Still twice as long as the fighter, barbarian, monk or rogue, no?Any concern about the paladin being overpowered isn't about how he compares to giants, it's how he compares to the other PCs.
Not necessarily. A fighter would be dishing out more damage per round, ending the combat quicker or would have higher AC or have other tricks to make himself survivable due to feats. A rogue would likely be dishing out sneak attack or he wouldn't be there in the first place. A barbarian would have likely raged and would be pumping out stupid numbers to end the situation early and might be using rage powers at the same time for the same reason.
See... that's the point. Other classes could do things during combat. The Paladin by and large couldn't. Smite once or twice a day is fine if your opponent is evil and even then it's only a couple times a day. Lay on Hands in 3.5 core wasn't something you'd consider using on yourself in combat unless you blew your entire pool, in which case you maybe bought yourself one round of survival. In PFRPG the Paladin is given a usable tactic. Survival in itself isn't terribly unbalancing either. It's not like suddenly the Paladin is dishing out massive damage, owning the game. No. He's a tank, gritting his teeth and hanging on through the brutality unleashed on him.
Really, if you think about it the 3.5 core Paladin was unbalanced. In combat on average he was a Fighter without all the feats. The removal of disease, the turning undead, and even the handful of spells weren't - on average - useful most of the time. The flavor left him underpowered in an actual fight. Giving him endurance was an elegant way of bringing him in line without stepping on any other class' toes role-wise.
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