Fighter Vs Paladin

[blargney the second]

Fighters rawk. I haven't seen a paladin in play yet, but I'm sure they rawk too. Best of both worlds!

 

[Sphyre]

From what it looks like on paper:

• The fighter is better at controlling and defending against multiple opponents.
• The paladin is better at locking down and punishing a single foe

This is purely from reading through, but I honestly like the way the fighter looks much more than the paladin. The paladin may have a scant few powers that allow him to mark multiple opponents.

 

[Tony Vargas]

This is a minor point but the Pally suffers a bit from MAD relative to the fighter. All fighter exploits use STR, so the fighter need only keep STR maxxed, the pally's are split between STR & CHA, while he can just choose one or the other, that restricts the range of prayers he can use effectively. If he chooses CHA, his OAs aren't as good, if he chooses STR, he misses out on quite a few good prayers (or any at all, notoriously, at a particularly level). The fighter just needs STR & WIS, and does't need WIS that badly. He can pick DEX or CON to concentrate on, depending on his chosen weapon (mostly to qualify for feats, though DEX also helps his REF). The sword & shield fighter has it pretty easy for stats. He taks a reasonable DEX to qualify for heavy-blade feats, high STR and moderately good WIS which also qualifies him a desirable feat or two. At paragon, he qualifies both scale & shield specializations. Though the Paladin's plate is great, it does take CON to specialize in, while Shields to DEX - and scale specialization is pretty cool because it gives you back your movement.

It seems to me that fighters have it pretty good.

 

[Victim]

Note that Shield Spec and Armor Spec have stacking issues - most characters will want one or the other, not both.

 

[Gothmog]

Honestly, I'd say the Fighter and Paladin are about equally useful/potent. The main benefits of a fighter are:

+1 to hit with a class of weapons
Generally does more damage than a Paladin
Stance powers (last until end of the encounter)- this is HUGE
Tide. of. Iron. - holy crap that is a great ability!

Paladin benefits:

Lay on Hands
More defensive abilities
Greater ability to affect more than one target and ranged abilities
Better controlling abilities

I've been playing a human Paladin, and I've paired up in battles with the dwarf Fighter. We both maneuver quite a bit and work off each other well. The dwarf typically kills things quicker than me, but I tend to inflict ongoing conditions on targets and can soak up the hits better. From what I've seen we're roughly equal, although a Paladin has to plan a little more with his abilities to get full use of out of them.

 

[James McMurray]

At higher levels where status effects come into play, the Paladin's Divine Mettle is a huge benefit.

 

[Jhaelen]

From what it looks like on paper:

• The fighter is better at controlling and defending against multiple opponents.
• The paladin is better at locking down and punishing a single foe

Yup, that was my impression, too. It's all theoretical, but when I read the powers, I thought, the Paladin was a secondary leader while the Fighter looked almost like a secondary controller, especially at the higher levels.

All in all, I'd prefer playing a Fighter over a Paladin unless the party was lacking in the leader department.

 

[Zsig]

Generally speaking:

Fighters = Passive awesomeness
Paladins = Active awesomeness

Most Fighter's stuff works in a way he doesn't necessarily needs to actively use. Combat Challenge extra attack, Combat Superiority that triggers on an Op. Attack, even his "passive" bonus to attacks over the paladin demonstrates that. They are most often tiny little passive bonuses that adds up and makes the difference in the long run.

Most of the Paladin's stuff deals with actively searching and thus smart thinking "who am I going to mark?" "who am I going to heal?", also, most of his abilities demands tactical planning much moreso than the fighter, and they even reward you for that, with more flashy and powerful effects.

Bottom line (IMO), Paladins are more "powerful" but demands intelligent thinking and planning of your choices. Fighters are weaker in terms of power, but they trade this extra power for passive abilities that helps them no matter what, regardless of the choices you make (either in combat or in character development) you're still good.

In the end, they're both equally good. It just depends on playstyle.

All that being said though, this is a general statement.

 

[Victim]

Most Fighter's stuff works in a way he doesn't necessarily needs to actively use. Combat Challenge extra attack, Combat Superiority that triggers on an Op. Attack, even his "passive" bonus to attacks over the paladin demonstrates that. They are most often tiny little passive bonuses that adds up and makes the difference in the long run.

Most of the Paladin's stuff deals with actively searching and thus smart thinking "who am I going to mark?" "who am I going to heal?", also, most of his abilities demands tactical planning much moreso than the fighter, and they even reward you for that, with more flashy and powerful effects.

Bottom line (IMO), Paladins are more "powerful" but demands intelligent thinking and planning of your choices. Fighters are weaker in terms of power, but they trade this extra power for passive abilities that helps them no matter what, regardless of the choices you make (either in combat or in character development) you're still good.

In the end, they're both equally good. It just depends on playstyle.

All that being said though, this is a general statement.

That's funny. I considered it to be the other way around.

The paladin class seemed full of panic button abilities. It brings extra heals and the ability to directly take hits for people to make up for when it fails at defending other characters conventionally. The extra heals (especially as a minor) and Valiant Strike also help when the pally bites off more than he can chew. Oops, the pally gets outmanuevered? Don't worry, he can still fix it with some teleport trick.

The fighter doesn't have the same options for fixing his mistakes, so he had better be right the first time.

 

[Blackbrrd]

The fighter has the level 7 encounter power "Come and get it" which is awesome. (Some people dislike the implications, see the 6+ page thread about that...)

The fighter has a lot of close burst 1 powers that works well with come and get it, lets him tank and damage multiple foes in a very good manner.

Personally I like the two classes a lot, and I would play any of them without complaint.