Why do you like to play Paladin?

[Zachski]

I'm rather curious to see why people pick Paladin over, say, Fighter, Barbarian, and Cleric.

What is your reason for picking the Lawful Good warrior with some divine powers?

My reasons for wanting to play Paladin actually have something to do with a cult-classic game series known as Quest for Glory. In that game series, the Paladin was a prestige class for Fighters (with the only other classes being Wizard and Thief)

The Paladin archetype was strictly Neutral Good. Or even "True Good". Paladins neither disrespected nor respected the law. Their entire goal was to do what was Right(tm) as according to the Will of the Universe. As their Honor grew, they would be able to perform more feats of power. Their power relied on "Stamina" instead of Magic, like the Wizard's powers did. These powers included things like having one's sword be wreathed in a blue flame of honor that could deal extra damage to demons and enemies weak to fire... the iconic ability of being able to heal one's self or others (and indeed, for two whole games, the Paladin was the only character able to heal himself without drinking a potion) and stuff like being able to detect danger.

In short, he was awesome. You were able to unlock the prestige with any class in the second game (though it would change the very nature of your character to do so) but you weren't allowed to play it until the third game (because you unlocked it in the very ending) and in the third game, they gave Fighters one last chance to unlock the Prestige... and it was practically forced upon them if they weren't jerks, lol.

...But anyways, my point is, he was awesome, and indeed, that has sparked much of my love for Paladins. Despite the fact that the Paladin of this game is mostly different, there's still a bit of affection there.

That and being able to burst-heal yourself is awesome.

[Memek]

I dont like to play Paladin, in fact i dislike the class.

Guess my input might be valuable to cure Paladin fans.

I see them as pretty-boy zealots, inquisitors, witch hunters, self-righteous bastards. I dont buy into that whole lawful-good stuff, it's just masquerade if you ask me.

Not to mention that when i started playing, they didnt fit into the game at all. A defensive melee class, tankish, that didnt have the lick of a chance to actually grab aggro? Yuck.

They had their time in the sun during a short time when everything that mattered were Devils and they got KotC and i was tempted to reconsider but that time quickly faded. Muahaha.

So nowadays, they remind me too much of worrisome fanatics.
I mean, compare a Paladin to a FvS. A FvS is chosen by the god to be his/her/its avatar and is simply awesome, just because they rock. A Paladin on the other hand? A Paladin THINKS he is chosen by the god, and THINKS he is awesome but all things considered he is just a dude with a sword and flowing golden hair.

Dear Paladin, your god doesnt care about you - he's too busy admiring his FvS for being awesome.

Doubt it? Well, a FvS gets REAL power from the god and doesnt even have to pray and be devout and can go get wasted while you go pray. She gets it just for being awesome while you get... saves? Smites? Muahaha. Suck it.

[Zachski]

I dont like to play Paladin, in fact i dislike the class.

So, in other words, this topic isn't for you.

Furthermore, FVS is a pay/unlock class. There's a reason I didn't list Monk or FVS in this thread, and that's because all the classes I listed are free.

So, if you don't have anything on-topic to say, then please go away. Otherwise, you are stop-having-fun guy.

[Whesper]

For me it is saves and SP for self healing. Also, a lot of clikies make combat more active (like Divine sacrifice/smites).

However, I am unable to play pure paladin. Those saves scream for Evasion and the lack of feats- for either fighter and/or monk splash. Also, while DoS is the new flavor of the month, I still like HoTD a lot better. Immunity to negative energy +healing amp is teh shiz! And some sp regen on gear (Torc/ConOpp) get Maximise and maybe Quicken and you have regenerating LoHs

As for roleplaying purposes my pally is always a Blackguard, a tainted/anti-paladin. I am too bored with those goody-2shoes.

[Memek]

So, in other words, this topic isn't for you.

Oh no, it's exactly for me since im on the exact opposite side of the spectrum.

Furthermore, FVS is a pay/unlock class. There's a reason I didn't list Monk or FVS in this thread, and that's because all the classes I listed are free.

Fair enough, i mentioned FvS because the lore supports them to be simply awesome without giving much of a **** but you might as well consider Clerics - Clerics get REAL power from their deities while Paladin get zilich except the "gift" to let themselves get beaten to a pulp.

Lets be honest, Paladins are just (very) gimped Battle Clerics.

[Zachski]

Memek, meet ignore list. Ignore list, meet Memek.

Now then, on with the topic...

For me it is saves and SP for self healing. Also, a lot of clikies make combat more active (like Divine sacrifice/smites).

However, I am unable to play pure paladin. Those saves scream for Evasion and the lack of feats- for either fighter and/or monk splash. Also, while DoS is the new flavor of the month, I still like HoTD a lot better. Immunity to negative energy +healing amp is teh shiz! And some sp regen on gear (Torc/ConOpp) get Maximise and maybe Quicken and you have regenerating LoHs

As for roleplaying purposes my pally is always a Blackguard, a tainted/anti-paladin. I am too bored with those goody-2shoes.

Haha, I wish we actually did have Blackguards to play as in this game. Unfortunately, I doubt Turbine will be adding them anytime soon.

[Memek]

Haha, I wish we actually did have Blackguards to play as in this game. Unfortunately, I doubt Turbine will be adding them anytime soon.

Oh yeah, might have something to do with the whole "no evil alignment for players" because nearly all the quests are about being a good-two-shoes character and they'd have to redo the whole game (except the specific Paladin quest in House P that is explicitely Evil - hello nutty zealot fanatic Paladins!).

But oh noe... the OP put me on ignore, whatever shall i do...

[FrozenNova]

You play paladin because you can't afford FvS. Truestory.

A well built paladin is functionally immortal. That's really the only thing they have going for them at the moment.

[Khayvan]

It's my PnP background. I've always been one for good guy/white knight/Jedi types, never played evil characters and never wanted to. Paladins were my favorite class in 2nd and 3rd edition D&D so that carried over to here.

In actual DDO gameplay, I enjoy the clicky-based nature of paladins. It's a little more engaging, for me, than fighters or barbs but less intense than a monk. I'm comfortable with it. Plus I like the self-heals and buffs.

[scottmike0]

It's my PnP background. I've always been one for good guy/white knight/Jedi types, never played evil characters and never wanted to. Paladins were my favorite class in 2nd and 3rd edition D&D so that carried over to here.

In actual DDO gameplay, I enjoy the clicky-based nature of paladins. It's a little more engaging, for me, than fighters or barbs but less intense than a monk. I'm comfortable with it. Plus I like the self-heals and buffs.

true, playing a pally is a Real nice benefits.
The reason why is lets say your wacking these monsters and other melee's are to, yet they are losing a lot of hit points and your close to death, so what do you do.
well the fact you have lay on hands its like OHH YEah beat that other melee classes" i bet you can only wish you were like meh"
3 second later the melee's die and your pally is the last man standing.
Now tell me what melee is EVAr able to do that without drinking some kind of potion to stay alive.
there is my reason why a pally WINS.
Not only does a pally have lay on hands, yet that can actually do the most damage crit wise with an exalted smite.
Really so your comparing saves + Self suffcientcy + EPIC damage.
Tell me now what melee can ever do that without using something that is not rightfully on there character. meaning
no potions no spells unless* you have superior umd. but in which cases most melee's never invest in cha besides pallies.
YEt, still Pallies are like an automatic win for a melee class.
I can say the only non fun part about a pally is the lack of spending ap, since they gotz soo many good enchancements, that i rather take em all than have only 80 to use heh.

[Meetch1972]

My main's first life was pure pally, and he managed to accidentally take over tanking from a barb that DC'ed (but only while PUGging) in VOD... as a HoTD III he had enough curse removal clickies to not have to whinge at the curse removal pot cooldown timer. The only catch is the healing (edit: once the LOHs ran out) had to be well coordinated as he was a little on the squishy side. The immunity to level drains was great too - something I only realised was the case after I changed over.

After a KoTC respec he enjoyed some tasty DPS against devils and demons, but having less immunities and no curse removal clickies made such tanking a little harder.

Whatever the build I made sure to work on the smite line... critical double-handed smites, while rare, made me smile lots - especially on held (auto-crit) mobs. Now, not so useful. Add to that the Multiple Attribute Dependency (MAD) and it's now something I'd leave off for a life with 36 points.

At least now they get intim as a class skill, so with the right gear you can do something with it. Still, with the changes over the last few updates I expect being a pally isn't as juicy as it was. He also sucked when fighting anything "good" - as in during a certain Vale quest...

Also, a pally doesn't have to be squishy - with the DoS line and lots of toughness I've seen a L15 pally with significantly over 700hps, and still competing well in the kill counts PUGging elite GH quests. Proper gear selection probably makes all the difference for the likes of him. They really need to be built/geared right to avoid being too squishy or ineffective - I got lucky with my 28 point build - there were a couple of tweaks I could/should have made, but he wasn't too far off and did ok for the most part.

Anyway, if you wanna play a pally, play one. Maybe check Junts' guide first for build tips. If you do it for 3 lives you'll get a permanent 15% stacking healing amp. Better'n a kick up the backside.

[keefer1]

I think for the most part The "Pally is gimped" idea comes from people not understanding how ap/feat costly the build is. But if you take the time to study it; the Pally is a well rounded, party boosting toon. He/She can self-heal, has heathly DPS and brings auras to the party. Mostly the pallys that everyone has blacklisted are not the right build. It's an unforgiving toon if you don't place your feats/ap correctly. And I think the Devs like it that way Imho.

I love my Pally (second life HOTD) and will probably bring him back for a few more TR's.


Devilsbane G-Land

[fuzzy1guy]

Pally is fine.

I need ZERO buffs from anyone else except a 4min haste is nice.

I have more hp than 90% of the characters i party with.

I don't give a damm about 'pure good' weapons. I am pure good.

I can heal myself 4 times fully from 1 hp left.

I can heal myself well enough not to drop dead with the cures.

I save on almost everything.

I can pull agro anytime i want. And keep it.

I put out a near max damage possible for a melee when it comes to outsiders. And very high damage on everything else.

My aura helps the party with concentration, saves, ac.

I WILL be the last one alive if things go bad. And i can raise dead and restore lost levels.


YOUR pally might be gimp. Mine is fine.

[BDS]

I like to play a paladin so I can TR it immediately and have 5% more healing amp.

[sephiroth1084]

I like playing paladins in PnP, because I've always been into the stalwart knight motif, value honor and integrity and enjoy playing a character that can really stand up to punishment.

In DDO, it's mostly that last part: I find it very easy to solo and level as a paladin, and find that, when grouping, I can make parties run more smoothly and salvage bad situations in ways that I couldn't do as a fighter or barbarian. If there is a TPK threatening, I'm usually the last one standing as a paladin, and often able to save the day, by simply not dying, and by being able to get everyone else back on their feet.

Indomitable

That's what paladins are to me, and what I enjoy most about them.

Also, I enjoy all the clicking involved in maintaining abilities...it keeps me more engaged than I typically feel as a fighter or barbarian, though both of those classes have gotten more short-duration abilities.

My first character was a paladin tank. My first 32 pointer was a paladin tank. My first TR'ed character was the 32pter into a fighter tank, and then bank into a paladin tank.

[badbob117]

Most fun i had as a pally was just messing around in Festival of night wilderness. Good times, good times! I miss it!

Zeal is amazing! Deathward is nice. resists are always a plus! Saves can get really high! Past lives are pretty great , both passive and the one that costs a feat!

Can make some sick healing amp builds with splashed pallies. That is always something i have wanted to try. Hunter of the dead half elf pally monk or something. Must bet crazy with two Vampiric weps the full on line of heal amp/finger necklace, past lives and items. Can even throw in a greater regen shroud item just to add the cherry on top. Sure your dps would be lacking but something says a lot about a build that can get over 100 hp from a cure serious pot.! Must be crazy fun!

Only thing that i did not like was the amount of finger spazzing i had to do to keep dps up on a consistent level. So much clicking. to much to much... Felt like i was playing guitar hero! Although like the above poster said. It does keep you a bit more engaged in the fight so i guess some like that aspect.

Would love to see the class get a bit of fine tuning by the devs as well!

[Such755]

I play a paladin because I must if I want to get the completinist feat.
5% healing amp per life.
PALADINS SUCK@!$(!

I am totaly just kidding. I DO plan on playing a paladin because they seem really fun. Thsoe saves are just amazing, I know they can do decent DPS, they can get great AC for leveling purposes and if you try just hard enough you can get enough AC for endgame (Not for me, not yet at least), and their HP is awesome.
I am refering to the defender PrE here, by the way.
So all in all, I can't wait to finish this life and go on to my 2monk\18paladin =)

[oganos]

I like to play a paladin so I can TR it immediately and have 5% more healing amp.

I agree that the PL healing amp is very nice. But as some posters above have stated there are also a lot of cool things about pallys. I especially enjoy the LoH and immunities/saves.

[Sarisa]

I TR'ed my Bard into a THF evasion Pali (15 Pali/3 Rog/2 Ftr), and definitely enjoy it. I have very good equipment to make it work effectively.

No, it doesn't do the consistent damage of a Fighter or Barb. It does, however, provide versatility to the party. The save boost for the party is great (noticeable reduction in damage taken from Lailat's cometfalls and Harry's fireballs), provides some of the buffs to reduce caster SP use, provide epic grade trap skills for times when those are needed, can backup heal (like I had to do in a hard ToD after healer deaths in part 1).

For the PnP feel, I do not like the class as much. The alignment I feel is best is neutral good, as both lawful good and chaotic good can get a bit zealot'ish. It's hard to role-play Paladins effectively, either devolving into situations where DM's try to put a Paladin into situations that will break their code, or end up as a "stupid good" alignment that can be detrimental to the party or RP experience.

[JOTMON]

Fighter is a much easier class to level lots of feats and PRE's slot in easily.

Paladin is a powerful class but susceptible to high failure and dissapointment by new players.

Biggist issue i see when levelling Paladin's is they are feat starved and highly gear dependant to be effective especially at endgame if aspiring for decent AC and DPS. Hence the occasional need to giveup capstone and splash fighter/Monk for extra feats or appear subpar.

Smites and enhancements for smites often get missed. Hunter of the Dead is better for levelling in my opinion, then reset to Defender near cap for endgame tanking once geared. dont forget Healing amp makes the divines job easier and works with any self healing as well.

Relatively speaking most paly spells are not that usefull, clickies and other classes in party can provide most of the buff's. Don't get me wrong a few of them are are handy, just not necessary most of the time. Occasional Lay of hands is nice for those emergency throw someone a heal.

Many mobs do extra damage to Lawful or Good.. guess what you are both... At least you have high saves to help mitigate some potential damage if you didn't use CHA as a dumpstat.

That said, once you have the gear and tweak up the build, Paladins are solid tanks and can reliably maintain usefull AC. Well landed Smites and accumulated hate you will rarely lose aggro exept to the occasional Uber Vetern that is trying to pull aggro from you.