Good Bard/Paladin build?

[Ry]

I'll be playing in a new campaign in a few weeks, and I was told a paladin would be a good idea. I was thinking of taking my first level in Bard, though, to get the first song. Besides taking Devoted Performer, does anyone have suggestions on a strong Paladin build? I have 11 levels to play with.

 

[moritheil]

You have a lot of excellent options available if the DM allows a variety of sourcebooks. If not, I'm afraid your options are much more severely limited.

You may want to look at the divine bard, the prestige paladin, and the troubadour of stars. Those can be combined: the divine bard means you cast divine spells, the prestige paladin advances existing divine casting, and the troubadour of stars is for exalted good bards. For a more paladin-like focus, divine bard/prestige paladin/fist of raziel is good.

Divine bard, prestige paladin: UA
ToS, FoR: BoED

 

[Legildur]

Human Pal11. Cha/Str/Con/Wis in that order (a 16 Wis would be nice to get the bonus 3rd level spell, but hardly necessary).

For a sword-and-board holy warrior take the option from PHBII where you sacrifice your special mount ability to gain double damage on a charge.

Feats:
1 - Power Attack
1 (human bonus) - Cleave
3 - Extra Smiting
6 - Divine Might
9 - Extra Smiting

Can now smite evil 7/day. Start mixing in the Divine Might, some Power Attack, and the double damage from a charge, and it gets pretty messy pretty quick.

I wouldn't bother with a level of Bard, but it could be interesting.

 

[Monkey Boy]

How about this:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=795369

level 3 Bard, 17 Crusader. Works just fine through all levels. Buffer that the party will love and that can fight like a champ.

 

[FireLance]

Snowflake Wardance from Frostburn allows you to expend one daily use of bardic music as a free action to get your Charisma bonus to hit with a slashing weapon you wield in one hand for a number of rounds equal to your ranks in Perform (dance). At 11th level, with Devoted Performer, you ought to have enough daily uses of bardic music to activate this at least once per fight, and enough ranks in Perform (dance) to maintain it for an entire encounter (you will be fatigued for the next 10 minutes after Snowflake Wardance). The only downside is that you can't use it when using a shield, or medium or heavy armor, or when carrying a medium or heavy load.

 

[Ry]

I have access to most sourcebooks, notably not Tome of Magic, UA, and Book of 9 Swords. The party has all the 4 basic roles covered, so I think they're looking for special abilities more than direct damage. Still, I'd rather ditch the mount, or maybe take the riding dog attack-mount, since I don't anticipate tons of outdoor combat that isn't flying.

 

[Darklone]

Go gnome riding dog paladin with bard levels. You don't have to care about the multiclass rule, can enjoy spiderclimb on your dog... and all the while pipe around with bagpipes or some other silly stuff. Totally earnest.

If you don't wanna ride, do bard7/pal4. Divine Might goodness and self buff bard spells. Gnome helps with hitpoints and you'll hit nicely, if someone grapples you, have your mount break the grapple

 

[moritheil]

I have access to most sourcebooks, notably not Tome of Magic, UA, and Book of 9 Swords. The party has all the 4 basic roles covered, so I think they're looking for special abilities more than direct damage. Still, I'd rather ditch the mount, or maybe take the riding dog attack-mount, since I don't anticipate tons of outdoor combat that isn't flying.

I'd recommend divine bard/prestige paladin/fist of raziel, then. You can inspire, you get the basic paladin aura, and you also get a permanent magic circle vs. evil.

The only problem is that the prestige paladin requires mounted combat. You can always be elf and take Skylord for a flying mount later, though.

 

[irdeggman]

You'd most likely need to be a lightly armored paladin since bards only have no ASF in light armors unless you took the battlecaster feat.

 

[Trench]

Interestingly enough, I have a level 4 lizardman bard/paladin NPC I could use some help with as well.

Let me know if it's kosher to hijack the thread. I mostly need his skills looked at to make sure I accounted for the LA and racial skill points correctly.