PvM Holy Smiter - Single Target Damage Dealer - Paladin 12 / Champion of Torm 24 / Fighter 4

[Dyndrilliac]

This is the first build I've ever posted here, but it is one of my favorites since I began playing the game well over a decade ago. It begins with Paladin, then goes into Champion of Torm, with a short dip in Fighter for Weapon Specialization. You can add Paladin levels and subtract Champion of Torm levels at your convenience (or even drop Fighter completely and go without Weapon Specialization). Paladin 12 is enough for access to 3rd-level Cleric spells, and I have an item that also grants me a 4th-level spell slot. I am currently playing this build with the character Uther Pendragon (currently level 24 - P 12 / CoT 8 / F 4), and he has been able to solo all of the PvM content thus far somewhat easily. He's done all the quests he has access to up to CR 35 (the next lowest CR quest in my journal is the Salt Mines quest, CR 35, in Oasis). The idea is focus on Smites, Power Attack, and stacking divine damage with Divine Might, while increasing survivability with Paladin spell buffs and using Divine Shield to keep AC high enough to not get totally shredded in return. Has decent AC, AB, hitpoints, and saves but I'm sure other more specialized builds could do better. This guy is a generalist front-liner, able to handle all front-line melee roles somewhat adequately, but struggles the more foes he has to fight at one time. This will also struggle with high CR enemies of non-evil alignment, due to not being able to Smite. This is easily playable 1 - 40.

Race: Human

Alignment: Lawful Good

Starting stats: 14 STR / 8 DEX / 14 CON / 10 INT / 14 WIS / 16 CHA. Dump all increases into CHA. Prioritize item-based stat enhancements in this order: CHA, STR, CON, WIS, DEX, INT.

Skill progression: Max Discipline, Ride (swap for Heal or Persuade if not using Mounted Combat feat - see below), and Taunt. Maybe swap out Taunt for Spot (which is class skill for CoT but not Fighter or Paladin) if paranoid about pickpockets/assassins or other hidden foes. Just save points on Fighter/Paladin level-ups and make sure your last level-up at 40 is CoT to make sure you can max Spot if desired.

Feat progression:

Note for overall level progression: Paladin 1-9, CoT 10-11, P 12, CoT 13-14, P 15, CoT 16-17, P 18, CoT 19-20, Fighter 21-24, CoT 25-40.

Paladin 1: Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Longsword)
Paladin 3: Cleave
Paladin 6: Great Cleave
Paladin 9: Extra Turning
Champion of Torm 11: Improved Critical (Longsword)
Paladin 12: Divine Might
Champion of Torm 14: Improved Power Attack
Paladin 15: Divine Shield
Champion of Torm 17: Blind Fight
Paladin 18: Extra Smiting
Champion of Torm 20: Knockdown
Fighter 21: Epic Weapon Focus (Longsword), Armor Skin
Fighter 22: Mounted Combat (can swap for Epic Prowess or whatever if you don't want to play a mounted character - see above for alternatives for Ride skill)
Fighter 24: Weapon Specialization (Longsword), Epic Weapon Specialization (Longsword)
Champion of Torm 26: Great Charisma I
Champion of Torm 27: Great Charisma II
Champion of Torm 28: Great Smiting I
Champion of Torm 30: Great Smiting II, Great Smiting III
Champion of Torm 32: Great Smiting IV
Champion of Torm 33: Great Smiting V
Champion of Torm 34: Great Smiting VI
Champion of Torm 36: Great Smiting VII, Great Smiting VIII
Champion of Torm 38: Great Smiting IX
Champion of Torm 39: Great Smiting X

Note that the goal above is to reach CHA 25 by level 28 so we can begin investing in Great Smiting so we will get all Great Smiting feats by level 40 thanks to CoT bonus feats (which includes Great Smiting at epic levels) that we get on all the even levels, and on all the levels evenly divisible by 3 we get our regular feats. With all epic Great Smiting feats, we will Smite Evil for an additional whopping 396 divine damage. It would be 440 if we didn't take those 4 levels in Fighter, but Weapon Specialization is important for all those times you're fighting a neutral enemy that you can't smite. Note to PvPers: You do not want to be of Evil alignment and go up against this thing in the arena unless you can end the fight before they get into melee range or have well over 1K hit points! Note that neither gear nor spells typically offer resistance against Divine typed damage.

Note that we get 3 smites per rest with Extra Smiting. A good trick to make sure you don't waste it on a neutral mob is to hit them with a Holy Avenger sword, which does 1d6 Divine damage to only evil aligned creatures. So hit them, look for between 1 and 6 Divine damage, and only then Smite (unless you've smote that mob type before successfully, obviously ).

Spell choices:

1: 2x Endure Elements
2: 1x Bull's Strength, 1x Eagle's Endurance
3: 1x Magic Circle Against Evil
4: 1x Death Ward

I know lots of people suggest Extend spell, but the already long-lasting buffs I tend to favor like the above already last me longer than I have to go between rests typically.

Gear/Itemization priorities: AC, CHA, STR/AB/DMG, Haste, Holy Avenger, Resistances/Immunities, Saving Throws, Keen, Massive Criticals, Regeneration.

Once I hit 40 with it I will come back and update with resting/naked stats, pre-buffed stats, and post-buffed stats for 40.

[Dyndrilliac]

Some Minor Corrections (caught too late to edit)

So when I wrote this up, I forgot only Great Wisdom is on the Champion of Torm bonus feat list - not Great Charisma. So things need to be re-arranged to make sure you can hit CHA 25 by level 28. My recommendation is to take Great Charisma I at 21 along with Epic Weapon Focus (Longsword), take Armor Skin instead of Epic Weapon Specialization (Longsword) at 24, and then take Epic Weapon Specialization (Longsword) at 26, which is on the Champion of Torm's bonus feat list. Only regular/non-epic Weapon Specialization must be taken on a Fighter level.

Sorry for the mix up!

[Dyndrilliac]

Another Correction

Apparently Champion of Torm only gets bonus feats every 4 levels after their 10th level (before that it is every 2 levels). This means with the build I have above, you will only get enough bonus feats to hit Great Smiting VII (7). You miss out on 8, 9, and 10. That's a loss of 108 Smite damage (36 x 8 compared to 36 x 11).

I think the best way to mitigate is by adjusting starting stats so you can hit 25 CHA faster and start developing Great Smiting earlier. To that end, I recommend changing CON from 14 to 12, losing 1 HP per level, and also change INT from 10 to 8. This allows you to start with 18 CHA instead of 16 CHA, meaning you can now hit CHA 25 by level 24 with just one Great Charisma feat. Drop the Mounted Combat feat at Fighter 22 and the Ride skill - max Discipline and either Taunt or Spot. For Persuade you're better off just coasting off your high CHA bonus, enhanced by Eagle's Splendor. Number one drawback of doing this is that starting with less than 9 INT means you can't use scrolls I think, which is bad because that was your only way to reliably access Raise Dead and other res spell options.