Not to be a jerk, but you can't really say "Well placed arrows" when no matter where you hit, you do the same damage. There is no locational damage in Skyrim. It svcks :c

Apparently you guys all seem to have a wildly different opinion of what a paladin is than me. To me a paladin is actually morally good, kind, merciful and righteous.

Pretty sure no-one who truly is any of those things would ever trap someone or something's soul, preventing it from entering the afterlife, then abusing the soul by forcing it to fuel a piece of equipment while the being's conciousness slowly, but surely goes insane over the years trapped in an inescapable prison suffering the agonizing torture of being ripped apart and siphoned off with every strike that drains the enchantment it fuels.

It's pretty much as evil of a thing you could possibly do to anything that has a soul. Can't really think of anything worse at the moment. However I guess there's limits to how much roleplaying most people do, understandably so, but personally my character never uses any enchanted equipment, and he definitely doesn't trap or use any souls.

Gah! Ruben that makes too much sense. My Pally with 100 Enchanting skill is ruined!

Sorry, if it makes you feel any better I felt really terrible about it after I read the lore behind enchanting in TES games myself, it's not like I never enchanted anything in TES games.

A Paladin would never enchant something, or use Soul Trap. That's cruel and evil. Ruben is correct. Thats the worst fate you could give something.

I try to think of soul-trapping a different way, depending on the character I play. A naturalistic, druidy character might interpret it as animals, etc are "lending" their life energy to the characters task, to be released when used. Doens't cahnge what it does in-game, but makes me feel a little less-bad about it.

I still find it odd that the writers otfTES lore couldn't come up with a less "hell on earth" means of making magical items.

I agree that there needs to be an alternate method of enchanting other than using the souls of living beings. There mus be some other form of "charge" in the universe.

Just like we have in the world today. Sure, a dam creates energy, but so does the sun, combustion, etc. More options should be available.

Paladins are righteous and chivalrous, I agree with that, and I even said that in one of my first posts. However, unless he's trapping black souls, I see nothing wrong with enchanting. Also, not ALL Paladins are "good." Paladins will shove whatever religion etc they are trying to spread down people's throats, and if they don't agree with them then that's too bad. Paladins are highly subjective, like I said. Hell, technically speaking, there could be an evil Paladin who worships Daedra, that doesn't make him something else, he's still a Paladin. They aren't always good.

If a Paladin using bought soul gems off an NPC or soul trapping wild animals is seen as wrong, then that Paladin might as well be a pacifist, because killing anything can be seen as wrong in that logic.

I would go nord with one handed(Dawnbreaker/dwarven sword for non-undead), block(spellbreaker), and heavy armor/restoration as secondaries. Block while casting heals, shouldnt be difficult with close wounds healing what, 250 i think? probably wrong. but just shield bash, cast heal and switch back to blade. armor i would definitely choose full ebony.

I am Paladin Nord. use one handed(or two handed),restoration,heavy armor(steel plate armor),block,smithing,speech,and if you like archery(opcional).
a paladin is a holy warrior so you need to be like the good guy of skyrim(no thief guilt or Dark Brotherhood).

Well you can use those black soul gems and RP that you imprisson their evil soul for purification?

So missed this post, sorry about that..

Paladin in general, isnt that a sort of "Knight of [insert order/religion]" ? So yeah technically you can be a "evil daedra" paladin i guess.. BUT thats not what am after

No, I totally understand. My Paladin is generally not evil, and he doesn't dabble into enchanting at all. However, I'm just stating that whether or not a Paladin would find enchanting moral or immoral is not specific to being a Paladin, but to that specific character in particular. A paladin that soul traps and a paladin who doesn't soul trap are both paladins, it's the character that you're roleplaying that decides whether or not soul trapping is morally right or wrong.

For example, perhaps there's say, a Dunmer Paladin who is corrupt and steals things when people aren't looking. That doesn't mean he isn't a paladin, that just means that the specific Dunmer in this scenario is corrupt and finds nothing wrong with stealing, while another Paladin would never steal. They're both Paladins, the two characters just have different morals and views.

It's all up to the player to create their character and their character's views and morals. Make your Paladin how you think a Paladin would be, or create it's own backstory. A daedra worshipping Paladin or an aedra worshipping Paladin who protects the innocent are both still Paladins.

Besides killing it in the first place.

By using the Black Star this is definitely attainable. Anything it traps could be justified, as it captures black souls.

Thats all I've really played as so far, any combination of block and one handed you end up like a turtle with wheels.