I'm confused about this statement. As you suggesting she would be better off focusing on casting? Battle Blessing is an option at higher levels certainly. Also a paladin WILL eventually feel useless as compared to full casters.
I assume a +2 Item eventually if she is interested in spells or a cleric dip. Paladin spells ARE weak enough, however, that spell-less version is an option especially if the campaign won't go into higher levels. And yes, a crusader would work even better with these feats because of thicket of blades, why does this make it worse for a paladin?
The reason you're confused about that statement is because you're reading it as is. I'm not saying she should focus on casting. However, IF you take paladin and IF you take cleric and IF you have
WIS 8 what's the point? Why eventually feel useless compared to full casters when you can be useless now and forever? I don't get it. Have at least 10 so you can attempt 0th level spells. And even with a "+2 item eventually" that's still only 10 if you have an 8 WIS. So again, useless. you need a +4, or a +2 and your 4th level stat point going with WIS. So, either take a Priest feat, or don't give them a low WIS, or don't go cleric and just be a non-casting paladin (which is useless and you should be playing something else).
@ Havok4 -- No binder.
@ ninjarabbit -- No halfling. She wants human. And Ride, and Handle Animal are being traded out since she's not going mount.
@ McPoyo -- Here's the story if I didn't say it before. She's a friend that's played other games before. Her favorite being Maple Story, which she's played for the last seven years.
I needed more players, and she had mentioned that she was bored and looking for something new to get involved with. She's never done D&D, and was originally quite intimidated by the fact that it's a lot more involved for RPing than she's ever done before. That's not to say she doesn't know what D&D is, or that she doesn't know what kind of character classes are available. She knows a little about that thanks to Never Winter Knights.
To put her more at ease, I talked to her about the other players, and what they played, and how they were all knew. Everyone last one of them was green, and three of them were as green as her. This put her at more of an ease, but she worried that she wouldn't be able to play something that she's always enjoyed the concept of. The white knight. I was quite okay with that, and told her about the fighter, crusader, and even the actual knight class. None of them were what she was looking for. She wanted to play a white knight ala the paladin class, but without the stick up its @$$. So I showed her the paladin of freedom. Once she read it, she said that it was perfect for her. She could have the glistening white armour, the shiny sword, and the shield with her kingdom's emblem on it. She's not worried about the horse though since she can only call it once per day, and given the kind of campaign we're in, she's probably never going to use it (lots of dungeon delving).
And that's why she's taken that class.
So, looking over the suggestions...
Stats will be 16/10/14/10/16/12 and I'll be having her take Serenity at 3rd. Don't know exactly about the feats though as there were a few good ones brought up. I'll let her decide on those. This is her character after all.