Changing from Lawful to neutral is often very much easier than the change from Neutral to lawful, which very often can be really hard. This is quite like the build I call Dracopaladin in my builds.If you're okay with loosing some skillpoints and gettting RDd mighty late it might be better to go 26 Paladin straight away. It will improve your tumble AC too, but it means "never" getting RDD. _________________ Dragonlance ROH is back, better than before! and I spend a little time here WoG
Hey, Grim: thanks for the compliment! And your point re: alignment change is, as always, a valid one
While it's more or less super easy to go from lawful to neutral (just act chaotic, in any environment really, and you'll gets there in no time), the reverse, ie., from NG to LG isn't as easy. It's still doable, though, depending on the environment. In PvM/mods, for instance, I can think of a couple off of the top of my head where going from N to L isn't that tough - yes, you have to respond right (as everyone's out it seems to test those pally's - i.e., keep your word, turn down rewards, etc. - in other words, do the exact opposite of chaotic and don't remain neutral).
One really great mod for going from N to L (or vice versa) is the player-created Lord of Terror Campaign. There are others; but if all else fails, and yer gettin' kinda nervous, save your character and take it to Commche's mod, the Arena of Champions for a change (just ask, and you will receive).
One thing that's nice, though, is that, on either bard-pally variant, in terms of alignment change, there is only one change. Nevertheless, listen up to uncle Grim folks: when it comes to goin' neutral to lawful, gotta start the process early, and keep at it for sure (thanks for that, Grim).
I understand there are some PWs out there who don't permit alignment changes, regardless, though, and hence just posted one last and final variant of the dragon-slayer, a high level pally with similar stats as this one, but using sorcerer (thus, no alignment change if for some that should be an issue). Either way, and the idea being, everyone can now have a dragon-slayer to call their own (thanks Grim: and, once again, for your great input on the original version too)
Drake On! ~ Tyr
For that Pally/Sorcerer/RDD variant, Click Here
Edited By TyrTemplar on 07/02/06 10:07
Quite similar to the Sorcerer one, but I think I prefer this one, even with the Alignment shift, but let the last Bard level for skilldumps if you can make another Alignment change, Bard has definitely the best skills, you might want that UMD, Tumble and Spellcraft to boost the build.
TyrTemplar, you have given the quote that is my Role Playing adventures. My name on every server I play is Abyss, and I always play as a half-dragon (aka. Red Dragon Disciple) who is somewhat of an anomaly to everyone he meets. As for this build, wow is all I can really say. It is everything I aspire to be with my characters. Thank you for this, and I hope to see ever greater and more beautiful builds from you in the future. _________________ The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing...
Nice build, you make use of the smites but you still retain a melee presence. This build is similar to Nivik23's build (oddly enough my Knight of Bahamut didn't appear when I used pulse cap's seach engine) you get better smites though, and make better use of your charisma.
you might want to drop your dexterity to 8 (you can cast cat's grace as a bard) and increase your charisma to 16 so that you end up with a 26 charisma. It will help your saving throws, divine might, divine shield and smites.
Quote: 01: Bard(1): lingering song, blind fight
I would probably drop lingering song for knockdown, you don't get much out of a level 4 bard song.
If you don't mind the second alignment change, go bard 3/paladin 17 pre-epic and take the last bard level at 40 for the skill dump. _________________ Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.
Thax, Shaggy, Mith: hey, guys, thanks so very much for the very warm and super nice compliments on this one: so glad to hear you likes him
Thax & Mith: dang those alignment shifts. Yeah, hears ya on the UMD/skills thing; bards just have some of the best skills, don’t they?! Would be nice to max out UMD etc. which we could do if we took the last bard at the end as you suggest, but the extra alignment shift would seriously detract from the playability of the build. In PnP (and even some servers today), even one change was frowned upon, yet doable and permitted if a player really, really means it (and went about proving it, which is the case here i.e., to go from NG to LG); to change back, well, .... I know, some folks don't mind that at all. Maybe I'm a li'l ol’ school so to speak, but me thinks that *sigh* one is enough. Another shift would unfortunately detract from the playability factor; plus, at 26 levels pally, he's full access to all those great pally spells, buffs etc. and he isn't dispellable; with his holy sword and enough Bard in there also to make him versatile, he's playable and balanced, i.e., as between great smiting abilities and his combat prowess/ ability to deal some really decent damage, so as not to have to rely on his smites. While more UMD is always nice, to be sure, on him, it's not really necessary – besides, he's also got those cool red wings of his - just looks so darn cool a flappin' and a singin' and a smiting or a slashing me thinks (as always, appreciate your thoughts and ideas guys - please do keep 'em coming!)
As to Ling.Song vs. KD: this was for me a toss up - true, LI may not be a huge boon at only 4 level bard, but it’s a feat I do like, and it does help out in a number of situations nevertheless in PvM/PvE. Another feat I considered was extend spell, but decided (me thinks wisely) that, at 26 pally with high (buffable) cha and plentiful turn charges, he didn’t need ES. The choice between KD and LI was, however, a real choice; while I admit that I like Lingering, I’d have to agree with you, Mith, that in some environments, thinking PvP in particular (where there are much higher level bards, with much better songs) that KD would def. make better sense. In PvP, where every li’l thing of course helps, KD would be a great addition to his taunt, and would thus ensure that he gets the full and maximum benefit of all his great smites. Very nice call, so listen up to Mith everyone (and thanks!)
Cha vs. Dex: this, too, was a toss up, but one I actually decided in favor of Dex in the event actually of PvP play. While 26 pally is for all intents and purposes NOT dispelable, bard’s Cat’s is very much vulnerable to being nerfed. You’re bang on, of course, on the CHA factor; my thinking on that, keeping in mind the nerfable bard factor, is that at 26 pally, he has lots of turn charges and can as a pally buff his cha, which in turn pumps those great divine buffs/duration of his, such that, while cat’s is great, don’t get me wrong, we aren’t forced to rely on it. But if you’re in an environment where you’re not really worried about being nerfed then, by all means, Mith presents us with a very nice alternative, even although the Dex and Cat’s do stack. (Another nice point, Mith: as always
Thax: once again, appreciate your thoughts and praises on this one, and the other Dragon Slayers in my series: as always, appreciate your great thoughts, ideas and comments!
Shaggy: and to you a thank you, too! appreciate your wonderful enthusiasm about my build, and you're most welcome. I've enjoyed playing the Dragon Slayers and how wonderful it is that I can share them here. A lot of great input from many great people went into my series. I myself have so enjoyed this character, I must admit, and would love to hear how goes your adventures with him or any of my other builds!
Thanks once again to you and everyone who commented on either this slayer, or any of the other slayers in my dragon series. As always, I appreciate everyone's great thoughts, ideas, comments, and kind words! Long live the Dragon Slayer; may the fun and legend continue! ~ Tyr
- i.e., keep your word, turn down rewards, etc. - in other words, do the exact opposite of chaotic and don't remain neutral).
~ Tyr 
(as always, appreciate your thoughts and ideas guys - please do keep 'em coming!)