Dragon Quest IX: VUST - Paladin's Virtue

VUST stands for Vocation Unique Skill Tree, and is a series of Dragon Quest IX articles I will be creating as time passes for each of the vocations. This is the second article of the series, in which I will be talking about Virtue, which is the Paladin's VUST.

This skill tree is made for filling the tank role of your late-game party. Characters who have invested in this tree will gain stat boosts to Resilience and HP, which will drastically improve their survivability. Read on as I list this skill tree out in detail!

I am going to list the perks you get for leveling up this skill tree. The format will be:

Skill points required. Skill name here MP Cost (if applicable)

Description/Thoughts

Read on, would-be Paladins! :)

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4. Pincushion 0 MP

The first ability to be gained in this skill tree allows the Paladin to take a defensive posture, reducing damage by half (as if the Defend command had been used). The difference lies in that attackers suffer one-sixth of the total damage they inflict on you (so if your Paladin is hit for 120 damage, the monster is hit for 20 damage as well). While not terribly useful, it trumps the Defend command once you get it, if you can bothered to go through an extra menu to find the ability. :P

10. Natural Resilience +10

If you've read my first article of the VUST series, you know what I'm going to say here. Otherwise, here goes: Stat boosts are always a good thing to have. In this case, more Resilience translates into more Defense, so have fun with that! :D

16. H-Pathy 3 MP

Donates some HP to a fellow party member. To be quite honest, I'm not too sure how useful this is, unless you have a bunch of HP, in which case you're probably overwhelming your opponent anyway, so, color me unimpressed.

22. Natural Magical Mending +30

Oh look, another stat boost. :P

This one works nicely for your character if he/she is to be a healer. Honestly, it feels slightly out of place in the Paladin VUST, considering that the best healing spell Paladins have is Midheal, which is quite underwhelming in just about any situation (unless you have 50 or 100 Tension, but I mean, seriously, at that level of Tension even Frizz would hurt. :P). With that said, would-be healers could see the benefit of dabbling into this skill tree for this boost.

32. M-Pathy 0 MP

Donates some MP to a fellow party member. Unlike H-Pathy, which in my opinion is horribly situational, M-Pathy could be quite useful. Have a Sage with over half his/her MP left but another character has no MP left? M-Pathy. Your Paladin has no use for his/her MP but the Sage is out of MP? M-Pathy. So, M-Pathy is as useful as H-Pathy is useless. :P

42. Natural Resilience +30

As I said before: More resilience = More defense. Not much else to be said about this stat boost. ;P

55. Selflessness 0 MP

This skill allows the Paladin to cover a critically injured ally. In other words, it's a situational Whipping Boy. I don't like having my party members on the verge of death for too long, but your mileage may vary on this skill. ;)

(And, to be fair, it could help in covering someone you've just Zinged back to life, because the AI has a sick sense of humor when it comes to killing someone who's just been revived.)

68. Natural Resilience +60

Double the goodness of the Resilience boost you got not more than 30 skill points ago. Pass Go, collect $200. ;)

82. Forbearance 0 MP

Fans of the Dragon Quest series before it got the translation revamp may remember this skill as Guardian. It worked the same way back in the day as it does now, but for completeness' sake, I'll explain what it does. Forbearance is a mass Whipping Boy. In other words, the Paladin plants him or herself in front of the enemy, taking ALL hits meant for the party. It gives the rest of the party some breathing room, and gets your Paladin killed in one round if you're not careful. If your opponent uses a mass attack, the Paladin will get hit FOUR times. So, it's crucial you have some sort of defensive spell up before you start using this ability on a regular basis. With that said, this is the ultimate tanking technique. :)

100. Natural Maximum HP +80

The Paladin's ultimate skill is not an ability...it's a stat boost. With that said, wow is it one heck of a stat boost. +80 HP is not to be scoffed at, especially not at late-game with those hard-hitting monsters that start appearing in tougher grottos. As you may expect, I approve wholeheartedly of this usage of your skill points. :D

That wraps up my second VUST article. I hope that it has helped you on the way to becoming a full-fledged Paladin!

Feel free to comment on the Paladin vocation in the comments section. I've always enjoyed being the role of tank or healer in multiplayer RPGs I've played, as those are the classes that most get to help out other people. :)

Until the next time, take care and have fun! ;)

-Winterfate