Draconian Paladins?

[Sometimes]

I want this to work, but they all die to relatively unimpressive odds- I feel very outgunned even after being awarded a colour, and the underhand stuff I'd normally resort to is forbidden by TOS. Also, I take it He won't be happy if I end up green and exercise my natural poison-belching abilities? Any advice or experience would be welcome.

[angrykoopa]

Paladins are a bit of a tough class to start off with since TSO's abilities aren't that great in the early game and on top of that he forbids poison, which is useless later on but incredibly useful at the start. Not to mention the only way to build piety other than just chilling is through killing demons/undead/necromancer types and there are very few early on. If you're just taking him for the long blade, I suggest just going Gladiator or Fighter with short blades and then you'll probably find a falchion off an orc by D:5. Fighter if you want the shield, Gladiator for the throwing weapons. Pick whatever god you want (Okawaru is the standard) and then you can go TSO later on, or you can just pick him as soon as you find his altar either in the Dungeon or the temple.

[MrMisterMonkey]

If you feel exploitive and want to worship an evil god on a paladin, you can easily choose Elyvilon's wimpy wrath over TSO's by worshiping then abandoning him for an evil god of your choice. (same issue as https://crawl.develz.org/mantis/view.php?id=1577)

[Sometimes]

Just had a YASD with a level 12- he was really starting to take shape, too. I'm sure this is doable now. Paladins- particularly lightly-armoured draconians- are pretty tough to keep alive in the early stages, Fighter start with TSO later might be the way to go. Thanks, angrykoopa. In other news, I love the purple. Magical de-buffing breath came in handy a few times, and it's a targeted bolt rather than the clumsy spewings of some of the other hues.

MrMisterMonkey, minmay- I usually stick with one god through the whole game, but exploiting TSO's tolerance is very tempting. Gonna try this, thanks.

[danr]

Apparently one recommended course is to start with Elyvilon, use him/her to train invocations, and then switch to TSO later. Not only is there no penance, but some of your piety transfers. I guess you could actually start with TSO for the long blade, switch to Ely in the early game (and already have a bit of a start with your piety), and then go back to TSO for the endgame when you start meeting a lot of demons / undead that will give you lots of piety.

[Sometimes]

Interestingly, green Draconians do not invoke TSO's wrath by breathing noxious fumes- although you aren't allowed to take advantage of a sapient victim's confusion.

[casmith789]

You can start a DrPa. However, especially when compared to how strong TSO is lategame, he is incredibly weak early game, and provides little benefit at low piety.

As said, it may be worth switching gods to Okawaru (for the might, armour and weapons) or Ashenzari (who can sort out your invocations before you switch back to TSO) - and then switch back later. Okawaru wrath is weak lategame and you will be able to beat it, and Ashenzari wrath will not hurt a TSO worshipper too much as his strong halo tells others where he is anyway

Draconians all have different flavours and they could all work with TSO - I played mottled recently and his breath attack will not be a problem for TSO.

In general though unless you have a very strong char by itself (MfCr, for instance, but that's still better going okawaru and switching later) TSO is an endgame god and should be switched to from an early game god. Sif and Oka are obvious and good choices (until about xl20).