Any class with good stat rolls is going to be better off than the one with lower stat rolls. This is largely irrelevant, as Paladins can ignore DEX, INT and WIS, saving their best rolls for CON, CHA and STR.
[QUOTE=Volk]A fighter is stronger in melle, because he has the same HD, dosent have to worry about inteligence, charisma or a wisdom higher then 10, he gets a HUGE ammount of feats plus bonus fighter only feats, like weapon specialisation.[/QUOTE]
So? Combat is what fighters do. It's their speciality. They make really poor spell casters however.
[QUOTE=Volk]Clerics can turn undead at much higher levels, need a lot less stats and have more then double the ammount of spells paladins do.[/QUOTE]
Again, so what? Clerics are really good at what they do - handling undead and divine spell casting. That's not what Paladins are meant to do. It's secondary to their role at best, similar to combat for Clerics. Yes, they can do it, but no, it's not the core of the class.
[QUOTE=Volk]Yes a paladin with good stats will beat any class at fighting evil, thats what their designed to do, but in the end a paladin is nothing more then the fighter side of a bard, he has a lot of options, but he cant do anything well enough.[/QUOTE]
This is very not true. A Paladin can certainly hold their own in combat. AGainst an evil opponent they can deal out damage faster and at a higher rate than a straight Fighter. They are immune to several nasty effects (Fear, Disease) without even having to roll the save. They can heal themselves as a free action (Lay on Hands).
In the game I run, the 12th level Paladin and the 12th level Fighter stand side by side and literally rule the battlefield. They rack up a similar number of kills, and certainly are very hard for the baddies to take down. Whilst the Fighter has more hps, the Paladin has the Lay on Hands to ofset that. Whilst the Fighter specialises in Two Handed Axes (and has a huge damage output), she comes second in the damage stakes when the Paladin Smites Evil.
[QUOTE=Volk]Clearly if you use house rules, or books other then the 3rd edition PHB, DMG and Monster Manual then the paladins usefulness can be increased, but straight out 3rd edition paladins are most certanly not that powerfull, because as i said before, their need for high stats will cause them to have a tragic flaw, be it their lack of AC ( like i said no paladin starts the game at level 1 in full plate mail and you if you are then your DM is beeing too nice to your party or planing to have you go up against very hard monsters ) lack of good Hitpoints, or lack of bonus saves due to a low charisma, sure if the DM lets you sit there and roll six or seven times for each stat and then takes the best one you can make a paladin thats unstopable, but in the end for those who play with one roll for each stat, and take stats as low as three, paladins arent so viable anymore.[/QUOTE]
Let's take an average set of dice rolls for a new PC:
16 14 13 12 10 8
The (human) Fighter:
STR: 16 DEX: 13 CON: 14 INT: 10 WIS: 12 CHA: 8
The (human) Paladin:
STR: 14 DEX: 10 CON: 13 INT: 8 WIS:12 CHA: 16
Stat-wise how are these PCs different? The Fighter has a +3 to hit & dam. The Paladin is +2, not much of a difference. Both can take Weapon Focus if they want. The Fighter has 12 hp, the Paladin 11. The Fighter gets 3 skill points, the Paladin 2 (remember the Human bonus - and I'm not multiplying for 1st level). The Fighter gets +1 AC. Otherwise, they are pretty much of a muchness. At second level, the differences really kick in, when the Paladin gets Lay on Hands and Divine Grace.
Now this is all number-crunching. When it comes to ROLEplaying, the differences are multiplied a hundred-fold. Remember that.
Cheers,
TGHO
