According to CastersRealm:

RACE STR STA AGI DEX WIS INT CHA BONUS
Dwrf 100 - 95 - 70 - 90 - 88 - 60 - 55- 20
Erudt 70 - 75 - 70 - 70 - 88 - 107 - 80 - 20
HalfE 80 - 75 - 90 - 85 - 65 - 75 - 85 - 20
HiElf 65 - 70 - 85 - 70 - 100 - 92 - 90 - 20
Hum 85 - 80 - 75 - 75 - 80 - 75 - 85 - 20




So, as a human, should I stick all 20 points into STA? Or will I need some STR to accommodate my plate armor and the loot I want to carry, or will I have to put some into WIS for mana pool?

Any seasoned human paladins have suggestions?

I remember when I made my Human Paladin I put 5 points in STR, 10 in STA, and 5 in WIS. It served me well enough back then.

This time around, I'm replacing the WIS with DEX, since looking back I didn't use as much mana as I thought I would. Haven't decided on the others.

I've heard that extra STA is ultimately unnecessary, due to the abundance of +STA and +HP items in the game, but I'm not 100% certain.

I hope I can be of help to any aspiring paladins out there... my tactical knowledge goes to waste so often...

Humans have sufficiently balanced stats that you cannot 'ruin' your character regardless of how you spend your initial stat points.

At level 50, with typical buffed HP totals, 20 stamina on a Paladin amounts to about 3 percent of your overall health. The proportion should remain similar at 60. That's not exactly a game-breaker. For starting a pre-expansion character as a main (no 'twink' gear), you'll probably want points in strength. Plate armor, especially bronze, weighs a lot and encumbrance can become a real issue. Most Paladin races don't have huge amounts of strength. As a Human, if you use only the 85 base strength, you'll find yourself encumbered wearing full bronze and carrying a couple weapons. As a melee, I really liked starting out with about 95 strength at minimum, with 100+ being better. Less than that always left me feeling tied down by my weight limit.

If you want to be 'safe' as a Human, put 10 into strength and 10 into stamina.

Of the various Human Paladins I made over the years, I never put more than 10 points into stamina. On several characters, I placed all 20 points into strength and never regretted it. Stamina became the standard 'dump stat' during mid-Velious once the market was saturated with lots of cheap +strength items. By that time strength was much more common on equipment (and also via buffs) than stamina. If you're making your Paladin *only* with Velious-era in mind, then place comparatively more points into stamina and suck up the early weakness.

As a human, you don't need to worry about placing points into dexterity or agility, and usually not in Wisdom either. Avoid Charisma, of course.

As a side note, Dwarves and Erudites want to place 5 points into Agility, as a rule. High Elves and Erudites both do well to put a majority of their points into strength, as neither of them usually exceed 85 base strength (which is itself only marginally adequate). Dwarves receive the most leeway with stats, having about 15 to spend pretty well however they like.

Danth

Interesting insight. However, I can't help but wonder about not putting points in AGI and DEX. You would think the extra chance to avoid being hit/hit enemies would be helpful.

But I suppose 75 is plenty enough to survive the majority of conflicts.

I don't recommend placing points into agility or dexterity because they return relatively little benefit per point. That being said, neither stat can be called worthless, either.

Dexterity doesn't seem to increase chance to hit, at least not to a degree I ever noticed. Strength does--since strength raises attack rating, it increases both chance to hit and actual damage per hit. Dexterity increase weapon proc rates, but it takes lots of dexterity to make a substantial difference there. That being said, having a good base dexterity doesn't hurt, so placing a few points in dexterity certainly won't go to waste.

Agility increases AC slightly and supposedly increases dodge slightly, too. Once again I consider it weak on a per-point basis. If a player has less than 75 agility, however, he sees serious penalties, hence my recommendation for Erudites and Dwarves. As with dexterity, points placed in agility aren't wasted.

Danth

+sta items will only come with Velious. Go with stamina...maybe 5 points into str. Like has already been stated..the return for agi and dex is hardly noticeable and not worth putting points into.

Dwarfs have by far the best starting stats...its not even a competition..i didnt remember it being that one sided.

Dwarves were by far the best tank-pallies, there's no doubt. High Elves were the best caster-pallies out of the box. I had wondered if the best all around paladin would be a Half-Elf with wisdom cranked to 85. Certainly, if I were to do the High-Elf road again, I would be tempted to dump all points between STR and STA to try to make them marginal.

I guess it will come down to what ratio of STA to Hitpoints is.

I suppose as a human I'd either start as 90 STR, 95 STA, 80 WIS or 95 STR, 90 STA, 80 WIS.

Strength (while it can be raised with items) seems important just to wear armor and carry loot. Plus I'm not a huge raider so I don't foresee owning the absolute best of the best items. Not sure that you can't really screw your whole future up with a 5 point difference either way though.

Of course, I don't want to do like I did with my first character back in 1999. Rolled up a monk (played him for 4 years), but put everything in AGI and DEX because I was assured DEX increased attack speed. Then again, nobody knew exactly what DEX did back then (even the devs seemed confused). So, I wasted half my starting points on a stat that never mattered to me, but I still did alright.


DEX on a paladin would only matter for a weapon proc (or the castable proc we get at 49), but starting at 75 isn't too bad and items can build up a little bit. I'm not even sure to what extent DEX affects weapon procs (I wonder if each weapon doesn't have a different proc rate as I've seen some weapons that proc a lot, and some that rarely do).

I remember my human paladin having 90str and once i hit bronze armor and a heavy weapon I was always encumbered if I picked up any heavy loot or lots on money.

Hrm...well encumbrance is a pain in the neck and I don't want that. Guess I'll have to play with some newbie characters to see how much STR affects encumbrance limits and decide.

I'm sure it will be less of an issue if/when I get some weight reduction bags and some +STR items.

Is there a bonus gained "to hit" by going to 100 STR or more? I thought I read somewhere about that, but maybe they just meant that your attack rating is higher with higher str.

I've decided that since encumbrance will suck at any level, and that some minor % of hitpoints isn't going to make or break me in a fight where mobs are hitting over 100 anyway that I'm going to either start my human as

105 STR, 80 STA, 80 WIS

or

100 STR, 85 STA, 80 WIS


Right now, I'm leaning on stacking STR to 105, because I'd rather carry more loot and hit more often than have 30 extra hitpoints at end game.

Not sure what the breakpoints are for bonuses, but I do know 75 is considered "Human" norm, and any stat less then 75 suffers a penalty.

I never played pally in classic, it wasn't til Stromm (Reninia) was started that I tried the class. Since I always liked Half Elves that's what I made. I put +5 to STR & STA and +10 to WIS to avoid the "under 75" penalty. Of course there was a major change in how hybrid mana pool was calculated though I don't remember when it occurred. By the time I played a pally, mana wasn't a major concern, and my 75 WIS was sufficient.

i loved my dwarf paladin. plus they had epic beards (even the women)

Could Half Elf Paladins worship Tunare and get the Nature's Defender?

If so, I might consider one over the High Elf. High Elves don't have as good of stats and Half Elf armor looks better.

This is soo true. I have always beena dwarf they have always been my favorite race. But i will be a half elf this time around. And yeah it would be good to know if they can worship tunarre for the natures defender.

Half-Elves *can* start in Felwithe and follow Tunare.

Danth

hm..i'd forgotten about that.

i totally forgot about the deity factor on that weapon. Oh well I am doing The Prime Healer. Flaming sword it is.

However, Nature's Defender, as well as all such quested items in PoG, are HIE or ELF only.

Nature's Defender is half-elf usable. I knew a half-elf who had it. It wouldn't make much sense for a wood-elf restriction on a Paladin-only weapon!

Danth

Huh. It appears I was incorrect. Well, I never said I was an expert on Elves.



I did say "or".

I think I might go Half Elf, then.

I think High Elf plate armor looks better than Half Elf plate armor, except for the helmets. Half Elf batman helmet > High Elf Bucket helmet. Plus, Half Elves get better starting stats, and can still get the Nature's Defender. I'm probably just going to have to crank up my wisdom a lot, but it will be worth it.

It really depends on how much you intend to tank it up. Dwarves are unmatched in the pally-tank department, and I was pretty much at the other end of the spectrum with my High Elf. However, that also helped in the end as I seldom assumed, like some paladins, that I was born to be the MT of a group. I could rain the pain with spells though, and I think my soloing was greatly helped by my ability to stun and root quickly and effectively. It also helped to learn to dance... I frequently pulled a rogue on enemies, rooting them, stunning them, and dancing around behind them until they were un-stunned.

(Seems to me that several baddies were quite capable of smacking me even while I was on their 6, though....)

The Dwarf's advantage translates into a mere few percent. Players tend to over-estimate the impact of race in overall character effectiveness.

Paladins ARE tanks for their groups, among the other jobs they can fulfill. Considering yourself otherwise amounts to selling yourself short. Paladins who accept permanent second-rate status strike me as the virtual equivalent of battered wife syndrome.

Danth