Hammatimes
Well-known member
This is meant as a free to play (F2P) beginner build for a two handed fighting (THF) Paladin. It won’t use universal enhancement trees to keep it F2P friendly but feel free to use them if you have them.
Most first life Paladin builds I see that have been posted are typically charisma based which requires picking the big, purple and ugly race or picking magical training over power attack and losing out on that juicy +10 damage for most of heroics AND spending precious AP in some fairy magician tree. So here's a good old fashioned, scotch guzzlin’ (poison immunity), strength based Paladin for the new player that just wants to smash evil with a big sword.
Pros
Cons
For noteworthy gear I will mostly mention various greatswords as your weapon is the most exciting thing to upgrade. I don’t think it is necessary for new players to spend a lot of time farming items especially when the leveling process is so fast on a first life. The items I list are either exceptional enough to mention or easily acquired. Some may be from paid packs or expansions but they are not required to succeed with this build.
Link to the google doc with much better formatting
Other great beginner Paladin resources
And now, we begin
Race
Pick whatever race you want to play, it doesn’t matter. Dragonborn, Half Orc, Human and wood elf are all good. Tabaxis get zoomies.
Attributes
*This is for a human with every stat starting at 8. If you are playing a race with a 6(-2) or 10(+2) starting stat, then subtract 2 or add 2 from the above scores for that stat.
Strength - is the main damaging stat and is required for Two Handed Fighting feats
Dexterity - supports our Reflex saves, but so does Charisma
Constitution - for Fortitude saves and hit points
Intelligence - just for quality of life skill points
Wisdom - for Will saves and is required for casting Paladin Spells
Charisma - to support many Paladin abilities
Skills… All one of them
Feats
Deity Feat
You can choose to follow a deity and gain bonuses to their favored weapon. You will eventually gain many favored weapons via enhancements so it isn’t terribly important. The distinction between these deities comes mostly at level 6 when you gain an active ability based upon deity. Feel free to choose whichever you want but I would recommend Olladra or Sovereign Host as those give a big heal ability…. But if you want to smash and follow the hammer god, Onatar will give the best damage.
Enhancements
Equipment
Weapon: Use the best two-handed weapon (Greataxe, Greatsword, Falchion, Maul) you can find. The flaming greataxe from the beginner quest or Molin’s Great axe from the Collaborator quest are a great start.
Armor: Try to use any Medium or Heavy armors
Accessories: Look for anything that grants bonuses to the following, further bullets are less important.
Notable Gear
Enhancements
Granted Feats
You now gain access to spells. 1st level spells will require 11 Wisdom. You can freely swap your prepared spells at any tavern or after shrining by going into the “Spells” tab of your character sheet then dragging the desired spells to your empty slot and hotbar.
Level 4 16 AP
Notable Gear
Spells(12 Wisdom Required for 2nd level spells)
Level 8 32 AP
Notable Gear (F2P)
Farm Relic of a Sovereign Past on Casual difficulty to get some easy gear. You can pick up 15 Adamantine Ore throughout the quest and turn them in to an NPC inside the quest for these items. Accessories are 10 ore each, armor is 15.
Notable Gear
Chosen Feats
Level 12 unlocks the Tier 5 abilities so now is a good time to reset enhancements. For level 12 the enhancements will now look like this.
Level 12 48AP
New T5 Abilities
New T2/3 Abilities
Notable Gear
Spells
Enhancements
Level 16 64 AP
Spells
Level 20 80 AP
What now you ask?
After grabbing all your epic destinies and setting them up, you can either farm Tokens of the Twelve so you can do your first reincarnation (Exciting!) or you can keep smashing your way through epics up to level 30 or even 34. If you are a new player, I would recommend keeping at least one character at a high level so you can farm items while overleveled and join in on endgame raids which are a lot of fun.
At some point I will update this guide for epic leveling and eventually level cap, along with a version that uses Vistani Knife Fighter (Haste boost) for folks that have Ravenloft.
Please feel free to ask any questions or give feedback, especially if you think that this guide can be made more accessible for new players.
Unless it's this
Most first life Paladin builds I see that have been posted are typically charisma based which requires picking the big, purple and ugly race or picking magical training over power attack and losing out on that juicy +10 damage for most of heroics AND spending precious AP in some fairy magician tree. So here's a good old fashioned, scotch guzzlin’ (poison immunity), strength based Paladin for the new player that just wants to smash evil with a big sword.
Pros
- Big sword for big AOE damage
- This build is accepting of all races, it only gets bonus damage versus Evil (How has ranger not gotten canceled?)
- Lay your Hands on your companions! Or yourself, some dungeons are long
- Get mistaken for a hamplosion because you’re a beefcake of hitpoints and defenses
- SMITES
- Your superiority complex is now a class feature!
- Embody your favorite Paladin characters like Captain America, Sir Becket, Judge Dredd or Homelander!
Cons
- Runs slow
- Only reliable CC is death
- Strangers will ask you if you’ve read the Paladin Handbook
- If you reincarnate out of Paladin, the leaves won’t be as green, the sky will be less blue, and you will lose interest in things you once enjoyed
- Charisma Paladins will trade you the full plate they looted because they’re over encumbered
For noteworthy gear I will mostly mention various greatswords as your weapon is the most exciting thing to upgrade. I don’t think it is necessary for new players to spend a lot of time farming items especially when the leveling process is so fast on a first life. The items I list are either exceptional enough to mention or easily acquired. Some may be from paid packs or expansions but they are not required to succeed with this build.
Link to the google doc with much better formatting
Other great beginner Paladin resources
- Video by Axel going over a beginner Paladin build
- Level by level guide of leveling a Paladin/Rogue build as a F2P player
And now, we begin
Level 1
Congratulations! You’ve decided to play the best class in DDO.Race
Pick whatever race you want to play, it doesn’t matter. Dragonborn, Half Orc, Human and wood elf are all good. Tabaxis get zoomies.
Attributes
*This is for a human with every stat starting at 8. If you are playing a race with a 6(-2) or 10(+2) starting stat, then subtract 2 or add 2 from the above scores for that stat.
Strength - is the main damaging stat and is required for Two Handed Fighting feats
Dexterity - supports our Reflex saves, but so does Charisma
Constitution - for Fortitude saves and hit points
Intelligence - just for quality of life skill points
Wisdom - for Will saves and is required for casting Paladin Spells
Charisma - to support many Paladin abilities
- *28pt Build: 12 Wisdom to ensure that there is enough to meet the requirements of 11 at level 4 and 12 at level 8. If you’re confident you can get access to the many buffs and gear that can raise Wisdom, feel free to move points away from it into Charisma or Intelligence
- *32pt Build: Wisdom is dumped from assuming someone with 32 point builds can manage to get enough Wisdom. Points in Intelligence to train both UMD and Concentration
- *34pt Build: Now assuming some amount of Tomes, Dex at 12 for Reflex and is close enough to pick up Precision with a +1 Dex tome if going into the endgame.
- *36pt Build: Feel free to change for your needs, a 3rd+ lifer should be able to adjust accordingly
Skills… All one of them
- 1 Point in tumble gives us a much better tumble animation for those Dark Souls dodge rolls.
- The rest of the skill points can be put into Use Magic Device (UMD).UMD can grant access to a lot of great buffs from wands and scrolls. The first important one will be a shield wand. Getting a high enough UMD for things beyond a shield wand can be tough for a new player so feel free to choose whatever skill you want.
- If you started with more than 8 Intelligence, are Human, or have Ability tomes, more skills can be trained. Some good ones are
- Concentration to prevent being interrupted when raising allies or casting other spells in combat.
- Heal to increase Positive Spellpower to enhance any healing spells
- Intimidate to pull the aggro of monsters away from others
Feats
- Two Handed Fighting (Swing harder!)
- Power Attack (if Human) (Drag this to your hotbar and activate it)
Deity Feat
You can choose to follow a deity and gain bonuses to their favored weapon. You will eventually gain many favored weapons via enhancements so it isn’t terribly important. The distinction between these deities comes mostly at level 6 when you gain an active ability based upon deity. Feel free to choose whichever you want but I would recommend Olladra or Sovereign Host as those give a big heal ability…. But if you want to smash and follow the hammer god, Onatar will give the best damage.
Enhancements
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Core 1: Slayer of Evil 1 (Drag this to your hotbar and activate it)
- Tier 1: Improved Second Strikes (3/3) (More AOE!)
Equipment
Weapon: Use the best two-handed weapon (Greataxe, Greatsword, Falchion, Maul) you can find. The flaming greataxe from the beginner quest or Molin’s Great axe from the Collaborator quest are a great start.
Armor: Try to use any Medium or Heavy armors
Accessories: Look for anything that grants bonuses to the following, further bullets are less important.
- Abilities
- Strength, Charisma, Constitution
- Dexterity, Wisdom
- Strength, Charisma, Constitution
- Defenses
- Hit Points (False Life), Armor Class (Natural or Protection), Saves, Fortification and Deathblock
- Sheltering, Spell Saves, Elemental Resistances or Absorptions
- *Sheltering values on items scale better in later levels
- Sheltering, Spell Saves, Elemental Resistances or Absorptions
- Hit Points (False Life), Armor Class (Natural or Protection), Saves, Fortification and Deathblock
- Offenses
- Damage (Deadly), Accuracy, Seeker
- Armor Piercing, Doublestrike, Deception
- *The values of these on low level items are too small to be very important. They become more desirable around level 10.
- Armor Piercing, Doublestrike, Deception
- Damage (Deadly), Accuracy, Seeker
Level 2
Granted Feats- Divine Grace: This will add your Charisma Modifier to your saves
- Lay on Hands: This is a strong heal that scales off your Charisma and Paladin level. Make sure to go into your feats list to pull this ability to your hotbar
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 1: Extra Smites (1/3) (This is the SFW version, the good stuff is at level 8)
- Tier 2: Exalted Cleave (Big boy swing, have fun with this)
- Save 1 AP for next level (It’s worth it, I promise)
Notable Gear
- Nicked Greatsword: Strong early level greatsword from the Sharn Syndicate questline. This questline is level 4, however so you will likely be a higher level before you can reasonably acquire this weapon. (Not F2P questline)
Level 3
Granted Feats- Aura of Courage: Grants bonuses to save against Fear to allies
- Divine Health: Immunity to Diseases… yes, all diseases. Practically a Witcher now
- Fear Immunity: Not saying that you weren’t fearless before, but now it’s official
- Power Attack (Drag this to your hotbar and activate it) (BIIIIG damage from this, becomes +10 at level 5 which is equal to about 10 extra strength at this stage)
- Child of Faith (If Human)
Enhancements
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Core 2: Courage of Heaven
- Tier 2: Adept Combatant (2 AP)
- Tier 3: Holy Combatant - This grants Greatswords as favored weapons which will cause you to now add your Light Damage imbue from Slayer of Evil to your attacks
- Important: Now you will always want to use a greatsword, other two handed weapons will not benefit from favored weapon bonuses or Light damage
- Cure Moderate Wounds Wands from Olvod Alorum merchant in the Marketplace, ~450 Plat
- This will be a great way to heal yourself and others without expending your Lay on Hands.
- Upgrade Byron to the next barbarian hireling, Frenzy. Keep using him until he either stops destroying everything or you want to start using cleric/favored soul hirelings to heal you.
Level 4
Attribute bonus towards StrengthGranted Feats
- Turn Undead: This can be used to attempt to cause undead to cower or be destroyed. This likely will not work but feel free to pull this ability from your feat list to your hotbar to try it out.
You now gain access to spells. 1st level spells will require 11 Wisdom. You can freely swap your prepared spells at any tavern or after shrining by going into the “Spells” tab of your character sheet then dragging the desired spells to your empty slot and hotbar.
- Bless: Useful buff for the entire party
- Virtue: Choose this instead if you are having trouble surviving and cast this before fights.
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Core 1: Holy Bastion
- Tier 1: Extra Lay on Hands (3/3)
Level 4 16 AP
Level 5
Enhancements- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 1: Durable Defense (1/3)
- Core 2: Sacred Defense (Drag this to your hotbar and activate it)
- Tier 1: Durable Defense (3/3) (PRR/MRR, big boost to defenses)
- FerroCrystal Greatsword from the Feywild quests if you have access. (Not F2P questline)
- Cure Serious Wounds Wands from the House of Wizardry merchant in House Jorasco, ~1,125 Plat.
Level 6
Granted Feats- Remove Disease, super boring but this gets better with enhancements
- Deity Active Ability depending on chosen Deity. This will either be a BIG heal, or a BIG damage buff, it’s exciting either way
- Improved Two Handed Fighting (More damage, more AOE, more FUN)
- 1st: Bless, Protection from Evil (This will protect you from enemies Commanding you to stop, drop and
rolllay down on your back for 6 seconds)
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Core 3: Slayer of Evil II (You can reliably hit ghosts now, watch out Casper! Remove disease is now worth pressing! Greater restoration cures quite a bit, if you have a debuff, try it.)
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 2 Resilient Defense (2/3)
- Tier 3 Tenacious Defense (1/3)
Level 7
Enhancements- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 3: Tenacious Defense (3/3) (Nice increase to HP)
- Core 3: Divine Righteousness
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 3: Divine Sacrifice (1/3) (This is your mini-smite, use it well, and often)
Notable Gear
- Raise Dead scrolls from the House of Wizardry merchant in House Jorasco, ~612 plat.
Level 8
Attribute bonus towards StrengthSpells(12 Wisdom Required for 2nd level spells)
- 2nd: Angelskin for defenses, Righteous Command for offense (You know you want the damage)
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 3: Exalted Smite (2/3) (4 AP) SMITES (This will become your favorite button. This will create a shining beacon of light that will delete your enemies and drop the jaws of your allies. Super fast AOE attack with pretty colors)
Level 8 32 AP
Level 9
Chosen Feats- Improved Critical: Slashing (More critical hits means more fun)
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 3: Exalted Smite (3/3) (2 AP) (Make sure to drag the new version to the hotbar!)
- Tier 1: Extra Smites (+2 AP, 3/3 total)
Notable Gear (F2P)
Farm Relic of a Sovereign Past on Casual difficulty to get some easy gear. You can pick up 15 Adamantine Ore throughout the quest and turn them in to an NPC inside the quest for these items. Accessories are 10 ore each, armor is 15.
- Nightforge Armbands: +20 HP, Heroism spell 3 charges
- Nightforge Darkhelm: Wisdom 4, Will Save +5, Protection from Evil spell 3 charges
- Nightforge Gorget: Fortification 100% Very important stat so you don’t get crit for high damage
- Nightforge Plate: +5 Full plate with Adamantine (3 Damage reduction). May or may not be better than current armor
Level 10
Spells- 1st: Bless, Protection from Evil
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 4: Knight’s Training (2 AP)
- Tier 4: Vigor of Life (2 AP)
Notable Gear
- Whirlwind: Very strong greatsword with an extended critical profile (17-20) and other desirable enhancements. Fairly easy to obtain by farming a rare (Den Mother Fheena) in the Sands of Menechtarun area or can be bought with Antique Bronze Tokens acquired from questing in the area. (Not F2P questline)
- Sword of Shadows: The best greatsword available in heroics, requires running a raid to get, however. (Not F2P questline)
- Barovian Greatsword: Gained after the first Ravenloft expansion quest, Into the Mists. Great for fighting undead. Can even run the quest on Casual.
Level 11
Spells (3rd level spells require 13 Wisdom)- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor (This now has a duration worth casting, cast this before fights)
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin
- 3rd: Magic Circle Against Evil
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 2: Action Boost: Power (3/3) (Strong short term buff, try to use this)
- Tier 2: Divine Might (1/3)
Level 12
Attribute bonus towards StrengthChosen Feats
- Greater Two Handed Fighting (This is to go even further beyond... Ultra instinct THF is at level 22)
- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin
- 3rd: Magic Circle Against Evil, Cure Moderate Wounds
Level 12 unlocks the Tier 5 abilities so now is a good time to reset enhancements. For level 12 the enhancements will now look like this.
Level 12 48AP
New T5 Abilities
- Ascendancy: More damage
- Censure Outsiders: More damage, sometimes stun
- Vigor of Life: More hitpoints, get healed more easily
- Avenging Cleave: Big cleave attack
- Holy Retribution: Bigger cleave attack that can straight up delete packs of enemies. This instakill is hit point based so at higher levels it will be used as an execute ability rather than your starting nuke. This also is your best smite generator, it’s the gift that keeps on giving!
- This ability uses Sunder to increase its difficulty check so now look for sunder(shatter) bonuses on gear.
New T2/3 Abilities
- Divine Might: Short term buff that adds damage and tactics. This requires a decent amount of charisma to be worth pressing which hopefully you have by now (~22+)
- Lead the Charge: A charge ability that launches you towards the enemy, fun but buggy
Level 13
Enhancements- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 2: Resilient Defense (+1 AP, 2/3 total)
- Tier 3: Strong Defense (3/3) (Tenacious defense will not stack with Vigor of Life, do not take it)
Level 14
Spells (4th level spells require 14 Wisdom)- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin
- 3rd: Cure Moderate Wounds, Magic Circle Against Evil
- 4th: Holy Sword (More crits and bigger crits, you should be very excited for this)
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Core 3: Divine Righteousness
- Tier 2: Resilient Defense (+1 AP, 3/3 total)
- Tier 3: Charisma (2 AP)
Level 15
Chosen Feats- Empower Healing Spell (Stronger cure spells, this feat will also be helpful in epics but feel free to choose something else)
- Other noteworthy feats
- Child/Beloved of faith: More damage!
- Force of Personality: Higher will saves
- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin
- 3rd: Cure Moderate Wounds, Resurrection (Available when SaD Core 4 taken)
- 4th: Holy Sword, Zeal (Double damage!)
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 2: Bulwark Aura (3/3)
- Core 4: Redemption (Now you can raise your allies without using scrolls, let them wait a while, there’s no rush)
Notable Gear
- Syranian Greatsword decent greatsword from turning in ingredients acquired from the Sharn expansion. This isn’t really stronger than random greatswords so only farm this if you’re really in need of an upgrade.
Level 16
Attribute bonus towards StrengthSpells
- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin, Raise Dead
- 3rd: Cure Moderate Wounds, Resurrection
- 4th: Holy Sword, Zeal
Enhancements
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 4: Swift Defense (1/1) (More speed!)
- Tier 4: Hardy Defense (3/3) (More defenses!)
Level 16 64 AP
Level 17
Enhancements- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 4: Reinforced Armor (3/3)
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 1: Shieldbreaker (+1 AP, 2/3 total)
Level 18
Chosen Feats- Quicken Spell (Faster spells, feel free to choose something else if you desire)
- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor, Protection from Evil, Virtue
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin, Raise Dead
- 3rd: Cure Moderate Wounds, Resurrection
- 4th: Holy Sword, Zeal
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Core 5: Slayer of Evil 3
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Tier 4: Charisma (2 AP)
- Core 5: Glorious Stand (More defenses!)
Level 19
Spells - 1st: Bless, Virtue, Lesser Restoration, Lionheart
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin, Raise Dead, Resist Energy
- 3rd: Resurrection, Prayer, Remove Curse, Magic Circle Against Evil
- 4th: Holy Sword, Zeal, Cure Serious Wounds
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Tier 3: Strength (2 AP)
- Tier 4: Strength (2 AP)
Level 20 Congrats!
Attribute bonus towards StrengthSpells
- 1st: Bless, Divine Favor, Virtue, Lesser Restoration, Lionheart
- 2nd: Righteous Command, Angelskin, Raise Dead, Resist Energy
- 3rd: Resurrection, Prayer, Remove Curse, Magic Circle Against Evil
- 4th: Holy Sword, Zeal, Cure Serious Wounds, Death Ward
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Core 6: Champion of Good (This thing is so, so very good)
- Tier 1: Shieldbreaker (+1 AP, 3/3 total)
- Tier 3: Lead the Charge (+2 AP, 3/3 total) (Make sure to drag the new version to the hotbar!)
Level 20 80 AP
What now you ask?
After grabbing all your epic destinies and setting them up, you can either farm Tokens of the Twelve so you can do your first reincarnation (Exciting!) or you can keep smashing your way through epics up to level 30 or even 34. If you are a new player, I would recommend keeping at least one character at a high level so you can farm items while overleveled and join in on endgame raids which are a lot of fun.
At some point I will update this guide for epic leveling and eventually level cap, along with a version that uses Vistani Knife Fighter (Haste boost) for folks that have Ravenloft.
Please feel free to ask any questions or give feedback, especially if you think that this guide can be made more accessible for new players.
Unless it's this
- Why no VKF for haste boost? Do you hate damage?!>!
- This is for new players first and foremost, not all new players have Ravenloft
- Why are you taking power attack? All the builds I've read said to take precision
- Power attack on a THF is just objectively better during heroics, especially for a new player who won't have the base damage to scale the crit damage high enough for the occasional times fort bypass matters in heroics. To-hit is also much less of an issue during heroics. Lastly, getting 13 dex on a 28 point dragonborn is awful.
- Um, actually, Paladins don't always want to use greatswords even after taking Holy Combatant because Carnifex exists
- The extra 2d6 light damage and 2+ base damage from using a favored weapon will be pretty hard for the improved crit profile of Carnifex to overcome on a new player who doesn't have the base damage to scale the crit profile high enough. Plus overkill, plus I don't like telling newbies to farm.
- Don't you know that divine favor and prayer offer the same bonuses? Once you get prayer, drop divine favor!
- Prayer gets a +1 advantage over divine favor at level 15, divine favor is so much faster to cast for how short the buff is at these low levels I just don't bother with prayer until the end of heroics. Plus, why buff your allies when this is a dps race?
- Why does this writeup feel familiar? Did you copy someone?
- Yes I did, I took great inspiration from Strimtom's Original Acid Arrow writeup. More builds should be written like this.
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