Mercurial's Paladin

Summary
Mercurial, from the paizo messageboards, designed this build. The build is largely from Mercurial's post here. Much of the text of this page is from that post. Although a good build, Mercurial's Paladin is not optimized for combat, but has plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

Attributes
25 point build STR - 16 (+2 racial bonus, +1 at 4th and 8th level, +2 at 11th, 15th and 17th level) INT - 10 WIS - 8 DEX - 12 CON - 14 CHA - 16 (+1 at 12th, 16th and 20th level)

Skills
From Mercurial: "Intimidate +1 every level

Survival +1 every level Knowledge: Religion +1 every odd level Diplomacy +1 every even level

I don't worry about Perception because pretty much everyone else in my party has it and mine would be the lowest anyway (Wisdom penalty). Diplomacy and Knowledge were taken because they are appropriate to a Paladin, but mine isn't especially good at it, having spent most of his life away from society fighting evil."

Traits
Bully (+1 Intimidate, Intimidate is a class Skill) Poverty Stricken (+1 Survival, Survival is a class Skill)

Spells A little bit of advice on spells - take full advantage of those you can cast as swift or immediate actions. Heroe's Defiance should be the first spell you take (and probably the second as well) to make yourself almost unkillable, then consider Grace (1st), Divine Favor (1st), Litany of Righteousness (2nd), Paladin's Sacrifice (2nd), Blessing of Fervor (3rd - granted by Vengeance Archetype and a great spell), Sanctify Armor (3rd) and Shield of the Dawnflower (4th).

How to Play

I took Deadly Aim to help balance him out a little when dealing with things at range - remember, you can Smite with a bow too and not every situation allows you to close to melee range in order to get your full attack action.

Find out if your GM allows the trait Opportunistic Gambler (an Adventure Path trait) because if so it will allow you to use Touch of Rage on yourself and have the effects linger for 1d4 rounds afterwards. Very potent, especially when dealing with non-evil foes.

You might get some advice to take 'Quicken Spell-Like Ability' to use with Touch of Rage or Power of Giants, but I'd stay away from that controversy if I were you. I'd also stay away from Sacred Servant.

The character background was a kid who grew up as an urchin on the streets, bigger and stronger than the others and forced to do what was necessary to survive (hence the Bully and Poverty Stricken traits), until he found God that is.

Intimidate with Intimidating Prowess and Dreadful Carnage means that the first thing you kill will inflict the Shaken condition on everything on the battlefield for the rest of the fight. That's -2 to attacks and -2 to saves among other things every fight which can be very big and doesn't even cost you an action to perform.

What he looks like at Level...

Drawbacks