Good multi-class options for Paladins

[Fain]

I'm 4 levels into Paladin and am interested in branching out into other classes. Fighters seem to make sense, my guy will be a front liner, but how deep do I go? Any other interesting combos? I'm playing on Challenging.

[Romana]

The problem with multi-classing at all is that it dillutes both classes' abilities. Paladins smite isn't as strong if they multi-class, nor their lay on hands for instance. So going straight Paladin is perfectly fine, if usually acceptable (Most people advocate either going Pure Paladin, or just dipping into Paladin to augment another class). But for options:

Fighter is great, there's a joke that fighter is a 2 level prestige class, because both 1st and 2nd level give a bonus combat feat, so if you just want a few extra combat feats, fighter 2 is a good dip, and is probably the best one avaible.

Ranger gives favored enemies, and if you wanted to go into it heavily you can take advantage of combat styles.

Alch is an interestring consideration, while it suffers from MAD (Adding Int to the list of things you want) and slows your BaB, the mutagens can be a way to buff yourself. You wouldn't be taking it for the bombs, though, which is the main draw of alch. I haven't looked, but if Vivisectionist is an alch archtype avaible that makes the choice more appealing.

I've seen people make Paladin/Monk work, but you really have to start out knowing what you're wanting out of that mix.

Cav isn't in the game. Sad.

You -could- do rogue, I guess, for the sneak attack and skills, but I don't think it outweighs the loss of power you get for deviating from Paladin. Also it's thematically unfitting.

There's an argument to be made for Inquisitor or Cleric, but I think both are incredibly silly options.

[Fain]

Thank you Windsaver, this was very helpful!

[Sir Texas Sir]

So when did the game allow you to multi class Palidin or be one while not human? Old school D&D rules it was a human only class and you couldn't multi class. I think later they allowed the stupid half angel race to it too, but that should be it.

[wulfster42]

I believe 3 paladin levels is usually the optimum point to multi-class, but 4 can still work, and you get very little for being a pure paladin (the capstone level 20 ability may be the worst in fact, uppding their DR 5/evil to 10/evil if I remember right.....which means it's DR vs anything that isn't evil aligned that is attacking you.

A base pally in fact gets divine grace at level 2...which is a good splash for anyone that is charaisma based, adding a ton of saves. At level 3, a ranged pally (forget the name) gives precise shot to all other party members within 10 feet, which is great if you have alot of ranged based party members (bards/rogues/rangers/bow fighters/sorcs and mages with crossbows etc).

Honestly I'm not a fan of pally's though in this game. I think Crusaders do pretty much everything better (Cleric subclass).

[Winterclaw42]

Well, you could always go 6 levels of sorcerer, and then become a silver aligned draconic disciple. Is that too much of a niche RP idea for you?

I guess your best options if you don't want to go pure pally are probably either fighter so you can pick up those feats that require 2 people to have them, a cleric so you can be more of a holy agent, or bard if you want to be more of a jack-of-all-trades and party leader. If you wanted to limit yourself to chain shirts and grab 2 of those armored casting feats you can go into sorcerer because you should have the charisma for it; you wouldn't be as strong as a pure sorceror but you'd have more survivability.

[Romana]

Originally posted by Sir Texas Sir:

So when did the game allow you to multi class Palidin or be one while not human? Old school D&D rules it was a human only class and you couldn't multi class. I think later they allowed the stupid half angel race to it too, but that should be it.

3rd edition D&D was when this changed. Pathfinder isn't strictly D&D (It's D20, and made by a different company other than WotC).

Originally posted by wulfster42:

I believe 3 paladin levels is usually the optimum point to multi-class, but 4 can still work, and you get very little for being a pure paladin (the capstone level 20 ability may be the worst in fact, uppding their DR 5/evil to 10/evil if I remember right.....which means it's DR vs anything that isn't evil aligned that is attacking you.

The comment about the optimal point for dipping is correct, Paladin 2 or Paladin 3 is usually as far as people go. I dsagree regarding pure paladins, the lay on hands progression alone is worth it I feel, swift action heals on the self are greattt.