TBH though is there any reason NOT to go support with your Paladin tank in Deadfire?
My points went into passive abilities, and they all seem worthwhile:
Deep Faith (+10 all defenses)
Retribution (+5% damage with weapons)
Weapon and Shield Style (+6 Shield Deflection, Shield Deflection bonus applies to Reflex)
Divine Purpose (+20 All Defenses vs Resolve, Dexterity or Might affliction)
Snake's Reflexes (to boost my Reflex, because from ability score bonuses I'm only getting a +4 from the 12 Dexterity)
Tough (+2 HP per level)
Determination (+20 All Defenses vs Intellect, Perception, Constitution afflictions)
Confident Aim (30% of Grazes converted to Hits with proficient weapons) - offsets the low Accuracy to an extent.
Weapon Specialization (+10% damage with proficient weapons)
This is a tank that's doing lots of grazes, but they get a +15% damage bonus (from Retribution + Weapon Specialization) and 1/3 of them are converted to Hits, which also get a +15% damage bonus. I've also given him Gauntlets of Reliability - 15% of Misses converted to Grazes, to squeeze out some more damage out of him.
For me, Reiving Exhortation was so great in boss fights I gave Tekehu a rezz just to make sure I could get my Herald back if she fell.
I try to avoid knockouts entirely. For 50 hours with this party, I've had 5 knockouts on my PC, 1 knockout on my Figher/Paladin, 2 knockouts on the Rogue/Ranger, 3 on the Priest/Druid, 2 on the Chanter/Wizard.
Again I just don't see why you wouldn't do the support thing with your Pala tank - there's no real opportunity cost, is there?
Sure, I will upgrade the auras when I get to level 16. The upgraded versions all seem quite powerful actually.
4) I dunno about your stats since I don't know if Intellect is AS crucial on a Pala/Fighter as it is on a Herald, but why the high Might? Might doesn't do anything at all on your character since you're not specced into heals yet and you don't have enough Perception to deal damage. So yeah stats are a bit all over the place and a lot of points seem wasted tbh.
I didn't see much purpose for intellect on the kind of paladin I was planning, hence I've left it 10 (9 base + Old Vailia background). None of the stuff he is doing has duration or AoE which would have benefited from higher Intelligence. As for the Will defense, he is getting a good enough bonus from his Resolve score (+12) and Deep Faith (+14.4) and another +10 from worn items. This is before the +20 Will I will get from any attack on my Will defense that tries to apply an affliction.
Overall, yeah, I'm missing out on the aura bonuses, but it hasn't been a pain, or felt like a big loss. I'll upgrade to them next.
EDIT: Looking at the aura bonuses one by one, I can't really regret all that much not having picked them yet:
1. Exalted Focus: +5 Accuracy, 5% of Hits converted to Crits - honestly, 5% seems like too little, although the +5 Accuracy is something I want, but I am already getting that with the non-upgraded version - Zealous Focus. So, spending a point at level up for a 1 in 20 hits being converted to a Crit? Other abilities seem like a better trade.
2. Exalted Charge: 10% of incoming Hits converted to Grazes - I can reduce the amount of damage I am taking by simply buffing my defenses or armor ratings, or causing afflictions which lower the enemies' accuracy - which is much preferable IMO. Again, this seems like a point I would spend better elsewhere.
3. Exaltred Endurance: +3 Health restored per 3 seconds - The only one that really feels worth it. But I already have a big number of spells that regenerate health on my Priest/Druid (already listed them), and on my 2 characters which I expect will be taking most of the damage, I already have Constant Recovery on the Paladin/Figher, and Rapid Recovery, Savage Defiance (10hp per 3s for a total of 15s) on the Barbarian/Figher. Still, one more health regeneration effect wouldn't be bad to have, especially for free, and if I feel my Paladin/Figher is already stable enough as a tank.
BTW, Savage Defiance has an Instant casting time. You pause when your recovery timer runs out, click the button and you have it active, before even unpausing. In 15s you have healed yourself for 50 health.
BTW2, first impression from The Forgotten Scrotum dialogues - Alex Scokel is a nice guy, but he is watching too many superhero movies. That, or he is consciously trying to appeal to people who do.
EDIT: Here are the kills and damage statistics:
. Total Damage Done Hits Crits Enemies Defeated
Koa 44 555 2594 345 146
Oswald 12 025.7 613 35 30
Jenny 59 679 3416 305 191
Cyrdel 16 221.2 6342 79 60
Laquisha 20 935.2 3391 138 87
My Figher/Paladin is doing a little under 10% of the damage in the party. I'm not sure how this goes for a character built as a tank, but my feeling is that it's a nice bonus to his tanking, which as I've cited (1 knockout for 50 hours) is a role he is fulfilling really well.
The class resource system means you'll be using 1 ability for spam and maybe one or two for situations that arise during bosses.
To be honest, this Paladin/Fighter build works so well as a tank that I often don't even have to use other abilities than Sworn Rival, and then just spam Mule Kick from the Fighter pool. Mule Kick tends to be annoying in how it cancels your other characters' autoattack commands, while the target is in the air and its targeting circle is not present.