Advancing

There are many different ways to advance. There are incorrect ways, but there are definitely more than one correct way. The following are only my opoinions, and should only be used as a suggestion.

Rearrange

Before you do anything, you should rearrange. As a human, our stats are racially capped at 18/70. The two most important stats for a Paladin are Strength and Wisdom. The one you should choose first in your rearrange is a matter of preference, although I believe most go with Strength. Following Strength and Wisdom should be Constitution, Dexterity, and finally Intelligence. While rearranging, keep in mind that you'll have access to three different stat quests at some point during your lifetime. Regardless, you should shoot for a Strength and Wisdom in the upper 18's, and a fairly high Constitution. Dexterity affects our charge, and is also imporant.

Newbie Advancement

In the newbie guild south of Lirath, you'll be concerned with advancing Fighting (f), Faith (fa), and General (g) to 5. It is not mandatory, but it is much more efficient to advance these skills while you are a newbie, a they cost about half of what they cost in the Paladin guild. To rocket through the newbies, see if some generous person might get you the Claymore or the Rod of Chaos from Treeth. This way, you can spare most of the cute puppies, kittens, etc. and then whoop up on those pesky Gang Members and Robbers in Lirath. If you get some outside help with spells and such, you can even go ahead and tackle Tribesmen, or better yet, Human Commoners and some Drow Beggars in Hylar. You'll be away from that crazy Newbie guild in no time. Once you've advanced f, fa, and g to 5, type leave at the newbie guild and start heading for Treeth. Treeth is where the Paladin Guild is. From the west gate of Lirath, go west, northwest 6 times, north twice, northeast, north twice, then east. Type join, and Badabing...you're a Paladin.

Paladin Advancement

First off, explore the guild a bit. Familiarize yourself with the guild, and you should come across an armoury, and a sword room. Many of the items in the armoury should save. Look at the list there to see what does and what doesn't. Then equip the stuff, and go up to the Sword Room, and <pray>. Severan will then grant you your Holy Avenger. This sword will start off as one of the weakest weapons in the Realms, but will become exceptional with advancement. You can use your xp to advance your sword. You can 'powerup' your sword a total of 24 times, and 'enchant' it a total of 50 times. You can also learn to use your avenger two-handed, giving you much more damage with each hit. This is explained in more detail in the Holy Avenger section.

While you have the Claymore or Rod of Chaos, find someone to give you a Shield of Faith and kill the gate guards of Hylar for you. If said person is busy and doesn't feel like killing guards, you can get into Hylar through the "back door" by finding the Stronghold at the west part of Treeth. From the gate there, go 7 s, e, ne, d, s, swim, s, u, 2 w, 2 n, 2 w, then 4 s. This puts you one north of those jerks who guard the south gate of Hylar. Then go to the east wall and kill Human Commoners and Drow Beggars. Collect about 2 million xp early on in your advancing, and then go max your avenger out, and learn the holding option. Now you'll be level 5, and be able to kick a little arse. Enchant your avenger whenever you can throughout your advancement. You can enchant it every 40 levels.

Below is the way I am currently advancing. If you want to go with a sure thing, stick "fa.s.d to max" before you start on "fa.s." This will give you a stronger SoF. My current plan is going to test the trade off between offense and defense. Advancing for defense, I have reached levels of 410, 411, and 412. Once, I threw some dodging.melee in there for grins, and reached 413. However, I wasn't as powerful when it came to PKing situations.

* After you complete your combat, you may want to visit Soulskinner (From the cliff, u, se, 3e, down, e, 6n, 2w, 2n, w) a few times. He will lower your overall Fighting skill one point each time you fight him, for a max of 9 points. This will allow you to attain a better overmax on your sharp. Save up a cap before you do this, visit him your 9 times, then take your f.c back to 275, then dump the rest into f, which will bring your f.p back up from the zero that it was (Soulskinner is tricky that way) and above the 5 that it originally was.

** At some point while you are advancing your fa.s, you should be able to summon at least a Courser War Horse, upon which you will be able to charge. Here, you'll want to advance your g.m to 10 so you won't fall of your horse when you try this. Be careful not to advance riding though, as it will skyrocket your levels without increasing your overall npc-killing power by much. This will in turn make it harder to collect xp, as the monsters you can kill will not be worth as much xp.

*** This can only be done at the KT Trainer. From Yama Oroshi in Kai-Thaan (outside the palace), go 2s, w, 4s, e, 2s.
Be patient and wait for that 100 to pop if you want to reach your highest potential level.