Armor Up - Developer Diary #3

[Nodoze]

Being true to this game; in a classic DDO sense, Paladins are OFTEN TWF. Trying to downplay a common playstyle because it isn't true to the p&p version of D&D is misguided. TWF is absolutely a common, and classic, part of the DDO Paladin.

Just in case my reply caused confusion on my position I agree that TWF should be supported for Paladins and that TWF Paladins are part of classic DDO... While still an oxymoron (at least until the changes go live) often DPS Paladins in DDO were/are TWF (especially if focused on single target DPS).

It should be noted before I type the below that I am biased toward Paladins as they are my favorite class from my Pen and Paper days and my favorite Paladins in DDO are TWF Paladins...

That being said, from memory, I think only Pure Rangers and Pure Monks in certain enhancement trees have an edge over Pure Paladins and other Pure classes when trying to maximize TWF. While I love Paladins (& especially TWF Paladins) I don't know that pure Paladins should have an edge in TWF over other pure classes that also TWF like pure Fighters or pure Rogues nor be on par with Pure Rangers and Pure Monks when they TWF...

Hopefully my memory is missing something and other pure classes that also commonly TWF have boosts that Paladins don't thus warranting that Paladins get a boost there also. [Edit: If TWF needs a boost overall I am fine with that but my instinct is that it should be tweaks to TWF and not Paladins and thus be available to every class...]

Note that non-Pure TWF Paladins, by splashing a little ranger (3+ levels) or monk (1+ level & centered), can get +10% offhand (or +20% offhand if both were splashed). This is part of the reason why I recommend that they don't make everything in the Paladin trees/cores be end loaded and kill splashing. Part of the fun in DDO is the fact that we can multi-class and come up with interesting combinations... I don't think making more than 14 levels of Paladin 'mandatory' for Paladin builds is good for DDO...