GameBanshee Forums

I'd like to hear any arguments pertaining to which of these is better, Paladins or Fighters? personally I think that the paladins disadvantage of only being able to specialize isn't that bad. But the paladins get some serious advantages that Fighters don't. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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In BG2, I think that paladins, and especially there kits, make better classes. The specialization thing doesn't matter that much, especially when you consider that they are the only ones that can use Carsomyr, second only to Crom Faeyr as the best weapon in the game IMO. Paladins, and again mainly the kits, get all kinds of nice bonuses to make up for there loss of proficiencies. There are some other things you must consider, though. First, they level up slower and actually miss out on one proficiency point as opposed to fighters because of the XP cap. This will change in ToB, but they still level up slower. Also, paladins can only be lawful good, which is alright unless you mind mixed parties and want the best NPCs in the game. Overall, I think paladins (mainly Undead Hunters and Inquisitors) and quite a bit better than fighters as long as you use good party members or plan to keep your reputation lower than 18 but higher than I think 8 (not sure about this, but when paladins fall).

Fighters are definitely better fighters (duh ) but the paladin's can be very useful warriors. The inquisitor especially has a wonderful ability to beat the living daylights out of mages, something an ordinary fighter would struggle against if the mage used proper defensive spells. Reason - Dispel magic and true sight. A mages worst enemies! Well that and a bunch of rampant cobold commando's, but that's another story.

Overall, it depends on the situation in which they are used. Fighters are better for some situations, whilst paladin's are better for others.

Fighters would be much more powerful (and best tank) if Bioware didn't change the rule regarding grandmastery (I was always thinking Korgan would kick-ass with his grandmastery in axes and Mazzy as well for her grandmaster in shortbows)
Instead it seems that paladins has got much more useful abilities and also mastery is not that beneficial over specialization, paladin might be better warrior class.

Go for inquisitor, undead hunter, berzerker or kensai
I would personally choose inquisitor or berzerker since there are two items (power amulet, mace of disruption +2) that give you level drain immunity and bonuses berzerker gets during enrage are very nice.

Yeah, speaking of that, where can I find the patch that lets my paladins use Amulet of Power?

I think one kit people fail to realise how good it is is the Cavalier. He can wield Carsomyr and has bonuses to fighting against Demons and Dragons which is useful in some situations I'll not say which one.
The only thing they lack is Ranged weapons which you can compensate for with other characters.

:Mr. Sprinkles
Look for the patch at Baldurash page
[url="http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/welcome.html"]http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/welcome.html[/url]

:Nippy
Cavalier is good (at least better than pure paladin kit). I PERSONALLY do not choose cavalier kit just because there're more vampires and mages than demons and dragons in BG2. Also it's very easier to remove acid or fear from the character then hold person (elixir of health or remove fear spell work wonders against these two effects). The best thing about cavalier is his fire and lightning resistance, I think (and you'll choose good sides in the final test, so you get 40% fire resistance and if your resistance is over 100% fireball will actually heal you!) After all, it's just my opinion (don't take it too seriously )

[ 06-12-2001: Message edited by: leeho730 ]

Be a fighter! Paladins have to do good without thinking about the consequences. Too bad they can't join the dark side in Hell.

I'm good in the heart, though my alignment is evil, believe it?

romise
You could be chaotic good

@ leeho730
Oh yeah I agree but I find for roleplaying purposes the Cavalier is great fun. Playing solo though is really difficult. You have no ranged weapons (except for Priest spells). However I find playing as charcters like Mages bore me. Also the Fighter is just to regular. It's the generic brute you see in the films!

I think one kit people fail to realise how good it is is the Cavalier.
The only thing they lack is Ranged weapons.

Almost. They can't use missile weapons (bows, crossbows and slings), but can still throw axes, darts or daggers.

Same for Kensai. Fastest dart throwers in the West, actually.

and what about rangers? Are they better than paladins and fighters?
They can hide in shadows, So they are at least better than plain fighters. And they can cast druid spells at higher levels.

I do not find Rangers to be better than either a fighter or a paladin. They have the same kinds of weaknesses as a paladin but I don't find their special abilities to be as useful. First, you can't hide in shadows with anything heavier than studded leather, so that's a wasted ability. Other than that, there's really nothing but the spells, and those are only up to level 2 or 3. And a paladin gets the same spell ability, although they are cleric and not druid. The fighter makes up for this with their extra proficiencies. Overall, I find a plain ranger to be the worst of these 3 warrior classes. There are some nice ranger kits, though. If you want a ranged attacker, you can't find better than the archer. The stalker makes the ranger ability hide in shadows more useful because you can only wear leather and you get to backstab.
They also add some more useful spells, but take away the tanking ability, making them more of bakcup fighter. Still, I find the paladin kits to be more useful in most situations, and a fighter with grand mastery just can't be beat for pure fighting power (obviously).

Shadow dragon armour

A beserker makes a better tank. But either three of the paladin kits can make an extremely useful warrior. If you just want to tank a bunch of guys, I put my money on the beserker being more sucessful. But an inquistor wielding carsoymr is very useful against mages. Undead Hunter can be very useful against the undead etc. But overall, I think the beserker is a better general tank than either of the three paladin kits. I refer specifically to the beserker because in my mind its probably the best fighter kit. Though a kensai is very good too. Also, from a roleplaying standpoint, who wants to play some goodie goodie paladin =). But, both are good for different situations. The real question is...do any of the fighter kits or paladin kits match up to a monk .

A Paladin (or anyone else capable of priest spells) can become totally impervious to combat damage during battles. Casting 4-5 Armors of Faith on yourself gives you 100% damage resistance.

The good thing here is that you can actually cast this spell in between attacks, because of its low casting time. You'll not lose any attacks over this if you time it right (that is, once every 6 seconds).