Imperial Knight Paladin

ELITE POINTS: 9

The Imperial Knight Paladin is a tank/nuker elite Space Marine unit in Dawn of War III. It is a Super Heavy walker with powerful ranged and melee attacks. The Paladin can project its shield in a direction independent of its own facing, absorbing any shots that would otherwise pass through it.

This Elite is not available during the Campaign, only for multiplayer maps, though it does show up as an NPC unit from time to time in the Campaign.

Its weapons are an autocannon on one arm, a large chainsword on the other and a small autobolter on its shoulder.

Abilities

Ion Shield

Projects a shield in the target direction that absorbs shots briefly

Piercing Shot

Fires a long-range piercing shot in the target direction, doing damage to anything it passes through. Slowly builds up to 3 charges over time.

Reaper Chainsword Sweep

Does a wide sweeping attack with its chainsword, doing heavy damage to anything in range

Elite Doctrines

Paladin's Presence - Piercing Shot (Initial Doctrine)

While the Paladin is summoned Predator Devastators gain a piercing shot ability similar to the Paladin's.

Paladin's Command - Shield Wall (Unlockable Doctrine)

While the Paladin is summoned, Devastator Marine squads that have been stationary for a while gain a shield. Moving removes the shield and destroying it disables it for a while. Unlockable as a full Doctrine.

General Notes

The Paladin is definitely tough, and slow, like Solaria. But in terms of raw combat ability it isn't a surprise that Solaria is the head of House Varlock; she is much better at ranged combat and combat in general. The Paladin's autocannon is fairly slow and does less damage than you might expect, plus the shells have a very small AoE making it not as effective against infantry squads. The shoulder autobolter isn't particularly strong either.