Here's part 2 of my article on Defenders.
Paladin
In 3.5 the average Paladin was level 2. After all that’s when they got the saving throw bonus and there were enough alignment variations that a Paladin could justify his cause as “I love lawl cats” as easily as a knight in shining armor. The problem with Paladin was the same problem that fighter, cleric, wizard and sorcerer faced; early good abilities followed by long levels of nothing. Those days are gone now, because Paladins have gotten a huge overhaul… probably the most significant in terms of flavor and ability. What kind of changes? Well Alignment restriction is gone and so is violating the terms of your faith. Good paladin kills innocent person? Meh, he feels bad. No mechanical punishments though, that’s in the past. Want to play a Paladin of Neutral? Tell your wife “Hello” and get to it. The entire concept of “Smite” being a little bit of extra accuracy and damage against your cosmic opposite has been replaced with abilities that can break your opponent into pieces… even if they aren’t opposed to your alignment, church, theology or personal paradigm. Oh and your horse is gone, get over it.
If Fighters are Defenders of Defender/Strikers, Paladins are Defender/Leaders. They get a solid healing core to go with their defensive abilities, not so much that your party shouldn’t have a leader character… but enough so that the leader is comfortable doing things other than healing or buffing in the middle of combat.
Paladin builds are generally split between Charisma and Strength. The Charisma build favoring flashy divine effects similar to spells and channeled through a holy symbol, while the Strength build resembles the fighter in its weapon choices and focus on physical hits. Unlike the fighter, who can choose to go between his Shield and Two Hander, the Paladin is most effective when he specializes in one build or the other. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t “splash” abilities in if you like them, but to be aware that you should focus specifically on your chosen type of attack. Implement Attacks don’t become accurate through weapons (Unless you have a Holy Avenger) and Weapon proficiency can’t be used to help implements. Wisdom is the second most important ability score for your character as many powers gain greater bonus’s if your wisdom is higher.
Races: Because the Paladin has two statistics that it needs to choose between (Str and Charisma) the list of “Best Races” are not identical.
Best Strength Paladin:
Dragonborn: Unlike the Fighter who has reliable powers and marks his enemies even when he misses, the Paladin needs to be as accurate as possible. Thus a Strength based Fighter is more reliant on the tiny bonus’s his strength score gives him than his fighter counterpart is. Dragonborn is the only Core Race with a Str bonus (not including humans) and its secondary bonus to Charisma is useful for its ability to fortify the few “splash” charisma powers you may choose to add to your retinue. The extra healing on healing surges is a useful for staying up. Str based Paladins are almost exclusively single target based and the Dragonborn AoE breath weapon is a useful ability for carving away minions between you and your chosen foes. Finally the Dragonborn skill bonus’s both apply to Paladin Class Skills.
Best Charisma Paladin:
Half Elf: A tough decision between Half Elf and Halfling, but the Combo abilities of the Half Elf combined with its Constitution bonus and Diplomacy group bonus beat out the Defensive abilities of the Halfling and its Fear Resistance. Half Elf combo’s are extensive and a major part of the character… so you should choose your Half Elf power wisely. I recommend Eyebite for its cheesy quality (mark an enemy but they can’t see you) or Hellfire Rebuke for an opening damage move that punishes your opponent. Eldritch Blast is another possibility to cover a hole in your ranged offense. If Warlock powers don’t match your characters identity the Warlord Ability Furious Smash is easier to land than a normal attack and helps your allies take advantage of your charisma. Sacred Flame from Cleric is another option as Wisdom should be an important part of your character no matter what build you choose.
Channel Divinity: What the hell?
Channel Divinity is an encounter ability split between two powers you have automatically (Divine Mettle/Divine Strength) or that can be augmented by taking any of the Divine Specific feats (Raven Queen’s Blessing etc.) When choosing your deity make certain you check out these specific feats in case you want to grab an ability from them later. Obviously don’t let the mechanics of the Deity change the “Theme” of your character, but keep it in mind. Armor of Bahamut wont come up often (unless I’m your DM) but when it does you’ll be very happy, the same with Sehaines Reversal. Raven Queens Blessing and Melora’s Tide are both more likely to occur and thus less obviously powerful. Finally, as much as I hate him, Pelor’s Radiance gives the Paladin a more powerful version of Turn Undead... which is devastating each time its used.
Channel Divinities built in abilities are both fantastic and a major part of your arsenal. Divine Mettle allows you to make a second save or help one of your friends make a save before their turn and avoid the penalties of whatever is afflicting them. Even Strength based Paladins should keep this power in mind. Divine Strength is extra damage, whether your hitting with a charisma power or just smacking someone with your blade for double the strength damage. Remember that as encounter powers you should use these as much as possible.
Strength Build:
The Strength Build for the Paladin is very similar to the Fighter in many respects. Most of your abilities are going to be based off of Str to hit AC, accuracy may be an issue until you get a sufficiently powerful weapon. Fortunatly the Paladin has several smites that use strength to hit Reflex, Will and Fortitude defenses. These accurate powers should be a major part of your arsenal. That being said Strength based Paladins have two advantages over their charisma based counterparts. Their damage scales with weaponry, so larger more powerful swords/hammers/axes will allow a Paladin to do more damage than the prayers that have fixed dice. Secondly when a Strength Paladin takes an attack of opportunity on his foe they are more likely to connect and will hurt them more. Strength Based Paladins will have a large Fortitude Defense, making Poisons and negative energy effects less likely to affect them. The Strength Build character faces the same dilemma a fighter does on choosing between one handed and shield and two hander. I recommend Swords more for Paladins than I do Fighters, they are more accurate and the Paladin has no Mace or Axe specific benefits to gain.
Charisma Build
The Charisma based paladin has not abandoned his weapon in favor of a holy symbol, but he does rely on his Charisma score to attack rather than his Strength. At higher levels his abilities are more reliant on Implements than weapons, making a powerful holy symbol a required part of his inventory. This has advantages and disadvantages just like the Strength Build. The primary advantage of the Charisma build is that they target reflex, fortitude and will saves as opposed to AC. The Second advantage is that many of these abilities are AoE’s, Longer Ranged, or radiant damage based. AoE and Ranged attacks are useful for what is primarily a melee class, while the Radiant Damage is incredibly dangerous to Undead who are vulnerable against it. The higher charisma equals a more powerful will defense which is useful against any number of mental attacks used against the paladin. Most importantly a Charisma Paladin will do more damage with his Mark, making it a greater threat against enemies who would choose to ignore him. The greatest weakness the Charisma build faces are enemies that are resistant to Radiant Damage or have very high Defenses. Additionally it is more expensive to play a Charisma based paladin since you need a powerful weapon and a powerful holy symbol to make yourself as accurate as possible.
Healing and Leading: Part of your role as a Paladin is to assist the group beyond the role of “Meat Shield”. Lay on Hands is a powerful ability that allows you to spend your own Healing Surges to fix others. Many of your abilities grant bonus’s to defenses or allow people to spend healing surges or gain temporary hitpoints. In many ways you are toeing the line between Leader and Defender. When playing a paladin, even a not so good one, keep in mind your vast number of utility and attack powers that help out the team. Hitting an opponent hard is fine, but if it comes down to defeating your enemy or saving a friend the Paladin is in the unique situation that he can do both.
Weakness: Almost universally Paladins are going to have poor reflex defenses. Very few of the Races that make good paladins have good intelligence or dexterity scores, and both of those scores are dead weight for the paladin. It should be noted that both Tiefling and Halfling make good Charisma Paladins and can avoid this issue more easily. Using a Shield will also cover up this deficiency. Paladins who miss with their powers waste them, unlike Fighters their abilities are not reliable and many do not have a “Miss” effect to them. A few have “Effects” that take place no matter what, but these are relatively few. Finally, like their cousin the fighter, Paladins have relatively few ranged powers. Strength Based Paladins will have almost none, and Charisma paladins are usually limited to 25ft.
Picking Powers: For at Will/Encounter/Daily picking powers for the Paladin is mostly based on your choice of primary statistic. Choose Strength based powers if you are strong, charisma if you are charismatic. Grab powers from the opposing side if it strikes you as important to have or stylish, but make sure that your foundation of powers is still based on your original build.
Strength Powers: 1-10At Will: Grab Holy Strike and Valiant Strike. Valiant Strike is a very useful power when your surrounded by minions or the like. Holy Strike is an excellent way to sustain damage on a marked enemy. Both are solid support you as a damage dealier.
Piercing Smite: Str vs. Reflex means your more likely to hit, that alone makes this a worthwhile power. The fact that it can mark additional targets is fantastic since Paladins have a difficulty marking multiple enemies.
Paladins Judgment: The only Strength based daily at level 1, it hits as hard as the Fighter powers with the added benefit of healing an ally. If you miss you still heal a friend, a useful trick in a tight spot.
Staggering Smite: Unlike a Fighter who is reluctant to use too many knockbacks lest they loose their ability to threaten a target, the Paladin can take advantage of the knockback while still threatening their opponents with Divine Damage.
Martyr's Retribution: Huge damage on this one, but it costs a healing surge. Still does half damage on miss... so a proper two handed or hie die roll swing can still pack quite a whallop. This is the single strongest hit at level 5 for any class, and remains the single strongest hit for any class until the end of that Paragon tier almost 15 levels later.
Thunder Smite: Knocking a target prone with increased critical hit chance is very very solid. Unfortunately this is your only Strength Option at level 7. If you dont like Thundersmite i hope you have a halfway decent charisma to take one of the Charisma based abilities.
Level 9 Powers- None of the level 9 powers are strength based. If you didn't take any of the multi-class feats to swap this power out at level 10 you will be stuck with an ability that is based on one of your secondary or tertiary scores. If you did take multi-class feats grabbing Adept Power at level 10 is the best way to go and swap this out for a Cleric, Fighter, Warlord or Ranger ability based on strength. Otherwise... Crown of Glory is your best bet for its automatic slowing aura.
Charisma Build
At Will Powers: Bolstering and Enfeebling Strike. Bolstering strike will give you some extra HP for tanking and refreshes each time you use it. Enfeebling strike is good since it grants you the same defense bonus the rest of the party enjoys from your mark.
Shielding Smite: Granting a friend a bonus to AC for a full set of Enemy turns is significantly better than giving one target a single attack penalty. Use this to protect the Rogue that is helping you hit and doing significant damage, an Overzealous Warlock that got too close to use his Curse, or an unlucky Ranger or Wizard who couldn't get away from the enemies they were irritating.
On Pain of Death. The Damage this power does is fantastic, not only does it do 3d8 it also does ongoing damage if the target attacks ANYBODY. Additionally even if you miss it still does half damage... but it also gives you that sustained damage! Even if the target makes its first save it probably took a total of 4d8 from this power, though if the target is unlucky it can take so much more.
Invigorating Smite: This power heals you and all your friends when the chips are down. The fact that it can heal the entire party after you get hit by several aoe's or traps make it a fantastic addition to your repertoire.
Hallowed Circle: As a charisma paladin you have relatively few AoE powers, this burst 3 does some nice damage and leaves an encounter wide bonus to defenses. Good for killing Minions, good for hurting lots of incoming enemies and good for instances when you know your friends arent going to be moving much or shouldn't be moving much.
Benign Transposition: Battlefield Control + Damage and its defensive enough to save a striker in trouble or defend against a sneak attack from behind... or for when your friend is stuck across the ravine and cant make the jump, the orcs are closing in and its time for you to prove exactly what your steel is made of.
Radiant Pulse: Attack one enemy within 60 feet and blast his minions to smithereens... and then keep it up as a Minor Action. A constant damaging burst with knockback for a minor action? Fantastic. Remember to use your mark first since your minor action will be to keep this up.
Martyr's Blessing: Its kind of slim pickings at level 2, either a limited bonus to AC or a skill bonus thats only useful out of combat... but can only be used once per day. Martyr's Blessing will let you save a friend from getting killed if your nearby, good for that first moment of combat when an alpha strike goes off and targets your less fleshy friends.
Wrath of the Gods: Early fight action, add your charisma as a bonus to all damage for a full encounter. Even if you play a strength paladin you'll probably be giving a +1 or +2 bonus. A charisma Paladin will be giving +3, +4 or higher! Thats all damage for you and any adjacent allies for a whole fight!
Cleansing Spirit: Cleansing Spirit has 5 range and is an encounter ability... and it still barely beats out Noble Shield. The Shield is fantastic when the party is hit by an AoE because it cuts the damage in half for everyone but you. That being said you're not going to be hit by a gigantic death AoE every session/extended rest and there wont always be situations when that comes in useful. But any encounter that you get a free reroll with a bonus is a good one.
*Note: If you have a cleric or warlord in your party who has a similar power to this you can either stack them or grab Noble Shield. Noble Shield is one of those iconic awesome powers that you should really consider.
Marks: The Ability to Mark opponents is theoretically the core ability, and most important power available, to the Defender archetype. The Generic Mark inflicts a -2 to hit penalty on any attacks that don’t include the Marker in their targets and one mark will always override a previous mark making it impossible to stack them. Marked creatures are aware of all penalties and consequences of the mark. In a fluff fashion Marking can be anything from a spoken Challenge, an invisible burden, an insulting tag (like Zorro) or any other number of options. Both the Fighter and Paladin rely on Marking enemies for battlefield control.
The Paladins Mark:
- Pros: The Paladins Mark has a range of 25ft and requires a minor action to activate. You can force enemies to deal with you from a range without endangering yourself immediately with the Paladins Mark. The Paladins mark also has the incredible ability of dealing automatic Radiant Damage if it is ignored, damage that scales with level and charisma score. Undead, Creatures with a high AC or defensive trick, or enemies at a Range hate the Paladins mark because it punishes them despite their relative safety. Additionally there is no penalty for the Paladin if he chooses not to engage his target, allowing him to manipulate them or wound them without exposing him needlessly.
- Cons: The Paladin can only mark one enemy at a time (not counting specific Prayers). This makes it harder for him to control large groups of enemies and force them to attack him. Additionally he has to be within 25ft of them to do so, so Wizards and Snipers can often remain unimpeded for several turns before the Paladin gets close enough to force his divine challenge on them.
- Situations and Tips: The Paladins mark is excellent for use against powerful monsters and enemy controllers that like to focus on a single target at a time. Additionally the Paladin mark is fantastic for dealing with mindless or unintelligent undead who may attack enemies besides the paladin despite knowing that they will take the Radiant Damage. Since this triggers the vulnerability the Radiant Damage of the mark can often accumulate to a significant threat.
Prestige Path Rankings:
Astral Weapon: The marking ability is solid and regaining encounter abilities is never a bad thing. The +2 on saves against fear is great, that’s an extra 20% fear resistance. The Encounter ability is only ok, but worth it if you have a rogue as your striker. Pray for more seems unnecessary… but since its an encounter utility its not bad. Astral Whirldwind is poop, it does nothing unless you hit and only does medium damage for a level 20 power. The refresh rate on it will only happen if you’re fighting minions or using it late in the fight. All in all this path starts out strong and then fizzles halfway.
Champion of Order: Champions Action is solid support for the rest of your group. In Defense of Order blends the Paladin and Fighter mark, a stupendously good ability and passive damage on elementals and demons certainly works for certain campaigns *cough*otep*cough*. The Champion Hammer only makes the previous 2d6 better. Certain Justice is amazing since weakened and dazed enemies are basically pussy cats.. and combined with the high accuracy of the power and the improved mark you have it just wins. None Shall Pass, besides the awesome value of saying that as loud as you can, is a fantastic utility for important fights. Rule of Order is a proper level 20 power, good for halfway though the fight and smashing an opponent to dust or as an early way of weakening your foe. Really solid class, the Demon/Elemental thing might deter a few folks but this is the superior Strength option for Paladins.
Hospitaler: Passive healing on your mark is good, especially since the target also took damage… the healing aura on your action points is kind of weak though. The boost to lay on hands is great though. Warding Blow is a great encounter ability for fighting controllers or any enemy with status effects. Healing Font is a solid ability but it has a typo in it which makes me question its value… but spot healing for a full encounter is really good whether its 1d6 + your wisdom mod or 1d6 x your modifier. Finally Life Giving Smite is a solid heal with good damage, I like it because you don’t need to hit to use the healing effect. Hospitaler is ok, but multi-classing cleric is probably better.
Justiciar- Both level 11 abilities are gross and disgustingly powerful. The level 16 ability just makes standing close to your paladin buddy even better. Just Radiance would be better if Paladins had more ways to mark multiple enemies, but its hit effect is fantastic. Strike Me Instead is the king of Martyr Powers and takes your enemies biggest AoE gun and turns it into nothing. Challenge the Unjust is the best level 20 paladin power in the game. It hits 200 feet of enemies, marks all of them, does radiant damage and combo’s into your Just Radiance. Justiciar is your best bet for those Charisma builds bar none.
Paladins:
-Warlock. Charisma build Paladins can take advantage of any of the pacts, ranging from the trickery of Fey, the Utility of Star, or the raw damage of Fiendish. The Perma-Eyebite mark combo is one of the early exploitable parts of 4th edition. Warlock/Paladin might seem odd but it can provide 4 nasty builds that straddle the line between defender, striker and leader. I could write an entire column on Warlock-Paladins so do yourself a favor and look into it.
- Ranger. If you want to do some serious melee damage than Ranger’s dual wield line combined with the defensive power of Paladin isn’t a bad choice. Ranger melee powers also include a lot of movement abilities, abilities that the Paladin can take advantage of as he closes with his marked enemy or moves close to a foe with the intent of challenging them. Paladin and Ranger also share Wisdom as a secondary stat making many of the secondary effects impressive.
- Fighter. In the same way that Fighters can grab some wonderful Paladin powers the reverse is also true. A strength based Paladin will love some of the shield specific abilities that Fighters have along with their self sustaining utilities. Gaining reliable powers for a Paladin is fantastic and grabbing strength based attacks is a great way to avoid the lack of Strength powers at certain levels. Also a Strength Paladin with a single multi-class feat to Fighter can become a Sword Master (yes that class really is that good).
The Last Word: Fighters vs. Paladins- Who’s better?
Obviously this is pure speculation and opinion at this point… because 4th edition is balanced you see.
I’m going to say this before I go any farther. The best fighter or paladin you can play is the one that makes you happy, has a unique personality that engages you and your party, is the one that fits your DM’s story and ultimately avoids the straw death. (The Straw Death is also known as the Viking’s shame. Dying in your bed.) Isn’t that what DnD is really all about? The heroic battles, the story, the party interaction… and then the heroic end.
I would rather have a Halfling Fighter who used daggers and had a 16 charisma in my party than a cookie cutter, as long as he made me happy and brought the story to a better conclusion.
That being said, if you really want to know what the “Best” you can do is…
Fighter: Elf Fighter- Bastard Sword and Shield- Swordmaster Paragon Path- Demi God Epic Destiny. Wild Warrior Feat for Perception and Hunters Quarry. This build never runs out of powers. Ever. It has multiple ways of getting back Encounter Powers and Daily Powers, offers battlefield control with a high AC, hits hard and accurate, combines AoE with solid single target damage and protects its allies while blasting the hell out of bosses. You really cant do much better than this for a well rounded defender who does excellent damage and has amazing survivability.
Paladin: Half Elf Paladin- Charisma Build- Multiclass to Warlock- Eternal Seeker Epic Destiny. I cant really go into this much without really talking about it… but essentially you can mind screw the hell out of anybody like a controller, do damage only slightly lower than a striker (Your missing the warlock curse), and have ridiculous survivability combined. Using the epic destiny you grab the high level powers of any class you want ending up with Utilities that are without compare. I will point out that a Pact Blade in one hand, a holy avenger in the other, and the duel wielding feats make this a high level horror capable of making a DM convulse into tears. Literally the build that can do “anything”.
As you can see one of the builds is a super specific swordsman that takes everything nasty about fighter and becomes the ultimate in melee combat. The other takes the flexibility of Multi-classing and creates a build that ends up being capable of filling 3 party roles with ease. Also I’d like to point out that while these builds are horrifying at their peak they are ridiculously good at all 3 tiers of play, from level 1 till 30.
But that didn’t answer the question did it? Which one is better- Fighter or Paladin? On a purely mechanical level the Charisma Paladin is probably better … its weaknesses are easier to overcome (money), it gets some ridiculously powerful AoE control/defense powers, gets better use of utilities (more of them are charisma based) and does a better job in Skill Challenges with proper skill selection. When they get a holy avenger they just explode, and until then they have access to the daily/encounter abilities of weapons and holy symbols as well as Shields. It has better saves (Constitution and Charisma for Fort/Will, Reflex is going to be low for all Paladins). Additionally the races with Charisma bonus’s are more numerous allowing better customization. Tieflings and Halflings both make amazing Paladins. Additionally the Paladin is a better “tank” for boss encounters and Solo encounters which are where the really iconic nature of the game comes into play. Finally the Charisma Paladin multi-classes really really well into Warlock, can stay in class for paragon pathing into Justiciar, and can grab “Student of the Sword” for the ability to get an extra mark.
Ok folks, thats it for Defenders. Come by next week for a look at the Leader Classes- The Warlord and Cleric (and possibly the Artificer!)
-Sam
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