Hoffer's Guide to Paladins
An old woman and her husband are walking along the road on their way home. It begins to get dark. They are not worried. They have taken this path many times and feel safe from danger. A crack of thunder rumbles through the area and rain pours down on the couple. They hasten their speed to try and get home as quick as possible.
Farther down the road they see a large ogre standing in the middle of the path staring at them. The ogre roars and raises his huge club high into the air. The couple is petrified from fear. Just before the ogre swings his club at the old couple, a tall, armored man leaps in front and blocks the blow with his shield. He turns to the couple and motions for them to run. Doing as they are told, the old woman takes her husband's arm and they run off down the path.
The man stares icily at the ogre, as if trying to get him to back down. The ogre takes another swing at the man, but showing much agility, the man ducks under the club and drives his blade into the belly of the beast. The ogre releases a hideous cry of pain and falls to the ground.
"No longer shall you feed off the innocent," says the man. He raises his sword high above his head and brings it down upon the ogre, ending his life quickly. "I am a Paladin; protector of the innocent and destroyer of evil."
Paladins are holy warriors. They always try and do what's right, no matter the consequences. They are skilled at fighting and curative magic. This makes them an invaluable companion to have. In the distant city of Tellerium, the Holy Order of the Paladin has lived for centuries, allowing only the purest and most powerful paladins to join their ranks. They swear a lifelong oath to battle evil and prevent injustice from becoming rampant throughout the lands.
Paladins are one of the four fighting classes in Alyria (Barbarian, Cavalier, Valkyrie, Paladin). But, if the right skills are practiced and combined with a good class combination, they can be a force to be reckoned with. Paladins are a mix between a fighter and a cleric, having proficienciess and spells of both classes. If your thinking about going Paladin, I would suggest making it your first class so you can build a strong foundation of essential fighting proficiencies.
Paladin Proficiencies
Dagger
Daggers are short, sharp blades that are usually very stealthy and quick. It is a weapon proficiency skill. The more learned you are at this proficiency, the better, more accurate, and more damaging you are when wielding a dagger in combat. They are particularly good for thieves because of the ability for them to use daggers to stab people in the back, causing lots of damage. For a Paladin however, dagger is not a school that should be used at first. If you plan on using it later, then it is probably a good idea to practice it early as the number of practices required to get better at it goes up as you level.
Dodge
In my opinion, dodge is the best overall defense in the game. When practiced, it kicks pretty much every round, effectively dodging one enemy attack per round of combat. Dodge should be maxed to 75% as soon as possible. To use dodge, or any defense for that matter, type 'combat defense <defense name>'. In this case, 'defense name' would be 'dodge'. If you have a number of defenses practiced however, you should probably set 'combat defense auto'. This means that it will use any available proficiency to try and block attacks; you can still only use one per round though.
Not only does dodge work when fighting, but it also works out of combat as well. For example, a fighter who is learned at dodge has a much higher chance of dodging stalactites falling from the ceiling than an average person would. In summary, dodge is a very important skill to have.
Enhanced Damage
Every fighting class in the game gets this proficiency. This proficiency passively increases the damage done by your attacks. Who would not want to do more damage? At lower levels, you may not notice the difference, but later in the game, if you do not have this proficiency, you will be doing a good amount of damage less than your opponent who probably does have the skill. Before you change classes, you definitely want to max this out. It will be an invaluable skill as your adventure continues.
Exotic
Exotic is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this proficiency, the better, accurate, and more damaging you are when wielding an exotic weapon in combat. Exotic weapons are basically any weapons that do not fit into any of the other weapon groups in the game. Why would you want to practice it? Well, unlike other weapon types, all exotic weapons do 'other' damage instead of pierce, slash, or bash. 'Other' damage is more deadly since in almost all cases, your opponent will have less armor verse other than verse the other kinds. Less armor means you are going to deal more damage. The exotic proficiency is a decent skill for the first two or three classes, but after that it really is not that useful from what I have seen. There are not that many high level exotic weapons and usually everyone above 3rd class has maxed armor of every type so there isn't really much of a point in using an exotic weapon. If you want to practice it so you can use it at lower levels, then go right ahead, but it will probably not be a skill you use in the long run unless some decent, high level exotic weapons are added to the game.
Flail
Flail is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this skill, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding an flail in combat. The basic flail is usually a wooden or metal shaft with a chain connected to the top. On the other end of the chain is some type of sharp, heavy object to deal lots of damage. I have never actually used flails, but what I have seen and experienced, they can be very good at higher levels. One reason people do not use them is because of their low accuracy, one of the lowest in the game. But when combined with riding (which I will explain later) they can be effective. At higher levels there are flails that do elemental damage. If you know your enemy has a vulnerability to lightning, than a lightning damage flail will be a very good choice. Once again, this is not a necessary skill. I would not practice it until everything else needed is done.
Hand to Hand
Hand to hand is a skill that determines how good you are at fighting without a weapon. Instead of damage being dependent on your weapon, the damage you dish out is dependent upon your level. This might be useful if there are not any weapons close to your level and instead of using a lower level weapon, you could use your bare hands. You should not expect this skill to do nearly as much damage as other weapons the Paladin has available to him. I would say not to practice it, as it is only useful in a small number of situations. Like if your weapon breaks and you do not have a replacement or if a Psionic has knocked it from your hand. Both of these situations can be avoided by paying attention to what your doing. The one benefit of using hand to hand is that it enables you to hold two spellbooks or a spellbook and a musical instrument at the same time. I am a big believer in that even if you have lots of powerful spells, if you do not land your attacks, you will most likely lose. If you do want to practice this, I would hold it off until all your other stuff is done.
Halberd
Halberd is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this skill, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding a halberd in combat. I only know of a few of these weapons in the game and I do not think I have ever fought another player wielding one. That being said, they are not very good. They do less damage than other weapon types and have low accuracy as well. I would say stay away from this skill all together.
Mace
Mace is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this skill, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding a mace in combat. Maces are decent weapons to use. The only drawbacks they have are their scarcity and their low accuracy. There just are not nearly as many maces out there as swords for instance. They do however do good damage and when mounted, they can be accurate enough to consider using. I would not use this as your only weapon though. If you want to practice it, use it as a secondary weapon to another type.
Meditation
Meditation is a very nice proficiency to have. It passively increases your spell point regeneration rate. Faster spell point recovery helps a great deal if you are caught in a long battle or need to sleep to regenerate your life and spell points. Another good thing about this skill is that it can be practiced all the way to 100% for maximum effectiveness. I suggest maxing this skill before you move on to your next class. Even if you do not use spells very often right now, you definitely will later in the game.
Polearm
Polearm is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this skill, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding polearm in combat. Polearms are long metal or wooden shafts with some type of sharp or blunt object on the end to cause damage. They are similar to spears, but have less accuracy and do less damage.
Parry
Parry is a defense proficiency. If your opponent is using a weapon, then you have a chance to parry their attack with your weapon. If you are skilled at the weapon they are using, you will parry more effectively. This will also however degrade your weapon if done a lot. This is a very essential skill to practice. It is very good in player verse player combat as in most cases, both of you will be wielding weapons. Some weapons also have the attribute 'parry magic' which enables you to use your weapon to block projectiles such as fireballs and lightning bolts. This skill should be maxed to 75% at your earliest convenience.
Pike
Pike is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this skill, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding a pike in combat. Pikes are similar weapons to spears and polearms. They have decent accuracy but their damage is very low. There are also very few of them out there so this skill is not of much use. Stay away from it and go for spear instead.
Riding
Riding is one of the most useful proficiencies in the game. Like meditation, it can be practiced up to 100% for maximum effectiveness. This skill allows you to be MUCH more effective at fighting for horseback. When practices, your accuracy while mounted can more than double! This allows you to hit your opponent more often and more hits equals more damage which in most cases equals victory. When combined with a high damage weapon, you can dish out lots of damage in a short amount of time. Right when you start Paladin you have this skill accessible. This should be one of the first skills you max out.
Spear
Now we are getting to the good stuff. Spear is the best weapon in the game in my opinion. It has the highest accuracy out of any weapon and is only rivaled in damage by two-handed weapons, the axe, and the lance. There are tons of awesome spears out there so you are bound to find one no matter what level you are. For paladin, this is the most accurate and most damaging weapon you have in your arsenal. Practice it to 75% right away and let yourself gather betters as you level up and progress through the game. Even though spear is very good, I would not suggest you only practice this. I would suggest also practicing a weapon of a different damage type. Some monsters are immune to certain damage types, so if you only have a slash weapon, and the monster is immune to slash, you are in trouble. Spear is pierce damage; if you want bash you could practice mace and if you want slash, you could practice sword. I would recommend sword as they have decent accuracy and there are tons of them out there.
Sword
Swords are the most popular weapon in the world of Alyria. There are so many available to adventurers of every level. I would recommend maxing this to 75% before you move on to your next class. You should definitely be skilled in two weapons types for variety and incase you encounter a monster immune to pierce or bash. Switching between two different weapon types every now and then also seems to make you receive betters faster so I would definitely recommend maxing this or a bash type weapon.
Shield Block
Shield block is a defense proficiency. It allows you to actually use your shield for something other than adding to your armor. Shield block only works if your opponent is wielding a weapon of some type. This proficiency not only gives you a chance to block their weapon from striking you, but it also is very effective at blocking projectiles. Parry-magic weapons are very limited and rare; shield block lets you block those projectile spells and breaths very effectively. Be sure to set your defense to 'auto' or 'shield block' if you want this to kick in. I would recommend auto so that your other defense can have a chance to protect you. This is a must to max to 75%.
Second Attack/Third Attack
These proficiencies are a necessity for every character in the game. These two proficiencies allow you to do up to three attacks per round instead of just one. If you have haste cast upon yourself, this allows you to get up to four attacks a round; effectively allowing you do deal two times as much damage as you could without these skills practiced. These must be maxed before you progress onto your next class since the amount of practices required to train these with go up a great deal after first class.
Throwing Knife/Throwing Spear
I group these two proficiencies together because they are practically the same thing. Throwing weapons are not very popular and should only be invested in if you have nothing else to practice. There are not many of these weapons out there and they do not do nearly as much damage as an attack spell could. You have much more important things to practice besides these skills.
Whip
Whip is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this skill, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding a whip in combat. Whips have the lowest accuracy in the game and do bad damage. I have seen people use them and I just wonder, "what are they doing?"
Yo-Yo
Yo-yo is another weapon proficiency. The more learned you are at this proficiency, the better more accurate and more damaging you are when wielding a yo-yo in combat. Low accuracy, low damage, and very scarce. There are some high level ones, but I would never use one instead of a decent spear.
That's it for the Paladin proficiencies. Once again, a paladin is a mix between a fighter and a cleric, so obviously they will not have as many fighting proficiencies as a pure fighter. Two pretty good fighting skills that the Paladin is missing are "Fast Healing" and "Bash". Both of which can be obtained from other classes, so it is not really that big of a deal unless you can not go the classes that will give you those two skills and absolutely can not live without them, which probably is not the case. Bash is a good skill to have, but as you go up in level, it gets less and less effective in battle. Now let's take a look at the other side of the Paladin, the spells:
Paladin Spells
Armor
Armor is a very nice spell. It adds three armor to your character. The one downside to this spell is that the armor added does not increase as you level up. But nonetheless, three armor is still beneficial no matter what level you are. When you start your paladin it is already at 15% learned and I would not suggest practicing it much higher than that since the complexity of the spell is 0%. This will allow you to cast the spell very effectively at higher levels without the need for investing many practices in it. I would recommend not practicing it more than it already is, but if you are a not very smart race (Ogre), you might want to put some practices into it.
Bless
Bless is another low complexity spell that starts off practiced. Bless gives you additional saving verse spell when cast upon yourself. The number added also goes up as your level increases so this turns out to be a very nice spell. Bless also works at protecting fragile equipment you may be carrying. When it is cast on a piece of equipment, the decay rate and chance that it will be destroyed from harmful spells decreases. All in all, it is a very valuable spell. I would recommend also leaving it at where it is since it is a very low complexity spell. At higher levels it will work every cast anyway.
Calm
Another nice spell to have. When cast, calm stops combat with whomever you are fighting and gives you a chance to run away or perhaps attack a different person. With that being said, I recommend it be practiced to 75%. The last thing you want to happen is lose your concentration when casting this if you are very low on hit points. Before you practice this you should also think about your class path. Druids can calm using ooze evocation, which does not require a spellbook. If you plan on going druid, then you might want to hold off on this spell until you go druid. I'll explain why you might want to go druid later.
Create Food/Create Water/Create Spring
I group these spells together because they all do pretty much the same thing. If you do want a spell that will help you when you get hungry or thirsty then I would recommend create spring. Create spring makes an endless fountain at your current location. When drank from, your hunger and thirst are quenched, thus erasing the need for you two practice two spells to accomplish the same thing (create water and create food). I have it practiced up to 50% so just incase I run out of food and drink. I would not recommend practicing it any higher than that.
Cure Blindness
One of the most important healing spells in the game. When blinded your character is much less effective. You cannot target offensive spells and you cannot see what you are doing. Instead of buying potions or waiting for the spell to wear off, you can use this spell. You will get blinded when you fight players so I think this spell is a necessity. Practice it to max so it will not fail on you in combat.
Cure Critical/Cure Light
I would recommend practicing both of these spells to 75%. Cure critical heals more hit points, but takes longer to cast (can still be done between rounds though) and more spell points. Why would you want cure light then? Well cure light is the only healing spell that works when you are silenced. So if you do get silenced, which you definitely will at some time or another, instead of sitting there dumbfounded you can heal yourself and possibly survive until the silence wears off. Both of these spells can be cast on other players as well so they are nice to have in all circumstances.
Cure Disease/Cure Poison
These spells do exactly what their name suggests; they relieve you of poison and plague. The one down side of these spells is that they cannot be cast during combat. If you do not plan on going druid, then practice both of these to 75%. If you do plan on going druid, hold off on them until you go druid. The druid form of these spells can be cast during combat. The only problem is that the druid cure disease cannot be cast on other players like the paladin version can. If you feel like you want to be able to heal disease of your friends, then practice both.
Counterspell
Counterspell is a high complexity spell that has the potential to be a lifesaver. Basically what it does is attempts to turn your opponents magic against them. It must be timed well to work, and this can be very difficult sometimes. In player combat it is not as practical unless you know they are casting a very devastating spell like slow or silence. Counterspell takes at least 100 spell points to cast, if you do counter your opponents spell, they will lose zero spell points. So technically they could just keep spamming the spell until you run out of spell points. This spell is more useful against really hard, high level mobs (archon hunters) to protect you from their barrage of powerful spells. You will use it later in the game so I would recommend maxing it.
Detect Alignment
This spell allows you to tell the alignment (evil, neutral, good) or a monster. Not very useful spell. I would not recommend practicing it. If you do want to use it, it starts at 10% so you still can without wasting practices on it.
Erase
Erase allows you to remove a spell from a spellbook. It is the opposite of scribe but much higher complexity for some reason. I would not recommend practicing this one either. You can easily buy erase scrolls if you need to remove a spell.
Light
Light creates a magical ball of energy that can be equipped as a light source. It may be useful in the first class, but after that there are light sources that are permanent and add good affects and stats. I would keep it at 10% and use it if needed, but you probably will not use it much.
Protection from Evil
This spell reduces the damage you take from evil enemies by 5%. That may not seem like a lot, but at higher levels 5% is a decent amount. There are a lot of evil monsters out there so this spell is pretty nice. I would recommend practicing it no higher than 25% as it is low complexity.
Refresh
Refresh heals your stamina instead of your hit points. For a paladin I do not find this skill very useful. I have seen people use this if they run out of stamina during combat from bashing, but since paladins do not get the bash skill, there is not really a point in practicing it unless you would like to heal other people. If you are in the wilds running somewhere, you can always just sleep for a little to regain your stamina. If you are going bard later, they get this spell from their music skill so practicing this is a waste of practices and spellbook space.
Remove Curse
Curse is a particularly annoying spell that when cast upon you by an enemy, your armor and save verse spell take a pretty large penalty. Curse also prevents you from recalling to safety. Remove curse allows you to do exactly what it says, remove it from you. I do not find this spell that useful. If you really want to remove it from you, you can cast dispel magic to get rid of it. If your class path does not allow you to get dispel magic (Psionic), then you might want to practice this; but I would not recommend maxing it. 50% would be absolutely good.
Resurrect
This is a high complexity spell that brings someone back from the dead. Usually when you die you go to the void and have to wait for your timer to expire and you can come back to life. If your friend dies and needs to get back to life right away, you can cast this spell from anywhere in the world and bring him back. Nice spell, only problem is that it takes an astral reagent to cast. Astrals are hard to find and if bought, can range from 15k to 25k gold each. If this seems like a spell you would want to use, then I would recommend practicing it to 50% or so. This is not a necessity though, do not bother with it until your other more important skills and spells are done.
Sanctuary
This is a very necessary spell to have on you at all times; however, that does not mean you need to practice this spell. There are tons of items out there that grant you sanctuary when equipped so I would not recommend practicing this. Basically what the spell does is decrease the damage done to you by 20% and protect you from the deadly 'kill' spell. Kill is a spell granted to wizards that allows them to kill an opponent of their level or less instantly. If the person has sanctuary however, they will not die from the spell. In summary, it's a good spell to have on you, but it is by no means needed to be practiced.
Scribe
Scribe allows you to add a spell to your spellbook from its scroll. Why would you want to do this? Well scrolls vanish after they are used once; if it is scribed in a spellbook, it can be cast an infinite number of times. It is a bit disappointing that this starts at 1%. I would recommend practicing it up to 10 or 15, anything more than that is overkill.
Sanctify
This is the only paladin unique spell in the game. There is no need for a scroll or spellbook to use this spell. What it does is attempt to radiate the room you are in with a holy aura that increases regeneration rates and may even remove malevolent magic from good aligned people in the room. It's a nice spell to have. I would practice it to at least 50%.
Spell Shield
Spell shield surrounds your character with an aura that absorbs the first 50% or lower complexity spell that is cast upon your character. Any spells between 50 and 75 complexity will be reduced to half power and spells over 75 will be unaffected. Can be useful, but not a necessity in my opinion. If it could block silence it would be a lot better. It is still pretty useful in player killing. If you do practice it, practice it up to at least 50% and make sure it's on you before every player battle.
Proficiency and Spell Summarization
Here are the skills from the above list that I believe should be practiced in order for you to make a good paladin. You may by all means practice more, but I think these must be practiced first.
Proficiencies
- Spear
- Sword
- Dodge
- Enhanced Damage
- Meditation
- Parry
- Shield Block
- Riding
- Second Attack
- Third Attack
Spells
- Cure Blindness
- Cure Critical
- Cure Disease*
- Cure Poison*
- Cure Light
- Counterspell
- Protection from Evil
- Sanctify
*Remember, if you are going druid, you should wait for the druid version of these spells.
Fighting NPCs
Whenever you are fighting, you should always be mounted. With the riding skill at 100%, you will get a huge accuracy bonus that will help you kill monsters faster. Some places however you cannot bring a mount; even without one you still should be able to put up a fight. You should also have armor and protection from magic cast upon you. If paladin is your first class, there isn't much to do when fighting except just let yourself use your defense and do your four attacks to the opponent. If you need to, you can use either cure critical or cure light if your hit points get low. You could also flee, then sanctify the room and take a nap to regenerate.
Fighting Players
Fighting players is pretty much the same strategy as NPCs. Try to be mounted at all times and just let your defenses protect you and your attacks kill your opponent. Also, instead of just protection from evil and armor, you should have bless cast on you for added save verse spell. If fighting a mage, you could counterspell to protect yourself while your attacks make short work of the mage's low hit points. If your hit points get low, you can use cure critical to stay alive as long as possible and hopefully outlast your opponent. Do not expect to be able to beat other first class characters like cavaliers and barbarians. They will probably bash you to death and there is nothing you can do to stop that as of right now. Just be patient, in a class or two you'll be able to be cleaning the floor with their face.
Equipment
Obviously since the paladin is a fighting class, you need a good weapon such as spear or sword. Good armor is also a must. You could do all the damage in the world but take damage like and wimp and die. You will also need a spellbook to hold all your paladin spells, which there are a number of. You do not need to buy a huge expensive spellbook, keep all the spells you use in combat in one spellbook and all the others in a different one to hold in your inventory. Cheap spellbooks like the red spellbook and green spellbook can be bought at scroll shops all across Alyria; you should not have a problem finding them.
Class Combinations
Class path is very important in Materia Magica. It should be planned out if you are to be successful. Below I list two good class paths that I believe paladins go well with.
Paladin / Wizard / Druid / Rogue - This is a very nice and balanced class path. The beautiful thing about paladin is that it allows you to go druid by giving you the priest spells the druid class lacks. You do not necessarily have to go druid, but it's kind of a waste not doing it since you will have lots of overlapping spells by going either priest or shaman. Another thing about this class path is that it really doesn't matter what mage class you choose. I prefer wizard since it gives you lots of spells, but you could just as easily go ranger or psionic. I would stay away from monk since they have too many overlapping spells with paladin.
Paladin / Psionic / Druid / Bard - This is another decent choice. What I like about this build is that it does not rely on memorizing or spellbooks. The only spellbook that is needed is for the paladin spells, which can easily be memorized. This allows you to hold a musical instrument in the other hand, which can be very powerful if a good one is found. Psionics and druids also do not rely on spellbooks. The only problem with this path is the lack of mage spells you will have. You will be missing good spells like curse, poison, weaken, silence, enervation, etc. Some people consider psioncs to be the worst mage class, but I do not agree with that. They are unaffected by web filter and silence and have silent casting. Put that all together and you have a great player killing class.
If you do not plan on going Druid, then I would stay away from paladin and go with another fighting class. The first build has problems since wizard and paladin are dependent upon spellbooks and you cannot hold a spellbook and an instrument at the same time. That can cause a problem. The second build does not give you the shear number of spells and thief skills as the first does. Both are very good and both can be tweaked to fit your needs. Class paths are not set in stone. Characters are not good because of their class paths; they are good because of the players playing them. Keep that in mind, but don't choose a path that will make your life hard.
You may also notice that I put paladin as the first class, mage second, then priest, then thief last. I believe the fighting class should always be first so you can build a strong foundation and also first class level up bonuses are higher than other classes, so you want to get as many hit points per level as possible first class. I put mage second because you will have lots of new things to practice and if you hold it off until third or fourth, you will find yourself needing much more practices do accomplish what you need to. Druid third since you will not have as many spells to practice and you want to get as many spell points per level as possible in first and second classes before the really bad fourth class bonuses occur. I put thief class as last, but if you plan on going rogue, you might want to swap druid with rogue, but then you will not get your powerful heal and web until last class, which could be very annoying. Rogue does have a lot of skills you will need to practice so making it earlier may be better.
Role-Playing
As a paladin, you should be just and compassionate. Have no mercy for evil creatures. You have seen the death and destruction they cause the world. Wherever you go, make sure the innocent are not oppressed and that evil is not allowed to roam rampant. You should keep a good alignment since you are of course a holy warrior. Be optimistic and be a leader. People should look up to you.
YA first class paladin will not be able to beat other first class fighters, but each multi-class you do, you will become infinitely better. One thing I have not talked about in this guide is what race you should choose. There are many races to choose from. You could always be human, but they are too average for my taste and receive no racial affects. Sidhe's are nice. They receive resistance to paralysis, which means you will be much harder to web and slow. When you couple that with ash invocation from druid, you will be very hard to slow, which is good since if you were slowed, your whole druid class would become worthless. Each race is good in its own way. I do not want to tell you exactly how to create a paladin since there is not one specific best way to go. Look at all the races, see which ones can go the class path you wish to go and go for it. Good luck making your paladin, I hope this guide was of some help.
