My unofficial paladin comparison...

[mobrien316]

I capped a DoS paladin and I thought that life was a breeze. Great saves, good AC, good PRR, good self-healing, good DPS.

When I TR'd him I thought I would try a HoD paladin. When he went up against undead, he was good (he also has three cleric past lives, so he was good against undead as a DoS, too.) Against everything else, he was tremendously meh and nowhere near as much fun to play. I used a free LR on him at level 18 to go back to DoS. He doesn't seem to get hit as much, when he does there is less damage done, and he wears two conc-opp items, so he is nearly always sitting at full HP and full SP, even though he will occasionally cast a CSW on himself.

I don't think I'll be playing any more Hunters of the Dead, though I can definitely see future lives as a DoS.

[unbongwah]

One of the great things about paladins is DoS is the only PrE with a feat pre-req; so you can always respec into whichever PrE is most useful for the content you're running. So go HotD when doing House J, Deleras, Necro, etc.; KotC when doing Vale et al; DoS the rest of the time.

[Ralmeth]

I capped a DoS paladin and I thought that life was a breeze. Great saves, good AC, good PRR, good self-healing, good DPS.

When I TR'd him I thought I would try a HoD paladin. When he went up against undead, he was good (he also has three cleric past lives, so he was good against undead as a DoS, too.) Against everything else, he was tremendously meh and nowhere near as much fun to play. I used a free LR on him at level 18 to go back to DoS. He doesn't seem to get hit as much, when he does there is less damage done, and he wears two conc-opp items, so he is nearly always sitting at full HP and full SP, even though he will occasionally cast a CSW on himself.

I don't think I'll be playing any more Hunters of the Dead, though I can definitely see future lives as a DoS.

IMHO, Hunter of the Dead is great for leveling up to level 14-16 or so. I think anyone playing a Paladin should go Hunter of the Dead until the mid-teens in level. You get lots of great perks (ghost touch, level drain immunity, healing amp) and the monsters aren't really hitting that hard yet. Then at higher levels it's best to switch over to DoS for when the monsters start hitting much harder. When my Paladin is at higher levels and is running as a DoS I think him like the energizer bunny. He may not have the best DPS in the world, but he just keeps going and going;)