Being in human form affords you the chance to face several black phantoms who will first drop their weapons, and then, once the boss of the area is killed, their bodies will spawn somewhere with their armor on it. This also works for [spoiler]Yurt of Carim. If you let him kill the flame keeper at fire link shrine and loot the Black Eye Stone from her corpse you can take it to Anor Londo, where, when you reach the area outside Abbot and Costello's room will resonate, and allow you to invade his world as a blue vengeance phantom. After killing him and then the boss his corpse will appear on the top floor of the boss room, opposite the bonfire, near the windows, with all of his gear, including weapons, armor set, and badass ring[/spoiler]
Paladin Leeroy (yeaaahh) lets you play out any Garl Vinland fantasy you may have, with his giant, faith and strength scaling hammer. His whole set is perfect for a str/faith (vit and end go without saying) build. Go Sun-Bro and you can just be straight up Thor. NG+ Sun-Bros get to throw real god bolts.