Paladin
About
- Genre: Fighter
- Races: Dwarf, Human, Elf, Half-Elf.
- HP Gain: 15 - 19 per level (Prestige: 16-21)
- Prestige: 2 - 7 per level (Prestige 3-9)
Stats
- Primary: Strength
- Secondary: Wisdom
- Deficient: Intelligence
| CLASS | Str | Int | Wis | Dex | Con | Cha | Lck |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paladin | 25 | 18 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Knight | 26 | 18 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
Fighting
- Weapons: (95% Adept)
- Bludgeons - "Crushing, Pounding"
- Long Blades - "Slicing, Slashing"
- Polearms - "Hacking, Thrusting, Raking"
- Paladins get "Two-Handed" and "Dual Wield" weapon skills
- Tactics:
- Shieldbash
- Your primary alpha attack.
- Requires wearing a shield.
- Requires being the primary combatant engaged with a mob (i.e. tanking)
- Two-Handed Weapons
- Paladins can wear two-handed swords, such as the long sword "Nasr, Claymore of Sovereignty".
- Wearing a two-handed weapon requires not wearing a shield, so Paladins will lose their ability to Shieldbash.
- Rescue
- In combat, rescue makes the rescuer the tank (primary target of the mob). Two characters rescuing each other can share tanking a difficult mob by simply healing to full, rescuing the other, and repeating back and forth. Note that while not-tanking, the Paladin will not be able to shieldbash.
- Shieldbash
Combat Passives
| Level | Skill Name | Adept | MinPos |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enhanced Damage | 90 | fighting (berserk) |
| 1 | Parry | 90 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 10 | 2nd Attack | 95 | fighting (berserk) |
| 12 | Dodge | 75 | fighting (aggresive) |
| 20 | 3rd Attack | 90 | fighting (berserk) |
| 32 | Grip | 95 | fighting (berserk) |
| 37 | 4th Attack | 75 | fighting (berserk) |
| 50 | 5th Attack | 49 | fighting (berserk) |
| Level | Skill Name | Adept |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standard | 95 |
| 8 | Aggressive | 95 |
| 14 | Evasive | 70 |
| 23 | Defensive | 70 |
| 46 | Berserk | 40 |
Combat Actives
| Level | Skill Name | Adept | MinPos |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | strike | 95 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 10 | spurn | 85 | fighting (berserk) |
| 15 | punt | 95 | fighting |
| 19 | lunge | 95 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 25 | punch | 90 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 40 | tzadkiels touch | 85 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 43 | shieldbash | 90 | fighting (aggressive) |
| Level | Skill Name | Adept | MinPos |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | bethsaidean touch | 75 | fighting (evasive) |
| 9 | rescue | 80 | fighting (berserk) |
| 13 | expurgation | 85 | fighting (defensive) |
| 15 | dispel evil | 90 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 39 | fortify | 75 | fighting |
| 48 | righteous stand | 95 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 49 | shieldblock | 50 | fighting (aggressive) |
- Notes: A lot of these could fall under the Buffs or Utility Skills sections, or here, but I think it makes sense to highlight them here.
- Bethsaidean Touch is 'cure blind'
- Expurgation is 'cure poison'
- Dispel Evil I have never used in my life and have no idea what it does
- Fortify is highly unlikely to be used, but, technically falls in this category
- Righteous stand is a Group Buff, but also listing here as its a common Pally combat function
Buffs & DeBuffs
Buffs
| Level | Skill Name | Affects | Adept | MinPos |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | float | not walk | 75 | fighting |
| 12 | invis | invisibility | 95 | standing |
| 1 | armor | -20 AC | 90 | fighting (evasive) |
| 5 | bless | -6 Sv Spell, +6 HR | fighting | |
| 7 | detect poison | Show poison flag | 60 | standing |
| 9 | detect hidden | Show hide flag | 75 | fighting (berserk) |
| 22 | breath of heaven | aqua breath | 85 | resting |
| 30 | benefic aura | Protection | 85 | fighting (evasive) |
| 35 | crusade | Group +10% healing | 95 | standing |
| 35 | sacral divinity | Sanctuary | 75 | standing |
| 42 | divine armor | -60AC, +5 R:UNHLY, +15 R:DRAIN | 95 | fighting |
| 48 | righteous stand | 25% Damage Reduction | 95 | fighting (aggressive) |
Skills
| Level | Skill Name | Adept | MinPos |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | fountain of faith | 80 | standing |
| 3 | vitality | 90 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 5 | continual light | 85 | fighting (evasive) |
| 9 | bethsaidean touch | 75 | fighting (evasive) |
| 10 | aid | 80 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 13 | expurgation | 85 | fighting (defensive) |
| 13 | hezekiahs cure | 85 | fighting |
| 14 | refuge | 90 | resting |
| 15 | dispel evil | 90 | fighting (aggressive) |
| 16 | identify | 75 | fighting (evasive) |
| 18 | remove curse | 85 | fighting (evasive) |
| 27 | bind wounds | 85 | fighting |
| 39 | fortify | 75 | fighting |
| 45 | tend | 90 | standing |
- Notes:
- Vitality: Heal (self) 24-32hp
- Bind Wounds: Heal (others) 24-27hp
- Hezekiah's Cure: Heal (any) 80hp
- Tend: Heal (any) 100hp
- Bethsaidean Touch: Cure Blind
- Expurgation: Cure Poison
Equipment & Align
Equipment Info: Paladin EQ
Shieldbash (primary alpha attack for avatars) is based on Wis, so dress to max Wis first and foremost. Then HP. After that, AC is probably most important, along with additional stats that impact fighting in general (Con, Dex, Lck).
Align:
Paladins must be Devout or they lose access to some skills/spells.
- Neut/Evil align Paladins lose access to the following:
- Feast of faith
- Fountain of faith
- Vitality
- Bethsaidean touch
- Solomonic invocation
- Expurgation
- Hezekiahs cure
- Refuge
- Dispel evil
- Breath of heaven
- Bind wounds
- Benefic aura
- Ward of divinity
- Crusade
- Sacral divinity
- Fortify
- Tzadkiels touch
- Divine armor
- Tend
- Righteous stand
It's basically all the spells for a Pally, so neut/evil pallys become just a straight fighter tank with basically no special sauce.
Gameplay
Quests:
- Fighter Genre Quest: Dragonlord's Battle Armor
- None of this gear is super useful, especially given the effort, and is easily outclassed by other stuff.
Mobs & Runs:
- Paladin's are great for solo killing of a ton of lowbie or entry level AV mobs. Great gear-fetcher for lowbies and basic av equipment.
- Pally's need to be the primary target of a mob to shieldbash, so mobs which change tanks render Pal's useless in a group (unless they rescue the new tank to resume tank position)
- Rescue tactics are possible, so two Pal's can share tanking.
- Only downside is the guy who isn't tanking is worthless, since they can't shieldbash, so in this case the 2 Pal rescue tanks would be strictly limited to ONLY healing, rescuing, tanking, repeating.
- Pally can solo Justice, tank Beholder, and other mobs like that where you just need 1 tank to focus on tanking the whole time.
- When to not use a Paladin:
- If the mob changes tanks, it's likely not worth your time to try to tank on a pally and keep rescuing the 'new tank' so you can shieldbash again, you will waste time and dps doing that so better to just use chars that can both tank and hit.
- Mob align might matter, if its a dev mob that progs devout, or if the mob has the 'defense against devout' spell affect (protection for evils).
- Warriors/Rangers get higher Dex, which helps Dodge/etc land more. Rogue Genre chars get 25 dex which is even better, plus get things like tumble in addition to dodge. Ultimately if you need to avoid more melee hits then something with higher dex should be considered. Paladins do eat the majority of melee - and they can take it, but only to a point. Something that is more agile may allow you to avoid more damage and get more hits in while tanking.
Summary
A paladin is a brick shit house. They can walk into mobs and stand there and shrug off most the impact.
I use mine mostly for non-runs, when I need to go fetch some lowbie gear or basic av gear where I know the mob is a grind, I'll throw a Pally in there and let him tough it out.
What they suck at is navigation - they don't get scry or scan or track or anything like that. Walking around or leading a group through some tricky paths can be annoying.
Full Skills List and other info: Rodpedia Page
Prestige
A Paladin may prestige into a Knight
- Knight:
- Max Str 26
- Max carry weight 1100 while at 26 str.
- Slightly faster shieldbash.
- Max Str 26
There are undoubtably more 'under the hood' improvements for them, but not any hard-facts I know of. Overall, my knight is definitely a bit more stout than when he was a regular Pally. The faster shieldbash is only slight, not major.