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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormtalon" data-source="post: 3912432" data-attributes="member: 5541">The thing is, we've only seen the paladin's smite abilities which would naturally be tied to clobbering things.  The ability to smite is simply one of the things they can do, and you simply can't generalize based off of these three smites we've seen.  He may very well have ways to buff and heal allies without having to hit things.  Still, he's a Defender, a front-line combatant and that's where you should expect a goodly number of a paladin's powers to be focused.  Additionally, he is powered by his faith and his connection to his deity, so miraculous abilities tied to his combat skills also make sense.  I really think part of the key to these abilities is to look at the controlling stat.  Two out of the three of these feed off of Charisma (and the 3rd off of Wisdom), which has been described (at least in 3e, and I can't see that changing much in 4e) as being force of personality and an inner strength.  So it's not something inherent in the blows themselves that's doing the extra effects -- it's something within the paladin himself: his strength, his will, his conviction in his beliefs.  Something within him stirs his allies to overcome injury, or his enemies to falter for a brief moment.Had the abilities keyed off of Strength or a physical stat, I'd be scratching my head, too -- but they key off of the mental abilities, and that's enough to realize that they do indeed work and make sense.</blockquote>

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