Zealot of Righteousness: Paladin Tactics in DDO

By Save-vs-DM

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Though paladins can fill many roles in Dungeons and Dragons Online, their primary role is that of a melee combatant.  As a paldin, you have a plethora of special abilities that can keep your party healthy and functioning, but you will most often find yourself in the thick of combat taunting enemies and keeping them from attacking your teammates.

Basic Paladin Roles
Your most basic role in combat will be dealing damage with a melee weapon while avoiding or deflecting the attacks of your enemies.  As a paladin, you will be expected to confront multiple enemies at a time and remain alive long enough to be healed.  Though this is your primary role, you can fill a variety of secondary rolls through careful feat and enhancement choices.  With the proper choices, you can also fill one (or more) of the following roles:

• Crowd Controller: A melee combatant who uses Intimidate to attract monsters to himself while avoiding taking too much damage.
• Mage Slayer: A melee combatant who can shrug of magical attacks and quickly dispatch an enemy spellcaster.
• Secondary Healer: A melee combatant who can provide some minor healing effects to your party.
• Undead Slayer: A melee combatant who confronts and destroys enemy undead quickly and efficiently.

The two primary Enhancements you should focus on are Bulwark of Good and Resistance of Good, both of which increase the effectiveness of your aura of good.  With these enhancements you provide yourself and your allies with increased Armor Class and saving throws.

A mage slayer paladin might focus on Enhancements like Resistance of Good in order to increase their already impressive saving throws.  A secondary healer might consider Extra Lay on Hands and Energy of the Templar to enable them to heal additional times per rest.  An undead slayer might consider Extra Turning and Extra Smite Evil to increase the damage they can deal to undead.

General Combat Tactics
Though the battle tactics of each individual paladin will vary from character to character, there are some general combat tactics that all paladins should master early in order to increase their effectiveness and protect their group.

First and foremost, you must learn the art of aggression management.  You must learn how to make enemies angry at you and then hold their anger so that weaker party members or members with a lower armor class are not threatened.  There are two methods for aggression management, both of which are detailed below.

1. Attack every enemy you can before other party members do so.  This will put you at the top of the enemies' “hit list,” ensuring that they target you.  You must continue to damage the enemies so that when your spellcaster starting dealing massive amounts of damage the enemies will not leave you for the spellcaster.  If you use this method you must be capable of hitting an enemy regularly and for moderate amounts of damage.  The cleave feat is also useful when using this type of aggression management.
2. Use the Intimidate skill.  By hitting Intimidate at the very beginning of the battle, you will cause all enemies around you to attack you first.  This is effective as it lets you block with a shield, preventing more damage.  You will have to continue to taunt throughout the fight with this method, as the taunt does not last indefinitely.  If you use this method you must have a good Intimidate skill, which is not a paladin class skill.  Invest in items that improve your Intimidate skill and make sure that you keep your Intimidate skill at the highest rating possible.

Smite Makes Right
Often an overlooked tool of the paladin, smite evil can quickly turn the tide of a tough battle.  Smite Evil is a single attack that adds your Charisma bonus to your attack roll and your paladin level to damage.  This can quickly cut down a tough enemy that has been giving your group trouble.

Knowing when to use this potent ability is quite simple.  First of all, smite evil, as you might imagine, only works on evil creatures.  Thus do not bother smiting an ooze, a construct, an animal, or an insect.  All of these creatures are not evil and, thus, will not take the extra damage.  Smite Evil is best used against tough leader enemies or potent spellcasters to bring them down quickly.  Smite Evil works best if you target the enemy and then use Smite Evil.  If you have a way to temporarily increase your attack bonus, try to use it before you Smite Evil.

Fighting Formations
Paladins gain one of their most potent abilities at first level: Aura of Good.  Your Aura of Good provides you and all of your allies within a close range a passive +2 bonus to armor class and all saving throws.  This can be a boon at low levels when your armor class is low and a bigger boon at high levels when saving throws are common place.  Make sure that you stay close to your companions so that they can benefit from your aura as much as possible.  If one of your companions happens to run out of range, your aura will linger for seven seconds, so don't run off and leave the rest of your group if someone veers off to take out an enemy.

This passive bonus has increased benefits in certain situations.  If one of your companions becomes poisoned and you do not have the ability to cure him, make sure you stick close so that when he makes his secondary saving throw he benefits from your aura's boost to his saving throws.  The same holds true for companions who have to run through a trap that cannot be disabled.

When to Fight, When to Defend
As a paladin, you will have to learn when to bring the sword and when to raise the shield.  Thankfully, this determination is fairly easy to make.  If you are fighting only a few enemies, attack furiously to bring them down quickly.  If you are surrounded by a hoard and your allies are being mobbed, taunt the enemies and start blocking.

If at any time you find you are not being hit often, start attacking more, as your high armor class likely makes you very difficult to hit regularly.  If at any time you are taking a lot of damage and your cleric is occupied, start blocking in order to take less damage.  Mostly, when to attack and when to block is a common sense decision that you will learn to make as second nature the more you play.

Using Lay on Hands
Lay on Hands is a potent ability that cannot be used very often.  Unlike other healing spells, Lay on Hands cannot be interrupted in combat. This makes Lay on Hands an excellent emergency heal, as you are ensured to get it off (unless you are slain before using it).  Try to conserve your Lay on Hands for emergencies or for before you rest, as you can use your healing spells to heal between fights.

Paladin Spellcasting
Paladins are not very good spellcasters.  While you do get a small amount of spells known after level four, you will know at most two first level spells and two second level spells.  As such, you will not be a primary healer or spellcaster.  Your spellcasting role will be supplemental to the party.

If you have a cleric in your party, coordinate with them about which spells you will prepare.  Because paladins get lesser restoration as a first level spell, you can often prepare this spell and free up a spell slot for your party cleric (as you will probably not need to cast this spell more than three or four times a rest).

Most of your spells are either curative in nature or spells that enhance your combat prowess.  One spell that deserves special consideration is Divine Favor.  This spell gives you a short term boost to attack and damage, which can help turn the tide of combat.  This is a good default spell to prepare in difficult dungeons when you have plenty of combat healing.

Parting Words
The paladin is powerful character class that can enhance the power of his group by his mere presence.  The class works best in a group, but unlike a bard, you can take an active and powerful role in combat.  By enhancing your defenses and paying attention on the field of battle, you can help ensure that your party wins the day.  Good luck and may the gods be with you.

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