NamelessDragon

Alright everyone, thank you so much for all the input! It's given me a bunch to think about and consider. I think I'm going to experiment, try out a couple of different things separately because there's a lot that does appeal haha. I'll try out the two-handed character as Battlemage Devoted/Wizard. I also currently have a dual-wielding melee Cipher playthrough going on in PoE1, and I'm nearing the end. Having a blast with the Cipher playstyle, and I can see why it would be synergizing really well with a Paladin- I think I'll multiclass that character as an Inquisitor with a Kind Wayfarer Paladin when I import them over, see how it pans out.

So does the double heal with White Flames actually make *that* much of a difference for dual wield to be much more preferable on a Wayfarer? Honestly, if the two-handed fantasy doesn't work out all that well with my choice of Paladin, I'm just willing to switch over entirely to a Devoted Fighter and run something like a Battlemage multi with Wizard, I hear Whispers of the Endless Paths has nice synergy with that kind of build. So I'm considering a few options here. Alternately, how about turtling up further as a Shieldbearer sword/shield with the Wizard and further trying to lean in on the tank side? Would the extra-defensiveness from the self-buffing synergize well or? This sounds pretty good as well Don't Estocs only do piercing damage though? I thought that was resisted more often and by more things than slashing and crushing, does that make a difference or?

Sounds like a fun one! As for casters, from what I understood, a lot of the Wizard's self buffs are extremely short or outright instantaneous? Which is what appealed to me if I'm going full tank. Interesting! Sounds good, I'll also keep in mind the Herald. Ah, yeah, I know about the FoD bit but as noted- I think I just prefer a two-hander because it fits what I'd like thematically, so I'd rather not switch unless I absolutely have to. Steel Garrote/Bleak Walkers also do not appeal to me from an RP perspective. Good to hear about the Arcane Knight stuff though!

Hello! Fairly new player here, this place seemed nice for asking some questions about builds and such. So, I'd like to run a classic paladin with a greatsword and heavy/plate armor, though as I understand it the recovery time and such from the heavier armor throws something of a wrench into things. It's alright if I can't be an absolute damage monster or anything, I mean anything to up damage would be nice, but I'm also fine fulfilling a tank/damage soaker role with the paladin's support capabilities sprinkled in. Also apparently Flames of Devotion with Kind Wayfarer has a healing effect that procs twice with a Dual Wield build? Which sounds interesting, but it's thematically not what I'm looking for here- and the other classes barring Shieldbearers (which as the name suggests, seems like it's ideal with a shield instead of a big two-hander?) don't hold the same RP appeal. Am I sacrificing too much with some of these decisions or would it work decently enough, and would something like Turn-Based be better for this sort of thing than RTwP? (I'm comfortable with both, I'm just wondering) Also what about multiclassing options? I think I like the sound of an Arcane Knight of the generalist or Evoker variety, who's focused on self-buffing and the occasional blasting when possible. Would it work well for a tank idea like this? The other one that has my attention is a Crusader with the Devoted subclass- from what I could find by searching around that's apparently also a good option. Any thoughts on all this?