Did I end up making a terrible Main Character stat wise?

[superluccix]

So I chose a paladin, because I like paladins. And then I put 50% of points into Lore, because I like having Main Characters who get extra dialogue options, since I like stories in rpgs and want more ways to shape it. And since I read somewhere on this site that paladins are tanks, I figured I would put the rest into Res, for the deflection.

 

Stats are

 

Might 11

Con 10

Dex 10

Per 19

Int 11

Res 19

(current deflection is 78, on path of the damned), still on Act 1

 

 

But then I got Eder, who is the only one that has an ability that involves aggroing more than 1 person for engagement, Defender. However he is my strongest melee person, therefore I want to use him as dps. But I cant, since my pally cant tank.

 

Unless my pally can learn some talent or skill to increase engagement numbers, Im not sure if this is going to change.

 

Did I mess up my character? Is it still possible to salvage him?

[Guest]

As with anything, your results may vary.

 

My experience has been that paladins are very good at flanking whatever is engaged with my main tank, but not very good at being the main tank. 

 

Like you, I use Eder as a bruiser, but I can afford to do that because my PC is the tank (if you get Eder and level 2 instead of level 3, he won't have Defender and you can spend that Ability on something more dps).

 

I hope this helps.

[illathid]

You should be able to tank fine with your paladin. Engagement doesn't do a whole lot in terms of making enemies stick to you, the AI targeting algorithms do that for the most part. Unless you're super familiar with the mechanics, you'll want two tanks on PotD anyways.

[Gyeff]

You can get Hold the line passive talent in the defense section, this gives +1 engagement. Some weapons also give +1 engagement. So with the weapon and the passive you can get 3 engagements total. You will also get more companions as you progress so you can choose to keep Eder out of the party if you want. If Eder already had the Defender modal ability when you recruited him, thats a wasted talent point if you want to use him as a pure DPS.

 

It is possible to recruit Eder before he gets that ability though (If you want to restart).To do this you have to do the following: After the events in Cilant Lis make a bee-line through Valewood straight to Gilded Vale without doing any of the side missions/killing too many mobs in Valewood. If you reach Gilded vale without getting too much exp in Valewood you will be able to recruit Eder and Aloth while they are still lvl 2. Eder will not have Defender at this point.

 

At this point you can return to Valewood to do anything you want to there.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Gyeff

[mazeltov]

First playthrough on PotD? With story companions? Sounds like a fun time.

 

For maximum dialogue options, I'd drop Dex (and a tad of Mig) in favor of Int. Not much use for Dex on a tank. Int also synergizes with Pally support stuff.

[Hebruixe]

That doesn't seem like a great build for a paladin. But if you don't want to restart, you'll be able to buff some of those stats with enchanted items. There's nothing wrong with maxing out lore, but as a paladin you need strength to be able to deliver killing blows in order to utilize some major class abilities. In my experience paladins are at their best as backline ranged support units...with an emergency hatchet/shield for offtanking purposes.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Hebruixe

[Voss]

That doesn't seem like a great build for a paladin.

Yes it does.  It is a near perfect build for a paladin tank, random int point aside.   Paladins are pretty ineffective at damage and killing blows in general, so trying to build them for that is pointless.

[Marceror]

Supposedly there are no bad build, so without evening looking at your build I think the correct answer to your question is supposed to be no.

[Matt516]

If you want to be tanky, you'll be fine. Those stats will also get you some nice dialogue options as well. Take "hold the line" to up your engagement limit, then kit out in heavy armor, a shield, and tons of support abilities.

 

You can also use IE mod to remove Defender from Eder and give him something more suited for a damage fighter if you want.

[Jojobobo]

I'm soloing PotD with a Paladin a lot like yours (Con 12, Res and Per 18, the rest 10s on character creation). Honestly, I've found them great at tanking - give them a large shield and the shield Talent (also make sure to follow their favoured dispositions) and you should be more than tanky enough.

 

In terms of engagement worries, if you have someone else you can use on your front line I wouldn't worry about it. If you don't maybe consider Hold the Line as others have mentioned, there's also the warhammer Shatterstar one of the outdoors Copperlane vendors sells which is Fine and has +1 engagement - but even then it's not a big deal.

 

Honestly I would favour slightly more DPS on your Paladin and use them to flank enemies Eder engages.

[tnc]

you'll be fine with that build especially after act 2 your paladin won't even get hit but maybe get an offtank (doesnt need to be that tanky just tank 1-2 ppl) such as monk, barb, chanter.

[Luckmann]

Engagement numbers do not matter much for tanking, and if all you wanted to do was stand and tank, all you need is the heaviest armour around and you're actually doing great.

 

Get some Athletics and you're set.

 

Supposedly there are no bad build, so without evening looking at your build I think the correct answer to your question is supposed to be no.

Supposed to be.

 

The "No Bad Builds"-thing never gets old.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Luckmann

[Elerond]

Engagement numbers do not matter much for tanking, and if all you wanted to do was stand and tank, all you need is the heaviest armour around and you're actually doing great.

 

Get some Athletics and you're set.

 

Supposedly there are no bad build, so without evening looking at your build I think the correct answer to your question is supposed to be no.

Supposed to be.

 

The "No Bad Builds"-thing never gets old.

 

 

There is bad builds, but all combinations that you can do in character creation are viable with right builds. Which of course don't mean that they are equally good, but there will not be situation where you find that your character is just useless.

 

In this game like in games that it's inspired by itemizations is most important thing for character build, and character's stats, abilities and talents are just used to optimize build, so if you want optimal build of some sort then stat distribution in character creation will lock you down in certain path (only difficulty level that needs heavily optimized characters is Path of the Damned, but of course optimized characters will make game easier on lower difficulty levels too) and not picking right abilities and talents can destroy your build in sense that you don't get most optimal build. 

 

Every single class has it optimal roles in the party and it could be argued to end of world which class is most optimal for certain role as people's opinions, experiences and tastes are quite different in these matters. Although in some cases you can use mathematics to so that at least certain situation certain classes are just better than others. And of course if you don't build character towards certain role they are usually bad in it regardless how optimal that role is for that class.

 

If you don't have deep knowledge about mechanics behind PoE following roles are probably most safest picks for the classes.

 

Fighter: Pure tank/Tank DPS

Monk: Tank DPS

Barbarian: Tank DPS

Paladin: Support Tank

Chanter: Support tank/pure support

Priest: Pure support

Wizard: DPS CC

Druid: DPS CC

Rogue: Ranged DPS/Melee DPS

Ranger: Ranged DPS

Cipher: Ranged DPS/DPS support

 

So in short: There are builds that are bad when you count all aspects that go in the build, but you aren't able to screw yourself too much over in character creation, except if you play in PotD difficulty, OPs Paladin build at least stats wise should work in PotD. I wouldn't recommend playing game in PotD difficulty if you want focus on story aspects of the game, because it emphasis combat so much more over other aspects of the game. 

[Xosmi]

Paladins can be built for damage but they really excel as tanks. 

Building your PC as a tank, i personally feel like moon Godlike is the best possible race, since their Silver Tide passive is really useful, healing endurance to you and your companions every time you drop below 75, 50 and 25%.

 

If you want to go 100% tank, dropping Dex to the minimum is a really common tactic - the attack speed penalty from heavy armors, and the fact that you will be taking defensive talents over offensive ones means you won't have great offensive capabilities anyway, so why bother with it ? You can make up for the penalty to reflexes easily as well.

Also, my darcozzi paladin for example, got the "Fires of Darcozzi Palace" talent at lvl 2, which does 10 fire damage to enemies every time i am hit, which is really good for a tank and has made the first half of the game a lot easier on me. If i recall correctly, this talent is order-specific, so you'll want to think about that too when picking your order.

 

Also, getting an armor with retaliate on it is really good for a tank, it will automatically make you counter-attack when hit by an enemy's melee attack.

There's only one out there i know of that is available relatively early in the game, though it is not a sure thing, and that's Hiro's mantle - It can be bought from the rare item merchant at your keep, however it does require you to unlock the merchant first and the mantle appears in his inventory at random, if you are unlucky it might be a while before you can buy it off him. There's also the "Coat of ill payment" and "Vengiatta Rugia" armors, but  you probably wont be able to pick them up until you are mid/end-game

 

Some of the staple talents to get on a tanky paladin as you level up are :

Zealous endurance(Bonus DR)

Hold the Line (can keep +1 enemy engaged, don't pick this if you are using IEmod with the option to disable the engagement system on though)

Sword and Shield style, (gives deflection, also takes care of the reflexes penalty you get from the low dex score)

Cautious attack (You're not attacking fast anyway, so why not trade some % of your allready low attack speed for even more deflection?)

Edited April 21, 2015 by Xosmi

[b0rsuk]

You've said you have lots of lore on that paladin. Until you get more engagement, use some scrolls. Particularly something nasty, that will punish enemies if they don't go after you, such as Jolting Touch.

[superluccix]

I'm soloing PotD with a Paladin a lot like yours (Con 12, Res and Per 18, the rest 10s on character creation). Honestly, I've found them great at tanking - give them a large shield and the shield Talent (also make sure to follow their favoured dispositions) and you should be more than tanky enough.

 

In terms of engagement worries, if you have someone else you can use on your front line I wouldn't worry about it. If you don't maybe consider Hold the Line as others have mentioned, there's also the warhammer Shatterstar one of the outdoors Copperlane vendors sells which is Fine and has +1 engagement - but even then it's not a big deal.

 

Honestly I would favour slightly more DPS on your Paladin and use them to flank enemies Eder engages.

 

 

Soloing POTD? I.....how....wow.

 

But anyways, I must have missed in the tutorial about how dispositions effect combat. Because  when I look on the wiki, it just talks about how npcs choose to interact with me, nothing combat related, Im clearly missing something. 

 

However Ill follow the rest of your advice, since it would be nice if my pally could have some degree of dps

 

Engagement numbers do not matter much for tanking, and if all you wanted to do was stand and tank, all you need is the heaviest armour around and you're actually doing great.

 

Get some Athletics and you're set.

 

Supposedly there are no bad build, so without evening looking at your build I think the correct answer to your question is supposed to be no.

Supposed to be.

 

The "No Bad Builds"-thing never gets old.

 

 

Wait Engagement doesn't matter for a tank? Doesnt that determine how many enemies you can consistently hold aggro with? Clearly Im missing something here.

[Monte Carlo]

Hmmmm not min-maxish but not far off. Worry not the amount of stat-boosting stuff is quite generous.

[chouia]

At least, PER 19 and RES 19 are good if you like dialog options. Maybe too much.

(As already written, high Int can be useful too for that, but not so much.)

[Voss]

 

 

Wait Engagement doesn't matter for a tank? Doesnt that determine how many enemies you can consistently hold aggro with? Clearly Im missing something here.

 

Nope.  Just be the first character they run into, and the terrible AI takes care of the rest.  Engagement only matters if you're stupid enough  to run your squishies in front of the tank, and then try to run away.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Voss