Paladin power and faith questions

[Zymos]

I keep hearing that paladins are really powerful in combat but I am hesitant about building one due to the roleplay limitations it imposes. Could someone highlight the key abilities / passives that are good and why they are good?

 

Also, how do the mechanics surrounding paladin faith strength work? Is it only triggered by dialogue? Actions? Who you spare / kill?

[Yosharian]

Well for my character I'm using

 

• Lay on Hands, which heals, with the upgrade granting Robust, which gives +2 armor and an extra heal
• Reinforcing Exhortation, which boosts deflection, with the upgrade which grants Hardy, which gives +2 armor
• Glorious Beacon, which blinds enemies, with the upgrade which makes them take 40% extra damage
• Zealous Focus which grants +5 accuracy to all within the area of effect
• Reviving Exhortation, which resurrects a party member with a lot of HP (other classes have resurrects but not all of them give a bunch of HP as well, which is important cos otherwise they just insta-die again)
• Sacred Immolation, which turns your Paladin into a walking fireball

[Nemesis7884]

 

Well for my character I'm using

 

• Lay on Hands, which heals, with the upgrade granting Robust, which gives +2 armor and an extra heal
• Reinforcing Exhortation, which boosts deflection, with the upgrade which grants Hardy, which gives +2 armor
• Glorious Beacon, which blinds enemies, with the upgrade which makes them take 40% extra damage
• Zealous Focus which grants +5 accuracy to all within the area of effect
• Reviving Exhortation, which resurrects a party member with a lot of HP (other classes have resurrects but not all of them give a bunch of HP as well, which is important cos otherwise they just insta-die again)
• Sacred Immolation, which turns your Paladin into a walking fireball

 

 

maybe if you have time you could look at the questions in my topic about paladin abilities you seem to have experience on them? just in case... ) thx!

 

by the way, greater lay on hand seems great but the recovery is soooo long and the beacon ability seems to have such a short duration...

Edited May 11, 2018 by Nemesis7884

[Yosharian]

 

 

Well for my character I'm using

 

• Lay on Hands, which heals, with the upgrade granting Robust, which gives +2 armor and an extra heal
• Reinforcing Exhortation, which boosts deflection, with the upgrade which grants Hardy, which gives +2 armor
• Glorious Beacon, which blinds enemies, with the upgrade which makes them take 40% extra damage
• Zealous Focus which grants +5 accuracy to all within the area of effect
• Reviving Exhortation, which resurrects a party member with a lot of HP (other classes have resurrects but not all of them give a bunch of HP as well, which is important cos otherwise they just insta-die again)
• Sacred Immolation, which turns your Paladin into a walking fireball

 

 

maybe if you have time you could look at the questions in my topic about paladin abilities you seem to have experience on them? just in case... ) thx!

 

by the way, greater lay on hand seems great but the recovery is soooo long and the beacon ability seems to have such a short duration...

 

 

I mean, yeah, but LoH is such a great ability.  It's definitely worth it to save allies from death.

 

Beacon, well my character has strong Intellect and there's power level duration boosts, but yeah, it is kinda short.  Still, Blind is great, and 40% extra damage is nasty as hell for tough bosses.  I think it'll be great to cast on a big bad guy when you have him surrounded.

 

I don't have a lot of experience, actually.  I'm just theorycrafting.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Yosharian

[Balbanes]

I keep hearing that paladins are really powerful in combat but I am hesitant about building one due to the roleplay limitations it imposes. Could someone highlight the key abilities / passives that are good and why they are good?

 

Also, how do the mechanics surrounding paladin faith strength work? Is it only triggered by dialogue? Actions? Who you spare / kill?

Paladin's aren't too limiting, roleplay-wise. You just need to avoid the two types of disfavored dialog responses. There's a menu option to show which dialog options affect which dispositions as well.

[gnoster]

Also, how do the mechanics surrounding paladin faith strength work? Is it only triggered by dialogue? Actions? Who you spare / kill?

 

This worry is exactly why I have a hard time starting a paladin myself. I really want to start a holy slayer (Bleakwater paladin and assassin rogue), but I like to play diplomatically and benevolent thus eliminating Bleakwater paladin as an option. Admittedly not by much as it takes a very high disfavored level to get to negative values.

 

This wiki page informs of favored vs. disfavored behavior: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Paladin

This sub page informs on the effect of being favored or disfavored: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Faith_And_Conviction