Does a greatsword Paladin make for a powerful frontline warrior?

[e11]

I like fantasy paladins in general, but I don't have the best grasp of the Pathfinder system. On paper, a paladin is the perfect character to lead a war against demons, but how does it actually work out in the game's combat?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by e11:

I like fantasy paladins in general, but I don't have the best grasp of the Pathfinder system. On paper, a paladin is the perfect character to lead a war against demons, but how does it actually work out in the game's combat?

Depends on how you build your paladin. To answer the question in the title: yes

[B Unit]

Paladins are very effective. The main issue you may have is that noteworthy greatswords are fairly rare.

[Mork]

2nd line absolutely yes behind the tank with enlarge type spell ON to give him some reach. A pure 2h paladin can take a few hits but not really be the ''tank''.

1st line you will need to multiclass him with one level of scaled fist monk and cast some AC buffs on him with the help of your party.

[Donduffino]

Dex/Finesse tanks are the better way to go than high AC healers in Pathfinder, which sucks cuz I like Paladins.

[Kalamir]

Tanky as heck, armor optionnal.
Get Mounted Combat & Indominable Mount by Lv5, take ranks in Mobility
Lv5 Pick the Horse as your Bond, Horse will have much higher AC then you & ennemis will attack it first. Indominable Mount allows your Mouth to be Nuke and Debuff much less.
Starting at Lv5 keep your armor check penalties low

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by sweetchilliheat:

Paladins are very effective. The main issue you may have is that noteworthy greatswords are fairly rare.

Not so rare as other weapons.

I got on my playthroughs plenty of them.

[DrHappyAngry]

I can't help but think of the NWN2 mod, Path of Evil where you're the bad guy and heroes come after you and you get to insult them before you murder them.

"Why is it that all Paladins wield great swords? Do you think they're compensating for something?"

[e11]

Originally posted by sweetchilliheat:

Paladins are very effective. The main issue you may have is that noteworthy greatswords are fairly rare.

Baldur's Gate 2's Carsomyr the Holy Avenger two-handed sword will forever be the love of my life.

Originally posted by Kalamir:

Tanky as heck, armor optionnal.
Get Mounted Combat & Indominable Mount by Lv5, take ranks in Mobility
Lv5 Pick the Horse as your Bond, Horse will have much higher AC then you & ennemis will attack it first. Indominable Mount allows your Mouth to be Nuke and Debuff much less.
Starting at Lv5 keep your armor check penalties low

Who, wait, is a mounted build actually viable in this game? I'm always tempted to be a knight in tabletop games, but fights usually happen in mountains, cities, or dungeons. Not prime horse territory.

[Donduffino]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by sweetchilliheat:

Paladins are very effective. The main issue you may have is that noteworthy greatswords are fairly rare.

Not so rare as other weapons.

I got on my playthroughs plenty of them.

I think polearms are way better in this game if you're gonna go two handed. The only reason to go with great swords is that they are, in fact, cooler, but from a mechanics stand point I'd say go with polearms.

[EastCLiff]

Weapon choice determine nothing. As people said, feat choice is decisive.
Basically, Paladin is very powerful, almost top tier class of all in the game. So, consider what is the exact style what you want, S&S, two handed, dual wielding, etc.
It's free to pick feats but better choices are followed by weapon styles. Also, there are feats specializing class abilities like 'extending number of channels'. So, you don't need to worry about paladin is good or bad but you should do to pick proper feats you really want. I wasted almost first 100 hours to research for that kind of works on my character.

[EastCLiff]

Paladin's abilities are not wasted or unused in any situations in this game. I think that's the real strength of him. You would use all of his things but some other characters are not. Smite is always working because almost EVERY enemies are demon or chaotic evil. Also, undeads comes very frequently. Divine spells are also useful. Channel is very strong because there are many long term wandering and confronting hordes of undeads. He can even use a mount or imbue. Paladin has all techniques and all useful. Completely overpowered. So, you should think about how to use it as tanker or attacker, etc. Then you should check feat groups you really need.

[chrismyco]

Originally posted by EastCLiff:

Weapon choice determine nothing. As people said, feat choice is decisive.
Basically, Paladin is very powerful, almost top tier class of all in the game. So, consider what is the exact style what you want, S&S, two handed, dual wielding, etc.
It's free to pick feats but better choices are followed by weapon styles. Also, there are feats specializing class abilities like 'extending number of channels'. So, you don't need to worry about paladin is good or bad but you should do to pick proper feats you really want. I wasted almost first 100 hours to research for that kind of works on my character.

I don't know if 100% agree with this anymore.

1D12, 18-20 x3 crit range, and two handed.

[provokastoras]

Originally posted by e11:

Originally posted by sweetchilliheat:

Paladins are very effective. The main issue you may have is that noteworthy greatswords are fairly rare.

Baldur's Gate 2's Carsomyr the Holy Avenger two-handed sword will forever be the love of my life..

Hm you know the game gives you a holy avenger sword better than carsomyr in the maze (first dungeon) but it is not a greatsword it is a longsword. (it looks pretty insignificant when you get it but it becomes a +7 holy avenger that gives you Spell resistance and dispels actually depending on your mythic path its almost spell immunity not spell resistance. Spell resistance 45 there is like 2 or three things in the game bypassing it.

[EastCLiff]

If you want two-handed, I also recommend to use polearm too. There are too many annoying situation related to weapon range and unit collision system. GS is not bad at all. As I said, weapon choice is not so important. I recommend cleave feats for it. Actually power attack feat is not good at the early stage but gets better and better while you progress the story.

[Serendipitous]

Originally posted by chrismyco:

1D12, 18-20 x3 crit range, and two handed. they nerf so many random things from tabletop, but they make a weapon like this.

So, a Fauchard without reach and better crit multiplier that doesn't require exotic proficiency. Reach being one of the most important weapon properties for two-handed weapon, i'd say it's not that great. Given that those numbers are result of it being unique weapon and not base weapon type, there is nothing gamebreaking about it, given that enchantments on the weapon are VERY meh.