How to play a Good Guy: A Guide to Paladin Characters

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Tom

Article Writer
would you say a Nord can be a paladin, im just making a new warrior/paladin type class now. not sure what one to pick i like them both. Nords would naturally choose storm cloaks and imperial the empire.

what would you say?
 

The Spectre of Skyrim

An Evil-turned-good guy
Taking the High Road: Roleplaying a Good Guy

The simple explanation as to what a good-doer should or should not do is: don't do anything evil.

If you want specifics, here are mine:

Daedra

Oddly enough some Daedra are not evil and as such you could, from an RP perspective, complete their quests. However, some Daedra are inherently evil, and you should not help them in any way shape or form. In fact, do the opposite: disrupt them as much as you can. Kill their followers, fail their quests, etc.

The following Deadra should not be helped:

Mehrunes Dagon
Vaermina
Mephala
Mogal Bal
Namira
Boethiah

Aedra

Which Aedra you worship matters not, as all are seen to be "good". However, the "best" ones, if you want to put it that way, are Stendarr (The God of Righteousness) and Mara (The Goddess of Love), both if which fit the Paladin character well.

Factions

You have only two real choices: The Companions and The College of Winterhold.

The College is a given - you have to go there to get better Restoration spells anyway. And saving Skyrim from a dangerous magical artifact and its Thalmor controller is quite righteous.

The Companions should only be joined as long as a)you don't use beast form; and b)you cure yourself and your Companions of lycanthropy. Doing so would be an act of good, and worth the sin of becoming one yourself for a while.
 
I like your build idea for a sword and shield bearing paladin. The one thing I would like to add to this post is this: anyone can be good, regardless of their skillset. Whether you are a mage wielding all the powers of arcaneum or a knight in shining plate armor you have the capacity to be good. Even a thief can be good, Robin Hood was the defender of the weak and poor after all.

All it takes to be good is making the right decision. We all know what is right and what is wrong, and doing the wrong thing in life is always accompanied by guilt. If we make our character feel the same things we would feel, then I know that we would all be righteous heroes.
 

Derpilocity

New Member
Wards are great for fighting mages... and shields are great for warriors... Which one to chose? If you will be fighting both constantly all you need is spellbreaker, a shield that creates a ward... great for fighting them annoying thalmor
 

Templar of Talos

Bane of Elves and Vampires
Personally, I see no problem in doing the one Daedric quest (Break of Dawn). Meridia is known for being not being evil and despising Undead. I've roleplayed as her champion many times, a kind of Paladin-esque class. Using wards as shields against necromancers, switching to a regular shield when fighting undead (with Dawnbreaker of course).

Breton's are a good race to use for this class under the Warrior Stone. Get some Steel Plate armour, enchant it with Magic resistance and Fortify 1H/Block/Restoration, you should be rolling along nicely. Don't forget to use Dragonskin either
 

xWizkid

New Member
My character is an interesting Blend of a Death knight and Paladin, who suffers from split personality disorder. I used the Ogmha glitch, mainly because I value adventure and storyline much more than the leveling aspect of an rpg. This allowed me to take not only the perks for a paladin, but also grab conjuration and becaome a death knight whever I wish. However I never use both, have a set of daedric for his death knight side and dragonbone for his Paladin side. This allows me to do every quest either as good or evil and ggives me two character arch types to play. This also makes the game challenging because not only am I on master, but I face max level mobs and I only use portions of my skill tree at a time. I like it and it allowed me to take the role playing and adventure to a level I never have in skyrim. Everything from house, to fallower, to which people I kill or help on the road varies with my personality swap.

Oh and there is physically no way to get around it, you must become Sheogorath's champion.
 

DovahCap

The one cube to rule them all.
The Companions? Bad guys? Hissss.
 

The Spectre of Skyrim

An Evil-turned-good guy
UPDATE

It needs it.

I haven't got these points organized into any particular order so I'll just number them off.

1. I gradually found that as I got to a higher level and the enemies leveled up that I was in need of some sort of ranged attack. There were points where the terrain or building arangement was such that I could not get within melee range of dragons and would have to run a ways, being attacked as I went, until I could find an open spot where the AI would allow the dragon to land. It got a bit annoying. I tried out using destruction spells but I had no perks in that school and it took forever to kill things. I eventually just picked up an Ebony bow and used that, until I got Dawnguard, at which point I decided to use a Paralyze-enchanted crossbow. I'm still debating whether I should use a fire or paralyze enchantment - fire always works, while Paralyze does not, but when it does, you can put several bolts into them while they lay helpless. The choice is yours. There aren't enough perks to go around to actually spare any for Archery, but you do need a bow.

2. The Dawnbreaker can only be upgraded so far, and an Epic or Legendary Ebony sword will surpass it in damage output. I stopped using it as my primary after lvl 45, and I now only use it for Crypts and for killing Vampires. You should still keep it, especially as I have found that, unlike Turn Undead spells, the Dawnbreaker's mini Bane of the Undead blast will turn Draugr Deathlords. Your primary sword, however, should be a soul trap and/or fire enchanted Dragonbone sword. A Paladin would not use Daedric, so yes, you would keep your Ebony sword until you make a Dragon one.

3. Only a fully upgraded Ebony shield or a Dragonbone shield is better than the upgraded Spellbreaker. Until I got my Dragonbone shield, I never used either my Ebony shield nor the orcish shield before it, as the Spellreaker had either a greater or equivalent armour rating, in addition to the Ward it creates. As such, until you get your set of Dragonbone armour, I recommend using the Spellbreaker as your shield. It does not, as you may expect though, negate the usefullness of Wards, because the Greater ward blocks 80 damage, and the Spellbreaker only 50. Against high level mages and Dragons, you need the Ward.

The Shield of Solitude has an excellent echantment on it, and I tried it out for a while, but it has a low armour rating by comparison.

4. The Light Spells added to the Restoration school by Dawnguard now give you ways of combatting the undead other than simply turning them and then whacking them down with a sword. Your sword still does more damage regardless but it does give you some actual combat spells without having to resort to Destruction. Worth noting that Circle of Protection and a crossbow is a great combo - it actually allows you to fight from within the circle.

5. There seems to be a poular misconception that you shouldn't use Grand Healing because the AOE heals enemies too. I'm guessing these people never actually used the spell and as such are idiots, because it only heals you and allies, not enemies. Essentially it eliminates the need to switch to a separate spell to heal other NPCs, in additon to healing 300 HP (if you have Regeneration, but why would you not?). Only now as I get my character above lvl 60 do I need to use this spell more than once to heal myself fully.

6. With such heavy armour, powerful enchantments, high health, magic resistance, and the Expert Restoration spells, I'm finding that your Paladin character becomes essentially unkillable by most things (with the exception of Ancient Dragons and those soul gem blaster things; high level mages cna kill you if you're not on the ball with your spells). I got mauled by a bear once in the middle of a conversation. I went right on with it, listening to all the optional dialogue, and by the time it was over and I could kill the thing, it turned out it hadn't even taken out 5% of my health. You want to be an unkillable tank? Paladin is your archetype.
 

myzplik

New Member
You could also rp that your paladin is now helping the empire in keeping the peace, but after the events in skyrim he planned to star purifying the empire from the inside.
 

Urzek

Active Member
Wards are great for fighting mages... and shields are great for warriors... Which one to chose? If you will be fighting both constantly all you need is spellbreaker, a shield that creates a ward... great for fighting them annoying thalmor
Actually i don't use wards since it drains a lot of mana. I'm using shield of ysgramor right now with the lord stone and ring of major blocking. It is more than enough to block almost all kind of attacks.

This guide helped me a lot. I read this when i was level 10+ so my game had a direction now. My character now is level 41. Maxed 1 hand and block.

For me i decided not to enchant my weapons and armors to add difficulty and challenge. I also decided to download the UFO mod PISE mod which makes me have 15 followers at max and much more intense difficulty than master level.

I think joining companions is a great way to start your dawnguard quest. Since before you meet this dawnguard peeps you are already slaying these vampires. So when you meet this dawnguard dudes it will be kinda epic. The old vampire slayers and the new ones joining force together. Dawnguards will learn from your past experience, and you will learn new killing moves from their new found weapons and techniques. EPIC!

Having said that, i think i will create a team of 3. A team that will be fighting these vampires. And i chose Vilkas and Aela. Vilkas will cover for the high damage i can't deal while Aela will be sniping from far away, the perfect team. If this sounds easy since i have 2 followers, well as i have said above i downloaded the PISE mod which will make my game harder. It makes master difficulty 2x more difficult. Plus with much better enemy AI, increased in level and spawns.

Though, my only problem now is the weapon. Kinda grew tired of Dawnbreaker. I need a new and stronger weapon. Though, i cannot enhance :|
 

mr noname

Member
Er, well, mine isn't getting involved. If you do, you have to weigh which has fewer faults, since both do.

The Stormcloaks represent Nords. Nords are, by their nature, suspicious at the last regarding non-humans. At their worst, they are flat out racists. Whether the Stormcloaks win or not will not change the Nords' xenophobia, but the Empire has social policies to protect against discrimination. Ulfric also may or may not be a self-serving bastard, depending on how you interpret his dialogue.

The Empire itself stands for most of the things a Paladin would, but their de facto rulers, the Thalmor, do not. Banning Talos worship to appease the Thalmor, for example, is a freedom infringement. The Empire also allow the Thalmor to carry out brutal repression/torture/killings of Talos worshippers, dissenters, and anyone who speaks/acts against the Aldmeri Dominion. The Thalmor themselves are, in every case you find in-game, racist towards non-elves. At least only some of the Nords you meet are racist.

Aiding the Stormcloaks kicks out the Thalmor and effectively gives everyone freedom. However, the Nords themselves will be more likely to openly discriminate against beasts and mer.

Aiding the Empire will relieve the oppression of minorities by the Nords, but the Thalmor, IMO, are far worse in acting on their racism than the Nords are. The Nords only taunt and hassle you - the Thalmor will kill you.

very true but you musn't forget the thalmor are just the mer in the high ranks of the aldmeri dominiom and dont represent all altmers
 

The Spectre of Skyrim

An Evil-turned-good guy
FINAL UPDATE

Ok my Paladin Character is completely finalized. I used two handed weapons and spammed potions to get my level up, and the character is now at level 64, where, since I am not using any other skills, it is likely to stay permanently. I have struck the right balance between Effectiveness and Role-Playing, and here's what you need to know:

I have two sets of equipment I keep in Proudspire Manor, besides my numerous trophies. One is what I call my "Dragonborn" Set, comprised of Legendary Dragonplate Armour, a Dragonbone Sword, and a Dragonbone Bow. With excellent enchantments, this set makes me an absolute tank, and whenever I do the main quest, I make a point of having this outfit on. If you feel like having THE most effective weaponry, you can simply keep this equipment on the whole time and never use anything else. But when I feel like roleplaying, I switch to:

The Dawnguard Set.

(assume all pieces to be legendary quality)
-Dawnguard Armour w/Health, Stamina and One-Handed Enchantments
-Auriel's Shield
-The Dawnbreaker
-Auriel's Bow

Regardless of which set I'm wearing, I also wear an enchanted ring which reduces Restoration spell cost by 50%, and the Gauldur Amulet.

Picking your Aetherial Item

Despite how awesome the crown is, you have to sacrifice your helmet to use it. For a mage, this is fine, but not for a warrior, so the Crown is out. At that point, decide whether you will use the Aetherial Shield or not. If not, get the staff. If yes, then take this advice: it's more useful than you think. If you constantly powerbash people with it, they will never ever ever do any damage to you. It's a "WIN" button - so "WIN", in fact, that I keep it as a trophy on the same manaquein as my Dwarven Armour - it just became too easy.

Using Restoration to Kick Some Serious Ass

Those snobs who blow Restoration off as nothing but Druid-esque mystic plops obviously haven't seen what my character can do:

First tip: get duel casting. Duel casting the Greater Ward so amplifies its power that it can block almost any attack thrown at it. Dragons simply aren't a problem anymore, as long as you cast it before they attack so the Ward has built up to full strength.

Duel Cast Grand Healing instantly gives you over 400 HP. That, combined with Second Chance, means that even if you run around in robes instead of armour (which I tried out once for plopss and giggles), it's still difficult to die. I honestly recommend you play on Master difficulty if you play as a Paladin - otherwise, it just gets far too easy (even then, the damage they do doesn't matter much - remember, instant 400 HP).

Duel Cast Vampire's Bane can be spammed like a Destruction spell to blast undead without even using your sword. The spell is so cheap yet so effective that Undead are not challenge whatsoever - lowly bandits are more of a challenge. Turn Undead spells are therefore useless once you acquire this spell.

This whirlwind of un-killableness makes the Master spells kind of pointless - but they're so cool that I find excuses to use them. For example, if you get rushed by a swarm of low-mid level undead, cast Bane of the Undead - though it has little effect on Master Vampires and Draugr Deathlords (other than turning them, they take almost no damage), anything less powerful than them will be instantly incinerated. Guardian Circle is for when you feel like using a bow to fight the Deathlords, or wish to fight a necromancer without having to deal with his minions. The circle turns pretty much all undead creatures, allowing you to blast them with Vampire's Bane or Auriel's Bow form the safety of your circle. And if the Deathlords pull out bows, or you need to deal with the necromancer producing the shambling beasties, rest assured you can pick at him with a bow, and his zombies will be unable to touch you. As well, any damage you incur is healed at a rate of 20/second. In fact, during an extended melee, you can use this circle to heal yourself without switching to a healing spell, allowing you to keep your shield raised. Three particular instances where I used it were when fighting Duurneviir; when fighting Lord Harkon; and in the final battle with Alduin.

Recommended Quests:

-College of Winterhold
-Main Questline
-The Dawnguard
-The Companions (on the condition you cure everyone, including yourself, of Lycanthropy)
-Destroy the Dark Brotherhood
-After doing the main quest, use cheat codes to make the Thieves Guild members killable and slaughter them all
-Daedric Quests ONLY FOR THE FOLLOWING - THE OTHERS ARE TOO EVIL: Meridia, Peryite, Hermaeus Mora, Malacath, Sheogorath, Sanguine, Hircine, Azura (but turn her star into the Black Star in the end)

Good luck all, and may you all bring righteousness and order to Tamriel!
 

mr noname

Member
-Daedric Quests ONLY FOR THE FOLLOWING - THE OTHERS ARE TOO EVIL: Meridia, Peryite, Hermaeus Mora, Malacath, Sheogorath, Sanguine, Hircine, Azura (but turn her star into the Black Star in the end)

what about merunes dagon, yes he's got to be one of the evilist but you can completly defy him and spare the muesium guy, ( i may also add his ancestors were mithic dawn, and he weres mithic dawn robes and he very well may be an enthusists himself . but he may just be proud of his heritige. but you can still kill him when you defy the deadra lord ) i spared him defyed merunes dagon, killedthe deadra he throws at you then pickpocketed the pieces of the razor and fus-ro-da them of the throat of the world.

i ended up refinding the hilt near ivarstead, and hid it in bleek falls barrow
 
Okay so... You are saying in your first post on this thread that the only no evil joinable faction is the college. Not the penitus oculatus? All you have to do to join, is when you're in the shack with Astrid, kill her.
 

TJ0331

Nords forever
Generally paladins used maces. Also restoration just fits and its loads of fun to tank with. Alteration is also nice for flesh spells and the light spells. I use steel plate armor.
 

Reaper87

吉光
What about a Greatsword for a paladin, like Siegfried and his weapon from the Soul series?
 

TJ0331

Nords forever
would you say a Nord can be a paladin, im just making a new warrior/paladin type class now. not sure what one to pick i like them both. Nords would naturally choose storm cloaks and imperial the empire.

what would you say?

I would say any race could be a paladin. A paladin isnt about race its about what they believe in. You could worship any god or all of them. You just have to do good deeds and the gods will bless you.
 

GrumpyBadger

Article Writer
I just found this thread actually via google. Just checking out "skyrim paladin" basically. I just wanted to say -
I do agree with a whole lot of this build, and I think it's great. However, the racism/ehtnocentricities against certain species of the game - Argonians, Nords, Khajiit, doesn't seem fair. It seems more stereotyping to the "norm" rather than having a species that still has "lawful good" characters. Just because there is a stereotype doesn't necessarily mean that species or race as a whole is evil or bad.

Also, about the Companions, and their Circle of Werewolves in general. What makes one evil? If there is a lawful-good character that happens to be associated with the Great Hunt, and is a werewolf does that necessarily make that person now unlawful, or evil? When my character transforms into a werewolf, I still have complete control over him as a character. Why would he be "evil" even when he doesn't perform unlawful, let alone evil acts? Just because everyone in their right mind are scared of werewolves because of feral ones giving them a bad name, doesn't mean my werewolf is necessarily evil.

And technically, to the mythological sense, is a Companion Werewolf truly a "werewolf" then? I consider them more shapeshifters. The moon has zero control over my character. It's his choice when to change, and when to not, and again, like I said previously - he has full control of his actions.

My paladins, are Companions, moreover they are Harbinger. They both have the alignment lawful-good, both are Nords, both are dovakiin as well. One fights for the Empire, one fights for the Stormcloaks and a sovereign Skyrim. That's their only real difference.

I also feel it's a Paladin's duty to serve, with the side they feel is just - be it Imperial or Stormcloak in the Civil War. Just with almost any Civil War, what makes a side just or unjust? It's their personal beliefs that dictate it.

as for weapon-types. It depends on if one follows the strict rules of D&D. I don't. This isn't D&D, it's Elder Scrolls. One of my Nord Paladins is a two-handed great weapons fighter, the other is more "traditional" axe and shield, but it's an axe, not a mace. ;) Axes seem more "Nord." :D

I believe it's the lawful good that's more important than anything. Race, "special talents" etc, matter little.

this is the only reason why I selected "disagree" with the first post by "Spectre of Skyrim" but I did hit "like" as well. Beyond that though, I think it's great there is a thread discussing Paladins, and I hope my addition will help spur the conversation again.
 

Moredhel

New Member
I've also started playing a Paladin (Imperial, looks like Arthas Menethil) and see him as Lawful Good. Focus is on One-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Restoration, Alteration, Smithing and Enchanting, though I'll brew potions as well (but not stick any points in Alchemy).

For armor I'll try to stick to normal looking stuff (so no orcish, ebony and daedric unless I find mods that make them more paladin-y), weapon will be the Dawnbreaker, shield the Spellbreaker.

- I've joined the Companions and have become a werewolf, to experience the curse that Kodlak and Farkas feel like it is, then help them overcome it and cure myself as well.
- The College will also be joined, for it's a good place to learn better Restoration- and Alteration spells, plus saving Nirn from that floating bomb is an act of goodness.
- I will do Aventino's quest, because for all my paladin knows, Grelod is an evil character who needs to be punished (though he'll frown when he sees the boy chanting over some bones and flesh...) so that I can later kill Astrid and destroy the Dark Brotherhood.
- The Bards strike me as neutral, so I might as well join them too.
- Dawnguard needs no explanation.

- I will ignore the Thieves Guild and tell Brynjolf I'll report him to the guards. No idea what will happen when I say those words, because all my chars have joined so far.
- Dark Brotherhood will be destroyed.
- I will ignore the daedric Princes (except for Meridia, Peryite, Azura (black star) *** and Hircine (to slay the werewolf)), means, for example, that the Boethian priest in Markarth will receive no help from me. Boethiah is evil, so up yours, priest.

I'm unsure about joining the army as I don't want to kill men solely because they chose to ally themselves with Ulfric. Might as well flatout ignore it and go for Season Unending, where I'll force them to negotiate a peace. Much better that way.

I serve the entire pantheon of the Divines, including Talos, which means I will kill all Thalmor I see on the road, partly because Men should be allowed to worship Talos, but mostly because the Thalmor kidnap and torture people at random on the mere feeling of those people worshipping Talos. This will not do. They must die.

*** I will roleplay gaining the Black Star as the ultimate judgement imposed on truly evil characters, like vampires and raiding bandit lords. Their deeds were so vile that their souls were beyond redemption, but can now serve the good cause by recharging my Dawnbreaker.
 
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