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The 3 choices are fatigued, shaken, and sickened. Paladins are immune to fear so shaken would only be useful against other PCs. Next level I get access to Lesser Restoration which removes fatigue, so it seems to me that sickened is the best choice. Do you agree? Looking down the road, I have a rules question about the nauseated mercy. If a paladin gets nauseated, can she use this mercy on herself? Lay on hands is a swift action when the paladin uses it on herself and a standard on others. Swift actions: "You can perform one swift action per turn without affecting your ability to perform other actions. In that regard, a swift action is like a free action. You can, however, perform only one single swift action per turn, regardless of what other actions you take. You can take a swift action anytime you would normally be allowed to take a free action." However, the Nauseated condition says, "Nauseated creatures are unable to attack, cast spells, concentrate on spells, or do anything else requiring attention. The only action such a character can take is a single move actions per turn." It seems to me that a nauseated character could speak, a free action, if she can move, and if you can take a free action you can take a swift action = lay on hands + nauseated mercy to remove the nauseated condition. Agree or disagree?
Show me a Paladin that can get nauseated at that point and I'll show you a shoddily built character.
I've always understood nauseated, slow, etc... to still give you your free actions, including swift/immediate. The conditions are powerful enough already, and were written before swift/immediate existed in 3E (it looks like Paizo just copy/pasted those nauseated rules).
As for the best mercy... you'll mostly be using LoH on yourself, so shaken is pretty poor. Sickened isn't very common or bad, but curing nauseated later makes it worth it. Main points to consider for Fatigued is if you have a Barbarian in the party, then I'd take that and later Exhausted. Fatigued also prevents charging, which can be irritating. So, kinda a toss up between sickened and fatigued, IMO. Could always get Extra Mercy for both. And while you will have Lesser Restoration, until you get some pearls of power, you may find yourself not wanting to spend your extremely limited spell slots on it. Also, it has a 3 round cast time, making in-battle use quite impractical.
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Ok, so I think the most optimal is Fatigued at 3rd level to sleep in heavy armor, Staggered at 6th level to maintain full attack actions as the main melee character in our party of 4 and paladin's are immune to disease, Poisoned at 9th as it's the most common affliction in the game by far, and Blinded at 12th as a paladin can't remove paralysis or being stunned with mercy after the failed save. Thoughts?
Sounds like a decent list. Not sure if poisoned is that worth it; it won't stop the initial damage, but maybe. And I'd dispute about being able to LoH yourself when paralyzed. Su themselves require no movement / somatic components. LoH you need to touch the target, but if you're paralyzed, your arms are presumably slumped down, hands touching your waist/legs. But I guess that's up to a DM to decide.
In any case, while you should mostly worry about what you can heal yourself with in combat, paralysis and stun are such severe conditions you might want to take them even if they'll only help other PCs. At least paralysis; stun usually is short enough duration to make spending an action curing it less necessary.