Kenshi.zoneWorld Encyclopedia

PaladinReport

English:Paladin · Characters

The veteran layer of the Holy Nation army, and the rank that most often leads. They are the ones sitting on the crossbow turrets along the walls, and the ones at the head of the war party that comes for your outpost.

The Paladin is the veteran layer of the Holy Nation army. Above him sits the High Paladin; below him, the Holy Sentinel who handles the day-to-day gate duty. Paladins normally patrol alongside Holy Servants, sometimes lead a group of Holy Sentinels themselves, and occasionally get folded into an Inquisitor's elite squad.

The Holy Nation fights by weight of numbers. A standard war party runs to thirty or forty bodies, and the handful of Paladins at the front are the part of it that can actually fight.

Is that a Paladin or a Holy Sentinel

Two kinds of armoured soldier walk around Holy Nation towns. They are one tier apart in stats and differ in three visible ways.

PaladinHoly Sentinel
Armour colourGreyish, yellow emblemReddish, white emblem
WeaponPaladin's CrossCombat Cleaver
TorsoCloth ShirtSleeveless Leather Vest

Almost all routine town guarding is done by Holy Sentinels. The Paladins are up on the crossbow turrets on the walls and rooftops. To judge how hard a patrol is going to be, count the yellow emblems.

An oddly shaped stat block

The FCS entry the wiki copied is one line — combat stats 50, randomised by 3 — which expands to Strength, Toughness, Dexterity, all six weapon skills, melee attack and defence, Athletics, Swimming and Field Medic all landing between 47 and 53.

The interesting part is everything that was not pulled up to 50.

SkillValue
Turrets47–53
Precision Shooting47–53
Crossbows-2–4
Perception-2–4
Dodge2–8
Stealth, Lockpicking, Thievery-2–4

Turrets at 50 with Crossbows at roughly zero maps straight onto their behaviour: the Paladin is built to work a mounted crossbow turret and never carries a handheld one. Every Paladin you meet in the open field is pure melee. Under a town wall it is a different proposition.

Dodge near zero means they do not evade at all and eat everything on Toughness 50. Field Medic at 50 means they patch each other up afterwards, so knocking a patrol down and walking away tends to result in the same men standing again later.

Their armour is Shoddy grade with only a 5% chance of Standard, and their weapons are Ancient manufacture. That is poor kit for a 50-level veteran. The Holy Nation spends its budget on headcount.

Talking to them

A Paladin will offer friendly conversation to human male characters, who can ask him about Okran and the Holy Nation. The option is not open to female characters or to non-human races, which is consistent with everything else about the Holy Nation.

It works in the other direction too: espouse the word of Narko at him and he will attack.

TipThe Holy Seal works on "Paladin-rank patrol leaders", meaning the Paladins and High Paladins at the head of a formation. Using it does not consume it.

They will come and take your outpost apart

Paladins act as War Leader in two raid events.

Holy Nation Assault (Minor) fires if you fail the Prayer Day requirements, or if a patrol sees that the outpost you built in their territory holds only women or holds non-humans, and you fail to pacify the patrol commander. Failing Prayer Day covers refusing to pray, not carrying The Holy Flame, having no men in the squad, and sending a non-human to speak to them.

Holy Assault is about distance instead: the outpost sits within 9,000 metres of a Holy Nation location and you are already hostile to the Holy Nation. Inside 5,000 metres it has up to a 15% chance per day, scaling down to zero at 9,000 metres.

Both events send the same squad — 3 to 4 Paladins, 5 Holy Sentinels and 10 to 15 Holy Chosen, plus one more Paladin acting as War Leader. About twenty people.

If they win they occupy your base, patrol it, use your furniture, free your prisoners and imprison your characters. If they lose, the Holy Nation sends a larger one some tens to a couple of hundred hours later.

NoteThe minor assault has one abort window. If the trigger was "only women at the outpost" and you have a human male in the squad by the time the War Leader gives his speech, the raid is called off and Prayer Day arrives instead in 150 to 160 hours. The other triggers have no such exit.

Do not confuse these

Several things on this site have "Paladin" in the name and none of them are the same thing.

NameWhat it is
High PaladinCaptain rank, also bodyguard to the Phoenix, Standard-grade armour, wears the Paladin's Heavy Hachigane
Paladin GuardianGarrison troops holding high-value locations
Strayed PaladinHoly Nation stragglers scattered across the wastes once the Phoenix and both High Inquisitors are gone
Paladin's CrossThe weapon. It is a Hacker, not a sword

See also