Comprehensive Paladin Guide

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Comprehensive Paladin Guide
Small paladin.jpg
Type Spiritual Semi
Spell Circles Minor Spiritual, Paladin Base
Prime Requisites Strength, Wisdom
Mana Statistics Wisdom
Physical Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Two Weapon Combat 3 / 3 2
Armor Use 3 / 0 3
Shield Use 3 / 0 2
Combat Maneuvers 5 / 4 2
Edged Weapons 3 / 1 2
Blunt Weapons 3 / 1 2
Two-Handed Weapons 4 / 2 2
Ranged Weapons 6 / 2 2
Thrown Weapons 5 / 1 2
Polearm Weapons 5 / 2 2
Brawling 4 / 1 2
Ambush 4 / 5 1
Multi Opponent Combat 5 / 2 1
Physical Fitness 3 / 0 2
Dodging 5 / 3 2
Magical Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Arcane Symbols 0 / 5 1
Magic Item Use 0 / 5 1
Spell Aiming 4 / 2 2
Harness Power 0 / 5 2
Elemental Mana Control 0 / 15 1
Mental Mana Control 0 / 15 1
Spirit Mana Control 0 / 5 1
Spell Research 0 / 17 2
Elemental Lore 0 / 20 1
Spiritual Lore 0 / 10 2
Sorcerous Lore 0 / 18 1
Mental Lore 0 / 20 1
General Skills
Skill Cost Ranks
Survival 2 / 2 2
Disarming Traps 2 / 5 1
Picking Locks 2 / 4 2
Stalking and Hiding 4 / 4 1
Perception 0 / 3 2
Climbing 3 / 0 2
Swimming 2 / 0 2
First Aid 1 / 1 2
Trading 0 / 3 2
Pickpocketing 4 / 4 1

About the Guide

This guide was originally created by Kithus and has been expanded upon by members of the Gemstone community from discussions via various forums, Discord chats and direct player input on GSWiki. Any and all contributions from the community are welcome!
Last Updated: 2022-01-17

Race and Stat Considerations

Racial Bonus To Starting Statistics (Sortable Table)
Race Strength Constitution Dexterity Agility Discipline Aura Logic Intuition Wisdom Influence Total
Aelotoi -5 0 5 10 5 0 5 5 0 -5 +20
Burghal gnome -15 10 10 10 -5 5 10 5 0 -5 +25
Dark elf 0 -5 10 5 -10 10 0 5 5 -5 +15
Dwarf 10 15 0 -5 10 -10 5 0 0 -10 +15
Elf 0 0 5 15 -15 5 0 0 0 10 +20
Erithian -5 10 0 0 5 0 5 0 0 10 +25
Forest gnome -10 10 5 10 5 0 5 0 5 -5 +25
Giantman 15 10 -5 -5 0 -5 -5 0 0 5 +10
Half elf 0 0 5 10 -5 0 0 0 0 5 +15
Half krolvin 10 10 0 5 0 0 -10 0 -5 -5 +5
Halfling -15 10 15 10 -5 -5 5 10 0 -5 +20
Human 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 0 +15
Sylvankind 0 0 10 5 -5 5 0 0 0 0 +15

AgiDex

Roundtime is quite simple. Strength and encumbrance can be a factor but that can be managed by carefully managing inventory. The most important factor is AgiDex, or the sum of the bonuses of a character's Dexterity and Agility. This combined total helps reduce the Roundtime of a physical attack by a specified amount:

Agility +
Dexterity		 Roundtime
reduction
8 - 22 1
23 - 37 2
38 - 52 3
53 - 67 4
68 - 82 5
83 - 97 6
98 - 112 7
113+ 8
Roundtime reductions above 5 are not
achievable without enhancive items.

Pairing that table with the stat table above we can break it down to see each races theoretical maximum AgiDex, before enhancives and ascension:

Race Max
DEX		 Max
AGI		 Max
sum		 Max RT
reduction		 +Enhancive until
next threshold
Halfling 25+15 25+10 75 5 +8
Burghal gnome 25+10 25+10 70 5 +13
Elf 25+5 25+15 70 5 +13
Aelotoi 25+5 25+10 65 4 +3
Dark elf 25+10 25+5 65 4 +3
Forest gnome 25+5 25+10 65 4 +3
Half-elf 25+5 25+10 65 4 +3
Sylvankind 25+10 25+5 65 4 +3
Half-krolvin 25+0 25+5 55 4 +13
Erithian 25+0 25+0 50 3 +3
Human 25+0 25+0 50 3 +3
Dwarf 25+0 25−5 45 3 +8
Giantman 25−5 25−5 40 3 +13

This is important because weapons have a minimum RT, and a base RT. By taking the base RT and subtracting the AgiDex bonus we can find the unencumbered swing RT. Notably, the heaviest two handed weapons have base RTs of 7 or 8 seconds, and the heaviest polearms have 9 seconds, so substantial AgiDex is required just to bring normal melee swings down to 5 seconds.

The final column shows the amount of enhancives beyond the natural limits that need to be added to Agility Bonus/Dexterity Bonus before reaching the next RT threshold. For example, a Half-Elf Paladin with 100 in both stats would have -4 seconds to melee RT, but with a +3 enhancive to either Agi Bonus or Dex Bonus the same Paladin would be able to reach -5 seconds. Similarly, a Dwarf Paladin with 100 in both stats would have -3 seconds to melee RT (thus it would not be a good idea to use a 9-second lance), unless they can acquire +8 bonuses through enhancives to bring them to -4 seconds. The Adventurer's Guild Badge can have up to +5 stat bonus for up to three stats, so getting up to +10 total enhancive is easily reachable for any adventurer. Beyond that, either finding more enhancive items or dedicated ascension training will be necessary if more RT reduction is desired.

Strength

Strength bonus adds directly to melee AS. Any paladin is going to want a decent Strength stat and will want to pair that with a decent AgiDex possibility. The table below shows the Strength stats of races compared to their AgiDex capability:

5 RT Reduction STR Mod 4 RT Reduction STR Mod 3 RT Reduction STR Mod
Halfling -15 Aelotoi -5 Erithian -5
Burghal gnome -15 Dark elf 0 Human 5
Elf 0 Forest gnome -10 Dwarf 10
Half-elf 0 Giantman 15
Sylvankind 0
Half-krolvin 10


Other Racial Factors

Bear in mind that there are many other mechanical factors to consider when selecting a race. Not to mention all the role playing decisions. The weaker races, such as halflings and gnomes, tend to have much better maneuver defense than bigger, stronger races. As a trade off they also tend to have terrible encumbrance, while bigger races are able to carry quite a bit more. Elven races have bonuses to resisting disease and a small one to poison, but are slightly weaker against warding spells. Dwarves are less resistant to disease but much more resistant to poison and have a bonus to warding off elemental magic. Halflings are slightly more resistant to poison, disease, and elemental magic than dwarves. Half-krolvin have natural heavy crit padding against cold attacks and suffer less from cold weather effects.

The races of Elanthia all have their pros and cons. They are well balanced and any one could make an excellent paladin. Take into account the full picture, including mechanics and their cultural backgrounds, before you decide on a race for yours.

Skills

Physical Skills

Magical Skills

  • Arcane Symbols Allows the use of and improves durations from scrolls.
  • Magic Item Use Allows the use of and improves the durations from magic items.
  • Harness Power Mana growth.
  • Spell Aiming Weapon training for bolts, which paladins will likely not use until far post-cap.
  • Mana Control Allows the sharing of mana and improves your own mana regen. Paladins have easy access to Spiritual Mana Control.
  • Spell Research Learn spells and make those you already know better.
  • Lores Incremental improvements to specific spells related to that lore.

General Overview of Paladin Spells

Buffing Spells

Aura Spells

Attack Spells

Miscellaneous Spells

Lores

Paladins are spiritual casters and can make use of all three Spiritual Lores. They all provide a variety of useful benefits to the paladin's spells.

Blessing Lore

Understanding the Bonuses behind Spiritual Lore, Blessing

Blessing Lore provides a great deal of varied benefits to a lot of the paladin’s spells. These bonuses help improve DS, TD, Blocking, Health, and AS. Additionally it provides a lot of other quality of life bonuses.

Summoning Lore

  • Spirit Fog (106) 40 ranks unlocks the ability to auto hide the caster for 30 seconds.
  • Unbalance (110) Increases the effectiveness but a paladin typically has a hard time warding things with Minor Spiritual spells.
  • Fire Spirit (111) Increases the DF but paladins almost never bolt.
  • Locate Person (116) Allows the locating of targets in adjacent, near-adjacent, or even far away realms. Also enables a locate-back functionality.
  • Web (118) The bolt EVOKE version unlocked with this lore is of no interest to a paladin but the improvements to the area web could be.
  • Call Lightning (125) Reduces the time to gather the storm by 1 second per 10 ranks, up to 70 ranks. At 80 ranks the spell can be used indoors.
  • Spirit Guide (130) Reduces the randomness of landing locations.
  • Pious Trial (1602) Increases slow duration by 1 sec. at 10 and 25 ranks.
  • Consecrate (1604) Improves secondary flare potency.
  • Arm of the Arkati (1605) DF increase +1% per Seed 5 summation.
  • Aid the Fallen (1613) Self cast using BESEECH at 20 ranks (must also have learned Divine Intervention).
  • Holy Weapon (1625) Spell level increased on Seed 2 summation, -2 DS/ -1 TD pushdown per rank up to 25 ranks.
  • Divine Incarnation (1650) Increases ZEAL duration by 2 seconds per Seed 10 summation.

Understanding the Bonuses behind Spiritual Lore, Summoning

A convenient threshold is 25 ranks for the maximum pushdown on infused spells and the slow effect on Pious Trial. Beyond that the bonuses are small and incremental.

Religion Lore

Understanding the Bonuses behind Spiritual Lore, Religion

25 ranks maximizes Judgment against like-level enemies, and 30 ranks maximizes the DS pushdown from Aura of the Arkati (1614), though enemy Evade/Block/Parry chance will continue to decrease, so more can certainly be useful. Other bonuses are mostly incremental. Religion lore also grants a deity title at 40 ranks.

Spell Research Training

With few exceptions Paladins should follow a simple spell progression path:

Divine Intervention (1635) Is arguably one of the most powerful spells in Elanthia. Most Paladins will want to have access to it as soon as possible. Overall the paladin circle provides a far greater benefit than the Minor Spiritual circle up until 1635. Once that powerhouse is achieved then going back into Minor Spiritual for 120, for the additional DS and TD, makes sense. From there everything becomes a matter of preference and the needs of the Paladin's build.

Training

This is broken down into Core Training, and Discrete Training.

  • Core training includes skills you train in a certain amount each level for that build.
  • Discrete Training includes skills that you want to hit a breakpoint on.

Common Core Training

Core training for ANY Paladin:

Total: (8/29)

Common Discrete Training

  • Armor Use
    • 15 trained ranks (35 total) for Chain Mail
    • 70 trained ranks (90 total) for Chain Hauberk / Metal Breastplate
    • 130 trained ranks (150 total) for Full Plate
  • 60 Ranks Multi-Opponent Combat
  • 50 Ranks Climbing
  • 50 Ranks Swimming

Remember that casting 1608 gives you 20 free Armor Use ranks. Normally someone would need to train 35/90/150 Armor Use for those thresholds but as a paladin you can reach them earlier.

The Shield Knight

We have all seen the classic image of a knight in shining armor. The powerful, divine warrior standing firm with his (or her) plate armor and shield, downing foes with a sword or mace. Sword and board, as it is commonly called, is a staple fantasy trope that can be seen from King Arthur's knights to modern anime. This is a stereotype that has withstood the test of time. Probably because it could block incoming attacks!

Why a shield?

Do you like getting beat up and running crying to an empath? Guessing the answer is no. A giant shield between you and the enemy makes that less likely to happen. On a more serious note shields were amazing before SHIELD SKILLS were added. With that addition shielded paladins can become defensive gods. Also did we mention Divine Shield (1609)?

Shield Knight Core Training

# Cost Skill
2x 9/0 Shield Use
2x 9/3 Edged Weapons or Blunt Weapons
1x 5/4 Combat Maneuvers
1x 3/0 Physical Fitness
1x 0/5 Harness Power
1x 0/17 Spell Research
1x 0/3 Perception
26/32 Total

Shield Knight Discreet Training

These values are plateaus you should strive to reach at some point in your career.

# Ranks Cost Skill Notes
30, 80, and 150 3/0 Armor Use For Brigandine, Chain Hauberk, and Full Plate respectively. A shield knight can afford to stay in Chain Hauberk for a while and work on other skills before Full Plate.
60 5/2 Multi Opponent Combat This allows for 3x focused mstrike.
50 3/0 Climbing By level 100, train this as needed to make climb checks prior to that.
50 2/0 Swimming By level 100, train this as needed to make swim checks prior to that.

Optional Additional Training

A list of the most common skills to use your additional training points on.

# Cost Skill Notes
1x-2x 2/2 Survival This will aid in skinning and foraging.
1x-2x 1/1 First Aid This will aid in skinning and reduce herb eating RT
4/5 Ambush 20-30 ranks will allow you to aim your attacks.
0/17 Spell Research For spells beyond 1635 and 120
0/7 Spiritual Lore, Blessings For additional benefits from certain spells.
0/7 Spiritual Lore, Summoning For additional benefits from certain spells.
0/7 Spiritual Lore, Religion For additional benefits from certain spells.
0/6 Magic Item Use For more effective use of magic items.
0/5 Arcane Symbols For scroll reading.
0/6 Spiritual Mana Control 25 ranks for perfect sharing, raising, and 2x multicast

Post Cap Goals

Combat Maneuvers

Paladins have access to some of the best maneuvers out of any semi class.

Specialization (wspec) which provides a direct bonus to their AS and CML when using a weapon of the chosen type.

Disarm Weapon (disarm) can be a powerful maneuver both offensively and defensively.

Combat Toughness (toughness) is an option for those who absolutely want the best defense.

Surge of Strength (surge) can provide a good place to spend stamina for a solid boost.

Combat Focus (focus) will help with additional TD.

Spike Focus reduces the penalties for using a spiked armor and shields.

Feint (feint) will help with stance and inflicting RT.

Cunning Defense (cdefense) adds a bit more protection from maneuvers.

Shield Skills

Tower Shield Focus is probably the base skill for any shield knight unless you have a smaller shield that you absolutely want to use.

Shield Bash is a must.

Prop Up not being knocked down is a great benefit.

Spell Block will let you BLOCK bolts if you have an ensorcelled or anti-magic shield.

Protective Wall less lost DS due to status effects for your group and yourself.

Shield Spike Mastery allows reactive spike flares when you block using a spiked shield.

Block the Elements reduces damage from those pesky flares and ball spells.

There are other offensive options of varying effectiveness that you can try out to see if you prefer them to bash.

The Two-Handed Paladin

The other canonical image of the knight is that of one wielding a large sword or polearm. The black knight Mordred is often depicted with a two handed blade. All of us have also seen images of knights on horseback with lances. Elanthia may not have (combat-happy) horses but we certainly have plenty of lances and they hit hard!

Why Two-Handers?

It has been said that the best defense is a good offense. The person who said that was probably wielding a claidhmore or lance. Two handed weapons of almost all types hit HARD. While shield users are better able to defend themselves, two handed users are betting they won’t have to.

Two-Handed Paladin Core Training

# Cost Skill
1x 5/4 Combat Maneuvers
2x 12/6 or 15/6 Two-Handed Weapons or Polearm Weapons
1x 5/3 Dodging
1x 3/0 Physical Fitness
1x-1 0/5 Harness Power
1x 0/3 Perception
1x 0/17 Spell Research
25/38 or 28/38 Total

Two-Handed Paladin Discreet Training

These values are plateaus you should strive to reach at some point in your career.

# Ranks Cost Skill Notes
150 3/0 Armor Use Two-handed Paladins will want to get into Full Plate ASAP.
60 5/2 Multi Opponent Combat This allows for 3x focused mstrike.
50 3/0 Climbing By level 100, train this as needed to make climb checks prior to that.
50 2/0 Swimming By level 100, train this as needed to make swim checks prior to that.

Optional Additional Training

A list of the most common skills to use your additional training points on.

# Cost Skill Notes
1x-2x 2/2 Survival This will aid in skinning and foraging.
1x-2x 1/1 First Aid This will aid in skinning and reduce herb eating RT
4/5 Ambush 20-30 ranks will allow you to aim your attacks.
0/17 Spell Research For spells beyond 1635 and 120
0/7 Spiritual Lore, Blessings For additional benefits from certain spells.
0/7 Spiritual Lore, Summoning For additional benefits from certain spells.
0/7 Spiritual Lore, Religion For additional benefits from certain spells.
0/6 Magic Item Use For more effective use of magic items.
0/5 Arcane Symbols For scroll reading.
0/6 Spiritual Mana Control 25 ranks for perfect sharing, raising, and 2x multicast


Post Cap Goals

Combat Maneuvers

Two- Handed Paladins can make good use of several Combat Maneuver skills:

Specialization (wspec1/2/3) which provides a direct bonus to their AS and CML when using a weapon of the chosen type.

Disarm Weapon (disarm) can be a powerful maneuver both offensively and defensively.

Combat Toughness (toughness) is an option for those who absolutely want the best defense.

Surge of Strength (surge) can provide a good place to spend stamina for a solid boost.

Combat Focus (focus) will help with additional TD.

Cunning Defense (cdefense) adds a bit more protection from maneuvers.

Trip (trip) can be a workable knockdown if you are using polearms.

Feint (feint) can be a fantastic opener to soften up a target before you utterly destroy it.

Societies

Elanthia currently has 3 Societies to choose from; The Council of Light (CoL), Voln, and Guardians of Sunfist (GoS). Each offers unique bonuses and role play opportunities.

CoL

COL is the society for people who love big numbers. The society offers very little outside of the core AS/DS benefits, but those additional benefits are pretty nice mechanically.
Sign of Staunching stops all bleeding for 1 mana.
Sign of Healing is full Health for 2 spirit.
Sign of Wracking is full mana for 5 spirit.
Sign of Darkness is a teleport back to town for 6 spirit.
The other signs offer an overall gain of 35 AS, 35 DS, 20 Ranged/Spell DS, and 15 TD.

Keeping some of these signs up costs spirit. Fortunately, CoL sign duration is 10 seconds per level. At cap that is a duration of 16 minutes, 40 seconds. Even a dark elf could stagger signs enough to regen the 3 spirit required for the AS/DS/TD signs, and still remain barely static. Although, a dark elf cannot reasonably do that before level 90, they could always just leave off one of the 3 spirit using signs. Of course, a Dark Elf could not make the same use out of Sign of Wracking, due to the slow spirit regen.

Overall CoL offers decent abilities and low upkeep costs, but spirit can be burdensome for some races.

GoS

Sunfist is an attractive option, depending on your playstyle. It provides less overall AS/DS than CoL, at only +30 max but more TD at +20. The Sigil of Major Bane also offers heavy crit weighting to all AS/DS attacks against Hated Enemies. On the defensive side, they receive -5 DS relative to CoL, but they also get Heavy Crit padding with Sigil of Major Protection.

Sigil of Power converts 50 stamina to 25 mana, which can be great but paladins often have other uses for stamina, leaving little stamina free.
Sigil of Escape provides protection against Stun/web/binds/etc, once per day. This is definitely going to save your life at times and is a nice alternative to 1635.
Sigil of Mending provides a +10 boost to health recovery and allows you to eat any herb in 3 seconds.
Sigil of Concentration provides a +5 boost to mana recovery.
The other major attraction of GoS is the ability to Warcamp. These self contained hunting grounds generate Grimswarm creatures of a specific race; Troll, Orc, or Giant. They can be one of many professions and have the abilities to match. Camps can be more dangerous than regular hunting grounds but they are also a place you can fry very quickly.

The downside to Sunfist is that the duration and costs of their sigils are static. You are going to be spending a large amount of mana/stamina to keep sigils up throughout a hunt and it takes some effort to keep them running. For the base AS/DS boosts, you are only looking at 10 mana/10 Stamina every 5 minutes. If you want the Sigil of Major Bane and Sigil of Major Protection for the additional +10 AS/DS and heavy weighting/padding it will cost an additional 20 mana and 25 stamina per minute. Compare that to the 6 mana and 3 spirit CoL members pay for 15 minutes of all of their AS/DS/TD signs. The sigils are a much higher mana cost but at the same time, they do not cost spirit.

Voln

Voln offers +26 AS to all critters, +39 against undead, +26 DS, and +13 TD.

Symbol of blessing allows easy hunting of undead. The ability to UAC without needing a bless can be helpful to those paladins who use that fighting style.

Symbol of mana is attractive at 50 mana every 5 minutes. It is not as powerful at the top end as others but there is no downside to usage.

Symbol of dreams is nice, health/mana/spirit/stats recovery. Good to use post-death along with Symbol of Recall, which restores your spells after you die.

Additionally, Voln has a societal teleportation system where the back of their society has pocket portals to everywhere. One of which is the Rift. It is a godsend for Rift hunters.

Voln's symbols work off favor, which you accumulate through hunting undead. This is a non-issue if you are hunting undead regularly. Once the Symbol of Blessing is acquired it should not be a problem to hunt them. Undead are typically pretty easy targets to hunt relative to other critters at like levels, so a lot of time is typically spent hunting them.

Useful Links

Paladin Class Tips

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