Characters / Paladins

Choose Your Champion!^note Image by ThunderBrush

These are the characters of Paladins. They fall under the following categories:

• Front Line: Tanks, protectors, and short range bruisers, all Front Line champions have a large amount of health and can put up some kind of shield to soak up incoming fire.
• Damage: All-round fighters who are good at dealing a lot of damage in a wide variety of situations.
• Flank: Subversive fighters who use high mobility and trickery to unleash devastating close range attacks. They suffer from a very harsh damage falloff, making them largely ineffective at long range.
• Support: Healing allies and debuffing enemies are the support's forte, but they're not to be underestimated in combat.
• Echo Characters: Moveset Clone Champion Skins that are alternate versions of a champion from another reality. They are not necessarily canon characters however.

List of Characters

• Front Line Champions^note Ash, Atlas, Azaan, Barik, Fernando, Inara, Khan, Makoa, Nyx, Raum, Ruckus & Bolt, Terminus, Torvald, Yagorath
• Damage Champions^note Betty La Bomba, Bomb King, Cassie, Dredge, Drogoz, Imani, Kasumi, Kinessa, Lian, Octavia, Omen, Saati, Sha Lin, Strix, Tiberius, Tyra, Viktor, Vivian, Willo
• Flank Champions^note Androxus, Buck, Caspian, Evie, Koga, Lex, Maeve, Moji, Skye, Talus, Vatu, Vora, Zhin
• Support Champions^note Corvus, Furia, Grohk, Grover, Io, Jenos, Lillith, Mal'Damba, Pip, Rei, Seris, Ying
• Echo Characters^note The Abyssal Lord (Drogoz), Remix Pepper (Pip), Pyre-Lord Magnus (Corvus), Ripjaw (Buck)

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Tropes shared by many or all of the Champions

• Achilles' Heel: Various champions have weaknesses against others, with some having weaknesses against certain items. For example, Support characters are weak against anti-heal (such as the passive anti-heal that builds up throughout matchs, or Willo's Dead Zone ability), while Frontlines are often weak against Wrecker^note Your weapon attacks deal increased Damage towards Shields, with each level increasing this effect by 25%, while others such as Barik, Inara, Imani, and Grohk are also susceptible to Bulldozer^note  Which provides a damage bonus against Deployables with each level increasing this effect by 25%.
• The Artifact:
  • The majority of champions circa late 2018 had skins that conformed to the old "Parts 'n Pieces" system, which allowed players to design champions to their liking (Removing Oni Talus' mask to reveal his Kabuki face paint, or using the "Heirloom Crest" hat and "Ronin" skin with Ash, for example). There's quite a lot of unusual leftover cosmetics that only change one part of the base character, such as the "Wreath" for Makoa, which replaces his shell with a Wreath. According to Word of God, The system was removed as it limited skin designs to a degree the skins artists weren't happy with. The Weapon skins however, were not affected by the removal of "Parts 'n Pieces", and weapon skins can be freely used between skins, for example Ash's "Freedom" Cannon can be used with her XenoBuster skin, even though that skin comes with its own unique weapon skin.
  • Some champions have voice lines for being frozen or stunned that explicitly mention the cold or ice effects pertaining to Evie. These come from the days of Paladins when Evie was the only character who could stun or freeze anyone. This is not the case anymore, as Corvus, Furia, Inara, Io, Khan, Mal'Damba, Raum, Seris, and Terminus also all have talents and/ or kits that let them stun or slow other players. Ironically, these lines are not used for Imani's "Frost Bomb", which roots (meaning enemies are still able to shoot), not stuns or slows.
• Artistic Age: Not nearly as many as one would expect, as the ages of each champion in this game aren't usually given out in the lore. Notable exceptions are Io, who is a multiple eons old Moon Goddess that takes the appearance of a teenage fox-human hybrid, Viktor, due to his The Artifact voice clashing with his redesigned face, which makes him sound far older than he appears, while Maeve and Talus look about 15 - 16 years old, but both are apparently over 18. Though Talus has also been stated as being a kid.
• Badass Boast: Every champion has a few boasts as jokes, taunts or just in their voicelines.
• Badass Crew: Everyone is capable of taking on the enemy team, and are all deadly with their weapons, such as general equipment, magical powers, familiar riding etc.
• Becoming the Costume: A large amount of skins in the game change the voice of the champion to match the theme of the skin, too many to list here, there's more detail within each character folder. There are exceptions of course; Recolors use the champion voice pack, and a lot of the earlier skins for the game, such as "Tactical Pip" and "Commando Buck", who don't have a unique voice pack attached to them despite physically altering their appearance.
• Bond One-Liner: Nearly every single character and skin in the game has a few taunts that play when killing specific champions. Most generally have 2 to 3, sometimes 5 to 10 occasionally, but two characters, Vora and Yagorath, have lines for every single character that released prior to them (with Vora even having a line towards Yagorath who released after her).
• Deadpan Snarker: Every champion has a few, sans Strix, Ash, and Lex who are quite reserved and don't talk much. The rest of the playable champions have at least one or more quips in store, either for their allies or enemies.
• Dysfunction Junction: Many of the playable characters are deeply flawed, and nearly all of them have some form of tragedy in their backstory. Corvus, Drogoz, Maeve, Vatu, Seris, and Terminus all stand out.
• Exposed to the Elements: Most female characters, and some male characters such as Grohk and Raum, are very clearly not dressed appropriately for the more extreme weather of maps such as Frozen Guard or Shattered Desert, however this doesn't seem to bother any of them much, outside of an unused line from Willo where she wonders if she's underdressed, as well as one for Seris where she outright claims to not be affected by the cold.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Asides from just being an occupational hazard for all the characters in a game, this applies to the support and frontline champions the most, given that once the healer and frontlines fall, the rest can be taken down much faster.
• Foil: Many of the Champions counter one-another in gameplay.
• Fight Like a Card Player: There are three types of cards utilized in the game: a "loadout" deck which provides extra power to a Champion and their abilities (16 cards for each hero, 4 each for the 3 non-ultimate abilities, and the last 4 for their main weapon and passive armor effects) that are unique for each champion, Talents that provide special effects to each Champion, of which there are 3 per champion, and 16 "item cards" that are bought in-battle (think like the equipment store in a MOBA) with four types: Defense, Utility, Healing, and Offense. Some of the earlier Champions like Pip and Kinessa will refer to their ultimate as "cards" as well.
  "Ultimate is ready!" voice clip: Cards are ready!
  "Ultimate is down!" voice clip: Cards are down.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: From opposing characters fighting alongside each other, to having less abilities, as well as power levels being completely disregarded, it'd be easier to mention what the gameplay and story have in common than what's different.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: As of the start of 2023, the entire roster has Golden Mastery skins that almost completely cover their weapons, and even certain parts of their body, in gold.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Talus and Androxus use their other arms for punching.
• Heal Thyself: All champions have out of combat self healing, but it takes 5 seconds to activate. The item "Veteran" used to increase the healing steps of this effect, but was reworked to affect base max health, and then removed entirely.
• Hitbox Dissonance: The champions all have one Capsule-style Hitbox (to cover the body), and a headshot hitbox (that covers...well, the head.), that are more befitting of an arena shooter. This comes with the obvious problem of having large blank spaces around heads and legs that score damage onto the enemy you shoot at, making spraying bullets a fairly viable tactic, and makes some projectiles, such as Dredge's Broadside or Sha Lins' arrows, which both appear to be more powerful than they actually are.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: To name a few, Zhin's Flaming sword, Pip's Potion launcher, Imani's gauntlets, and Bomb King's entire body creates bombs to pelt bombs at you.
• Infinite Supplies: Nobody runs out of ammo, fuel, power, or anything else they need to use during the fight, although they do require time for stuff to be reloaded or refilled.
• Informed Obscenity: Some of the characters' "Curses" voice lines are made up of this. Io for example says "Craters, craters craters!", Moji says "Whiskers", and Jenos says "Void take you!"
• Killed Mid-Sentence: They all shout certain lines when using their ultimates. Logically, this trope tends to happen a lot.
• Limit Break: Each Champion has an Ultimate ability that is charged up slowly over time and charges faster when healing or inflicting damage upon the enemy. With exceptions to Androxus, Khan, Lian, Talus, Yagorath and Zhin, Once the Ultimate is used, the meter drops back down to 0% and has to be charged up again. In Khan and Zhin's case, it resets to 30% if they do not hit anyone with the Ultimate, while Yagorath resets to 50%, but back to 0% if they succeed, Lian has a talent that let her keep 50% of ultimate charge, and Talus keeps 70%, all under the same conditions. Androxus resets to 60% if he activates his Ultimate without firing any shots, and decreases in increments of 15% per shot for the duration of the ultimate.
• Meaningful Name: Most of the champions have names that clue you in on their abilities^note Betty La Bomba uses bombs to kill allies and to fly about the battlefield, their personalities and motivations^note Atlas is named after the Greek God of the same name, known for carrying the world on his shoulders; his name references his decision to go back in time and prevent a Bad Future from occurring, and sometimes even their race^note Moji's species is named the Leipori; the name derives from the Latin Leporidae, the family of rabbits and hares. While some characters go by their nicknames or callsigns, this also applies to their real names as well.
• No Ontological Inertia: Played straight with most abilities and non-deployable Ultimates, so for example, Skye's Ultimate; Time Bomb, will still be active even if she dies after she's thrown it. Regular Deployables, such as turrets, shields and teleporters, will disappear when a character dies, however. Most healing abilities will continue to heal allies when the healer is dead, though not all healers/ healing abilities qualify for this:
  • The only healers playing this trope straight are Grohk (as his totem dies with him) and Io (Luna dies when Io does). Pips healing potion negates healing if they do not hit anyone when he's killed; Combat Medic potion launcher shots are the exception.
  • Betty La Bomb's primary fire and abilities will still go off, provided they've been actually fired off before she's killed. Even her Ultimate Long Live The Queen will still go off provided she's no longer riding the bomb.
  • Bomb King's "Grumpy Bomb" does not stop its detonator, or even explode early if you kill Bomb King.
  • Furia's Ultimate "Inflame" will not stop until the Ultimate runs out of charge. Any healing done by "Cherish" will still apply, and her fireballs will also still track targets, even if Furia is killed after she launches them.
  • Grover equipping "Rampant Blooming" will still have the three seconds of extra healing if Grover dies after using the ability. Similarly, his "Deep Roots" talent will not stop Rooting until the timer has expired.
  • Jenos' Astral Mark will still have it's effects be applied if Jenos dies after using the ability. Killing Jenos also cancels his Void Grip, and his "Through Time and Space" Ultimate ability.
  • Mal'Damba's Ultimate "Dread Serpent" will still works if you die after it has been deployed. His Gourd continues healing your allies/ harming the enemy if Mal'Damba dies after it has been splattered onto the floor.
  • Seris's "Convergence" will still deploy if she is killed while she throws it. Her Rend Soul stun also goes through its timer and does not cancel early if she is killed early.
  • Ying's Ultimate "Illusory Rift" doesn't stop until the Ultimate runs out of charge. Her Illusions, however, do get destroyed if she dies.
• No Self-Buffs: The rule of thumb for Support champions is that those whose healing ability is their right click, such as Furia and Seris, cannot directly target themselves (although some cards give them a portion of the heal when they heal an ally). Champions whose healing ability is their Q, such as Grohk and Pip, usually can heal themselves as well as their allies, but have a longer cooldown.
• Out of Focus: A good amount of old characters are completely ignored in the game's lore. Sometimes one or two of them will appear in new champion teasers or card art, but this does little to expand their story beyond confirming they still exist, and almost always fall right back out of focus again afterwards.
• Palette Swap: Every champion has one skin that has the same design minus a change in color. Starting from Furia, they all receive a Black and Golden skin too, as well as making a minor change to the model for their recolor. Starting from Imani, they have a Season Pass skin. There are details on what their recolors change on each champions' page.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Most of the characters have a Badass Boast that they always shout just before activating their ultimate ability. This serves the purpose of giving the enemy team a chance to react, as a sort of subtle variant on Calling Your Attacks.
• Recurring Element: It may not be noticeable at first, but every Champion capable of Stealth has their name begin with an S.^note Sha Lin, Saati, Seris, Strix, Skye, and VII (otherwise read as Seven).
• Shoot the Medic First: This is a very wise idea when you're dealing with any of the support champions. Any one of the supports can sustain a team for a decent amount of time, so prioritize killing these champions above all others!
• Status Effects: All of the champions have a wide range of abilities, some of whom use some status effects in their kit:
  • Burn: Fernando, Tyra and Imani can set someone alight, which makes them burn off HP at a slow rate.
  • Blindness: Maeve and Strix's Ultimate blocks enemy vision for a few seconds, the former by darkening the screen , the latter by throwing a flashbang.
  • Decover: Willo is the only champion with Anti-Heal capabilities, tied to her Seedlings' AOE.
  • Fear: Mal'Damba's and VII's ultimates "Fears" Champions, causing them to run in the opposite direction if it hits them, take more damage from enemies, and the players inputs are ignored.
  • Frozen: Evie's "Ice Block" Ability makes her retreat into an ice block for a few seconds, and becomes immune to damage.
  • Poison: Nyx and Skye can poison people, which is functionally identical to Burn, chipping off HP at a slow rate.
  • Root: Stops enemy movement and disables their movement ability, but they can still use their primary fire and other abilities.
  • Slow: Quite a lot of champions possess ways to slow enemy movement, such as Pips' "Fire Potion", and Inara's "Warders Field". Related is the "Cripple" effect, which stops enemy movement abilities, such as Androxus's "Nether Step".
  • Stun: Stun an enemy for a set amount of time and keep them from fighting back.
  • Silenced: Only Torvald, Vora, and Sha Lin can truly Silence champion abilities, denying the use of ultimates, shields etc. All champions can still shoot and use their primary fire however.
  • Stop: The "Banish" mechanic makes anyone affected be take out of the game for 4 seconds, and neither team can interact with them either. Only Atlas utilizes this, and it's his Ultimate that has three charges.
  • Weird Transformation: Pip's Ultimate turns anyone in the potions AOE into defenseless chickens, while Moji's Ultimate turns them into a snack for her Familiar to eat.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: A few characters really don't like the fact that they're on the same side, some notable examples being Ruckus and Bolt, with Bolt clearly not enjoying being around Ruckus, while Vora, who hates and wants to murder everyone, especially Io, mentions in-game how she would never work with Io if she weren't forced to.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Nobody can use anything other than their own weapons and equipment, somewhat justified in that most equipment and weapons used by Champions are too personalized to be effective on anyone else.
• Vocal Dissonance: If you own a skin, but want to retain the voice for the champion, then you can select the "champion" voice pack option in the lobby, which can lead to this, the most notable examples being when using the voice of a champion alongside a skin that switches the character's gender, such as Pip and Pepper or Zhin and Mei.
• Word of God: Almost everything known about the characters and lore come from these types of statements, and it's not uncommon for different developers to contradict each other or forget / ignore previously established information.
• You Have Researched Breathing: The champions for the most part avert a lot of first-person shooter mainstay mechanics that would otherwise be available champion-wide, such as Melee as an alternate fire option, or sprinting around the battlefield (The former can only be used by Talus and Androxus, and the latter is only available to Viktor).