Post/Author/DateTime	Post
berpo 03-09-07, 01:50 PM	I need your opinion about those two feet... which one will I use more often ? Could it be a good thing to take none of them to have extra smite ? If a choose extra smiting I have a bonus fighter feet available. is there any good fighter feat ? Here is my build. Human (Baklunish) Tusman STR (15) DEX (10) CON (14) INT (8) WIS (14) CHA (14) 1 Paladin Weapon Focus (Falchion), Power Attack 2 Paladin 3 Paladin True Believer 4a Knight Bump STR (knight chalenge +1) 4b fighter *Improved Sunder* or *Improved Bull rush* Bump STR 5 Fighter *Power Critical* not sure of this one 6a Pious Templar Extra smiting (mettle) 6b Pious Templar Combat Brute or Shock Trooper (mettle) 7 Pious Templar 8 Pious Templar *Weapon Specialization (Falchion)* Bump STR 9a Grey Guard Melee *Imp Crit (Falchion)* 9b Pious Templar Melee Weapon Mastery (Slashing) *Imp Crit (Falchion)* 10 Grey Guard 11 Grey Guard 12a Grey Guard Melee Weapon Mastery (Slashing) Bump STR 12b Grey Guard ?? feat ?? Bump STR 13 Grey Guard 14 Grey Guard 15 Grey Guard ?? feat ?? *feat* = bonus feat I'm focusing on threat and crit to do a lot of dmg. I will smite at lvl 15 a +13 dmg 3 or 5 times depending of the build. And have lay of hand as a pal of lvl 9 or 10.
Rerednaw 03-09-07, 03:27 PM	I need your opinion about those two feet... which one will I use more often ? Could it be a good thing to take none of them to have extra smite ? If a choose extra smiting I have a bonus fighter feet available. is there any good fighter feat ? ... I find Shock Trooper to be of greater utility right off. You have a damage bonus (granted it requires a charge) that doesn't ding your to-hit roll. Plus it works on any critter. So constructs, animals, etc. are effected whereas smite is more situational. Combat Brute doesn't give you any kind of to-hit benefit to counter the penalty you take for power attack unless you Bull Rush first. Plus since the big combo takes 2 rounds (round 1 charge, round 2 power attack) it adds more uncertainty as to whether the combo will go off. I think it works better with the Goad ability.
jstorrie 03-09-07, 03:53 PM	Shock Trooper's Domino Rush ability is also very useful, especially for characters without the Int for Improved Trip.
Munkwunk 03-09-07, 11:15 PM	I use both, but I'm a barbarian who's focused on that sort of thing. As a paladin, it's hard to say. Shock Trooper is nice, but are you trying for a high AC / tank build at all? If so, avoid Shock Trooper like the plague; let someone else handle the bull rush/battlefield control aspects that it grants, since those dont' come up all that often anyway. If you're willing to take a few hits, and use Shock Trooper intelligently (i.e. don't charge gigantic hitty things just because you have a line on them) then you can make it work to your advantage. Especially when you're using a falchion for a high crit chance, being able to power attack for full every so often will occasionally mean some *hugE* crits. Combat Brute isn't terribly useful unless you're okay with the party yelling at you from time-to-time for destroying their treasure, because Sundering Cleave is seriously the best aspect of that feat. The x3 Power Attack on the round after you charged honestly doesn't come up that often, but if you have both Shock Trooper AND Combat Brute it can be a very nice combination. It's still hard to say which you should use as a paladin-type instead of a barbarian-type though. Overall, I'd say Shock Trooper is the mroe useful feat if you're set on getting only one of the two, since Improved Bull Rush and Domino Rush can be really cool combat options when used at just the right time.
Timlagor 03-10-07, 06:18 PM	I'd go with Paladin 4: TURNING Divine Might (probably -but possibly something else like the DR one) Extra Smite Improved Critical (or just get a keen weapon) Weapon Mastery asap NOT power critical (it's the +4 to confirm right?) More Smites will never hurt if there are leftover Feats but I've lost track. Shock Trooper towards the end of your career might be a good plan but Extra Turning and Extra Smite are very nice too.