Sidnv

It depends on the party composition and your playstyle. Chanters are the best trash mob cleaner in the game. Dragon Thrashed + Combusting Wounds will kill everything, especially if you can reliably debuf fortitude and/or reflex. Chanters also have extremely low micro requirements. If you have a priest, most of what a paladin does can be replaced. The best support a Paladin provides is via single target accuracy buffs. So if you don't okay with a priest, a paladin will make the really difficult fights a lot smoother. Additionally, if you plan on playing with story companions, Pallegina has some awesome personal offensive skills as well. I personally prefer chanters because I like having at least one character that I can just completely ignore while they go do their thing. I also tend to play with slower but sturdier characters, which means the chanters can even get their invocations off in most early-mid game fights. Also, I like Kana while Pallegina annoys me so that's another reason to go for a chanter for me. By the end game, even in PotD, the difficulty falls off a cliff so just pick whichever class sounds cooler to you.

There's also no mention of Defensive Mindweb since it didn't exist prior to White March pt.II. It's easily the Cipher's best ability since it makes your entire party a tank.