Paladin Chronicle by Gixander Part II

== Table of Contents ==
Current Page Table of Contents	Paladin Chronicle Table of Contents	 	
__TOC__ 	Section 	Levels	Link
Main Page 	-- 	Page 1	
Fledgling Paladin, Part I 	1-6 	Page 2	
Fledgling Paladin, Part II 	7-9 	Page 3	
Sand In Your Eye 	10-20 	Page 4	
Frozen Wasteland 	21-25 	Page 5	
Jungle Heat 	26-30 	Page 6	
== Fledgling Paladin, Part I (Levels 1-6)==
===Initial Tidbits===
So, now you find yourself as a level 1 Paladin sitting (or standing for that matter) in San d'Oria. Your first thought might be: How come nobody is inviting me to a party? I thought Paladins got all the invites! Well, just like everybody else, you have to make it through to level 10ish before people actually want to start partying. Not always true, of course; you might get lucky and find a party who would want to party in the 7-10 range in La Theine Plateau, but these are rare to come by.
So, the first ten levels are divided into two groups, with the only difference being a spell and a weaponskill. The first group, levels 1-6, are nothing more than getting used to being a Level 1-6 Warrior with, once you reach Level 5, a Level 0.25 White Mage. Yes, I know that's a bit harsh, but for the time being, you are nothing more than a hack-and-slash damage dealer with the ability to throw up a Cure or two. If you choose a Tarutaru, maybe a third Cure as well.
PaladinLevel	Rank: A+Sword	Rank: A-Club, Staff	Rank: BGreat Sword	Rank: C-Dagger	Rank: EPolearm	Weapon Skills
1 	6 	6 	5 	5 	4 	Fast Blade -- Sword Shining Strike -- Club Heavy Swing -- Staff Hard Slash -- Great Sword Wasp Sting -- Dagger
2 	9 	9 	7 	7 	6 	Double Thrust -- Polearm
3 	12 	12 	10 	10 	9 	 
4 	15 	15 	13 	13 	11 	 
5 	18 	18 	16 	16 	14 	 
6 	21 	21 	19 	19 	16 	 
Level	Shield (A+ skill)	Divine Magic (B+)	Evasion Parrying Healing Magic (C skill)	Enhancing Magic (D skill)
1 	6 	5 	5 	4
2 	9 	7 	7 	6
3 	12 	10 	10 	9
4 	15 	13 	13 	12
5 	18 	16 	16 	14
6 	21 	19 	19 	17
===Spells and Abilities===
So, what do you have in the way of Spells and Abilities between levels 1 and 6? Well, for spells, you only have Cure, but unfortunately you don't even have that until level 5. And when you do, you are already way behind the capped skill curve (assuming that you had no skill whatsoever in Healing Magic). I will say this: I spent about an hour capping my Healing Magic out. Take this into consideration: Keeping Healing Magic capped, as with all other skills, HELPS IMMENSLY.
Here's an option:
You don't have that much MP to begin with, so my suggestion is to go to the Auction House, and go into Food. Under the Sweets-and-Drinks section, you'll find the pies. Grab a stack of Apple Pies, since they are the cheapest and you really don't need the higher tiers of pies just yet. Apple Pies give a few bonuses to statistics, but for our purposes here, the statistical increase we are focusing on is the +25 MP. In my case, at level 5 I had 26 MP base, so 51 MP after eating a Pie. Maybe not a lot of MP to people beginning Paladin from a mage job, but 51 MP allows you to perform 6 Cures before having to heal. 6 Cures versus a standard 3 means less time healing and faster capping of the skill; it also means a little bit more in the lines of survivability as you approach level 10.
As far as you are concerned, you only have two job abilities in this level range, Invincible at Level 1 and Holy Circle at Level 5. Invincible is the god-send of two-hours: the ability to negate all physical damage for 30 seconds. Now, I'll stop you right here because I learned second-hand (remember, I used to be a White Mage) that Invicible does not make your Paladin an impregnable fortress. Invincible prevents all physical damage, right? Magical damage, such as a mob casting Fire, will still damage your Paladin. There are many reasons you might use this. The most-oft use of this is the "Oh Crap" effect, when your party gets aggro through a link. The Paladin will hit the mob (or perform an action on someone who has) to gain enmity, then fire off Invicible. If anybody out there is reading this and is not going to be a Paladin, i.e. is just reading this to understand the job better, then if you see a Paladin fire off Invicible please, do us a favor and RUN TO THE NEAREST ZONE! That's the whole point. If the Paladin can give you a 30 second head start, why are you waiting around? Other uses may come up, and if I ever am forced to use the two-hour, you'll hear about the event and what may have happened.
At level 5, you gain Holy Circle. Start screaming "Yay!". So many people have attacked this ability, as they have with all the abilities ending in the word Circle, as a bad use of an ability slot. Holy Circle is a ten minute recast ability which increases your ability to intimidate undead for a full minute. This is different than what the scrolling information says in-game. The in-game description, "grants resistance against undead to party members within an area of effect", makes it sound like it just resists anything undead. I was never certain how that would work in practice, but if you've ever seen the statement "The <insert mob name here> is intimidated by <your name>'s presence" on your screen, that's what this does. This form of intimidation is like going to attack a monster, and when you go to swing, he rears up and roars, and instead of attacking you go "Dang!" Easy way to put it is that there is a chance that with this up party members will intimidate the monster. Useful in the dunes at night, but not when just starting out.
At level 5, you also gain the passive trait version of Holy Circle, entitled Undead Killer. Undead Killer does the same thing as Holy Circle, but it's always active on you. No casting anything, you get the ability to intimidate your undead opponent naturally. After all, you are a Holy Knight.
===The Cost of Survival===
I know for a fact that both this section and the remaining sections are going to be the longest sections of the guide, especially as we move on from just normal equipment giving 2 or 3 defense to elementally-based equipment that could either kill you or negate part of the damage. Fortunately, at this early stage of the game, all you have to contend with is different classes of armor. I see equipment as falling into one of three different classes: mage, general, and heavy. Mage armor is unequippable by Paladin, and are things like Robes. General and heavy equipment are both equippable by Paladins, but the heavy equipment is where Paladins need to focus on obtaining.
Paladins are naturally gifted in Swords and Shields, which are both A+ skills. In order from better to worse for other weapon skills are Club and Staff at A-, Great Sword at B, Dagger at C-, and Polearm at E.
When I first started out in the game, I took Monk to 17 and use H2H (Hand to Hand) until unlocking the subjob capability. When I switch to WAR/MNK and took that to 37 for subbing under Paladin, I anticipated the fact that Paladin have naturally high Sword and Shield skill, so I went ahead and used Sword/Shield for my Warrior. This is a trick for anywhere where you can power level someone without dying. Get into a party. Yeah, there's a large level disparity. But you will still get the skill ups without worrying about experience and things like Regen can be cast (Regen can only be cast on party members, so you'd be surprised how well this can work). I did this at 37WAR/18MNK and capped out everything that Paladin could wield. Yup, all the weapon types. There are uses for some of them later on, but it's more important to keep an eye on Sword and Shield.
With that being said, however, you don't really need to do Sword/Shield for your Warrior. Because both are A+ skills, they will naturally cap themselves very quickly as you level your Paladin. I did it because I wanted a head start; decide for yourself what you would like to do. I would still suggest using a Shield for a portion of your leveling Warrior; even playing as a Paladin gaining merit points, I still don't have capped Shield (as of the 8th of February 2010 it's sitting at 207). Shield is a pain because it has to pass through multiple other checks (Parrying and Evasion) in order to even have a chance at procing (proc = activating, in this case blocking the attack).
Clubs and most Staves are blunt damage, good for undead whacking. Polearms are piercing and work well on birds and high-defense enemies later in the game such as oozes and slimes. Remember how they always told you to use piercing weapons on those Flans? Still works here. Most of the time, however, you'll be using your Sword to keep up the damage dealing and hate generation.
====Weaponry====
Level	Sword 	Club 	Staff	Great Sword 	Dagger 	Polearm
1 	Bronze Sword DMG:6 Delay:231 DPS: 1.56 Onion Sword DMG:5 Delay:228 DPS: 1.32 Wax Sword DMG:6 Delay:225 DPS: 1.60	Ash Club DMG:4 Delay:265 DPS: 0.91 	- 	Rusty Greatsword DMG:14 Delay:456 DPS: 1.84	Bronze Dagger DMG:3 Delay:183 DPS:0.98 Bronze Knife DMG:4 Delay:194 DPS:1.23 Ceremonial Dagger DMG:1 Delay:183 DPS:0.33 MP+10 Onion Dagger DMG:3 Delay:193 DPS:0.93 Rusty Dagger DMG:3 Delay:183 DPS:0.98	Harpoon DMG:8 Delay:396 DPS:1.21
4 	- 	Bronze Mace DMG:6 Delay:300 DPS: 1.20	- 	- 	- 	Obelisk DMG:13 Delay:396 DPS:1.97 STR+1 INT-1 MND-1
Swords
Even at level one, you have a few selections for your Sword; these are the Bronze Sword (Dmg: 6, Delay: 231, Damage Per Second: 1.56), the Onion Sword (Dmg: 5, Delay: 228, Damage Per Second: 1.32), and the Wax Sword (Dmg: 6, Delay: 225, Damage Per Second: 1.60). At this point in the game, what you decide to get is not going that make as big of a difference as later on down the line. You can buy the Bronze Sword from Ashene in Southern San d'Oria at K-7 for 240-278 gil; the Onion Sword is only obtainable from starting a new character as the Warrior job; the Wax Sword can only be crafted with an Alchemy craft at level 9.
Here's the order I would suggest you grab a sword. If you happen to have started your character with Warrior and still have the Onion Sword in your inventory, use that. If not, and you have someone with Alchemy at 9 or higher (or if your character is an Alchemist), synth the Wax Sword. Otherwise, go ahead and buy the Bronze Sword from the NPC. Unless I suggest it otherwise, always buy from the NPC. Always check the Auction House first!
Clubs
I find it interesting that more Paladins don't utilize Clubs. Sure, they don't pack as much of a whallop as Swords do. I won't even argue the fact that mages get more use of the Wands due to the INT/MND boosts. Paladins use the Clubs which are better suited to the melee side of things, although in later levels there'll be quite the mix. For now, leveling your Club is honestly no different from leveling Sword. For the most part, you are just switching out a sharp weapon for a blunt weapon. You can still equip your shield since Clubs are single-handed. I think some of the later skills for Club (c'mon, Hexa Strike is good, even though Paladin can't use it) are pretty viable, especially if parties ever try to head back to King Ranperre's Tomb to extinguish the undead there.
Greatsword
Chances are you won't be picking up a Greatsword anytime soon, but there are many Paladins who choose Greatsword over the Sword/Shield combo. Probable reasons for this include the fact that Greatsword weaponskills are single-hit non-elemental damage, meaning they are pretty much guaranteed to connect, and not be blocked because of a magical resistance. Similar thinking for a Dark Knight using Greatswords versus their utilizing a Scythe.
Daggers
Unlike the previous two sections on Clubs and Greatswords, there are quite a number of Daggers even at level 1. Five of them, to be exact. With four of them (the Bronze Dagger, Bronze Knife, Onion Dagger, and Rusty Dagger), the only true difference is to be found in the Damage, Delay, and resulting Damage Per Second. The other, the Ceremonial Dagger, has a nice jump to MP at level 1. MP+10 is a rare stat boost to find in the earlier levels, and I wish I had the Ceremonial Dagger to help me cap out my enhancing and healing magic quicker.
Polearms
And after a paragraph about multiple weapons in one class, we are back to the single weapon at level 1, the Harpoon. The Harpoon is a very viable weapon, especially once you learn Double Thrust. Unfortunately, at an E ranking, Polearm skill is very hard to level. Once I got to Qufim, I asked a friend to help keep me alive while trying to raise my skills in everything but Club and Sword. Polearm was one of the worst. Now, this is not to say I haven't seen a Paladin flailing a Polearm about, but it's just extremely uncommon since it's so hard to keep leveled. By the time I got Dagger from 1 to 42 in Qufim, I only managed to get Polearm to around the high 20s. Granted, this could have been due to the average delays on weapons of each class, but unless you have some free time on your hands, I would suggest sticking with something which will help out later. NOTE: Polearms are piercing, so there may be a point in your playing that you may require this type of damage. Keep an eye out for these moments.
REVIEW
No matter what weapon you pick to start leveling with, my suggestion is that you keep leveling it. Always level Sword and Shield, and if nobody cares, switch to Club once your Sword reaches the current level cap. If you find time to level Staff, do so. As far as Greatsword, Dagger, and Polearm are concerned, if you can find a group that will help you level it, or you feel like doing it on some downtime, go for it. Otherwise, let them be. Of course, you do realize this means yours truly will be leveling them at some point to be the best Paladin I can be.
====Shields====
Shield 	Defense	Statistics 	How to Obtain
Lauan Shield 	1 	-- 	Quest: The Brugaire Consortium
Marine Shield	1 	VIT+1 AGI+1 Water+1	NM: Bu'Ghi Howlblade
At level one, there are two shields available: the Lauan Shield (Def: 1), and the Marine Shield (Def:1, VIT+1, AGI+1, Water+1). The Marine Shield would be very good for a Paladin, but it's only obtainable as a dropped item from a NM in Palborough Mines. On the Fairy/San d'Oria AH, it currently goes for 20k. If you had the money, you could buy this and it would help out until Level 24. Vitality is one of the two main statistics to look out for, in addition to defense. Vitality is something to keep an eye out for while looking through items, and you'll see them as we go through since I'll point them out.
The other option is the Lauan Shield, which can either be bought off the Auction House or obtained from a quest in Port San d'Oria. Unlike many quests that require you to run around out of the town grabbing items before rewarding you with a piece of equipment, this quest, The Brugaire Consortium, only requires you to take parcels from one NPC to another. There's three parcels in total, and then you get your free Lauan Shield. 5 minutes and you're done. Gil is hard to come buy, so anything you can quest on the side helps out alot (Fairy/San d'Oria AH: 800gil).
====Head====
Headpiece 	Level	Defense	Statistics 	How to Obtain
Cache-nez 	1 	2 	Enmity+2 	Quest: Tuning Out
Copper Hairpin	1 	-- 	HP-2 MP+5 	* Goldsmithing (7) * Goldsmithing Guild MerchantsBastok Markets, 117
Bronze Cap 	1 	2 	-- 	Miogique, Rosel's Armor Southern San d'Oria, 151-174
Bone Hairpin 	5 	-- 	HP-1 MP+3 Dark+2	* Bonecraft (4) * Bonecraft Guild MerchantsWindurst Woods, ?
Traveler's Hat	6 	3 	MND+1 	Quest: The Wisdom of Elders
Cache-nez looks like the greatest piece of equipment right off the bat for a Paladin. Having that Enmity+2 helps because that is what makes Paladin keep hate so well. In order to begin the quest to acquire this headpiece, you have to have at least Fame level 5 in Windurst and have completed Chains of Promathia mission 2-3. If you have these prerequisites, then go after this piece of equipment. It'll last you for a long time as long as you don't mind not having a few extra points of defense. Since not everybody needs to read about the quest chain unless you have those, I'll skip it (but you can jump to the quest chain by clicking on the link in the table above).
Now, we start to see, even at this first level, a division in equipment. Which do you want, more MP or more Defense? The Hairpins fall under that magic group of equipment. When I started White Mage, I focused on nothing more than MP+ gear. I suggest for Galka's they grab the Hairpins, due to their lower starting MP, but I think it's up to you. Copper Hairpins can be bought in Bastok for about 117 gil from the Goldsmithing merchants, or can be synthed via a level 7 recipe.
I picked the Bronze Cap only because at this point the only real use for MP is to help you cap out skills. That's the truth, people. I may have Cure at 5, but I honestly haven't used the spell often enough to be worried. Like I stated above, when you are using Apple Pies you can focus on other things. This includes where your focus shifts on equipment.
But I digress, Bronze Cap can be bought from Miogique in Southern San d'Oria for around 150 gil. In fact, the entire Bronze set can be bought from both NPCs in Rosel's Armor, at around a cost of 1k. I'll continue to reiterate this fact in the following equipment sections.
At level 5, you get the ability to equip a Bone Hairpin, which is like a slight upgrade to the L1 Copper Hairpin. You can either craft these right off the bat as a Bonecraft recipe (it's only 4) or buy them from the Bonecraft guild merchants.
The really nice equip is the Traveler's Hat. It gives you two great things for Paladin, defense and Mind. Grab a Bomb Ash and take it to Port Bastok and talk to Benita, trade it in and get the hat. For a five-second quest, you get a 3 Defense equipment with a bonus of 1 to your Mind, which does affect your magical side of the job.
====Body====
Since between levels 1 and 6 you don't have any Neckpiece or Earrings able to be equipped, we'll move straight on to Body. And this will also be a very short section, since you only have one choice. You might see that there's quite a lot of the "Tunica" body pieces that you can equip, but these don't actually provide anything related to defensive capabilities. By all means, grab one if you'd prefer, or if you previously participated in Campaign Battles from Wings of the Goddess you could grab a Iron Ram Jack Coat (Def: 1, HP+4, MP+4).
The one piece that you have unless you decide to go those roads is the Bronze Harness. As I stated above, the entire Bronze Armor set can be bought for around 1k gil from the NPCs in Rosel's Armor in Southern San d'Oria. Head there to buy this armor, which gives a very nice boost to Defense, 4.
I want to make this statement right now, even though in higher levels it will probably change. The statement is that always keep an eye on your Body armor. In the first 30 or so levels, your Body armor is the best piece of equipment, giving you the highest increase of defense. It usually takes two or three of the other pieces in the set just to equal the defense increase as the body armor. Until we've managed to get Paladin up to 30ish, I suggest looking at your Body equipment first when you upgrade equipment. Note! This does not mean that's the first thing you should buy.
====Hands====
Handgear 	Level	Defense	Statistics 	How to Obtain
Bronze Mittens	1 	1 	-- 	Rosel's Armor
Asbestos Mitts	6 	2 	Fire+1 Ice+1	Balloon, Inner Horutoto Ruins
As I stated in the Body section, there is only one level 1 hand equipment, the Bronze Mittens. With a single point of defense, if you were to still have the race-specific starting gear you'd have the same amount of defense. If you did still have that you could equip that and not have to spend gil on this piece. However, if you do, remember that you can buy the entire Bronze Armor set at Rosel's Armor.
Abestos Mitts are one of those equips that you never know whether you should bother with it. My personal belief is that if I have the piece of equipment in my Mog House, then I'll equip it. The Asbestos Mitts drop from a monster named Balloon in the Inner Horutoto Ruins (the Windurst equivalent to Ghelsba Outpost). At level 6, having an increase of 1 point to both Fire and Ice does not truly make a difference.
====Rings====
There are just way too many rings to count in the game, and even more combinations as you have TWO slots. Now, the rules for wearing rings are very simple, so I'll reiterate them here. First, you can wear any combination of rings, even to the point of equipping two of the same ring. Second, and this is more of an exception to the first rule, any Rare ring you are only allowed to equip one of. Basically, this means you can equip Ring 1 and Ring 2, Ring 1 and Ring 1, Rare Ring 3 and Rare Ring 4, but you cannot equip Rare Ring 3 and Rare Ring 3. How nice.
If, at the start of the game, you matched your character's race to the appropriate starting city (Elvaan for San d'Oria, Hume or Galka for Bastok, Tarutaru and Mithra for Windurst) you would have received a Ring for your ingenuity. Well, these Rings each help Paladin's out in different ways.
The Bastokan Ring (HP+3, Dex+1, Vit+1) helps out with a few points of HP and a good boost for the initial levels to your vitality. Vitality, as I've stated before, is much better than defense for the early levels, because it narrows the range in which you'll take damage. See the section on statistics above for further explanation.
The Windurstian Ring (MP+3, Agi+1, Int+1) helps out on the side of Agility. As stated above, Agility is what drives your skill with a Shield. The higher your agility, the better your Shield will block.
The San d'Orian Ring (Def: 2, Str+1, Mnd+1) helps out in a way on two fronts, Defense and Mind. Defense lowers the amount of damage you'll take, and Mind helps with your Healing and Divine magic skills.
If you didn't manage to get those, we have the following ring selection for your perusal and for my analysis:
Rings 	Level	Defense	Statistics	How to Obtain
Copper Ring 	1 	-- 	HP+1 MP-1 	* Goldsmithing (5) * Goldsmithing Merchants(Bastok)
Ascetic's Ring	1 	-- 	MND+1 	Stone Eater - King Ranperre's Tomb Rock Eater - King Ranperre's Tomb
Hermit's Ring 	1 	-- 	INT+1 	Stone Eater - Dangruf Wadi Giant Grub - Dangruf Wadi
The only problem with these rings is that you have two choices: either buy them off the AH or run your Chocobo to either Dangruf Wadi or King Ranp's Tomb to get these rings. My suggestion is grabbing Ascetic's Rings. They will help boost your magic, as I stated above, and really don't cost that much.
I've never utilized Copper Ring's except on my previous character. I decided on this run through that my San d'Orian Ring is much better than a Copper Ring, so I started out with a San d'Orian Ring and grabbed an Ascetic's Ring.
====Back====
Once again, we find ourselves facing the "there's only one piece of equipment" dilemma. At level 4, you can equip the Rabbit Mantle, a cheap piece of armor which increases your defense by a single point. There's a few ways to pick up this piece of equipment (which I suggest you have it before you even set foot outside of Sandy). First, you can complete a quest in Bastok for it (out of our way for the time being until I post the sections where you start in Bastok or Windurst). Second, you can craft it within about ten minutes of starting Leathercrafting (it's a level 7 recipe). Finally, you could just pony up a few hundred gil and buy it off the AH.
You may think that a puny one point of defense isn't going to help (and the next "good" upgrade is at level 12 with a 2 def, 3 evasion mantle), but don't get yourself into a pattern of thinking that the Back equipments are crap. When I first started playing I remember thinking that, but as I gained levels I began to see that while the main slots (Weapon, Head, Body, Hands, Legs, and Feet) boost your natural statistics, you get specialized boosts the way YOU want them from the remaining 10 slots. And the Back equipment starts getting better.
====Legs====
Not too much different from above, you still only get one piece of equipment for your starting Paladin: Bronze Subligar. I'm not going to spend much time here, other than to say you can buy from AH, Rosel's Armor, pick it up from two quests in Bastok (A Sentry's Peril or The Quadav's Curse), or get it from a Blacksmithing recipe. Lots of choices, but it's one of those things you should pick up.
====Feet====
Unlike the other slot descriptions, you get to hear about two different pieces of equipment to wear on your feet. Unfortunately, one is at level 1 and the other at level 6.
Footwear 	Level	Defense	Statistics	How to Obtain
Bronze Leggings	1 	1 	-- 	* Blacksmithing (2) * Rosel's Armor * Too many others
Coarse Leggings	6 	5 	EVA-3 	Hundredscar Hajwaj - Fort Ghelsba Zi'Ghi Boneeater - Palborough Mines
Obviously, you'll want to pick up the Bronze Leggings without a doubt if you didn't keep the starting racial gear. If you did, you could get away with wearing that until level 6. At 6, even I'm torn on whether Coarse Leggings help out. As a Paladin, you aren't so much worried with evading hits as you are surviving them. Coarse Leggings might even seem better to you than the level 7 leather feet equipment. I refer back to an earlier statement: If you have them, wear them; if not, then it's up to you whether you want to go after them.
===Locationx3===
Well, we've just started our journey as a Paladin, and what better area to start in than the Holy Forest of Ronfaure? I say "Ronfaure" instead of including "Western" or "Eastern" at the start because between levels 1 and 6 (i.e., for the purposes of this first section), you can level in either area. For the most part, you'll find the same monsters at the same levels, but just in different places. I'll be putting both areas down under the "Monsters Galore" section since this is one of those ranges this can happen.
If you are Rank 1, you might look into getting to level 6 in East Ronfaure, as from there you can get a feel for fighting monsters on the way to King Ranperre's Tomb. In that area, you'll find a similar level of monsters as Ghelsba Outpost (both are optional for levels 7-10), but you'll also be able to complete a few quests and Rank Mission 1-2 for San d'Oria.
Keep your wits about you, and before you leave town, make sure to have Signet!
===Monsters Galore===
====Level 1====
Having just stepped outside for the first time as a Paladin, you may be thinking that you are unstoppable. You have a stronger resilency to damage than a Warrior and are more offensive than a White Mage. Unfortunately, the strengths of both jobs (the damage-dealing capacity of the Warrior and the healing capacity of a White Mage) either don't come to you at all or are slow in the making.
At level 1, your best bet is to head over to the new "Field Manuals", reached in the Ronfaure area right outside the gate to Southern San d'Oria in Western Ronfaure. The first page asks you to kill 6 worms. Worms have a low defense and a slightly lower evasion, so if you skip over the level 1 Tunnel Worms and head after Carrion Worms instead, not only will you easily be able to kill all 6 without dying (and if anybody does die when I make claims like this, let me know so I can retract the statement), but you should end up reaching level 2 by the time you are done with the regimen from the Field Manual. If you happen to have one of the Experience Bands, using this at the very start of your Paladin career will help out ALOT. When I did, I managed to kill Carrion Worms (Even Match at level 1) fast enough that I got a few chains, but if you do manage to use even an Empress Band you should hit level 2 before the regimen is completed.
If you choose not to utilized the Field Manuals, then it will still be a good idea to skip the Tunnel Worms and Rabbit Hares and head striaght for Carrion Worms and Forest Hares. You are slightly stronger on the defensive side, and you should have no problem wiping out these higher levels monsters and reaching level 2 before you lose all HP.
====Level 2====
Welcome to level 2! You still don't have Cure.
Heading over the "Field Manual", you can pick page 1 again, and still probably get enough experience to reach level 3, or you can try a slightly harder (but not by much) regimen. Page 2 wants you to kill 6 Forest Hares. Not a problem, seeing as you should be at a level at which you can defeat them easily. Once again, you should be able to either level after completing the page or after killing two or three monsters after completing the page.
If you choose not to use the manual, you can still kill Forest Hares. And if you so choose to continue slaughtering helpless worms, Carrion Worms are still open for business by the edge of your sword.
Not much else you can kill here, although if you are wanting a real challenge, you already have your Skill Level 5 Weapon Skill Fast Blade, so you could try using some of that TP you've stored up lately on a Scarab Beetle. I'll say you need to watch out on the Beetles, since they can lower your evasion, which hurts really bad.
====Level 3====
Once again, another level to drudge through without the help of Curative magic. One of the few things that differ between how I started and how I am writing the guide is the fact that I had a friend power-level me through to level 10 (actually, I ended up getting to 15 before I finally got an invite, but please don't let that deter you from playing the job). The guide, of course, is not written with having friends keep you alive.
Level 3 is just like level 2. Scarab Beetles are slightly easier to dispatch of at this point. Just keep an eye out for the Evasion down attack, which is a pain in the butt in lower levels.
====Level 4====
There is one reason that I did not make level 3 and level 4 one section, which I could have without any problems. The main reason here is that once you hit level 4, you start to have to live the de-level life. If you don't have that 10% experience and then you die, well, you'll get sent back to 3. Which of course you could do as above, repeatedly dying just to get your skills up.
Level 4 for me was anticipation central. I knew once I hit level 5, I'd have the ability to keep my own for a bit longer. The best thing to do at this point is to keep low-downtime, which basically means not to waste time having to heal. At this early stage, you can get more experience killing Easy Prey and Decent Challenges than killing Even Matches.
So this probably makes you want to ask why I would suggest killing things that checked Even Match at level 1 but Easy Prey and Decent Challenge at level 3-4. Well, you may be able to survive at level 1 against three or four Even Matches, but by level 20, you'll have a hard time surviving one Even Match. (You could survive a few of them at 20, but unless you learn what you are doing and do it extremely well, you'll need help.)
====Level 5====
Hooray! Grab the Cure scroll out of your inventory and use it, and you now have the ability to Cure. Unfortunately, you'll be lucky to get around 10 HP out of it on first use. This is one of the few points that I suggest Curespam. Curespam is a term describing running yourself out of MP by doing nothing but casting Cure on yourself. When you run out of MP, stop, heal your MP back to full, and repeat. At level 5, your Healing Magic has a cap of 16. You may think that's not a big number, but in fact 16 Healing is better described as 160.
"Huh?!"
What I mean is that you don't get a full point when you get skill ups. You may get 0.1, 0.2, even 0.3. It's been rare, but I've seen only twice the awesome 0.4. I'm certain out there is a 0.5 that someone has seen, but I've honestly never seen anything higher than 0.4 on a magic skill up. So, it's easier to see 0.1, 0.1, 0.3 as 1+1+3=5 than trying to remember decimal places and all that fun stuff.
If you want to make it really simple, you only have to look for the following message to appear:
"<Your character's name>'s Healing Magic rose to level 16."
And then you can heal your MP up to full at that point (i.e., stop Curespam) and resume bonking monsters on their heads with your sword and shield.
Quick Tip
If you want to Curespam but not have to repeatedly go into the magic menu or hit your Cure macro, a quick suggestion is to go to a blank macro template, and use the following macro. It'll do three Cures at once (well, in succession). When you run out of MP, it'll give you the normal "Not enough MP." message.
/ma "Cure" <me>
/wait 7
/ma "Cure" <me>
/wait 7
/ma "Cure" <me>
Simple, eh? Paladin's can use this for Cure for Healing Magic, and later on with Protect for Enhancing Magic. If you have enough MP that you can do more curing, here's what you do. When you character's arms go down from the casting pose, you can hit the macro again.
====Level 6====
I know, having come from leveling Warrior, you are expecting to switch gear at 7 to the Leather set. My advice is to take it slow, you'll be speeding through the levels with no problem, very shortly. Here at level 6, the best thing to do is not to Curespam, although you can certainly do that if you want to (your Healing magic now caps at 19).
If you feel you can take on Sheep, then this is the point to do it. Sheep hit hard, but not fast. The only thing to really watch out for with Sheep is the Sheep Song. It'll put you to sleep, but once they hit you, you are awake again. Some of the Orcs and Gobs are able to be dealt with at this point.
What I am going to suggest for this point is not necessarily what to fight, but what to do while fighting. If you think you can handle that Level 10 Orc, go for it (of course, there aren't any level 10 Orcs in West Ronfaure). But while you are fighting, keep yourself alive as need be with magic. You should be keeping your eyes on both your HP and how much your Cures are healing. If you have 150 HP out of 160 and your Cure is doing 20, you don't need it yet. When your MP is low enough that you need to rest, do so. Get that MP back up, and go after more mobs. This will not only help you level yourself but also your Healing magic without having to do Curespam.
Curespam gets annoying.
Once you hit that last mob with a final swing of your sword, you'll see the final words to complete this section:
"<Your character's name> has reached level 7."