Judicator

So you want a tank class that tanks on equal level to pure tanks while at the same time does damage at equal level to pure damage dealers. No, I want Fighters that can fight. It's ridiculous that the only class that can master weapons are such abysmal damage dealers.

I'm using the IE games as an example because PoE is supposed to be a successor to those games. And in those games warriors could hold the fronlines and deal damage at the same time. Other classes could outperform them, sure, but they never felt like they weren't contributing. I think part of the problem is the way armor works. The penalty to recovery time is just so massive. Combined with an average or slow weapon and low dex a fighter makes one attack while other characters do two or three.

Balanced characters are ass in this game though. They're just inferior to pure damage dealers or pure tanks.

The way tanks work in this game saddens me. Gone are the good old days of BG and IWD where Fighters could give as good as they got. Now tanks just sit on the front line tieing up the enemies while the other classes have all the fine. DPS characters like Barbarians, Monks, and Rogues carve everything up, spellcasters have a wide variety of things to do, but tanks just sit around eating aggro. Playing a tank is just not fun. Why couldn't they be like D&D warriors, who could deal some decent damage as well as protect the backline characters?

Probably the best choice since we can't agree on what exactly her order focuses on. I hope Josh or someone will clear it up at some point.

Only for you, the rest of us aren't bound by strict dichotomous relationships in regards to disposition. Also, what would be the "opposite" of Passionate and Clever? That's just based on Pallegina herself, though, especially the Disapproved dispositions of Cruel/Passionate. I could stretch myself to Diplomatic/Rational, although I still think Aggressive/Diplomatic makes a lot more sense, but Disapproved dispositions of Cruel/Passionate? I don't see that at all. Remember that the Brotherhood of the FIve Suns is political in nature and represents the Valian Republics, it would make no sense for them to be overly aggresive, cruel, or passionate. People judge their nation based on their actions.

When you ask her how you're doing she responds based on your dispositions. She very much approves of Diplomatic, but criticizes you if you're Cruel. With Aggressive she just remarks that you're similar to Dyrwoodians, and with Stoic she says you're basically boring. With Rational/Passionate it depends on which direction you nudge her during her quest, though it seems following her order's directives means doing the rational route. So I would guess that Diplomatic/Rational are her order's favored dispositions, which makes sense since they serve the Republics in a semi-diplomatic fashion, and Cruel/Passionate would be their disapproved dispositions.

But you could farm Ankhegs for XP and gold. An hour of killing Ankhegs in that hole and you're level 6.

It kind of depends on the build, skills, and equipment. My Barbarian with maxed out Might and an Estoc hits for 40+ while poor Edér hit for like 10-20 depending on enemy DR.

I bet a party of 6 Fighters could be pretty good. 2 tanks, 1 melee DPS with a reach weapon, 3 ranged DPS would be pretty strong.

On the other hand, Shieldbarers can stack up deflection simply by using FoD and Lay on Hands. No need to get the killing blow like Kind Wayfarers.

Some people like to roleplay. I can never force myself to make a retarded or feeble or whatever paladin.

That looks fine, the game isn't very hard on normal or even hard.

There's not much point in pumping Dex by just two points, especially if you're going to wear heavy armor. It's just not going to make a difference. I'd put more points into resolve than perception, both are tank stats and play a part in dialogue, but Res is useful against interrupts.

Eh, there's nothing wrong with Greatswords, Tidefall is pretty strong and the belong in the same group with the arbalest and Arquebus. Estocs are king for sure tho.

I went with Barbarian, thanks for the input, guys.

I've just started having Pallegina using a warhammer as well so that she can use a shield to boost her defenses. At least at the moment, her base defenses aren't particularly special, so using a greatsword leaves her somewhat vulnerable in melee. And if I want to make the most of her weapon skill set of Soldier, the only 1H melee weapon in that set is warhammer. You should tweak her stats to make her less crappy, that's what I did with most of the companions. Not min-maxed or optimal mind you, just not pants on head retarded. both of those, and most of the items in that store are actually just "exquisite" level items with fancy names attached. they do have some different models to look at though, so if you want the small boost in accuracy and damage before you hit level 8 and can do it yourself, I suppose those are alright. but again, there is really nothing special about them. shatterstar is the only unique warhammer you can get early, IIRC. though, mind you, it is an excellent weapon, especially if you are playing a tanky character, as it gives you free increased aggro. the other two you can get later are Godansthunyr (which is another excellent war hammer) and Strike Hard, which does good damage. anywho, if the idea is wondering if you can build on being a war hammer user in this game, the answer is yes, you can, just fine. Alright, cool.

I gotta agree 100% with this. The way paladins in this game work just screams off-tank to me. So something like Mig 18 Dex 10 Con 10 Per 14 Int 10 Res 16 or Mig 14 Dex 10 Con 10 Per 16 Int 10 Res 18 depending on whether you want to be more of a tank or deal some more damage

At level 12 a Paladin has 196 endurance, with 12 con it becomes 207. Not exactly worth the points.

I use an Estoc with my Barbarian and with a natural 21 Might he is devastating enemies irrelevant of their DR.

Mig 16 Dex 10 Con 10 Per 15 Int 10 Res 17 is my preffered distribution. Int is kind of a waste imo.

Pump Might, Dex, and Int. Wear light or no armor for maximum attack speed.

The problem with Paladins is that they're basically jack of all trades. They can tank, but Fighters are better. They have some spike damage abilities but DPS classes like Barbarians and Rogues ouperform them easily. They have some support abilities, but Priests have more and better ones. The best thing I can come up with is an off-tank with a 2h weapon using FoD, Zealous focus, Sworn Enemy, and using the massive Faith and Conviction defense bonus instead of a shield. Or switch to an actual shield when things go **** up. They can be a solid class but they're not the best at anything which ticks people off. Wizards are strong at later levels though.

I'd argue that it's a lot more limiting than BG and BG2. There warriors could give as good as they got, here you're either a glass cannon or a tank and if you try to build some kind of hybrid you're going to be mediocre. But it's your character and if that's how you want to play it then go ahead, the game is not hard anyway. As for Barbaric Yell, well, it's kind of pointless to take when every spellcaster and his mother can cast fear spells and, like you said, you get a similar Watcher ability as well.

Eh, if you say so, but in my experience the game encourages min-maxing and middle ground builds are mediocre at best.