I've posted in the official DDO forums about my Pint-Sized Brick paladin build, and got some advice that helped me retune it. I figured since I'm here, I might as well post it here to see if it's viable for my desired role or if there's more retuning I can do to make it better at its intended goal.

Goals:
- Halfling Intimitank with self-sufficiency and the ability to UMD scrolls like Heal and Rez
- Uses THF to maintain enemy aggro after acquiring it, or to get enemy attention if skillcheck is failed

Here's an attempt at an easier to read format of the build planner's output:

Pint-Sized Brick
Level 20 Lawful Good Halfling Male
(1 Fighter / 18 Paladin / 1 Rogue)
Hit Points: 348
Spell Points: 205

BAB: 19/19/24/2929
Fortitude: 24
Reflex: 16
Will: 14

                Starting    Feat/Enhancement
Abilities    Base Stats    Modified Stats
(32 Point)    (Level 1)      (Level 20)
Strength           14                19
Dexterity          10                10
Constitution       16                16
Intelligence       14                14
Wisdom              8                 8
Charisma           14                16

              Starting      Feat/Enhancement
             Base Skills  Modified Skills
Skills       (Level 1)      (Level 20)
Balance            4              5
Bluff              2              3
Concentration      3              6
Diplomacy          2              3
Disable Device     n/a            n/a
Haggle             6              7
Heal               -1             -1
Hide               1              5
Intimidate         6              30
Jump               6              10
Listen             3              5
Move Silently      2              4
Open Lock          4              4
Perform            n/a            n/a
Repair             2              2
Search             6              6
Spot               3              3
Swim               2              4
Tumble             1              1
Use Magic Device   6              26

Feats:

Level 1(Selected): Toughness
Level 3(Selected): Power Attack
Level 4(Fighter): Two-Handed Fighting
Level 6(Selected): Bullheaded
Level 9(Selected): IC Slashing
Level 12(Selected): Improved THF
Level 15(Selected): Quicken Spell
Level 18(Selected): Greater THF

Levels

Level 1: Rogue
Level 2-3: Paladin
Level 4: Fighter
Level 5-20: Paladin

Enhancements: (Highest Tiers Shown)

Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Fighter Attack Boost I
Rogue Damage Boost I
Fighter Haste Boost I
Rogue Skill Boost I
Unyielding Sovereignty
Follower of the Sovereign Host
Fighter Armored Agility I
Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Paladin Item Defense I
Paladin Courage of Good I
Paladin Bulwark of Good III
Paladin Focus of Good I
Paladin Resistance of Good III
Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Paladin Exalted Smite I
Paladin Extra Lay on Hands III
Paladin Extra Smite Evil II
Paladin Defender of Siberys III
Paladin Redemption II
Paladin: Rally
Racial Toughness II
Rogue Balance I
Fighter Intimidate I
Paladin Devotion III
Paladin Charisma II
Paladin Toughness III
Paladin Divine Light II


Rogue @1 for full ranks in UMD and Intimidate, as well as extra skills in general
Fighter @4 is because I get my first level-up str increase, which'd unlock THF.
Paladin is...his main class, for DoS and the survival goodies the class in general gets.

You'll note I have not applied tomes or items into this build. That's because I'm not gonna get my hopes up in getting any tomes so I figure it's best to calculate without them and if I do pull some, hey bonus. However, I do intend to hit Orchards as soon as I'm 11(even if it is a level 14 area), so you can more or less guarantee +20 HP from gear Toughness. Other gear options will depend on what I can get from questing/raiding.

Bullheaded is for the +1 willsave and +2 intimidate, but I am flexible if a better feat is suggested for this spot. Maybe Skill focus intimidate to completely negate the halfling size nerf with the fighter enhancement? I dunno, but maybe you guys do. Quicken is for healing amd such during battle, as it says it makes spells uninterrupted and I don't have enough skillpoints for concentration after the two main build skills.

Thoughts? Comments? Ways to make him better at what I want?

Quote:


1 rogue/1 fighter was suggested as a possible middle ground between fighter 2 or rogue 2, allowing intimidate, UMD, and extra feat...plus that attack speed boost. It also allowed points for a few extra skills that I figured could help.

I was not aware that I did not need all 23 ranks in UMD to be useful. That's good to know as that means I can put points in balance or something else equally useful in combat.

Quote:


Why is it practically every other newbie/novice/whatever gets yelled at for more con but I get told to put less? Lol, that's the second time I got told to lower my con(original buildplan had final con of 18). I thought having high HP is supposed to be good for melee/tank toons. Maybe I'm overestimating the importance of HP in raids/epics/other high level quests.

As far as THF, I took that because Falchions are supposed to be the best pally weapon from what I've read, with scimitars close behind for TWF variants. Plus the whole two handed weapons get more str bonus which'd help counter halfling racial nerf. Is their -2 str really a big deal to worry about or am I safe to go TWF to take proper advantage of +2 dex(aka will TWF do more dps and thus hate than THF)?

Quote:


Quicken is so I can cast healing spells on myself without worrying about concentration checks when I'm being wailed on by monsters. I've read somewhere pallies were the last on the healer's priorities to heal since they have their own healing. Not sure if that applies as much at high levels or what, so better safe than sorry is my reasoning there.

Quote:


Devotion helps with my healing and is a prereq to the "Oh shit" button called Redemption.

I don't think Divine Light is a prereq for Siberys; I may have grabbed that afterwards in the planner to be more useful versus undeads. I can probably drop it and some of the other useless extras for the suggested stuff. Though if I go TWF the higher dex would make armored agility somewhat useful, and the crit+ one seems like a good idea for paladins based on the apparent reason falchions/scimitars are good for pallies. Is that one not as good as it seems or what?

Tydeth wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 12:08pm:


Unless you are going for a healing amp build your healing spells will not help much. Use them to top off or bring someone out of incap but thats it. There is better things for a pally to spend mana on. If you plan on a high UMD then learn to back off and scroll a heal(which is not effected by quicken). LoH is what you use for your Oh Shit button. Not cure mod.

You're not going to get much mileage out of your SP for healing purposes.  Paladins are only meant to heal in Oh Shit moments, and they have LOH and Unyielding Sovereignty for that.  You'll find that even with archmagi and a shroud SP/cha skills item, most of your SP will be used up by resists, zeal, and divine favor.  Your job is to tank and do dps - focus on that and let the healers focus on healing.

And yes, you should either take 2 rogue for evasion, or 2 fighter for the feats.  Splitting it up 1/1 only waters down each option.  In DDO it nearly always pays to specialize rather than try to split the difference.

Tydeth wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 12:38pm:


The Redemption ability has always seemed like a waste of enhancement points.  If you have the UMD to use Raise Dead scrolls, why dump AP into a similar ability?  If anything, find a way to pump your UMD a bit higher, and Resurrection Scrolls are available to you. 

Feat-wise, I think some of Junt's builds use Quicken - I've preferred Extend.  Extend does mean your Zeal/Divine favors last long enough for you to pop Madstone in between casts, but also means that you can cast the longer duration spells extended if need be (sometimes, it pays to cast extended fire resist, w/e).  Other feat choices of course are Skill Focus : Intimidate or UMD, or maybe another Toughness feat?  Beefiness is nice.

Why are you going Halfling for an intim build, anyway?  You'll take a -4 Penalty due to size, and you miss out on all the smexy feats/enhancements human can give you.

Also, two-handed line.. why?  To proc glancing blows as you Sword and Board with Bastard Swords would have been my first guess, but I don't see that feat anywhere.  Really if you plan on Intiming a lot, feats that include your blocking DR may be more viable.

Tydeth wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 12:38pm:


If you spec umd yes healing will be viable via scrolls. Extend is a good choice for stuff like resistances and zeal and prolly a few other pally spells( have not played one in quite a while. cant remember all the spells) both of which are a better use of sp than cmw.

You can make dex 15 and get a +2 tome. Extend is ok for resists, but I don't think it is a must have, as you have a shrine every 11 feet.

stainer wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 2:58pm:


But he can use it to extend Zeal which iirc gives an extra boost to your attack speed that stacks with fighter haste boost.

Where could I find +2 tomes prior to level 12?


I'll swap the extend and SF:UMD then.

Khaldan wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 3:07pm:


Zeal is a lvl 4 pally spell. So I am pretty sure( like I said I've not logged on my pally in a while) it costs more than the 10 extra sp extend costs.

So sp useage:

Zeal+Zeal > Zeal+Extend

I'd rather go for extended Zeal. I can put up longer and keep it for less sp to maximize DPS and minimize sp usage.

Tydeth wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 3:34pm:


You have a ways before you start hitting those quests.

Khaldan wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 3:07pm:


Madstone Procs for two minutes.  Madstone is a clicky of two minutes.

A lot of people that take Extend base it solely on this fact.  You can do extended Divine Favor and Zeal (Bonus to Attack and Damage, Bonus to Double-Strike), then switch to Madstones.  When you see your buffs are nearing two minutes left, you take the Madstones back off.  If you get good at it, you're Madstoned for all but a few seconds, cast those and any other spells you may find necessary, and get back to the killin'. 

Or... you don't have Extend, and for part of the two minutes of being Madstoned, you're not as effective, DPS wise, as you could be.

^^^ All that's solely based on those boots.

You can also take into account that most (good) parties can 1-round Arraetrikos in Shroud, or kill other raid bosses in similar times.  An extended Divine Favor + Zeal combo will cover you for a lot of these sort of things; their regular spell durations, however, tend not to.

tl;dr - not a necessity.  But there's a reason that many end up taking it.

And yes, drop the Dex down, figure out a way to get some tomes up in the build.  Worst case scenario?  Farm Bloodstones/Taps or something, make some plat, buy one off the AH.