No Compromises - 23 Pal / 2 Brd / 15 RDD

[darkwaffle]

What you're building...

[/size]


The Essentials

• 96 AB
  
• 120+ AC
  
• 1000 HP
  
• 100% Fire Immune
  
• 25% Elec Immune
  
• Levitation
  
• 60+ all saves
  
• Uni stats (Immune to Narzugon, Advespa, Erinyes effects, 60%+ chance vs Male KD)
  
• Fear, Disease, Sleep, Paralyze immunities
  
• Default RDD path (No tower visit needed)
  
• UMD Access
  
• Crit Immunity with Death Ward

How To Build It

• Character Creation
  
  Race: Human
  Subrace: "PT - Air Genasi"
  Class: Paladin
  Feat: "Power Attack"
  Feat: "Cleave"
  
  

  	Creation	With Subrace
  Str	16	16
  Dex	14	16
  Con	14	14
  Int	8	10
  Wis	14	12
  Cha	10	8

How To Level It

• Between levels 20-21, 21-37, and 39-40 you will need to make Lawful/Chaotic alignment shifts. Probably the most efficient way to do this is to reach level 20, then hold your levels until you are at 231,000+ experience points. Then 'do dat ting in dat place' to become Chaotic, take your Bard level, 'undo dat ting in dat place' to become Lawful again, take your RDD level and you can continue levelling uninterrupted until you have to take your second and last Bard level. At that point you can stay Chaotic because Legendary Levelling does not respect required alignments and as long as you are "Good" you will maintain your +Charisma mod to saves bonus.
  
  
• Skill points are tight, make sure you wait until legendary to get Concentration so that you can max UMD and get enough Tumble at 40. Prior to that though feel free to skill up Discipline any chance you get.
  
  

  Level	Class	Ability Points	Feats	Skills
  1	Paladin		Power Attack Cleave
  2	Paladin
  3	Paladin		Great Cleave
  4	Paladin	+1 Strength
  5	Paladin
  6	Paladin		Weapon Focus: Light Flail
  7	Paladin
  8	Paladin	+1 Strength
  9	Paladin		Improved Critical: Light Flail
  10	Paladin
  11	Paladin
  12	Paladin	+1 Wisdom	Blind Fight
  13	Paladin
  14	Paladin
  15	Paladin		Metamagic: Extend Spell
  16	Paladin	+1 Wisdom
  17	Paladin
  18	Paladin		Greater Weapon Focus: Light Flail
  19	Paladin
  20	Paladin	+1 Strength		23 Discipline
  21	Bard		Epic Weapon Focus: Light Flail	8 Lore 24 Tumble
  22	RDD
  23	RDD
  24	RDD	+1 Strength	Great Dexterity 1
  25	RDD
  26	RDD
  27	RDD		Overwhelming Critical: Light Flail
  28	RDD	+1 Strength
  29	RDD
  30	RDD		Devastating Critical: Light Flail
  31	RDD
  32	RDD	+1 Strength
  33	RDD		Great Dexterity 2
  34	RDD
  35	RDD		Armor Skin (RDD feat)
  36	RDD	+1 Strength	Great Dexterity 3
  37	Paladin
  38	Paladin
  39	Paladin		Great Dexterity 4 Epic Prowess (Paladin feat)
  40	Bard	+1 Strength		43 Use Magic Device 35 Tumble
  41	Paladin
  42	Paladin	+1 Strength	Legendary Weapon Focus: Light Flail
  43	Paladin
  44	Paladin	+1 Strength
  45	Paladin		Great Dexterity 5
  46	Paladin	+1 Strength
  47	Paladin
  48	Paladin	+1 Strength	Great Dexterity 6
  49	Paladin
  50	Paladin	+1 Strength
  51	Paladin		Great Dexterity 7
  52	Paladin	+1 Strength
  53	Paladin
  54	Paladin	+1 Strength	Great Dexterity 8
  55	Paladin
  56	Paladin	+1 Strength
  57	Paladin		Divine Might
  58	Paladin	+1 Strength
  59	Paladin
  60	Paladin	+1 Strength	Epic Will	63 Discipline 63 Concentration X Craft Armor

Why You're Building It

• Discipline - Mandatory, prevents many slag (eg: equipment destruction) effects and is a component to some disarm or KD checks.
  
• Concentration - Prevents disarm, daze, and other effects. Allows casting when under attack.
  
• Tumble - Increases AC, prevents extra attacks of opportunity. Affects some KD checks. Only 35 is required because your (Tumble AC) + (RDD AC) + (PaleMaster AC) cannot be greater than 12. So with 5 AC from 15 RDD levels, you can earn up to 7 AC from Tumble, therefore 35.
  
• Use Magic Device - Required for non sorcerors and non wizards to cast arcane scrolls. The ability to use Black Blades of Disaster as distractions, Mordenkainen's Disjunction to breach and lower SR, and Greater Sanctuary to escape is invaluable.
  
  
• Light Flail - Bludgeoning is generally the most favorable physical damage in Hells and there's less competition for a Light Flail compared to more popular choices like Katanas and Bastard Swords.
  
• Epic Will - Pushes your will save over the crucial 60 threshold. When in doubt, more saves is always better but aiming to reach at least 60 in each is a good place to start to keep your character standing.
  
• Divine Might - This feat must be taken at later legendary levels to capitalize on the bonus Str and Cha scores paladins earn every 5 legendary levels, totalling +4. Only then will you meet the necessary Charisma requirements for it.

Why So Much Dex?

• One of the keystones of Higher Grounds is the prevalence of ability score checks made by enemies. These work like saving throw rolls, but use your Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha scores instead of your saves. In short, having high saves is not always enough. The reason for the Dexterity increase is to prevent the character from being knocked down or dominated by enemies like Narzugons, Erinyes, and Advespas. There are some of these checks in other legendary areas, but Hell and Abyss especially puts a great deal of emphasis on them. Ensuring you can withstand most of these checks is important to both you and your party's survival.

RDD Rundown

• RDD has seen a lot of changes on HG, but the short and the long of it are this. This build will be a Red Dragon Disciple, so no color change is necessary.
  
  • Ability to become black, red, green, white or blue dragon disciple (with corresponding immunities)
    
  • +1 Natural AC every 3 levels
    
  • RDD AC reduces the AC you receive from Tumble
    
  • 10% immunity at level 4, scaling to 100% at level 13
    
  • Modified ability increases (+2 Str at 2, +2 Str at 4, +2 Str at 15)

The End Result

[/td][td]Base[/td][td]Geared (+12)[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Str[/td][td]44[/td][td]56[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Dex[/td][td]24[/td][td]36[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Con[/td][td]16[/td][td]28[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Int[/td][td]12[/td][td]24[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Wis[/td][td]14[/td][td]26[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Cha[/td][td]14[/td][td]26[/td][/tr]
[/table]

	Base	Geared (+20)
Fort	44	64
Reflex	42	62
Will	41	61

[li]AB = BAB + LBAB + Ability Mod + Magical + Feats
[/li][li]30 + 15 + 23 + 20 + 1 (WF) + 2 (EWF) + 2 (Prowess) + 2 (LWF) + 1 (GWF) = 96

[/li][li]AC = 10 + Armor + Armor Base + Shield + Shield Base + Dodge + Deflection + Natural + Dex Mod + Tumble AC + RDD AC + Feats
[/li][li]10 + 18 + 8 + 13 + 3 + 20 + 16 + 16 + 1 + 7 + 5 + 2 = 119 (Tower Shield & Full Plate)
[/li][li]AC will range from 119 - 126 early on. Look for Ultrarare items randomized up to +17 AC and consider a Large Shield and Medium Armor to get into the 120s.[/li][/ul]


Gearing Up (in rough order of priority)

• Item featuring "Poison" immunity (high priority in Hell, less so elsewhere)
  
• +14 Str, +14 Dex, +14 Con, +14 Cha items
  
• Armor pieces with increased Elemental and Physical % Immunities
  
• Armor pieces with increased AC values
  
• Elemental and physical resistances (30/- and higher ideal)
  
• Mordenkainen's Disjunction / Breach Immunity (Only needed on certain runs, don't be afraid to ask. Not getting dispelled makes it much easier to stay alive.)
  
• Bonus paladin spell slots

Know Your Role

• Priority Targets (hell) - Bueroza, Pit Fiends, Malebranches, Advespa, Narzugon, Cornugon, Gelugon, Amnizu; enemies that are not so easily dealt with by your casters are generally good targets to focus.
  
• Death Ward provides you Critical Hit Immunity. This is extremely important, keep it up as often as possible and beware dispel effects removing it.
  
• Freedom of Movement will let you move faster and provide you with some extra spell immunities, convenient and useful. Highly recommended.
  
• Try to position yourself between the enemy and your party. AI in this game likes to attack what's closest.
  
• Don't forget Bless Weapon for bonus Divine damage on you and your party's weapons.
  
• Holy Sword breaches enemies on-hit, it is incredibly potent and quite important against enemies with many buffs (Rakshasas, Ice Fiends, Aboleths).
  
• Keep Divine Might, Divine Favor, and Prayer up as often as possible. Collectively they will net you almost 20 damage per swing.
  
• Many enemies inflict vulnerabilities, meaning you'll start to take more and more damage from them over time. Restore yourself often. Paladins have the benefit of "swift" (instant) lesser restores, you may want to take advantage of this.
  
• Sometimes resurrecting your teammates and picking them up off the ground (Radial Menu -> Special Abilities -> Main Class -> Assist Other) is more important than swinging your weapon. If many party members are down, give them a hand.

Partying

• Be polite and reasonable when asking for buffs. Don't try to make your caster buff every last weapon in your pack.
  
  • Undeath's Eternal Foe - Dodge AC and immunities
    
  • Aura of Vitality - Dodge AC
    
  • Bard Song - Some of everything
    
  • Weapon buffs corresponding to the damage types on your weapon
    
  • Displacement or Mass Camouflage - Conceal
    
    
  • Epic Spells - Casters receive powerful buffs through their epic spells. Most will wait until their parties are all on the same map before using them, so try not to hold them up; they're important to everyone.
    
    
    • Girding - If a cleric is about to cast girding, make sure you have your shield equipped; even if you take it off again it will retain the AC bonus.
      
    • Instruments of Faith - Another cleric epic, will provide your weapons with +16 enhancement bonus, the highest available. If you have multiple weapons, it's a good idea to dual wield them so that you have two +16 weapons available. However, you are unable to equip a light flail in your offhand so this may not apply.

Know your Weapon

• When venturing into hell, consider paying a visit to the Alchemist in town to re-tool your weapon; he'll explain how it's done. Not all damage types are created equal, and you'll start see that "Superior" and "Elite" enemy types all will heal off a certain element, so be careful of that. Many parties will warn you if enemies are being healed as well.
  
  Order of Preference
  
  • Divine
    
  • Cold
    
  • Sonic
    
  • Acid
    
  • Electric
    
  • Magic/Positive/Fire/Negative
  
  
  
• Basically if you can get a weapon with the first 4 types you'll do pretty well, and the enemies that heal off of them are not especially common or dangerous in most cases. Magic/Positive/Negative are kind of a difficult choice because they aren't that widely effective in Hell, while Fire and Elec will heal Pit Fiends and Malebranches respectively, so basically take your pick of the litter and just be careful of what you can and can't hit. It never hurts to ask and keep backup weapons.

Looking Forward

• There are many UR and BUR subraces which would be of benefit to this build, though they will also require some re-tooling of the ability points especially. Even some secret ones could fit nicely. Keep your eye out for the following...
  
  Secret
  
  • Kurai
    
  • Prismatic
  
  
  Ultrarare
  
  • Baseborn Titan
    
  • Dragonblooded
    
  • Planewalker
  
  
  Beyond Ultrarare
  
  • Cambion
    
  • Half-Guardinal
    
  • Pharlan
    
  • Hound Archon
    
  • Half Kyton
    
  • Salamander
  
  
  Beyond Ultrarare Gearing
  
  • Heavenly Haunt's Necklace - 17 AC & Confusion Immunity (necessary for some bosses and enemies)
    
  • Visor of Vigilance - Str/Wis/Cha, and prevents enemies from having +2 AB when flanking you
    
  • Strongheart - Amulet from Phlegethos, 20AC and physical resists and immunities
    
  • Orb of Dragonkind - Constitution Artifact, +2 con permanently, and perfect "Poison" immunity; awesome tank artifact
    
  • BUR Shields - Very strong items, look for those with increased Elemental Immunities. Tower shields are "Pyroclastic Flow" and "Wings of the Storm". Large shields are "Benediction", "Bastion of Cormyr", and "Arcadian Fire."
    
  • Carapace of Smoldering Stone - Well rounded heavy armor, use with a tower shield, look for improved physical/elemental immunities.
    
  • Links of Binding / Halomesh Hauberk - BUR medium armors, use with a large shield and again look for improved immunities.
    
  • Rings - Extremely important pieces of gear, rings tend to cover your elemental immunities in large chunks. Look for any with high percentages and try to cover Acid/Elec/Cold/Sonic as much as possible. Remember, you're 100% immune to fire so don't need any fire immunity or resist at all.
    

Questions and comments are welcome.

Remember, you'll find that simply being willing to learn and polite will get you a long way with most players here.

[tyranlthixis]

Immunities are a nice bonus for new players and features way of using RDD to "get rid" of non half dragon vulnerabilities. I really think the AB should be closer to 100 AB on a build like this (it would extend the life of the build). Players will like a self buffing tank and paladin class bonuses. Extra information is useful, but you need a feat list. The amount of information does meet minimum standards. Color/font size changes would make the build a little more readable. Expanding your open paragraph with more description would be a nice touch.