Stalwart Defender questions.

[Vinven]

Heya.

I've currently a level 10 drow favored soul, based off a D&D character. The character fought with a bastard sword and shield, and got into the battle to melee and heal. Sadly there was no bastard sword chosen weapon in DDO, so I went with longsword instead. I've enjoyed playing the character somewhat, but it seems that sword and board style isn't really optimal. Everyone recommends that if I play a FVS that I dual wield, I really don't have any interest in that though.

While reading up on the wiki, I encountered the stalwart defender talent tree that Paladins get. It seems to really work well with the sword and shield style. I made a level seven paladin using the airship, and played it a little bit. It seemed pretty fun, and I like the type of play style. I was just curious if it was any good later on, and if I could go with a bastard sword as I originally designed my character to use.

[gwonbush]

Heya.

I've currently a level 10 drow favored soul, based off a D&D character. The character fought with a bastard sword and shield, and got into the battle to melee and heal. Sadly there was no bastard sword chosen weapon in DDO, so I went with longsword instead. I've enjoyed playing the character somewhat, but it seems that sword and board style isn't really optimal. Everyone recommends that if I play a FVS that I dual wield, I really don't have any interest in that though.

While reading up on the wiki, I encountered the stalwart defender talent tree that Paladins get. It seems to really work well with the sword and shield style. I made a level seven paladin using the airship, and played it a little bit. It seemed pretty fun, and I like the type of play style. I was just curious if it was any good later on, and if I could go with a bastard sword as I originally designed my character to use.

The Sacred Defender (Stalwart Defender is Fighter) builds are considered to be rather weak for end game content. That being said, Update 23 is going to be called Armor Up, providing many changes to defensive characters, and Paladins in particular. However, not all the upcoming changes have been anywhere near finalized, so I would put a Paladin that you want to play for several months on the backburner until then. That, or save your free Lesser Heart of Wood for U23.

[Wongar]

S&B may not be optimal but it is very viable:


Example 1


Example 2

Now you may have an uphill climb but that may be part of the fun :)

Generally speaking, play what you want and what is fun for you. If you like S&B play S&B - there is no requirement to play a given way.

As another poster said, there are a lot of changes coming for defenders and S&B that will hopefully make it better but I don't think that is a reason to not play the build you want now. Take a look at taking 6 levels of fighter, it will give you an extra 4 feats to spend and access to the defender tree. I would also suggest considering feats for BSward or DAxe for glancing blows and THF feats (only with a BSward of DAxe) & Shield feats as they will help a S&B DPS the most assuming you already have Power Attack, Cleave, and Great Cleave.