Fighter or Paladin?
Royce1987
Member Posts: 89
Need help deciding folks. Really love grand mastery with a fighter, but the paladin kits are enticing. Just looking for opinions on which people prefer.
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Long answer: Yeeeeeessssss.
Okay but seriously. First and foremost, you won't be able to get Grand Mastery in BG:EE. Experience cap isn't raising, best you can do is High Mastery ****.
If you look at Paladin, they get tons of Protection From Evil. That spell gives you immunity to some effects that usually own fighters, and a flat -2 AC bonus. Pretty sweet having loads of that spell. Lay On Hands is nice as well. And this isn't even looking at the other kits. Cavalier gets plenty of Remove Fear, and Inquisitor toss those out for True Sight and Dispel Magic (which are awesome).
Meanwhile you have Ranger. Rangers get Stealth, and the proper +4 attack bonus for attacking from stealth. Pretty slick. Charm Animal has its uses, and best of all if you're so obsessed with weapon pips it's worth mentioning that Rangers start out with two pips ** in Two Weapon Style. Can't be overlooked.
Fighters, while undoubtedly effective of course, are quite boring. These abilities the Ranger and Paladin get are not only more exciting, but also effective.
A paladin's turn undead ability is really handy when you're fighting undead, but slightly less useful when fighting off a horde of gibberlings. A ranger's favored enemy bonus is killer against the favored enemy, but useless against everything else.
The Archer kit for the ranger, however, is just about the best ranged weapon user you can create, because you do get the grand mastery, as well as a number of other bonuses that make you the best at what you do.
For paladins, it tends to be all about the immunities. If you choose a kit that grants you immunity to charm, for instance, you'll never have to worry about killing your friends.
Fighters are always as good as they look. Your THAC0 will be the same when fighting a skeleton as when fighting a dragon, and you'll always deal the same damage to both. You'll be just a little better than a ranger or paladin when fighting normal enemies, but you'll never have an enemy that you're especially good at killing, which is where the ranger and paladin shine.
Me personally? I tend to go with either the Kensai, the Archer, or the Inquisitor. That Dispel Magic ability is always helpful.
Human fighters can also dual class while paladins cannot, but it doesn't really sound like you're interested in that.
1 Vanquisher of evil wherever it lies - Paladin
2 Outdoors-based light warrior (it's how I see them) - Ranger
3 Combat specialist in all situations - Fighter
Sorry for the long quote, but Quartz has spoken the complete truth.
You can only see a difference between Paladin and Warrior until late game (when there is really a gap between XP threshold - at the beginning, it is only 500 xp /1000xp and so on), and IF you specialize further in a weapon specialization (with ****).
Otherwise, you miss many defense and healing spells, at the beginning (and during the whole BG1 in fact), when they are the most valuable assets to prevent your demise (and your party's).
1 - 19 strength
2 - great HP
3 - INSANE THAC0, maybe rivaled only by an archer in the first section of the trilogy.
While paladin immunities are great... Berserker's rage is just pure awesome!
In BG2 the other paladin kits can cast spells. Inquisitors may be powerful magekillers, but the distinction of being able to wield Carsomyr +5 (or +6, for that matter) while having 25 strength, 25 dexterity and 25 constitution via a high enough level Draw Upon Holy Might belongs to non-Inquisitors alone. As you can imagine, their Whirlwinds/Greater Whirlwinds are pretty brutal.
Playing Paladin also opens up some options you aren't likely to see otherwise. Like using the Holy Sword. There's only one recruitable paladin in BG2. If you aren't playing a paladin and you don't recruit Keldorn, it's just vendor trash. There are some other things, the sword is just one example among a few.
You can beat the game with any character and party you want. It's very forgiving on the whole. If you find you're not having fun just quit and roll up a new guy. It's not like you're at a gaming table and everyone is up a creek without a paddle if the cleric decides he wants to roll up a bard or a rogue or something.