The other thread asking about Paladins got me wanting to play again, and I'm already working on a game. However, I'm wondering on what would be a good setup for a paladin that would be a tank/damage dealer with spells that would focus on augmenting his own abilities, etc. I was thinking half orc but their charisma is pretty atrocious, and that is a necessary stat for pallies. Armament is leaning towards great axe with mithril armor, etc, but I'm also torn between the great axe and great hammer. Not sure which I should go with. That's just something I'm going to work out for myself. Overall, my biggest question is this: is there a specific advantage to simply using the pally all the way through or should I multi-class? If so, which would provide a good backdrop class? I'm thinking fighter for the weapon specializations. Like I asked, is there a specific advantage to playing a paladin all the way up to get access to pally specific spells or abilities?
a good str with using a bastard sword with one hand should deal good damage. or a trident. if you use trident youll save a feat. but its piercing as far as i remember. charisma is important but feats are even more important so i suggest human. or an elf if you dont want to sleep.
Feats ARE important for a Paladin, especially since, unlike the Fighter, he doesn't get any as bonuses. My suggestion for a multiclass is to go with Fighter to 4th level (for Weapon Specialization) or 6th (if you have the necessary stats and the desire) for Whirlwind Attack.
Or you could go dwarf and use a dwarven axe for free. While the bonuses going as a Fighter for 4 levels is obvious, going pure Paladin allows you to access your spells earlier, and you can use those to buff you offensively.
Cool. Thanks for the help. Prolly gonna go with human fighter/pally or straight pally. One more thing: does holysword +5 spell overwrite whatever spell effects you already have on the weapon (i.e. +3 Lawful and Holy or a ton of burst)?
I went Fighter 2, Pally 6, Fighter * after some experimentation. First two levels not only let me get through the few Hommlet quests that tend to make Pallys fall but also gave me some extra feats that helped a lot in early levels. After that I went full Pal for 6 levels, remember that if multi-classing a Paladin taking any class other then Pal means you can never level up as a Pal again. I did some research on the class since it was the only one I never played before and I see no real benefit, aside from roleplaying, to having a Pal past lvl 6. All other levels youd be better off going Fighter for the extra feats. The spells are ok, but there are only a couple useful self targeting spells that your Cleric cant cast for you. But Pallys have all their major abilities in place by lvl 6, so all youre sacrificing is the ability to remove disease a couple times a day and increases to your LoH feat. Weigh that against the extra feats you choose as a fighter every other level and its a no-brainer. As for weapons, Bastard Sword is a good one but I went for the Heavy Mace. Its a solid weapon with good stats and you dont lose any effectiveness vs undead like you do with piercing and slashing weapons. You can also choose a 2h reach weapon but I preferred to go with a shield, a good choice I found after completing the arena. Race wise, I went through all the possibilities and found Dwarf to be a natural choice. I liked Half-orc for RP purposes (Dredd was originally an ogre), but charisma penalties dont mesh well with the class. Dwarves get good save bonuses and dont become encumbered (lots of heavy armor) so they make great tanks form the metagaming angle. Something of note: Be careful in the Temple if you choose to chastise the evil priests rather then do their bidding. I took this road and found that attacking even evil priests will make you Fall. Way around this is to have another character initiate dialogue and start combat while your Pally is off to the side, then run your tank into position when combat starts.
