Lunicant Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 How Death Does Paladins, Virigoth's guide to Saving The World with a Paladin. INTRO: The Paladin is a class that summons many staple roleplaying images of knights in shinning armor mounted upon great warhorses. Another image which it might conjure is that of modern tank, well armored, tough to crack and capable of surviving an amazing amount of damage. Combining good warrior skills with excellent combination of clerical spells the Paladin is one of the hardest classes to die with, and one of the best choices to learn how to play the game with. Topics marked *ADV* are meant as advice for players whom are already familiar with the class and want to maximize their character's potential. CREATION: Stats: In general when rolling the paladin class you should strive to get a solid roll (above 45) and when distributing statistics try to spread the points evenly to obtain good Int, Con, Dex and Str. In case of Int and Wis try to shoot for 18 in both unless you are an Elf in which case it might be a good idea to try to max out the Int. If you follow this advice you will: - Have good mana gain due to generally high Int/Wis - Have high Str and Dex scores which are easily boosted with equipment. - Gain 3 practices per level - Learn things up to 75% in two practices (17 or 18 int) or in one (Elf) Race: The races which can join Paladin guild are few and far between and mostly combine traits of an average melee class with good magical abilities. When selecting the race, keep in mind the steep class exp. cost of Paladins (350) which when combined with some of the more costly races can make it a lot of work getting to the 50th rank. - Human: An excellent Paladin, they posses good strength and higher health then the other races. Unlike an Elf, you will be able to wield majority of weapons and end up with a bit higher HP. The 0exp cost of humans also gives you far more friendly PK range, and allows you to gain ranks faster. -Half-Elf:A bit of a trade off between Human and Elf, they make fairly good Paladins, but RP reasons aside, you are better off choosing between the strong Human, or the powerful albeit hard to rank Elf. Half-Elf Paladins do have an advantage of charm-resistance over Humans, without an excessive exp penalty. - Elf: One of the most powerful race/class combinations in the lands, but not without rather significant penalties. An Elven Paladin has not only resistance to charm spells such as sleep, but also always sneaks when not-mounted allowing for an easy escape or devastating element of surprise. The price you will pay for this is the highest experience penalty of all class/race combinations which will not only stack the PK range against you on your way through the ranks. But also force you to put in an Enourmous amount of work ranking to get to 50th rank. The Elf will also have large mana supply, and excellent armor class though there are some key weapons and armors that will be denied to you due to your low strength and inability to touch iron. SKILLS/SPELLS: First Skills: The skills you should immediately practice are shield-block, two-handed, polearms and soon after enhanced damage. After purchasing one of the polearms/glaives in Rheydin you should be well enough armed to go after most early creatures. The spells you should watch out for early on are armor, create food/water, bless and later on detect invisibility. Skills you can Ignore: There is very little in terms of skills for Paladins that you should ignore. With sole exception of Lore (which can still be useful to find origins of various items, something identify spells cannot do) all the skills in your arsenal will come in handy. Spells you can Ignore: There are number of early spells that while useful quickly become obsolete: - Detect Evil: Not very useful unless you are not yet comfortable with telling people's align by their race/class or who group. - Know Align: Another unimportant spells, one of its uses is to tell which religion someone follows in order to predict some spell effects. - Cure Light: Made obsolete early on by cure critical. - Cure Serous: See above. Pretty much everything else you will find common use for. Important Skills (*ADV*): In addition to the staple skills such as weapons/defenses you should consider these skills to be Paladin's forte. - Disarm/Shield Disarm: Paladins though extremely effective against evils have a much harder time with neutral warriors. Get in habit of using these once your enemy has been blinded with flamestrike, to sway the battle in your favor. Shield disarm becomes extremely useful later on in ranks when most people equip themselves with nodisarm primary weapons. - Lay On Hands: Good emergency skill to use on someone who is very hurt, or affected by many maladies. One of few healing abilities that can effectively deal with vampiric bites. - Charge: Your single lagging ability. Make use of it and often at strategic times such as when ambushed an opponent, or chasing an almost dead one. When done using polearm and mounted on horseback you will not only cause massive damage but also lag the victim for longer. (mounted skill required) - Dual Wield: Use dual wield in middle of battle against mages and clerics while using polearm to charge at start/end of battle. - Trance/Meditation: though there is very little you can do to master these skills they are the single factor that will ensure you have enough mana for all those protective and curative prayers you will be casting. - Heroism: An extremely power ability, not only empowering you to fight better but also allowing for relatively unlimited endurance while traveling and a far stronger Wrath spell. You will not be able to group while under its effects, so use it for solitary hunting of evildoers. - Mounted Combat: This skill will truly make you shine while mounted. Not only will it allow you to perform the devastating mounted charge, but it also provides for advantage in offense and defense and makes you pretty damn resistant to being bashed to the ground. Trips are completely ineffective once you know how to fight on horseback. Important Spells (*ADV*): In addition to the obviously important spells such as cure critical, sanctuary, and the various malediction cures (cure blindness, poison etc) these spells are of particular importance: - Sanctuary, Armor, Bless, Detect Invis: These are your staple buffing spells that should always be up and active. Bless effect will depend on the religion you choose however, all of them are "good". - Protection: This will cast protection from evil on your, allowing you to better fare against the evil scum of the lands. Their spells and swords will do far less damage against you. - Flamestrike: Consider this to be your best offensive spell. Wrath may draw the looks of awe from peasants, but it will be this spell that will allow you to effectively fight against melee classes of the lands. As an added bonus it will hit ANYONE fighting you and has a chance to blind for 1 tick longer then dirt kick. Excellent ogre killer. - Dispel Evil: cheaper, faster, and weaker then Wrath. Generally flamestrike is a better choice, unless you want extra damage against those evildoers. - Wrath: The hallmark of Paladin, this spell makes certain that anyone who has had an evil thought in their lives will think twice about crossing you. It comes with potent damage, ability to randomly curse its victims and a further damage boost when coupled with Heroism. It is however fairly useless against anyone except evils, costs ALOT of mana to cast and takes a while to do it. One important thing to remember is that Wrath will not cause much damage if the victim is already quite hurt, subject to Holy Word (read below). - Summon: This spell is as powerful as it is flexible. You can use it to separate groups, summon creatures to request from in a safe place, and to pick the location of your fight. Never underestimate the advantage of choosing where the fight will take place. - Turn Undead: This spell is useful only against the unliving, and when used has a chance to make the being flee from combat and lower their morale. The first effect is minor, it is the penalty to combat abilities and saves that makes this spell worthwhile against the undead. Another particularly fun use is dispersing a Necromancer's army which is as effective as it is annoying to the Necro. - Holy Word: This is the spell which when combined with Heroism makes your wrath a wonder to behold. Not only will Wrath curse more often when under effect of Holy Word, but you are also exempt from the lowering of damage on hurt victims. However keep in mind that if you do cast Wrath on a hurt person, Holy Word will be immediately used up to boost Wrath's damage to its normal level. WEAPONS: Paladin's weapon choices are rather limited due to their clerical inclination. In general your choices will vary between using a polearm or a good nodisarm sword or mace. More importantly however, be wary of fighting opponents with weapons you do not know how to use, as your ability to parry their blows and disarm their weapons will be hampered. DEFENSES: You posses standard defenses of a half-melee class. Dodge, parry, shield/weapon block. However remember that your limited weapon choices will often remove your parry out of this equation. Luckily for you, Paladins come with so many protective and healing prayers this is almost never a big concern. Paladins are unique amongst their half-melee brethren in possessing trance AND meditation. This means that your mana gain is fast enough to allow you to be almost constantly spelled up with all of your defensive spells. Take advantage of this, and never let yourself be caught without sanctuary/protection at the very least. If you can, keep all your buffs up with exception of Holy Word which should be only put up soon before the battle if you plan to use Wrath. COMBAT: Before Smiting EvilDoers: - Make sure you have your buffs up. Paladin's strength lies in the protective prayers granted to you. At lower levels, make sure you are flying, once you get mounted skill simply make sure you are mounted. - If your chosen sinner is evil, throw up holy word and make sure to have Heroism active for that maximum wrathage. - Decide how you will begin the combat. Mounted charge is generally a good tactic to use on every but warrior and half-warrior types. Otherwise it is probably a good idea to fire off flamestrike or murder as you begin the evilwacking, just remember to start with flamestrike or wrath against counter able classes. - You have tremendous advantage on terrain that cannot be dirt kicked on against melee classes. Summon them there, and use flamestrike to blind them while you fight seeing. While Smiting EvilDoers: - Your first combat action should most likely be flamestrike in order to attempt to blind your enemy early on and because of the long duration of its blindness (and its uncurability) give yourself a guaranteed safe escape. - After one or two flamestrikes if the victim is evil you should certainly follow up with wrath. Wrath is most effective when your opponent is still very healthy and with holy word up, you can usually land a curse attempt on first or second wrath. If the opponent is NOT evil, forget wrath, and try to disarm or shield disarm at this point. - When your opponent gets low on health, DO NOT WRATH. Either start landing the quick damage spells like flamestrike or dispelevil, or use this time to wield a lance so you are prepared for mounted charge when they flee. - When your opponent flees, follow with charge if you have not recently, otherwise with murder on mages/clerics and damage spells on melee classes. While being Smited by Evildoers - Remember that the greatest strength of a Paladin is their ability to protect and heal themselves. Never let your health fall below half. Keep your enemy blinded then simply flee, and heal/rest while they run around blind from flamestrike. You can attrition ANY class in the game this way even clerics. - If you are blinded by dirt kick, cast single flamestrike for hope of blinding them back and flee before their dirt kick lag wears off. Keep moving around and healing while dirt kick wears off. - NEVER let a shaman or in fact any maledictive class land 2 maleds in a row. Flee and cure it, as you have ability to cure anything a cleric can. - If you find yourself losing quickly, flee and move away while healing. Often the overconfident opponent will follow a wounded paladin and overextend himself. They will rush in wounded for the killing blow and suddenly face a fully healed paladin. - Paladins are relatively safe from bash lock, use this to your advantage and when a melee class misses a bash etc. try for disarm of their shield/weapon. - Remember that though you can cure and cast many protective spells, it is always a good idea to have backups in form of potions. This way a blasphemy spell from a shaman won't ruin your day. INVENTORY: Although you can heal and cure yourself of most maladies, remember that shamans can destroy your faith with blasphemy and cure you. Try to always have a backup potion for yourself. You should at all times have: - 2 recall potions - 3-5 gyvell or dark-red potions to cure blindness - 1 teleport pill - 3 or so vials or pills of sanctuary - 5 or so flight potions in the sack (your mounts can be separated from you) - some shield potions SUMMARY: Paladins are an excellent class for both a beginner and advanced player. They offer powerful abilities, no true weakness and a potent offensive and defensive package all wrapped in some very tough wrapping. Beyond their PK potential they are also one of the best classes to explore the lands with offering ability to heal, make food, sanctuary and read scrolls to identify items along with Lore to find their origins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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