FreeTheSlaves
Adventurer
Niche protection has been taken too far in some cases in 4E as the paladin's ranged options highlight.
Basically the str based paladin is doing ranged basic attacks with a d6 weapon and the cha paladin is limited to range 5 implement powers. There's the odd power or option that helps but by and large the paladin is left to suck it up.
The Cavalier gets martial missile weapons and the reduced MAD, coupled with a high dex heavy blade build, plus possibly a high dex race, can see a pretty good missile base attack with a d10 weapon. Unfortunately as levels increase the dex will drop relative to str and the monster defence baseline is keyed to str attacks. The end result is a weakening missile attack unless the cavalier reverts back to the d6 heavy thrown options.
Nope, the paladin is not well placed for missile attacks and they need to focus on improving their mobility to close the ground. Fortunately, options for doing this open up especially in paragon tier.
Do I like all this? Not really.
A paladin is a warrior and should have reasonable skill with missile weapons as part of their trade. Lacking ranged powers and defender abilities tied to melee are disincentives enough.
Also calibrating the monster defences to the best attack value also means secondary attack stats largely become useless. I would have much preferred the original math at release being spot on and monster defences calibrated to a PC base 16 attack stat (using a +2 prof weapon) with few ways of increasing accuracy (definitely no expertise and very few bonus stacking) apart from combat advantage. Oh well...
Basically the str based paladin is doing ranged basic attacks with a d6 weapon and the cha paladin is limited to range 5 implement powers. There's the odd power or option that helps but by and large the paladin is left to suck it up.
The Cavalier gets martial missile weapons and the reduced MAD, coupled with a high dex heavy blade build, plus possibly a high dex race, can see a pretty good missile base attack with a d10 weapon. Unfortunately as levels increase the dex will drop relative to str and the monster defence baseline is keyed to str attacks. The end result is a weakening missile attack unless the cavalier reverts back to the d6 heavy thrown options.
Nope, the paladin is not well placed for missile attacks and they need to focus on improving their mobility to close the ground. Fortunately, options for doing this open up especially in paragon tier.
Do I like all this? Not really.
A paladin is a warrior and should have reasonable skill with missile weapons as part of their trade. Lacking ranged powers and defender abilities tied to melee are disincentives enough.
Also calibrating the monster defences to the best attack value also means secondary attack stats largely become useless. I would have much preferred the original math at release being spot on and monster defences calibrated to a PC base 16 attack stat (using a +2 prof weapon) with few ways of increasing accuracy (definitely no expertise and very few bonus stacking) apart from combat advantage. Oh well...
