I have decided that my next character is gonna be a good old, goody-two shoes Nine-praising Paladin. I have decided that he is going to use Heavy Armour and will only use combat skills, no magic. I also know that, whatever weapon he decides to use, it will be two-handed and will NOT be the Sword or the Mace of the Crusader, seeing as those are one-handed. However, he will complete KOTN story first of all, and will probably wear the Armour of the Crusader unless for some reason I decide otherwise, for example using special equipment for one quest in order to avenge a fallen comrade. So my big question is this: Blade or Blunt, or more accurately, Claymore or Battle Axe? I know both are identical in terms of stats, and I'm just wondering which would suit this type of character more. For some reason I always imagine a paladin with a Battle Axe, probably because of http://wiki.aqstats.com/images/7/77/Artix.png, whom I will also be naming this character after. But I know most people think of Paladins as blade-wielders, so I wanted to know what you think I should do. Note that I will not be using any Blade or Blunt Artifacts, only self-enchanted ones, so don't let things like Goldbrand and Umbra influence your vote.

I voted for the claymore... but usually I associate Paladins with massive Warhammers (A 2H Mace in Obv since there arent any 2H hammers... are there?).

Also... No magic?? But I thought Paladins were by definition Holy Warriors wielding White magic?? Wouldn't resto and shield spells be appropriate? You could go around healing npcs and curing diseases and stuff... restoring fatigue to tired beggars and that sorta thing.

Of the two handers (claymore, warhammer, battleaxe) I would choose based on looks/image. Obviously this is completely subjective, but I would take claymore in a heartbeat.

I would also reconsider magic use. I think that restoration would be appropriate. I would also use the turn undead effect from conjuration. Alchemy could go either way.

My vote went to the battle axe. Claymores are good too, but as Acadian said this is a matter of personal taste and as a Nord I prefer the axe :clap:

Hmmm, your character is a goody-two-shoes so I'm assuming he wants to kill people with as little pain as possible. A battle axe would crush their bones to bits, causing them to die in excruciating agony, while a claymore would probably make a quicker, cleaner, less painful kill. Therefore, I'd go for claymore.

Holy Sword! (doesnt exist..)

Also due to the fact that alignment is not entirely defined in ES, it would be difficult to determine when a Holy sword would deal +5 damage, since evil/good does not feature in character creation.

I think a nice warhammer is more lore appropriate "shed no blood". but I voted for an Axe.

I'd go with a sword, honestly, if you were using one handed weapons, a mace might be a good alternative, but when I think of a paladin, the first image that comes to mind is generally not an axe. A war hammer works fine and a claymore works fine, but if you're choosing between a battleaxe and a claymore, I'd go with the matter.

Of course, since you're basing your character of a specific character not of your own creation, you might choose to ignore that, just to make the character closer to the source material, though that depends on how close to the source of your inspiration you want to be.

Hmm... Maybe I will reconsider Restoration as a Major, and I already planned to use Conjuration as a minor for Turn Undead, not sure if I specified in my OP right, I will use some magic, just not as a major. ANd yeah, even though the poll says differently I'm gonna go for a Battle Axe, and stop at Elven, to look most like Artix.

When I play I like to use the warhammer. That is just my opinion though.

If you're going to RP based on Artix (I played some AQ/AQW) just use a battle axe.

well i did this quite recently, exactly what you are doing, i did some training then did the KOTN questline, he is currently level 14 (redguard), but he uses alteration (for holy shields) and restoration (for holy healing) but he uses 1 handed sword, but claymore or warhammer if 2h

Personally I'd go with a 2hander battle axe out of preference and cause it allows the other blunts. Swords are generally more of the valorous knight image though I'm not a big fan of claymores. Knew a guy that had a claymore... seemingly cool sword until someone that's around 7 foot tall picks one up and starts joking around with it.

If you want to Turn Undead without having to train conjuration you can take the Ritual birthsign.

i always pictured paladins using a sword and shield or morning star and shield or ball and chain and shield