Paladin weapon dilemma + possible multiclassing via "iroll20s"

[Skyuu]

Hello everyone!

Last played pillars back in 2017 (yeesh! time flies) and now that I finally have time to play pillars2 I decided to run through the first game well... first.

Anyhow I'm about done with act 1 and rolling with a paladin watcher + eder in party. Aloth and Kana are cooling their heels in Caed Nua because I prefer small microlite parties. I have the deadfire cannoneer belt so game plan for midgame is pretty set. Open with FoD using arquebuss (swap for silver spark / scon mica later) and then to town with firebrand. Going to get forgemasters for more firebrands and hyran rath mail for sunbeams.  Also planning to pick up Pallegina and Itumaak + his dwarf pet for the core party and then changing composition for companion quests and to determine who's going to get the permanent pool cleaner position based on annoyance during said quests.

Late game though. Would singlewielding Steadfast work? Or is St. Ydwen just flat out better? Or maybe a bashing shield with Steadfast? If you have a bashing shield do full attack abilities like FoD hit with both shield and weapon?

Also regarding powerword "iroll20s": Plain paladin seems somewhat, well plain, I mean it's FoD+Immolation and then pretty much just whack whack whack. Pillars II has multiclasses which I'm looking forward to so I was wondering will I horribly break the game, whilst playing on hard, if I powerword myself say some select fighter abilities like knockdown, armored grace and charge?. And yes I have played through the game with vanilla characters 3 times (chanter, barb and cipher) so those fighter abilities would be more for giggles than anything else.

[Boeroer]

Hello!

9 hours ago, Skyuu said:

Late game though. Would singlewielding Steadfast work?

Single weapon is only good in the early game. All other styles are superior (in general) in the late game.

9 hours ago, Skyuu said:

Or is St. Ydwen just flat out better?

It is better against lower-level vessels at least. In the late game a (or two) fully enchanted and "durganized" weapon is usually the best "dps" choice compared to soulbound weapons or summoned ones. Mostly due to the speed advantage of durgan steel. The best alpha strike weapon for Paladin's FoD attacks may still be the arquebus - or maybe two fully enchanted sabres against lower armored enemies. 

Imo the best weapon for a Paladin (in a party) is a (set of) marking weapon(s) such as Pliambo per Casitàs, Cladhaliath & Shame or Glory or Blade of the Endless Paths and Spectacular Spetum as backup. In combination with Coordinated Attacks you can make your party's fights a lot easier. If you can manage ti dual-wield Cldahaliath with Marking and Shame or Glory that would be the ultimate marking setup. If you would also be a Darcozzi Paladin that would be the cherry on top. You could boost Edér's accuracy by 45 points... With something like Blade of the Endless Paths still 35 points.  

9 hours ago, Skyuu said:

Or maybe a bashing shield with Steadfast?

Better than single wielding Steadfast I'd say.

9 hours ago, Skyuu said:

If you have a bashing shield do full attack abilities like FoD hit with both shield and weapon?

Yes, shield will hit first, then main weapon. For Full Attacks a bashing shield is better than a normal shield. For auto-attacks it's actually worse because dual-wielding speed does not apply to bashing shields and the base damage of bashes is lower than that of your main weapon, lowering your dps overall compared o using a normal shield (because your auto attacks will alternate between bash and main weapon attack insead of main weapon attack only). 

9 hours ago, Skyuu said:

I was wondering will I horribly break the game, whilst playing on hard, if I powerword myself say some select fighter abilities like knockdown, armored grace and charge?

I'd just save the game and try it out for some time. 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Boeroer

[Skyuu]

Thanks for the reply Boeroer and sorry for the late thank you!

First they took away (moved) my summer vacation and now I had to sub in yet again :(. But nwm that it's vacation time baby!

Anyways I totally forgot that you can't durganize soulbounds and apparently a lot of other things. The game however has now been completed with all quests (as far as I found them), dragon, bounties etc. done. Yay for me!

Iroll20s fighter abilities for paladin does indeed break the pally totally. Not much fun when you can't die but do damage slow as a... well really slow thing. Until lvl 13 anyway. Still with vanilla pally+Pallygina+Sagani it became pretty much nonstop curbstomp so I actually dropped Sagani and still rolled through the endgame content with ludicrous ease. And that was with suboptimal gear chosen more for looks (ie. st.Yddies and so on.)

Kinda makes me want to roll a singlewielding wizard with sword in one hand and grimoire in the other. Or a male aumaua wearing He carries many scars and Maegfolc skull and wielding Abydon's hammer. Reminds me of a wh40k spessmarine chaplain.

Regardless, thanks again and I'll be bothering ya all for Pillars II sometime later (if I have the time