I understand the "play what you want" concept of the game, but I'm wondering how viable a Paladin style character would be. Here's my plan:

Heavy Armor
Block
One-Handed (Maces)
Restoration

Those are my primary perk dumps.
I'd also be putting anything remaining over into Archery and Smithing.

What do you guys think? Would this be hard to pull off?

How good are maces in the end-game (my main is an archer so I don't know)? Have people been finding it difficult to find a nice balance between Magicka, Health, and Stamina for warrior-caster classes?

Any tips greatly appreciated! DDDD

I believe it would work, however, I wonder if it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for your paladin to focus on shield spells instead of archery? Bows are an entirely different type of combat for one, but more importantly, Armor alone does not protect you from magic, meaning your character that can take a dozen hits from a giant will get oneshot by a novice wearing a destruction robe. Getting some alteration perks and some resist spells might help with that a great deal!

Other than that, however, it seems like it would work pretty well. Your damage output will obviously be lower than that of two-handers or dual weilders, but your armor will be quite high especially due to your shield. To me it sounds like it could be great fun!

Im puttin gpoint into
One Handed (Swords)
Heavey Armor
Resto
and smithing/archery on the side lol
and i love it so far lol

ALTERATION OF COURSE!!!

I knew I was missing something. You see, I attempted to make this sort of class in Obliion, but the damage output on maces was god-awful in that game. Now that I recall, Alteration was one of my main skills... Thanks a million for bringing that back to light!

PS: I only included Archery becuase i feel its always nice to be able to throw some ranged damage on those targets that would be much easier taken out at ranged, namely archers or mages in high places, or shooting at a dragon when they do that "hover and attack" tactic

Any time ^_^

One thing you should keep in mind though is that no matter what, while you'll be VERY powerful versus enemies that rely on armor, versus enemies like mages you might have some difficulty, because you dont get that impressive increase to damage. So get that alteration up quick, you'll need it!

Other than that, have fun, and good luck! Hope to see you out there in some plate armor soon ^_^

Restoration is a good tree; I think this would be a pretty good build for you. You just have to manage the Magicka, Health, and Stamina gain each level.

OP here

would just like to say to everyone reading this, when i made this class in Oblivion (it was a custom paladin, not the one the game provides), he was pretty mcuh damn near invincible. the combination of heavy armor and block with resto and alt to boost you basicaly makes you into a friggin brick wall

the only problem was the damage output... blunt imo was TERRIBLE in oblivion, but thanks to the combination of blunt and blade into Onehanded, not to mention amazing perks for the damage increases AND armor penetration for maces, this class should be an unstopabble force! I encourage you to try this style of character out!

I am going for Paladin/Warrior priest type of playing as well.

Going mainly resto, Heavy armor, Block and one handed to do more damage. I guess I should also look in to Alteration as mentioned. So far it has been a blast, I love to shield bash!

I'm playing a Redguard paladin and it is working out really well for me. It is much stronger and more durable than my mage/thief character.

I haven't needed to put anything into magicka yet and don't think I ever will, but I don't use restoration as much as I thought I would. I would suggest you try it with the base amount of magicka for a while and see if you really need more. There are plenty of items that will increase your magicka or the regen rate. I have higher stamina than health just because I wanted the extra carrying capacity and it is nice to be able to use more power attacks.

I ended up really liking smithing, so you should definitely try it out. I have more perks in smithing than any other skill just because it ended up being so useful. You can make your weapons and armor stronger and you can also make money selling stuff that you make.

I'm level 19 and the best mace I have found so far is the Mace of Molag Bal (it requires doing a Daedric quest). I didn't want to level up enchant too much so I stopped recharging the enchantment and just use it plain, and even without the enchantment it is still stronger than anything else I have. Of course I have it upgraded with my smithing.

Thanks for the idea, OP, i really want to make a character like this now! XD

Looking at all the possible perks avaialable for this sort of class, it looks like you'll be downright near invincible! Insane damage resistance, in combination with wards and whatnot, as well as a restoration perk that makes wards restore your magicka when hit...all combines for one heck of a tank character! The only trouble you'll have is actually doing damage ^_^

But as long as you fight well, even that shouldn't be too much trouble. I'm totally making a char like this next, thanks for the awesome idea =)

That's almost the build I am going for: Block, 1h, Resto, Alt, Archery. I am increasing HP, Sta, HP, Sta, Magic,... No idea if that's a good idea or not.

Ive been playing this type of character as well, Orc, for the berserking rage's damage increase as well as the incoming damage decrease. Level 21 at the moment with points heavily in one handed, block, restoration, and smithing playing on expert difficulty.

I love the pace and up close style of the build, with a lack of magic/archery I found it very difficult to handle casters as well as creatures that you obviously are not meant to stand toe to toe with (Trolls/giants). I found myself hiding atop a rock pew pewing anything that despite my 'brick wall' build would still pummel me, which is fine considering its usually worth the loot they are defending in their camp. I guess my point here is that it feels like most of the fights youre going to need to do a bit more bashing/running/healing than if you played a class with more utility and mobile firepower.

Mobs like wispmothers and trolls because of their health regen are an absolute nightmare for me to dps down (with an upgraded glass mace at this point) maybe its me, a player problem, but so far these are the only encounters, after 30ish hours logged, are a stump and everything else has been quite enjoyable.

I would imagine as stated many times, there are more optimal distribution of skill points if you really want to be a beast, I personally am health heavy and have stamina problems a good amount of the time, especially with more than one enemy engaging at melee range, get comfortable with stamina management as far as swinging and saving stam for shield bashes etc.

just my two cents, and best of luck to all my paladin fellas :thumbsup:

trade block for Speech IMO. One hand with restoration and the other with a mace.

I wouldn't do that! A shield reduces incoming damage by over 50%, well worth it i think ^_^

I'm level 28 with my Imperial Paladin now and I've been thoroughly enjoying it. Most of my perks are in One-Handed(perked for Sword specialization), Block, Heavy Armor, and Restoration. I put a couple of perks into Archery and Smithing as well, and plan to start upgrading my crafting skills (Smithing and Enchanting), pretty soon so I can forge some nice, customized equipment.

I've got nearly the whole Restoration tree now, they work quite well. Block tree is pretty fun and useful as well. Good shield use has proven invaluable to staying alive, coupled with the Reflexes perk for dodging power attacks that might go through blocks. I've found that I can even block the attacks of powerful foes like giants if I fight conservatively and carefully, even coming out with full health by just blocking and evading big strikes. Elemental Protection helps out a lot for when I can't switch to my ward spell fast enough but need to prevent some damage from a dragons breath attack or other blasts. My Turn Undeads are really awesome now, and coupled with Dawnbreaker I make very short work of any undead foes. I'm stil getting the hang of using ward spells, they seem to break through my ward quite a lot, but I just got Expert level Restoration spells so maybe a new Ward spell will work better. I heal myself really easily even in fights, can bring companions back into the fray quickly, and can use heals even on full health for the Stamina regen.

For equipment, I've got Steel Plate Armor and a myriad collection of swords on my pack for different occasions. I've got Meridia's Daedric Artifact Dawnbreaker for destroying undead really easily, a nice Fire enchanted Glass Sword I received from General Tullias, an Absorb Health blade for when I'm getting hit hard, a Nordic Frost blade for certain foes and humanoids, and a Dwarven Blade with a Magicka drain enchantment for disabling mages. I've got an Imperial Shock Bow I've used for quite a while now for when I wanna keep my distance or for luring dragons into melee range.

Right now, mages are still annoying to fight, as are Hagravens and Dremora. They can hit me pretty hard with fireballs and ice blasts before I can get my ward up, and I still am not great at using my wards I think. My next step will be to increase my crafting skills and place some magic resistance, mana regen, and stamina regen on my armor as well as upgrade my armor quality.

Choosing what to pick on level ups can be kind of confusing at times, all the attributes are pretty important for any warrior using magic. I've gotten health primarily, but have invested quite a bit into magicka as well, stamina coming in last but still relatively close to magicka. I figure I can just cast a heal for more stamina and I've got the Lady birthstone to help regen as well, whereas with magicka I've just got a magicka regen necklace and ring as well as the two perks for increased regen in the Restoration school.

I'd recommend this class to anyone, been great so far! I'm eager to try some more offensive magic soon though, and may go Spellsword as my next playthrough (yet another class that requires a balancing act between the attributes ).