Advice for new Paladin

[Affliction]

Hello,

I just finished the game on Normal difficulty, playing Warrior. I had great fun. My army consisted of Hunters, Knights, Horsemen, Guardsmen and Emerald Dragons. Overall, I didn't have much trouble defeating even "overpowering" armies. I found that I had enough runes to spend on almost all skills I wanted (everything but Dark Commander in Might tree, extra leadership, xp, reserves and some more in Mind, lvl 3 Order and Distortion + some more in Magic tree). I really enjoyed Spirits of Rage - at the end of game, Stone guy (forgot his name) was lvl 30 and my favorite, Death, was lvl 28.

Now I'm considering playing a Paladin on Hard and one thing that I really wanted was an undead army, especially considering Dark Commander seems like one of the most powerful talents. Now, I realize Skeleton Archers are lvl 1 units and as such, very prone easy to die. I also probably wouldn't use Bone Dragons, but some other (Emerald are really cool because of that mana drain spell). Ghosts seem an ok unit and Dark Knights even more so. So, would it be viable at all to invest into Dark Commander simply because of these few units?

If we neglect all that, what are generally good talents for paladin class?

Thank you for your time!

[Metathron]

In general, I think the Mind tree is pretty stinky, though the higher the difficulty, the more important all of those money perks and whatnot become.

I also had loads of fun with warrior on normal. After I finished that, I started a new game with a paladin, but his skill tree coupled with a wish to play the mage made me quit that, so now I'm a level 9 mage.

[kadrzys]

I also considered playing Paladin on Hard after my current Normal with Warrior but I think Mage would be more fun if lucky with +leadership items. I'm still considering playing Paladin with edited Hero.txt and Higher Magic skill avaible for him but I afraid he'll become overpowered in late game with this skill.

[Zhuangzi]

Well, the only challenge left for me is Impossible Paladin, so I might try that one soon.

Advantages of Paladin:

He gets Resurrection straight away (VERY useful)
Mind tree isn't that bad (especially the skill that gives Might and Magic runes).
If he gets Sprites/Lake Fairies after the tutorial, you can stash them in a castle until you pick up Sacrifice/Anga's Ruby.

Mage is definitely better (esp Higher Magic) but I think that Paladin is strong too. The Mind tree might seem crappy but the further the game goes, the better the Paladin will do.

[Metathron]

When could a paladin be expected to be able to learn Higher Magic? I'm asking because of the huge magic rune prerequisite for this skill (and others before it), and since the paladin mostly gets mind runes.

[Zhuangzi]

Higher Magic is a unique skill for Mages, so you won't be getting it unless you mod the game.

But I would think the Paladin would really struggle to get it even when modded. Depending on how much money you have, you could buy runes from the castle in Taron Mines.

[Affliction]

Btw, Paladin has their unique talent (Holy Anger) that gives additional Attack versus Undead and Demons, but it mentions something else. This talent doesn't give my own Undead and Demon troops a bonus against enemy demons and undead?

[Smash]

Yes, that's why for my Arthas who is commanding only undead army i pick up mage class not paladin as i should .

[Affliction]

Dammit, now my whole "Dark Paladin" concept has been blown away.

[Gatts]

Just small note towards the undead army planning:

Dark Kniths are fine - but as their movement is very limited - they end much often as targets themselves (enemy AI considers them dangerous and tries to remove them ASAP)

I tried all undead combinations:

at the early beginning you can pick up gosts in the swamp cementry - ghosts can raise their numbers above the starting number - so if you know how to use them - you will always have enough of them (and have nice PHY resistance)

Later on I tried necromancers - was huge dissapointment, even as they have area damage and have huge initiative...

to make the story short - I had:
1. Dark Knights: only as back up unit, for the purpose of higher morale for undead.
2., 3. Red and Blue Vamipires (if lucky - you can purchase vampire bats, you don't need to transform them in battle)
4. Bone Dragons (a lot of HP, Surrounding poison attack, flying)
5. Emerald Dragon (no retaliation grab attack, mana spring attack, flying)
backup 1. Emerald Dragons (sacrifice does not work on them... duf)
backup 2. Free - any other units of mine I was able to re-stock using only sacrifice (used on vamps - who replenished by they ability and the other stack raised by sacrifice -> win win, no loss)

Why necros are not valuable ?: for their area atack - vamps are most effective when they attack and keep just near enemy stacks - using necros attack would damage your vamps.

Later on are ghosts very ugly - very easlily they can go from "not controlable" to "aggressive" and that you don't want

skel archers, skells, zombies are good only at the beginning -> when I wanted to enjoy my "undead commander" skills, but they are useless later on... even if skel archers do great damage, they really die so easily