Virtuous Paladin, Divine Power Excerpt

[Stalker0]

I think people are seriously underestimating the power of virtuous touch. Its not about giving it to others, its about using it on yourself.

Paladins suffer the same problem all melee classes do...a lot of conditions effect them more than ranged ones. Dazed, slow, and immobilized are the three big ones. While they can be a problem for ranged characters, normally its not that bad. For melee characters, it can mean the complete shutdown of a turn.

A paladin can use his touch as a get out of jail free card, and still have a standard and move action left to go kick some butt.

 

[Drammattex]

I don't think Virtue's Touch is anything to sneeze at. I think it's pretty dang awesome.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

And as for a 'handful of points' not mattering at 1st-level... are you insane? Toughness is one of the best feats in the game and having a few extra points from Con can (and has in many games I've run or played in) mean the difference between success and failure of an encounter (when the character is a defender).

Using that reasoning, all defenders are terminally MAD. If paladins can't dumpstat Constitution, then plainly fighters can even less afford to do so with one fewer surge as a base. Going from 10 Con to 14 Con costs a touch less than a quarter of your total stat points. While I don't think you're insane for doing so as a paladin, I do think such a move is by no means optimized, let alone mandatory.

I think the powers that we've been shown in this preview underline this. Paladins do seem to have a very substantial number of options for Weakening enemies, and Name of Awe is another one on the list. One can certainly afford to lose two healing surges if you've got tools like that to hand.

 

[Dfranco83]

DP Hopeful

I do hope Divine Power has enough stuff in there to make the Paladin more accepted as a viable character build. I do find Virtue's touch ok since it does an automatic save instead of a roll with a bonus like the other class feature.

I personally would have wanted to incorporate just one main stat and secondary stats for different builds for the Paladin, but what do you do.

 

[Jack99]

I think people are seriously underestimating the power of virtuous touch. Its not about giving it to others, its about using it on yourself.

Paladins suffer the same problem all melee classes do...a lot of conditions effect them more than ranged ones. Dazed, slow, and immobilized are the three big ones. While they can be a problem for ranged characters, normally its not that bad. For melee characters, it can mean the complete shutdown of a turn.

A paladin can use his touch as a get out of jail free card, and still have a standard and move action left to go kick some butt.

Especially at higher level, where the amount of conditions that get pilled on you increase drastically.

 

[Kraydak]

I do hope they make clear how Virtue's Touch interacts with effects that recover Daily powers.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Although I daresay others may disagree, I find that the Avenger does everything that I want of my 'paladin' class in many ways.

I disagree.

(Well, technically, I don't disagree. I agree that you find the avenger does everything you want from a paladin. )

I really like the avenger, but to me, the paladin is the embodiment of the just and virtuous (or at least zealous, depending on alignment) knight in shining armor. A lightly armored, mobile striker cannot fill that role for me.

Unfortunately, while the paladin has been one of my three favorite classes in every prior edition, I'm not entirely happy with it in 4E. My hope, however, is that the upcoming "ardent" build fixes that. From what little we've heard, it sounds like it might.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Just the fact that they are doing a new build for str and charisma means there will be multiple options at all levels that favor both classes. That alone means you can actually go with good STR/WIS/CON or CHA/CON/WIS as your best three stats. Your heavy shield (if you choose to use it) can help in your reflex department, and you are off to the races.

It will be interesting to see if they give the paladin a 'STR build' power to replace/enhance/etc divine challenge.

 

[Stalker0]

What I'm curious to know is assuming they do make a new paladin challenge that is based off of strength, are they planning to adjust the current challenge?

The current challenge is the worst of the defender's marks, even if you are a charisma based paladin.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

They say that about every class. Its their rote advice on character building- your attack stat goes first, the secondary stat from your build goes second, and then whatever stat that's important to the build that you are not goes third. This is almost always bad advice (sometimes its worse than others, eg, Paladin, Cleric, and Shaman), but they say it in every single class description in the entire game.

Actually, according to the compendium, the Player's Handbook recommends: Str then Cha or Cha then Str for paladins, Con then Int or Cha then Int for warlocks, Str then Wis or Wis then Cha for clerics, and Dex then Str or Str then Dex for rangers. So of the eight builds total in the four classes that have multiple ability scores that govern attack powers, five of them (including both paladin and ranger builds) are recommended to pump the "other build's" ability score.

So it seems rather explicit to me that WotC expected players to pump Str and Cha for every paladin, never or rarely Wis or Con. Clearly you would tend to make Wis and Con scores higher than Int and Dex, but they assumed paladins would pump Str and Cha and therefore have a decent score even for the "other build's" attack powers.