Paladin THF Pure or Splash? Race?

[Khelden]

Hello guys,
I've been wanting to create a paladin with a friend, but I just don't know what to make heh.

I want him to be THF (No TWF, 0%. I always thought the devs were drunk when they made paladin better at TWF...) and DPS-Oriented and either WF or Human. If I go WF, my friend is going to make a WF Sorc with repair enhancement, if I go human he's making a FvS... So I will pretty much have a good source of healing whatever I do.

As for the pros/cons, here were my results:
WF:
+6 damage from pAtk
+6% Glancing Blow chance [not sure if it's really that good while twitching though]
+Tons of immunities [notable immunities: Paralysis, Energy Drains, Poison]
+Docents [mid-level theres a docent with 30 resist to 3 elements... Seems kinda very good, in epic theres a docent with knockdown immunity...]
+Bladesworn

Human:
+1,5 damage from strength [+1 enhancement]
+4 dmg from human versatility [20s though]
+1 Feat
+1 Skill
+Starting stats

Then, I'm also wondering what would be the best between a 18pal/2rog or a 20 pal... I am kinda afraid that going 20 pal would hurt my survability ALOT for some damages... [I think it's 2d6 from sacrifice, 1d6-2d6 from capstone and 2 from DM4]. Also, I am not sure about the possibility of going pure pally with a WF since they are heavily stat-starved [I have acces to only tomes +2, maybe +3 someday, but +4 are totally out topic]

So as you guys can see, I am truly swimming in a pool of hesitation and some feedback from veterans paladins would be really appreciated :D

Thanks!

[Gercho]

Well, there are two things to consider, first pure vs splash, in the end is a decision you have to make between DPS and adaptability/survaibility pure will give you the most dps, and will allow you eventually to use the eSOS against the raid bosses.
/2 rogue will give you evasion and full umd, so you will get more survaibility, and adaptability, will be more solo and short man friendly than the pure paladin, but obviously will cost you some dps...

About race, well, you summarized it pretty well, the main problem of WFG is that you wont be able to qualify for a high Divine Might, the main advantages, power attack and inmunities, you dont really need the extra feat in a THF paladin, its much more important in twf for khopesh.

As a 32 point human you can go:

Str 17
dex 8
con 14
int 8
wis 8
cha 17

so, with a +3 cha tome you would eventually qualify for DMIV, with a wfg add 2 to con take 2 from cha and wis, so you lose 1 lvl of DM with the same tome.
If you go splash, then DM IV is out of the question and wfg seems to be better, yough you can drop your cha in the human and get more STR.

One more thing, in a THF the rogue splash is a little worst than in TWF since your reflex ST will be lower, you still will have good st so its not that evasion is useless, just not as good.

One more thing, in a wfg splash you may want to go with int 10 to be able to max umd. so start with con 14.

[Khurse]

It depends what you want to do.

If you and your friend are going to be 2 manning most quests, rogue skills will be useful so do the splash.
If you think you're going to be grouping and raiding at high levels, stay pure.

I have a 20 KOTC. He's not uber geared, and I'm not the best player, but his DPS is fantastic vs Evil Outsiders.
I'd much rather contribute that to a group than the ability to (maybe) take less damage from an occasional aoe attack.

Also your survivability isn't going to be greatly improved with a THF/evasion splash as I'd assume you'll be dumping dex. If you don't have the reflex save, evasion doesn't help. And if you boost dex you'll be gimping your THF damage.

[dkyle]

The only thing a THF pali has over a TWF pali in terms of DPS is the ability to use epic SoS and break pit fiend DR. You need the capstone to do that. If you're the kind of player that's willing to shoot for that, go pure.

Otherwise, well, I'd probably still go pure, but evasion could be nice. Dumping DEX isn't a big deal; if you multi rog, and get your CHA to DMIII levels, wear +CHA and +DEX items and your reflex should be fine. With +2 Dex tome, you're looking at 6 (pali) + 3 (rog) + 7 (24CHA[16base + 6 item +2 enh]) + 3 (16 DEX) + 4 (fully decked out aura) + 1 (Prayer) + 5 (resistance item) = 29 self buffed + 4 (GH) + 1 (Recitation) = 34. Not too shabby; you're typical 17 base dex TWF is only getting +3 on top of that.

Rog skill will be very difficult to keep relevant; open lock is worth putting points in, but you're not going to be getting traps unless you boost your int way up.

You can get DMIV with WF; you'll just need to put levelups in it. Those 2 levelups give you +2 damage, +1 saves if put in CHA, or +1 att,+1 dmg in STR.

[Khelden]

Hmmm, the holy sword spell doesn't make a weapon "good" aligned? Ish =/

Also, are the DPS of a paladin good enough to attend epic quests? Especially in VoN since this is what is the most ran... Because KotC won't be activated there, nor anything similar...

As for the reflex, I was considering to get a +6dex item, +5 resistances item, +aura saves and charisma... I think it would put me at ~[9[base]+3[dex]+5[res]+10[cha]+4[GH] = 31]... But I think splash 2 rogue would definitely benefit WF more, since he could use reconstruct scrolls... Human paladin would just have to use cure serious, with his insane amount of + healing it would prolly be ok.

[dkyle]

Hmmm, the holy sword spell doesn't make a weapon "good" aligned? Ish =/

Holy Sword makes unenchanted Blessed Cold Iron weapons you buy from the spell component vendors into +5 Holy Burst silver, cold iron, byeshk weapons. You can't just use it on arbitrary weapons. You can make Khopeshes and Greatswords (no Greataxe or Falchion, unfortunately). Level 20 paladins get the Weapons of Good capstone which makes all weapons wielded by the paladin count as good aligned.



Also, are the DPS of a paladin good enough to attend epic quests? Especially in VoN since this is what is the most ran... Because KotC won't be activated there, nor anything similar...

DPS isn't a big issue in epic VoN6. Velah doesn't have that many HP, and if you time properly, doesn't deal that much damage. KotC does work on the Djinns, I believe.



As for the reflex, I was considering to get a +6dex item, +5 resistances item, +aura saves and charisma... I think it would put me at ~[9[base]+3[dex]+5[res]+10[cha]+4[GH] = 31]... But I think splash 2 rogue would definitely benefit WF more, since he could use reconstruct scrolls... Human paladin would just have to use cure serious, with his insane amount of + healing it would prolly be ok.

Since you have a friend willing to play a character dedicated to healing you, why worry so much about self healing?

[Khelden]

Holy Sword makes unenchanted Blessed Cold Iron weapons you buy from the spell component vendors into +5 Holy Burst silver, cold iron, byeshk weapons. You can't just use it on arbitrary weapons. You can make Khopeshes and Greatswords (no Greataxe or Falchion, unfortunately). Level 20 paladins get the Weapons of Good capstone which makes all weapons wielded by the paladin count as good aligned.
So we can't use it on, say, shroud weapons? oO Jeez, the spell seems quite less amazing to me now...


Since you have a friend willing to play a character dedicated to healing you, why worry so much about self healing?
Well, we don't always play at the same time and I'd like to avoid being totally stuck when Im alone :P

[Gercho]

as i said, if you want more self sufficiency, go rogue splash, if you want more dps go pure... wfg vs human its just flavor and some mins and max for one or the other, but wont change the style of play or power much.

[dkyle]

So we can't use it on, say, shroud weapons? oO Jeez, the spell seems quite less amazing to me now...

Holy Sword is essentially a shroud weapon. It's about .5% less damaging than a Mineral II and breaks the same DR. Nice thing about a level 14+ pali is you don't need to craft a MinII.

A free MinII is very amazing.

[shablala]

Hello guys,
I've been wanting to create a paladin with a friend, but I just don't know what to make heh.

I want him to be THF (No TWF, 0%. I always thought the devs were drunk when they made paladin better at TWF...) and DPS-Oriented and either WF or Human. If I go WF, my friend is going to make a WF Sorc with repair enhancement, if I go human he's making a FvS... So I will pretty much have a good source of healing whatever I do.

As for the pros/cons, here were my results:
WF:
+6 damage from pAtk
+6% Glancing Blow chance [not sure if it's really that good while twitching though]
+Tons of immunities [notable immunities: Paralysis, Energy Drains, Poison]
+Docents [mid-level theres a docent with 30 resist to 3 elements... Seems kinda very good, in epic theres a docent with knockdown immunity...]
+Bladesworn

Human:
+1,5 damage from strength [+1 enhancement]
+4 dmg from human versatility [20s though]
+1 Feat
+1 Skill
+Starting stats

Then, I'm also wondering what would be the best between a 18pal/2rog or a 20 pal... I am kinda afraid that going 20 pal would hurt my survability ALOT for some damages... [I think it's 2d6 from sacrifice, 1d6-2d6 from capstone and 2 from DM4]. Also, I am not sure about the possibility of going pure pally with a WF since they are heavily stat-starved [I have acces to only tomes +2, maybe +3 someday, but +4 are totally out topic]

So as you guys can see, I am truly swimming in a pool of hesitation and some feedback from veterans paladins would be really appreciated :D

Thanks!

You forgot one of the best pros for Humans, Healing amplification. I believe it is around 40%. Add 30% healing amp from DT armor, and maybe get another GS longsword with 30% stacking amp for when you are in tank mode, and you prob can stay alive being healed with just wands and scrolls.

[Sleepingcap]

Worth taking a look at the newest build added to DDO-Daily.com - THF Paladin (http://ddo-daily.com/archives/978) by Krythan.
Lots of information regarding what, how and especially why.

[lord_of_rage]

Humans are fun but wf will deliver the biggest numbers. You get the 3 pa + Bladesworn. Pass some recon scrolls to your caster save your loh's for the big boys and let it rip. Bladesworn gives you an additional+4 profane dmg.

To another poster. You can use epic chaos blades on a twf as long as you can keep up the umd.