I read through the Paladin thread and started collating the different thoughts with what was offered in older posts. This provided me with a set of goals and a basic framework from which to target improvements.
Then, after spending some (waaay too much) time, I put it all together into a formal, fleshed-out proposal of a complete rework of the class. The paladin I proposed can be summed up like this:
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The Paladin is a skirmisher, relying on their superior endurance and mobility to land devastating charges, only to withdraw to recover and begin the onslaught anew, working towards the final chase with inevitability. They are the hunter-seekers. Wielding their holy weapons (sacred blade), paladins make their opponents flee and then run them down until they fall in exhaustion. Some paladins are better at forcing the initial flee (initiative), while others have advantages in following through to the kill (pursuit). Trying to beat a Paladin with skirmishing tactics is remarkably dangerous and difficult (tenacity). Some paladins lead others as a holy commander (squire, divine touch) whereas others rely on their on their own valor and faith (heroism, holy avenger). While all paladins are excellent mounted combatants, a few dedicate themselves to their mount completely and are rewarded with devotion in turn (summon Goliath). Whether a paladin hunts their wounded quarry with fervor or calls upon the Divine to purge hordes of their enemies (holy word), the paladin will serve their cause ably and gloriously.
Goals of the rework:
- Maintain paladin inflexibility
- Maintain paladin poor finishing
- Maintain paladin poor debuffing
- Maintain wide gearing needs (hit/dam/ac/saves/etc) (few direct stat passive bonuses)
- Maintain newbie friendliness
- Maintain overall theme of classic mounted paladin
- Limit number of new skills/spells (coder friendly)
- Improve group friendliness
- Improve cabal friendliness
- Improve strength against supernatural evils
- Improve strength against rogues
- Improve strength against neutrals
- Improve weapon selection
- Improve blinding capability
- Add holy weapon concept
- Rework Goliath/Heroism/Holy Word concepts
- Add class build customization (paths/lores/etc)
- Rework bad/broken skills
- Replace stock titles
Key points of the rework:
- Still heavily dependent on player chasing to land kills
- Still inflexible in combat - not many skill/spell options to actively use
- More survivable than a melee but less than a cleric
- The paladin's holy weapon is more newbie-friendly than a DK/Crusader's kill-based weapon, but much less powerful. More comparable to blood vow
- Selectable blind skill, but at great opportunity cost (lose a weapon proficiency)
- Weapon selection is poor and the holy weapon severely limits the damage noun/type (very bad at exploiting non-holy/fire vulns)
- More Tribunal/Knight friendly due to heroism/charmie rework and greater effectiveness against neutrals
- Selectable skills, but no paths
- Goliath/Heroism/Holy Word incorporated into selectables
- Racial perks and storm giants
- New titles!
The paladin rework proposal is as follows:
Remove skills:
- Goliath
- Heroism
- Holy Word
Add skills (*selectable)
- Spear (level 1)
- Kick (level 13)
- Weapon Training* (level 25)
- Mount Control Lore* (level 30)
- Martial Lore* (level 35)
- Tenacity (level 37)
- Holy Rites Lore* (level 40)
- Sacred Blade (level 43)
- Knighthood Lore* (level 45)
- Paladin Lore* (level 49)
Current Skill Changes:
- Turn Undead: Lags two rounds. Increased damaged (+50%) and chance to hysteria if the target is above 80% HP.
- Lay on Hands: Group healing skill (not spell!) that heals 15% maximum HP, mana, and moves. It automatically cures any poison, plague and embrace for the group (without a check). It drains the caster for 2 ticks. 24 tick cooldown. 3 round lag. No mana cost.
- Magic Strike: Add a check for current buffs/debuffs to narrow the list of choices to be cast. No wrath, but include flamestrike, dispel evil. If opponent is not evil, do not cast dispel evil.
- Mounted Combat: Functions at full effectiveness on any mount. Full bonus charge damage bonus from a two-handed polearm/spear. Does weapon's damage type for vulns/resists/etc. 75% bonus damage from a one-handed polearm/spear or two-handed other weapon. 50% from a one-handed non-polearm/spear. Two-handed weapons must be wielded in two hands to work. May charge with any type of weapon. Inflicted lag is 4 rounds if using one weapon or 2 rounds if dual wielding. Bonus damage/lag lost during cooldown. Two hour cooldown on mounted charge. Thrust does not dismount. Rescues with mounted charge.
- Wrath (aff/mal spell): Remove the damage scaling from heroism/holy word and target health. Does high holy damage (aff save check) with a two round lag and chance to curse on aff save fail (mal save check). Casts (and damage scales) at spell level. Same damage to neutrals/goods.
- Dispel Evil (aff spell): Inflicts 50% of wrath damage for 40% of the mana cost to evils. 1 round lag. Extra 10% damage against supernatural evils (lich, vamp, undead, demon).
Add Races:
- Storm Giant
Racial Perks:
- Elf: Channeling (passive skill): Gain +2 spell level when wielding a worthy staff (rare or unique only)
- Human: Gain shield expertise (level 28)
- Half-Elf: Boon (passive skill): +1 hp/mana/mv per level. +5% hp/mana/mv regen
- Dwarf: Gain the frenzy spell (level 28)
- Storm Giant: Blitz (passive skill): 50% chance to add 30% extra charge damage as a separate lightning-based hit on a charge. Stacks on base charge damage, so it will be modified by mounted charge bonuses if applicable.
New Skills:
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Tenacity (passive skill, level 37): After a target flees, the target gains a one tick affect which allows the paladin to see/target them, regardless of any blindness, various forms, hide, or any other vision/where hiding ability.
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Sacred Blade (mental spell, level 43): A paladin may bless their weapon with an inner strength. The weapon permanently gains the bless flag. The weapon ignores all resists/immunities/mana shield and also ignores the protection spell for the duration. The damage type/noun becomes divine power. It cannot be sacrificed for the duration. The spell is applied in a similar way as blood vow (single weapon, lag, duration), and the weapon may only be touched by the owner. The weapon gains 1 average damage for the duration.
Selectables:
Weapon Training (level 25): Choose one weapon or smite. If the paladin already has that weapon type, gain expertise in it. Otherwise, gain the weapon type.
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Smite (passive skill): Upgrades kick to smite. Smite does kick damage and dirt-kick blind for 1 tick, regardless of room type. Does double damage if the opponent is already blind.
Still laughing about the inclusion of kick? A rare inclusion of an active skill for a paladin, and it even blinds, but is it worth using? Then I can't be a whip paladin...
Mount Control Lore (level 30): Initiative or Pursuit
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Initiative (passive skill): The paladin strikes first in every round if mounted. The paladin's offensive skills and spells cannot be reversed or blocked in any way (mantis, counter, spell-turning, predict, mana shield, etc) if mounted.
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Pursuit (passive skill): Move cost reduction/regen similar to old heroism when mounted. If mounted, upon a successful flee by an opponent, they have a 50% chance to instead fail and take (10 of weapon dam type unblockable damage with relevant modifiers) damage to HP, mana and moves.
Initiative ensures that the paladin's limited options are not immediately shut down by hard counters. Charge the blademaster heathens, call your faith upon that evil cleric, or burn the false invoker to ashes. Terrible if they can't counter you though.
Pursuit allows the paladin to press their hard-won advantage into a kill by offering both a desperately-needed small exhaustion debuff and locking their opponent down longer. Terrible if they can counter all your skills though.
Do you want more abilities (pursuit) or ensure the few you already have will work (initiative)? Both are passives.
Martial Lore (level 35): Backcutter or Blind Fighting
A deceptively simple choice between always-useful offense/punishment and survival against your hardest foes, heavy melees. More passives.
Holy Rites Lore (level 40): Fervor or Holy Word
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Fervor (passive skill): Upgrades Wrath to do increased base damage to hurt enemies. Damage % increase by target's (current HP % -10) when 50% or lower HP, to a minimum of +0%. For example: 45% target health = +35% damage; 5% health = +0% damage). Upgrades Tenacity to cause any regened hp/mana/moves to be gained by the paladin instead of the target for the duration. Tenacity now stacks per additional flee to 2 ticks instead of 1.
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Holy Word (passive skill): Upgrades Flamestrike to keep dealing fire damage (25-33% base, aff saveable) per round for one tick. Upgrades Dispel Evil to now target the entire group (as per sharpmetal).
Fervor gives a paladin some finishing power, but is difficult to use well. The tenacity upgrade on the other hand is always good, making any dancing flee or regen-depended strategy very difficult to use against the paladin. It all means nothing if you can get them to start running and keep them near however...
Flamestrike already targets the enemy group, but Holy Word's per-round burning damage against an entire army combined with a group-slamming dispel evil will really hurt those necros (and Watchers with weak charmies and Nexians hiding behind their charmies). Maybe more importantly, it offers you a way to hurt people while not being in combat with them.
Reward the chase or reward the skirmish? Neither offers any new skills, only passive upgrades.
Knighthood Lore (level 45): Squire or Heroism
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Squire (mental spell): Creates a (spell level - 1) charmie. Will guard owner (like a mammoth). Medium size, disarms, trips and protection from evil. Intended to be general support. Average physical damage output (slash ac) and health, but impeded by lower level.
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Heroism (passive skill): Increases the paladin's THAC0 significantly (in line with dedicated melees). Maintains full mounted charge damage bonus (not lag) during cooldown. 25% improved charge bonus damage from non-optimal weapon (100% from a one-handed polearm/spear or two-handed other weapon. 75% from a one-handed non-polearm/spear). Two-handed spear mounted charge has a chance to bleed. Two-handed polearm mounted charge has a chance to wound. Lags for 4 rounds regardless if dual wielding. Immune to fear/hysteria.
Feeling down in the dumps after that repeated bashing? Those heavy melees whipping you to shreds? Let your trusty squire jump between you and buy you the time you need to charge again while giving you some extra melee output. Significantly better if you can gain the spell level. A bit of a homage to the old 1.0 days of the Knight squires.
Heroism lets you become the heavy melee, allowing you to hit more often and giving you well-deserved weapon selection flexibility. It lets you spam charge for damage all the while making sure your proficiencies stay high against those who cause fear.
Empower yourself offensively or gain a decent charmie to take a more balanced approach?
Champion Lore (level 49): Holy Avenger, Summon Goliath, or Divine Touch
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Holy Avenger (passive skill): Upgrades Sacred Blade with the 'holy fire' damage noun and type (hits both fire and holy vulns). It adds the flaming flag and causes fear (5% round/proc neutrals, 15% round/proc evils, 25% round/proc for evil qraces). This fear penetrates fear immunity. Ignores a further (spell level - 45)% damage reduction. Increase weapon average damage by 4 (total, +3 over Sacred Blade).
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Summon Goliath (mental spell): Creates spell level mountable charmie. Excellent HP (~black dragon). Large size. Kicks, bashes and has protection from evil. Permanent duration, recastable every 24 hours. Intended to be a healthy lagger. Average physical damage output (bash ac). When mounted on Goliath, the paladin has -25% heavy lag time and damage (thrust/bash/rush/bodyslam/etc) and is untrippable (air thrash/hurricane dismounts for 1 tick). Goliath's kick has a chance to headbutt (25% and zerk chance to shatter protective shield) or thunderclap (25% casted as per spell level).
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Divine Touch (passive skill): Upgrades Lay on Hands to heal 20% of maximum HP, mana and moves. It also casts esuna, enlarge, haste, frenzy, sanctuary, armor and shield at spell level. Cooldown cut to 12 hours and lag to 2 rounds. No mana cost and drained for 2 ticks.
Holy avenger makes your weapon a lot better. Really great if you can actually hit your opponent. Really bad if you want to use a vuln weapon like any sensible melee.
Goliath grants another charmie option with tanking and wildcard support benefits, including your only real option to lag. Until something happens to it, then you are a dismounted, charmie-less paladin. That isn't a good thing.
Divine touch gives an insta-spell up and recovery for you and your ten best friends but is hard to use for both spelling-up and healing due to timing concerns. It greatly reduces your need for consumables, but on the other hand, these spells could be gained elsewhere without using this ability. Then there is the unfortunate matter of getting dispelled.
Omg, level 50 haste and enlarge on tap? How could I not choose this? Wait, Goliath as a mob and it bashes and thunderclaps?? Holy Avenger can turn OP weapons even more OP! How can I choose??
Titles:
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Level Male Female
1 Stalwart Stalwart
2 Fervent Fervent
3 Blessed Blessed
4 Defender Defender
5 Acolyte of Arms Acolyte of Arms
6 Defender Priest Defender Priestess
7 Martial Priest Martial Priestess
8 Worthy Worthy
9 Squire Initiate Squire Initiate
10 Squire Squire
11 Sergeant Squire Sergeant Squire
12 Rider Rider
13 Blessed Rider Blessed Rider
14 Man-at-arms Woman-at-arms
15 Champion Champion
16 Champion Priest Champion Priestess
17 Mistress Champion Mistress Champion
18 Pious Champion Pious Champion
19 Paladin Aspirant Paladin Aspirant
20 Paladin Paladin
21 Paladin Sergeant Paladin Sergeant
22 Knight Initiate Lady Initiate
23 Knight Lady
24 Devout Knight Devout Lady
25 Paladin Knight Paladin Lady
26 Annoited Knight Annoited Lady
27 Knight Priest Lady Priestess
28 Paladin Adventurer Paladin Adventurer
29 Errant Paladin Errant Paladin
30 Lord Errant Dame Errant
31 Entrusted Lord Errant Entrusted Dame Errant
32 Chevalier Chevalier
33 Knight Chevalier Lady Chevalier
34 Grand Chavalier Grand Chevalier
35 Knight Commander Lady Commander
36 Lord Commander Dame Commander
37 Initiate of the Inner Flame Initiate of the Inner Flame
38 Consecrated of the Inner Flame Consecrated of the Inner Flame
39 Paladin Knight of the Inner Flame Paladin Lady of the Inner Flame
40 Lord Paladin Dame Paladin
41 Grand Paladin Grand Paladin
42 Initiate of the Sacred Blade Initiate of the Sacred Blade
43 Bearer of the Sacred Blade Bearer of the Sacred Blade
44 Paladin Companion Paladin Companion
45 Hero Heroine
46 Paladin Hero Paladin Heroine
47 Lord Paladin Hero Dame Paladin Heroine
48 Scion Apparent Scion Apparent
49 Paladin Scion Paladin Scion
50 Base Champion Lord Paladin Champion Dame Paladin
50 Holy Avenger Holy Scion of the Sacred Blade Holy Scion of the Sacred Blade
50 Summon Goliath Supreme Lord Chevalier Supreme Dame Chevalier
50 Divine Touch Knight Apostle of the Inner Flame Lady Apostle of the Inner Flame
Edit: Typos and elves require a a rare/unique staff for their perk
Edit 2: Clarified mounted charge cooldown at 2 ticks. Added storm giant as a base race. Added storm giant perk. Removed request bonus from holy word (leftover mistake from brainstorming).