Update #56: Paladins and Wild Orlans

[Zed]

... But will Paladins have Cormyr swords?

[PrimeJunta]

These Pally abilities are seizing my imagination.

 

I'm seeing Drill Sergeant L. Goode and his merry squad of adventurers.

 

- "On your feet, soldier!"

- "Aww, did Private Grunty get a boo-boo? Would he like a plaster? MOVE IT AND CHARGE YOU WORTHLESS TUB OF IRON RATIONS!"

- "Stunned? STUNNED? <slap> FORWARD MARCH OR I'LL SHOW YOU STUNNED!!"

[Forlorn Hope]

Thank you for the update. Orlans look fine. Paladins seem to be solid, the lore and everything. Here's hoping I can invest in personal skills/talents feats etc. to make my paladin more than a party buffer.

[TrashMan]

Great update.

 

I too want to know if we can tailor our paladin to be more self-sufficient and less of a walking boost-bot.

In other words, different builds.

 

Form a defensive paladin who specilized in protecting allies, to one who specializes into boosting allies on the offense, to the Holy Avenger type that lives only to slay "evil" and doesn't give a damn about boosting allies.

 

Also, any bonuses/skills/feats agaisnt undead?

[Greensleeve]

Considering that it seems as though the modal auras work on the paladin's themselves, I have a feeling that we'll be able to build offensive, more self-sufficient paladin's that will kick some evil butt. 

[Endrosz]

As an avid Guild Wars 2 player, I approve of the name Shake It Off. Follow the link for a skill with this exact same name and similar effect. Also, in GW2 your character actually shouts out this skill's name, since it's a shout-type skill there, which is really cool.

 

Everything is else fine by me, but I don't make a post just to say that. 

[Monte Carlo]

Please, just please, have a Full Metal Jacket-type Drill Instructor paladin NPC.

[Infinitron]

Great update.

 

I too want to know if we can tailor our paladin to be more self-sufficient and less of a walking boost-bot.

In other words, different builds.

 

Form a defensive paladin who specilized in protecting allies, to one who specializes into boosting allies on the offense, to the Holy Avenger type that lives only to slay "evil" and doesn't give a damn about boosting allies.

 

Also, any bonuses/skills/feats agaisnt undead?

 

I would assume that's possible, but such a Paladin would never be as effective as a Fighter with the same role.

[JFSOCC]

You've made the paladins exactly what I expected them to be, which I guess is good for all the Paladin fans. (Which excludes myself. I find their Fanatic Absolute mindset to be stupid and boring. Religious fanatics, can't argue with them, they lack nuance, etc)

I myself would have liked to see them more as a Knight. I somehow don't expect to see philosophical debate with a Paladin going anywhere.

 

But I never intended to play a paladin in the first place, so, I'm perfectly OK with how it turned out.

Just give me some scathing dialogue options when I turn one of those retards down from joining my party

Yes, despite how awesome they seem in combat.

[Fashion Mage]

They stand out because of their single-mindedness...

 

 

PE paladins won't be necessarily as "single-minded" as d&d paladins (lawful good only), but you get my point. :D

Edited June 19, 2013 by Fashion Mage

[PsykoKiwi]

As someone who has never really played a Paladin, only watched them, I did find them almost completely pointless in games like BG and IWD when compared to fighters and clerics left pure class. I will be very interested to see where they take them. I will still be very happy with my beloved Spell casters and I have no intention of wading into the dirty melee mud. No.  

[TrashMan]

 

Great update.

 

I too want to know if we can tailor our paladin to be more self-sufficient and less of a walking boost-bot.

In other words, different builds.

 

Form a defensive paladin who specilized in protecting allies, to one who specializes into boosting allies on the offense, to the Holy Avenger type that lives only to slay "evil" and doesn't give a damn about boosting allies.

 

Also, any bonuses/skills/feats agaisnt undead?

 

I would assume that's possible, but such a Paladin would never be as effective as a Fighter with the same role.

 

 

Effective in what way?

Both are front-line melee warriors, and can be built in different ways.

 

A paladin that sacrifices his boosting-powers for offense/defense should match a fighter IMHO. Altough it's not a simple balance, since so many factors some in.

[TrashMan]

You've made the paladins exactly what I expected them to be, which I guess is good for all the Paladin fans. (Which excludes myself. I find their Fanatic Absolute mindset to be stupid and boring. Religious fanatics, can't argue with them, they lack nuance, etc)

I myself would have liked to see them more as a Knight. I somehow don't expect to see philosophical debate with a Paladin going anywhere.

 

But I never intended to play a paladin in the first place, so, I'm perfectly OK with how it turned out.

Just give me some scathing dialogue options when I turn one of those retards down from joining my party

Yes, despite how awesome they seem in combat.

 

 

Methinks you have some serious prejudices and preconceptions here.

[wanderon]

Great update - I would love to play a "Have Gun Will Travel" style paladin - sadly without the printing press I'm guessing there is no chance for the great business card with the chess piece knight logo to hand out to perspective clients...

 

Like the Orlans as well - awesome work - please carry on!

[Raoul]

I'm curious, will the AI be smart enough to have melee fighters pile on the party's Paladin? Seems like the Paladin is a high value target in the front line of combat, but historically, Infinity engine games have had issues with ensuring the that AI doesn't just fixate on a target that is invulnerable to the particular attack it's using or chasing around targets it can't hit while getting picked apart by ranged PCs.

[Gfted1]

I was wondering a similar thing. Will a Paladin NPC AI be smart enough to know when to heal or activate auras? Most likely, those type of functions will require some micro.

[Tauron]

So...Orlans are hairy elves hehe. C'mon, did no one mention that before! Some kind  offshot species, that mix of dwarfs, elves and orangutans hahaha fluffy they are hahaha, nice render tho... I would really like to know more lore about them. I bet they have some kinship with Elf kind, ears are give away. They remind me of elves from cartoons in 80's.

[Nonek]

Paladin sounds a bit too WOW-ish for me personally, never played the new fangled classes that modern D&D created so I wouldn't have anything to compare them to. Have you thought of a challenge ability, where as a defender of the faith/creed/culture or whatever, the Paladin may call out a philosophically opposed member of the antagonists. Though I suppose with the Paladin being a supporting role his chances of vanquishing said opponent in single combat are slim.

 

Like the second Wild Orlan, looks very Jack in the Green.

[Infinitron]

 

A paladin that sacrifices his boosting-powers for offense/defense should match a fighter IMHO.

 

Well, it won't.

[bonarbill]

Paladin's abilities seem way to MMO like to my tastes, but I guess I have no right to judge until I play the game.

[milczyciel]

These Pally abilities are seizing my imagination.

 

I'm seeing Drill Sergeant L. Goode and his merry squad of adventurers.

 

- "On your feet, soldier!"

- "Aww, did Private Grunty get a boo-boo? Would he like a plaster? MOVE IT AND CHARGE YOU WORTHLESS TUB OF IRON RATIONS!"

- "Stunned? STUNNED? <slap> FORWARD MARCH OR I'LL SHOW YOU STUNNED!!"

This!

 

After PrimeJunta's post I can see no other way, than "vocalization" of some of the paladins active abilities. They do not even need to be fully voiced. In fact because of money obviously, floating text would allow for greater diversity of mentioned banters. Seriously, I'll be really disappointed if all I get after activating one of those skills will be some kind of glowy-glowy-flash and/or berserker like scream.

 

Additionally, like Koveras Alvane, I hope for some kind of reflection of zealous, fanatics nature of paladin in wider than battle spectrum. You know, dialogue options, abilities-driven choices in those hand drawn boards we saw in previous updates, quarrels between followers/NPCs etc.

I need that kind of character in my game, even if it imposes limitations and/or leads to conflicts inside the group. Or maybe should I say BECAUSE it does it all. After all, I still remember my love-hate relation with Keldorn from BG2 and that is only because he was so narrow minded when it came to Viconia!

 

I have to clarify that I hope for kind of cause-driven fanaticism, that excludes the good-evil perception of the character (by player, not character itself, as obviously they will in most cases perceive their cause as the right, just one i.e. good) because imho it allows for far more flexibility when dealing with one of their order. And that flexibility can be applied either to followers, npcs or even pc and in turn may be dependable on stats and/or skills of those whoever try to influence a paladin - just think of the possibilities oO

 

PS

Any chances for Jan Jansen like Wild Orlan? Don't know why, but I've immediately thought about him when I saw those wonderful renders 

[Suen]

Orlans: They look amazing and not Ewoks. Thank you. 

 

Paladins: I love your paladins. 
I see a Paladin as a Champion of some ideal. Good or evil, doesn't matter. 

A fervent believer. However, it's not the power of a divinity to fire him/her up, it's the power itself inside the paladin to force him to be extreme in his faith. 
So the power will not abandon a disillusioned Paladin, but faith related abilities will become unusable, as the soul's power will not allow itself to be molded by that belief anymore, or will refuse to tap into it. 

 

This to suggest:
-the faith of the Paladin should influence some of his/her abilities
-different faiths, different bonus (no game breaking)
-if the Player is roleplaying a Paladin falling from grace (so to speak), the game should react to the change in attitude changing the powers.
-the aura surrounding a paladin could also influence the reactions of the people/NPCs around, according to how perceptive they are and how strong/similar/different their faith is. 

Keep some of the paladin aura effects a half-secret. The player doesn't need to hear "oh! this guy reaction is -10 thanks to your aura". Players can connect the dots.  

 

 

 

[Diagoras]

Well, now I know I'm building a gunslinging Paladin and teaching the party Chanter to sing Western ballads.

 

"With a big iron on his hip..."

[Gumbercules]

Very nice update! The paladins sound interesting and sufficiently different from the other classes. I like how this update also gave us a better look at the difference between Abilities and Talents.

 

Both types of orlans look great! At first, the fact that the urban orlans just happen to be less hairy than the wild orlans seemed Lamarckian, but actually it makes sense that the prejudices of other races and cultures would sort and segregate the two types even if such separations initially weren't as clear.

 

It looks like the last remaining piece of the race puzzle is the difference between coastal and ocean aumaua. I wonder if it's just different skin colors/patterns, or if there's more to it like with the orlans.

[Merlkir]

Actually, that makes a lot of sense - Paladins should be barking orders (at least text) and not radiate silent, yet colourful auras (at least for the motivation abilities).

Order sound effects similar to the casting mumbles in BG/IWD would be cool too.