Paladin new player guide

This is a page for the Paladin specific page for the Newbie Help Guide. Whenever possible, overlap with the general guide should be minimized.

For details, rules, and the other pages involved, see Category:Newbie Guide Contest.

What is a Paladin?

A Paladin holds a unique position: they are Holy Warriors, graced by the gods, though not as tied to them in service as a Cleric. Their gifts are more firmly rooted in the physical realm, and they hold the position of Masters of Armor. Clad in Plate armor and wielding tower shields they are shining beacons for others to follow, and are at their best when leading others into combat. Paragons of self-sacrifice, they are the only guild capable of protecting others, shielding them from blows with their own bodies. Everything a Paladin does revolves around a strong sense of ethics and justice, reflected in their Soul State. Though it is within their ability to ignore that inner voice, acting against it will require repentance later. This it both the Paladin's greatest blessing and greatest curse.

Mechanically Speaking:

Paladins are Armor Primary, Lore and Weapons secondary, Magic and Survival tertiary. Having armor as a primary skillset allows them several perks: they can eventually train all armor types simultaneously with no 'armor mixing' penalty. They can wear a large-sized shield on their arm, leaving both hands free. In addition, they can train armor down to a lower hindrance than any other guild, and are the only guild that can become minimally hindered while wearing the heaviest of Plate armors. They have the ability to PROTECT other adventurers, intercepting each blow aimed at them. They wield weapons as well as most other guilds, but will excel with them due to higher circling requirements. Magic is a tertiary skill which means it will take extra effort to ensure those skills do not fall far behind. A Paladin is inexorably tied to the state of their soul, which reflects their adherence to an unwritten code of justice that a Paladin cannot escape.

*PLANNED*Sometime in the not too distant future, the Paladin-exclusive skill Endurance will go live, granting feats of umm...endurance-y type things. Ways to shrug off poison, stuns, basically increasing survivability in more interesting ways than just reducing damage.

Beginning Choices

Race

In Dragonrealms, there are no particular races that are 'better' than others. Paladins are primarily a physical guild, with magic that skews heavily towards defensive buffs. They have very few offensive magics, so if you want to specialize, it is a bit easier. Paladins will always benefit from the primary defensive/survival attributes: Reflex, Stamina, and Discipline, so you can't go wrong with Races that focus on any of those stats. Strength and Agility are important for melee offenses, so a Paladin wishing to excel in that sphere could go with a race that suits those attributes. Strength is also important for shield skill. Every attribute has a place, and there is no 'wrong' race. Read through the guide, figure out where you want to place emphasis, but for the most part - pick the race you want to play and go from there.

Racial attribute bonuses/penalties are balanced so that if you trained every single stat evenly, to say 20, 40 or even 80 points, each race will require the same TDP investment to do so.

Attributes

Attributes contribute to almost every aspect of the the game. Each attribute is associated with various Skills, and plays a role in many Contested Abilities. For general and long-term Attribute training plans, be sure to read the guide in its entirety so you have a good idea of which Attributes contribute to what. Then you can train with a good idea of what you want your character's focus to be. For starting out, I *VERY* highly recommend training stats in the following order: (and remember DIRection will get you to each)

1. Get equipped with the armor and weapon(s) you plan on training
2. Train STAMINA to 14 (16 if you plan on doing a lot of combat)
3. Train STRENGTH until you check ENCUMBRANCE and see Encumbrance : None
4. Train REFLEX to 14-16 (depending on Racial modifier)
5. Do whatever else you want

Starting Equipment

If you're following the Newbie Walkthrough, you should understand how to get the gear you want from the Veteran or Robyn.

For a Paladin, I would very strongly recommend that being Plate Armor. Buying accessories that are a separate type of armor is also recommended. Eventually (by 50th Circle) a Paladin will be able to train each and every type of armor at once without the mixing armor penalty. This is a perk of having Armor as your primary skillset that no other guild can claim, so you should definitely take advantage of it.

For weapons, it is mostly a roleplay choice. Though if you ever want to participate in the Jousting tournaments hosted across the realms, I would recommend at least eventually training polearms.

Starting Spell Choice

A Paladin only has 3 choices for their first spell: Aspirant's Aegis (Warding), Heroic Strength (Augmentation) or Stun Foe (Debilitation). As magic tertiary, Paladins earn spell slots rather slowly, so I recommend placing emphasis on picking up a spell from each Magic Skill group so that you can self-train them all as early as possible.

1. Aspirant's Aegis
2. Stun Foe
4. Footman's Strike
6. Heroic Strength
8. Righteous Wrath
12. Anti-Stun

By 12th Circle you will be able to train every magic skill (except Sorcery) on your own. You can switch around the SF>FST branch for RW>Anti if you want to switch Debil/TM with Utility, but I personally place emphasis on Debilitation and Targeted Magic. As a Magic tertiary guild however, TM will not be your strongest tool for killing.

Notes on Roleplaying a Paladin

There will be a more detailed discussion of the mechanics of Soul State later in this guide, but before delving that deeply I feel it is necessary to cover some of the over-arching theories behind the Paladin guild. Paladins are quite literally, White Knights, with all of the stereotypes that entails. Some fantasy settings have Dark Paladins, and while that is an avenue of roleplay that is available to you here, it is important to understand the differences. In Dragonrealms, you will not mechanically benefit your character by say, scourging innocents. The 'code of ethics' behind the Soul State is inescapable, so to be a Dark Paladin in this setting - to quote GM Armifer "Do what you must - and then pay for it". If you are so inclined, there is a great piece written on the topic here: The Sacred and the Profane

Training Your Paladin

Armor Skillset

Armor Choice

Paladins are the only guild with Armor as a primary skillset. This offers a few benefits -

• Able train hindrance down lower than any other guild (Minimally hindered in heavy Plate Armor)
• Can eventually mix all armors without any 'mixing' penalties
• Able to wear large-sized shields on their arm

Shield Usage is a soft skill requirement, and will most likely end up being your 'primary armor' for circling purposes. I strongly recommend choosing Plate as your main worn armor. Paladins are the only guild that can train Plate down to minimally hindered, and the ability to have the lowest hindrance with the most protective armor is a benefit that should not be squandered.

While Shield and Plate armor will be enough to fulfill the minimum guild circling requirements, it is strongly recommended to eventually train more (if not all) armors. As Paladin's primary skillset, it will train faster than other skills, and maximize TDP return. Each person will have to find their own balance between training multiple armors for mechanical TDP benefit, or training fewer for RP/Character Concept reasons.

Example: I train 3 armors: Heavy Plate, Brigandine, and Chain armor. I can't reconcile the Roleplay concept of a Paladin in Leather Armor, so I don't train it. This is where I found my balance between mechanics/roleplay.

Shield Choice

Beginning at 5th Circle, Paladins have the unique ability of being able to wear a large-sized shield on their arm, leaving both hands free for things like 2-handed weapons.

Again, as this is a guild perk specific to Paladins, it should not be overlooked. However, if you would like to train Bows, you should consider stepping down to a medium-sized shield to avoid penalties to ranged.

Weapon Skillset

Weapons do three primary types of damge: Puncture, Slice, and Impact.

The Weapon Skillset has the largest number of skills to choose from, and the guild requires you to train two of them. You should make sure at least one of those is a melee weapon so that you can also train Parry. Which two you choose really doesn't matter, but here's a few restrictions that may help you make your decision:

• 2-Handed weapons will receive a small penalty when used with an arm-worn shield (Paladins have the least penalty in this regard)
• Only Small-sized weapons can be wielded in the Offhand
• Crossbows and Slings are the only Ranged Weapons that can be used with a shield without penalty
• Light Thrown weapons and certain smaller Heavy Thrown weapons can be thrown in the offhand.

Should you decide to participate in the Paladin-themed Jousting Tournaments, you will want to have some skill with Polearms.

Specific Training Advice

Generally I recommend everyone train at least:

• One bladed weapon (Small Edge, Large Edge, 2-Handed Edge, Polearms)
• One blunt weapon (Small Blunt, Large Blunt, 2-Handed Blunt, Staves)
• Brawling
• Tactics (not technically a weapon skill, but trained with them)
• One ranged weapon (Light Thrown, Heavy Thrown, Bows, Crossbows)

Keep in mind, this is progressive. To get through your first 10 circles you'll only need one weapon. Expand as your desire and bank account grow.

As a Paladin you will already be spending a lot of time in combat, so training more than the guild minimum weapons should be easy...but feel free to modify that number down to the Guild minimum, or upwards (sky is the limit!). Keep in mind one of the greatest things about Dragonrealms' skill system is there is that the only limit on how many skills you train is time. Pick as many or as few skills fit your character concept and roleplay; my advice here is just to make sure you can reasonably handle anything at your level the game throws at you...is that monster parrying too much? Throw an axe at its face! Is your slicing weapon deflecting off that armored critter's hide? Use a blunt!

Survival Skillset

There's not much about Survival skills to discuss for Paladins. We have incredibly low and easy requirements, and none of them will make a significant impact on your character. A few minor notes:

• Evasion - will probably end up being one of yours as you work on required armor, parry, and weapons skills
• Perception - has some tie-ins with Paladin abilities (Glyph of Light)
• Athletics - I would strongly recommend training this skill for general usefulness/travel.
• Outdoorsmanship - Handy if you want to be able to forage your own healing herbs, good tie in with Alchemy

NOTE: Training stealth is possible, but difficult. Attacking from stealth is the primary way to train this skill, and will cause a loss of your Soul State.

NOTE: While you can train Thievery if you wish, it will not count towards your circling requirements and will require some serious repenting if you wish to continue circling.