Paladin Dieties

[hekk99]

Two questions for this post, one specific, the other more general.

What are people's thoughts on playing a Half-Elf paladin who doesn't worship Tunare? Especially for a casual, non-twink play style (and when I say non-twink, I don't mean "no Fungi," I mean no twinking at all).

The reason I ask is because that was the first character I ever created back in late '99/'00, and I had the original name (which I had forgotten) come up in the name generator at creation here on p99, so it's a bit of a nostalgia attachment for me. I'm wondering if not being able to get the Nature's Defender in the long run will make an obvious disadvantage, especially for a non-min-maxxer. I know the ultimate answer is "play what you like" but I'm interested to hear other people's thoughts.

The other question is related: what are people's favorite paladin dieties? I feel like Mithaniel Marr is the best fit for a paladin, to the extent that choosing Tunare for the ND almost doesn't make sense. I mean, nothing in the description for Tunare sounds relevant to a paladin, and also, like, c'mon, nature paladins?

[SlankyLanky]

you can complete the regular paladin epic regardless of yer diety, so sure its fine to play a half elf who doesnt worship tunare, although youd be missing out on one of the big reasons to play a half/high elf in the first place which is the fairly easily attainable natures defender.

playing a non twinked paladin from the best of my understanding by what you described is gonna be a rough road. my first toon on p99 was a paladin, granted i chose dwarf so the low starting strength of high/half elf didnt really impact me too much, but its gonna effect you for sure. half elf paladins start with 80 str iirc, that aint alot. yer gonna be overweight pretty fast when you start to get to the point where yer buying/farming bronze, im not saying its not doable, plenty of folks have done it but its something to consider wanting to roll a untwinked melee of any type really.

farm some +3 str rings, maybe stick to some banded instead of bronze to cut down on some weight. depending on yer leveling path you might be able to afford/get a rot on a ee bag or a light burlap sack from lguk fairly early and that should help you keep yer weight down a bit.

[Snaggles]

Pros: The ND is very cool looking. It’s easy to get (if you raid or buy the MQ) and checks some of the boxes of the epic. It’s a great 6-man tank or even small raid tank weapon since the stun proc is aggro and -100 Magic SV check like the FD. The AC will be handy for a casualty geared pally.

Cons: AC withstanding the stats are kind of bland and not having bash makes it like any other normal 2h. If you eventually have a ND, 1h and shield, and something like a Narandi’s Lance I’m not sure you would use the ND much. Comparatively I use my Fiery Defender all the time even if just for a quick bash swap. Though, the FD is a real pain of a quest in comparison. Both are wayyy harder than selling enough fine steel to buy a narandi.

Lore wise that is your call. I think there is a lot to be said for righteous indignation due to the abuse of a world, real or fictional. If it’s a little too Greenpeace for you by all means mix it up. I’m heavily biased towards Prexus.

[hekk99]

I’m heavily biased towards Prexus.

What about Prexus interests you for a paladin?

[Snaggles]

What about Prexus interests you for a paladin?

Mine is an erudite (hence the bias) but other than that the lore the maritime adventuring. A bit of King Arthur meets Waterworld :D .

Also the epic is very Deepwater Knight centric with Inte Akera in Plane of Air/Sky and also later with Irak Altil being a cursed paladin needing his gear blessed.

[Ennewi]

https://www.reddit.com/r/project1999/comments/9f2o7f/classic_eq_alignment_chart/

What would you choose if every deity had their own specific alternative to the epic? Go with that. Build around the actual character you want, more so than the gear that will be available to it. Plus, there are other 2H options thanks to Velious that a casual player can obtain with plat once they're of level. Besides, for some time now there has been speculation surrounding possible custom content, even talk of upgraded epics; that alone makes the Fiery Defender the better option, along with the ability to bash. ND is cool and all, but it isn't a definitive item for knights.

[Baler]

What are people's thoughts on playing a Half-Elf paladin who doesn't worship Tunare?

You won't get access to a lazy group tanking weapon.
the proc causes decent agro.

What about Prexus interests you for a paladin?
For an erudite paladin, prexus offers some of the best fashion quest.

[ScottBerta]

Go for it! Worse case you reroll, but give it a go.

[sajbert]

I had the same question thinking about making a dwarf paladin.

ND is nice but it’s not exactly a free weapon by any means. There are also a lot of alternatives that are far from impossible to acquire even as a semi-casual. With a bit of PP you can MQ the epic.

So if tree hugging Tunare doesn’t do it for ya, I’d skip it.

As for races as far as I’m concerned

Erudite: Hipster choice but is hardly rare anymore and your stats are mediocre, you’re also blind without any easy item to fix it

Human: Respectable stats. Blind.

Dwarf: Strongest stats outside of low charisma, you’ll still have strong stats even with 15pts into charisma. Males have barrel roll.

High elf: Best charisma, if you want to lull/pacify with ease and without 738383 item swaps this is the race to go with. Other races do okay though with some points into cha and don’t have crippled melee stats.

Half-elf: Nice dex but terrible wis and mediocre stats otherwise.

So in my book it’s HE for the charisma or Dwarf for the melee stats with humans being close third.

[Gustoo]

All the paladin options are pretty cool. My buddy was a half elf paladin in 1999 the worst race choice but it was still cool and back then they were pretty popular

[kaev]

Half Elf Mith Marr and start the game at war with the Freeport Militia (or whatever else you feel like doing). Min-maxing on a dead-end emulation of ~ 3 years of a still active 22 year-old game seems kinda silly.

[Ennewi]

What are people's thoughts on playing a Half-Elf paladin who doesn't worship Tunare?

My ranger went with Karana, which meant losing out on Helm of the Tracker. No regrets. Yes, it has decent enough stats and fashion, but there will always be alternative options; deity is permanent, though it would have been a cool feature/questline, to allow players to renounce their faith.

The other question is related: what are people's favorite paladin dieties? I feel like Mithaniel Marr is the best fit for a paladin, to the extent that choosing Tunare for the ND almost doesn't make sense. I mean, nothing in the description for Tunare sounds relevant to a paladin, and also, like, c'mon, nature paladins?

In terms of flavor, think of a Tunare knight as an Oath of the Ancients (http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/paladin:ancients) paladin. The traditional warrior/cleric, but with some druid thrown in.

[Keebz]

Erollsi Marr Human (or HE if you must) for the pink plate imho. Karana is also a hip choice with a whole thunder guild in Qeynos iirc. But I enjoy the more subversive deity choices.

[Crede]

High elf for super min max cha build.
Dwarf for ultimate twink build
Half elf for best fashionquest, humans as a runnerup.

I went erudite and regret it, they look weird in velious armor especially with the bugged helms.

[hekk99]

Half Elf Mith Marr and start the game at war with the Freeport Militia (or whatever else you feel like doing). Min-maxing on a dead-end emulation of ~ 3 years of a still active 22 year-old game seems kinda silly.


That was actually the first character I ever created back in the day (12 year old me thought that combo and backstory was the coolest thing ever).

[hekk99]

In terms of flavor, think of a Tunare knight as an Oath of the Ancients (http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/paladin:ancients) paladin. The traditional warrior/cleric, but with some druid thrown in.

That's fuckin boss. Very sensible way to blend nature into the paladin ethos. I take back what I said earlier.

[pink grapefruit]

oh somehow i missed this thread

Tunare is a top choice, but not the only top choice. Nature paladin makes a great deal of sense, particularly as the elves live near the evil dwarves and their destructive mining operations. What is it about saving the world that doesn't sound very paladin to you?

Prexus is sort of okay I guess, but why would any erudite worship some lame water deity when you could instead fight for the high virtue of peace? Quellious is a much more paladin god, and the roleplay more interesting. What sort of paladin would want to share a god with drunken pirates, anyway? The true "hipster" paladin is the Quellious erudite bc people assume all erudites are Prexus for some reason. Erudites are the only paladins that can worship Quellious, which seems wrong somehow.

Erollisi Marr is a top choice imo, up there with Tunare and Quellious. Good choice for a true romantic, as any paladin should be. There is perhaps no ideal greater than love, and the roleplay of a paladin with love in their heart comes easy and makes sense.

Karana is okay, probably ranks about with Prexus. Now that I'm thinking about things, it seems odd that we have a water god and a rain god. Rain brings life, while storms and floods take it away. Karana seems like a fickle sort of god.

Mithanial Marr is boring. Basic bitch paladin deity. Top choice if you're unimaginative. His sister is cooler.

Rodcet Nife is a super interesting choice, better than the water gods imo. Especially in the age of covid, the eradication of disease and such is a truly noble goal for a paladin. Good roleplay opportunity, with Qeynos being lowkey in civil war bc Bertoxxulous. You literally get to worship a sci-fi extraterrestrial god in a legit flying saucer, which is fucking awesome.

Brell Serilis is a false god who has shadow knights and necromancers in his dark legion. Only races of severely low intellect have been coerced into following this cult icon. He often afflicts his followers with alcoholism, both to bring out their inherent sadism and to maintain their self-delusion concerning the "virtue" of their evil deeds.

[Gustoo]

I think Karana is more of an air god / all weather god verus prexus being classic ocean god.

I wish more races / classes got more diety options but the dieties are often very racial in everquest (which is part of the game, so OK) but ya know, it would be fun to be a dwarf that gets to worship E-marr just like wood elf warriors can worship rallos zek and a bunch of other dieties.

[Snaggles]

I think Prexus is a perfectly fine diety for a paladin. It offers the sea biome to Tunare's earth. If one is a valid path (ie nature pally) the other is as well. Plus the entire Fiery Defender is based on Deepwater Knights. While not an exact "Prexus" faction it pretty much links that diety to the lore. They could have picked another faction but they didn't.

Most of the diety's in this game are underdeveloped at this point. Pragmatically besides some shiny mid-range armor it's racially locked items: Frostreaver, Shield of Stalwart Seas, Natures Defender, that mediocre 1h from Plane of Sky, etc. Pick the deity you like knowing the functional perks (if any) that offers you.

Like in real life though, cornering someone and explaining the lore of your deity choice is truly obnoxious. It might be worse than giving someone gameplay tips for their own class. Just keep that as your own little secret and don't hand out pamphlets....

[Ennewi]

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Valkur

Valkur
(Lesser deity)
Basic information
Title(s)
Captain of the Waves

Symbol
Cloud with three lightning bolts on a shield[2]

Valkur (pronounced: /vɑːlˈkʌr/ val-KURR[13]), the Captain of the Waves, was an exarch of Tempus,[14] patron of sailors,[5] ships, favorable winds, and naval combat.[13]

Worshipers
Clergy
The church of Valkur was loosely organized. Many clerics served as captains or sailors aboard ships and they usually met each other only if they happened to serve on the same ship or be in the same port. The clergy was known for helping sailors who were down on their luck.[13]

Monastic Order
The Order of the Calming Wave was founded by a group of pirates from the Sea of Swords who abandoned their worship of Umberlee after a particularly dangerous storm. They believed that they survived by Valkur's hand and dedicated their life to serving their new deity and growing the monastic order.[15]

Holy Days
Valkur's church celebrated only one holy day known as the Shattering. The exact date of the festival varied but it was always celebrated in the spring. The purpose of the festival was to celebrate the breaking up of ice floes in the north, which marked the beginning of the sailing season.

[Ennewi]

88DZhwKqHM4

[pink grapefruit]

Like in real life though, cornering someone and explaining the lore of your deity choice is truly obnoxious. It might be worse than giving someone gameplay tips for their own class. Just keep that as your own little secret and don't hand out pamphlets....

Disagree. If even the paladins can't proselytize, then who can??

It is your duty as a sworn knight of [your deity here] to spread word of the one true faith to all corners of Norrath!!

[wuanahto]

Late Blue I got my hands on some cheap Steelsilk armor for an erudite paladin
tradeable hate shield for ultravision, stuck with a 1h most of its life
after jewelry and bags was still under 10k
was ok
then i made a dwarf brell paladin and dumped all i had into the racial armor. shits stronger than most thurgadin/planar pieces. not only did I match, i had a barrel roll