I have some suggestions for tweaks and moves to spells and glyphs that I think would make a huge change for all paladins and separate us even more, thematically, from barb-clerics (barberics?). I also think this transforms paladins from a guild that’s stuck in the past to something more modern.
Spell: Divine Guidance
• Issue(s): Atypically buffs a single stat and does nothing else, which reflects a smaller scope than seen in other guilds’ single stat buffs. Would help a lot to have the Wisdom buff combined with another ability.
• Suggestion: Move Wisdom buff to Glyph of Light. Change to either ranged OF buff or skill buff for at minimum light/heavy thrown and crossbow as theme-appropriate. Chadatru would happily guide our spears to their targets.
Glyph: Light
• Issue(s): Not updated to 3.0 standards.
• Suggestion: Fix perception buff to follow 3.0 rules and scale to 20%; move Wisdom buff from DIG here.
Spell: Shatter
• Issue(s): Outside the initial 6-second shield disabling effect (assumes overwhelming contest), it is extremely underwhelming and not replaceable. In PvP it's at most a half-strength debuff outside the initial 6 seconds. In PvE it is barely felt unless fighting one of the very few creatures that use a shield.
• Suggestion: Make it replaceable and make it a DF debuff outside the 6-second effect.
Glyph: Bonding
• Issue(s): Does anyone actually use this?
• Suggestion: Keep the deader weapon bonding, but add the Bond Armaments effect on self and change the Bond Armaments spell to have a different effect.
Spell: Bond Armaments
• Issue(s): None inherently, but effect moved to Glyph of Bonding to make it useful.
• Suggestion: Increases the bond between a paladin and his armor and shield such that they no longer feel like tools to mete out justice but a part of himself. Buffs armor skills and makes shields more amenable to SLAM by raising shields’ weapon stats based on weight up to some reasonable cap and adding a phantom FOI stat.
Protect: Self
• Issue(s): This is supposed to be an oh-crap button, but it rarely works when needed and sometimes for no clear reason reason at all.
• Suggestion: Disentangle it from Soul or soul pool altogether if it is entangled and put it solely on a cooldown that’s Conviction-skill-based such that at cap it's only, maybe, a couple of minutes. This should be paladins’ Thing.
Spells: Crusader’s Challenge
• Issue(s): This spell should be paladins’ bread and butter, but the skill contest and wonky taunt mechanics mean it’s used almost exclusively for the Tactics buff, which means it’s relegated to an advanced (i.e. high level), 10-minute tactics buff.
• Suggestion: Change to mind vs. will and force the target(s) to advance toward the paladin uncontrollably as a sort of compulsion. Remove the cooldown, but make it dispellable by the target so they have a way out of it. I know people aren't huge fans of will contests, but I don't see how this could be anything but vs will, and mind vs will makes sense.
Spell: Hands of Justice
• Issue(s): Does anyone actually use this?
• Suggestion: Reactive SvS OF debuff against attackers who strike from stealth/invis. This has PvE and PvP uses, so win.
2DUMBARSE
2DUMBARSE
Re: Some Paladin Suggestions
04/19/2022 08:43 AM CDT
The paladin ritual spell is quite bad. Here's a suggestion for a new ritual spell that would satisfy paladins' desire for working horses:
Summon Steed: Summon's a mountable war horse that will fight at the paladin's side. Strength is based on TM as is customary, so they would not be overly powerful.
Summon Steed: Summon's a mountable war horse that will fight at the paladin's side. Strength is based on TM as is customary, so they would not be overly powerful.
2DUMBARSE
Re: Some Paladin Suggestions
04/19/2022 08:44 AM CDT
The sacrifice spell book is anemic, which I think is a missed opportunity WRT paladin. Here are a couple of suggestions to add value here:
• New metaspell (sacrifice capstone): Vessel of Salvation can be shaped to convert stored vitality to spirit and fuel spells and abilities that feed on paladins' spirit e.g. TR). The vessel can no longer provide vitality to others when shaped.
• New sacrifice spell: Fortifies beneficial spells cast on a paladin and his group at the cost of spirit. (Yes, you would be able to kill a paladin using dispels. thus, VoS metaspell.)
• New metaspell (sacrifice capstone): Vessel of Salvation can be shaped to convert stored vitality to spirit and fuel spells and abilities that feed on paladins' spirit e.g. TR). The vessel can no longer provide vitality to others when shaped.
• New sacrifice spell: Fortifies beneficial spells cast on a paladin and his group at the cost of spirit. (Yes, you would be able to kill a paladin using dispels. thus, VoS metaspell.)
2DUMBARSE
Re: Some Paladin Suggestions
04/19/2022 08:50 AM CDT
Last but not least, glyphs that affect holy weapons. Paladins don't really have any high circle abilities outside spells. I like the following holy weapon glyphs flavor and function (only one usable at a time):
• A glyph that changes the holy weapon's top damage type to fire.
• A glyph that adds a single dispel on strike (can make it cost spirit to have it synergize with the VoS suggestion above).
• A glyph that changes the holy weapon's top damage type to fire.
• A glyph that adds a single dispel on strike (can make it cost spirit to have it synergize with the VoS suggestion above).
2DUMBARSE
Re: Some Paladin Suggestions
04/27/2022 08:47 AM CDT
Spell: Hands of Justice
• Issue(s): It’s a remnant of old. I don’t think any paladin ever uses this spell.
• Suggestion: Leave thievery protection in place as a nod to its former glory but add the following:
The doability of this ability rests on the game saving some last attack state. If the last action against a paladin or his group is a physical attack, the paladin gestures at the target (read: the paladin judges the target) to apply a pulsing fatigue drain or a pulsing mana drain. Below is a snippet of what this might look like from the target’s perspective. Magic vs Fort.
Physical attack: A pang of regret for your actions strikes you at your core. You feel its burden weigh on your physical being.
Magic attack: A pang of regret for your actions strikes you at your core. You feel its burden weigh on your ability to manipulate mana streams.
• Issue(s): It’s a remnant of old. I don’t think any paladin ever uses this spell.
• Suggestion: Leave thievery protection in place as a nod to its former glory but add the following:
The doability of this ability rests on the game saving some last attack state. If the last action against a paladin or his group is a physical attack, the paladin gestures at the target (read: the paladin judges the target) to apply a pulsing fatigue drain or a pulsing mana drain. Below is a snippet of what this might look like from the target’s perspective. Magic vs Fort.
Physical attack: A pang of regret for your actions strikes you at your core. You feel its burden weigh on your physical being.
Magic attack: A pang of regret for your actions strikes you at your core. You feel its burden weigh on your ability to manipulate mana streams.
2DUMBARSE
Re: Some Paladin Suggestions
04/29/2022 08:45 AM CDT
I have another sacrifice spell book suggestion. This one keys off of my desire to have more non-combat group utility like we did back in the “join for courage” days. For some reason, joining for courage before heading off for a hunt or to give triage just that little bit of extra stuff always excited me.
Every time I’m in an event, I like to buff the area. Right now, that’s usually just with HES. We have plenty of spells we can cast on others, but nobody’s going to sit there casting single target buff spells the whole event. Enter Vessel of Salvation (VOS).
I’m a big VOS fan because I think it has so much potential. I’d go as far as to say I think it should become the highlight of the sacrifice book. So, here’s the idea:
1. More mana unlocks additional features. I’ve talked about what some of these features might be in the past.
2. With a mid-cast, the paladin can sacrifice buffs castable on others to the vessel with a POKE (LIFO so it’s easy to control what goes in).
3. Others in the area can poke the vessel to get any buffs stored in the vessel for whatever remaining duration they have.
4. Turning the vessel so that it follows the paladin makes it so only the paladin can touch or poke the vessel. The consequences of this change require discussion. More on this later.
5. Turning the vessel so that it no longer follows the paladin makes it so anyone can touch or poke the vessel for vitality/buffs.
There are two reasons I like 4. First, I see it as a death save, a last stand, requiring lots of preparation (have to fill the vessel first) and can only be used if the paladin is not stunned or immobilized (new strategies, yay). A cooldown can be added to prevent abuse (the vessel holds more than 100% vit). In a time when any guild can be 100-0ed inside a single stun and scrolls are abundant, I don’t see this as OP but I can understand reservations on the dev side. (Paladins seem near immune on paper, but they are far from it; other guilds come closer to immunity in practice and PvE considerations are… Every guild takes about the same damage over time.)
Second, it’s a way to refresh some spells – only those castable on others -- if dispelled. Most of these are defensive in nature. This would make me wish RW and SR were castable on others, but it’s something.
Every time I’m in an event, I like to buff the area. Right now, that’s usually just with HES. We have plenty of spells we can cast on others, but nobody’s going to sit there casting single target buff spells the whole event. Enter Vessel of Salvation (VOS).
I’m a big VOS fan because I think it has so much potential. I’d go as far as to say I think it should become the highlight of the sacrifice book. So, here’s the idea:
1. More mana unlocks additional features. I’ve talked about what some of these features might be in the past.
2. With a mid-cast, the paladin can sacrifice buffs castable on others to the vessel with a POKE (LIFO so it’s easy to control what goes in).
3. Others in the area can poke the vessel to get any buffs stored in the vessel for whatever remaining duration they have.
4. Turning the vessel so that it follows the paladin makes it so only the paladin can touch or poke the vessel. The consequences of this change require discussion. More on this later.
5. Turning the vessel so that it no longer follows the paladin makes it so anyone can touch or poke the vessel for vitality/buffs.
There are two reasons I like 4. First, I see it as a death save, a last stand, requiring lots of preparation (have to fill the vessel first) and can only be used if the paladin is not stunned or immobilized (new strategies, yay). A cooldown can be added to prevent abuse (the vessel holds more than 100% vit). In a time when any guild can be 100-0ed inside a single stun and scrolls are abundant, I don’t see this as OP but I can understand reservations on the dev side. (Paladins seem near immune on paper, but they are far from it; other guilds come closer to immunity in practice and PvE considerations are… Every guild takes about the same damage over time.)
Second, it’s a way to refresh some spells – only those castable on others -- if dispelled. Most of these are defensive in nature. This would make me wish RW and SR were castable on others, but it’s something.
