A good Paladin build?

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I'm looking to do the SOU/HOTU ride, and I've heard a Paladin / Champion of Torm is a pretty nasty combo. Since I always end up being killed in NWN, I'd like some advise on building this char. Could it possible to get a Pal / WM in Scythes? That would be pretty awsome too!

So What would be better and more user-friendly to play Pal /Cot or Pal/WM ?

 

They would both be OK and would complete the SoU henchmen well. The thing with being a weapon master is having to specialise in that one melee weapon when you don't know if you're going to find a good one in the game. Although I believe that the game does mix up the magic weapons sometimes to make sure you end up with the one your are specialising in.

 

I've completed the OC and SoU with a single class paladin and HotU with a Paladin/CoT. According to most people, you can have it two ways: huge strength (devcrit and all) or huge charisma (Divine Might, Extra Turning, you know the drill; that and the saves and the lay on hands value -- SPOILER ).

I say you can have great charisma, good strength and still some skills, spells and not so few hit points. Just make sure your INT stat gives you enough skill points for the skills you want, that you have enough WIS to casts spells if you're interested (and you should be) and resist the temptation to make your DEX or CHA suck.

My paladin started with STR 14 DEX 10 CON 10 INT 14 WIS 14 CHA 15 in each case and worked out great.

For reasons of stat point economy, you could theoretically start with STR 14 DEX 12 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 12 CHA 14. That way, you squeeze the most out of the stat points available from the beginning. Your WIS is enough for spells for some time and you get +1 to will saves, your STR is good enough for some nice bonus, you have more than decent HP and fort save and you even have the biggest DEX armour bonus a fullplate allows. The downside is that you're going to need to put 2 out of your first 3 stat increase points in WIS. Only then can you start working on CHA or STR. Not like it's not worth it, but you may want to focus on CHA or STR from the beginning. Especially if it's STR and you're aiming for devcrit.

If you want WM, I'd start with 14 INT (13 is waste, stat and skill point wise) and 13 DEX, but not at the cost of WIS if you want your spells. Perhaps STR 14 DEX 13 CON 10 INT 14 WIS 13 CHA 14 (you don't really need to round DEX to 14 unless you want to go the Finesse route, which I don't recommend, and you will need to round WIS to 14 by the time you normally get level 4 spells).

For CoT, focus on charisma. You could do what I did or you could even try to start with 16 CHA. You may be tempted to get CoT levels as fast as possible, but if you delay it, you can get epic feats in CoT's bonus feat slots. Except some of the normal feats are better than the epic feats, especially if you get them early in the game. But you don't really need them so desperately, so the choice is up to you. I went for epic. Took 19 paladin levels and switched to CoT. But I had 21 paladin levels before the end of the game. I didn't want my Persuade skill to lag behind.

My suggestion is go for roleplaying, not stats. It's possible to gimp yourself but it's not so easily achieved if you make a character that would be feasible in pen and paper D&D. Do yourself a favour and get a great STR or CHA score but otherwise just play and don't think of stats too much, and your pleasure from playing will be bigger.

Here are BioWare community's epic builds:

http://nwn.bioware.com/underdark/character_builds.html

Damage Adept is a Paladin/WM/CoT with Scythe.

[ January 28, 2006, 04:49: Message edited by: chevalier ]

 

I'm not really proficient in Paladin class, but i've taken an interest in it, after i saw a paladin of around 24th level laying such a smack around, without even using Smite evil.


What i'm wondering is this.. Why would a paladin not take Champion of Torm prc?

 

Uncharismatic paladin? Roleplaying reasons? Having a better class mix? I've seen a great paladin/monk/weaponmaster build.

 

I am also considering playing with a paladin, and I'm sort of trying to plan the character in advance. The problem is that I'm not used to fighting classes in NWN, and can't make up my mind when it comes to feat selection. Should I go the 'pure fighter' way (weapon focuses, cleave, greater cleave...), the 'holy' way (holy shield, smiting, more turnings...), or is there a good way in between?

I would like at least to get weapon focus in longswords or warhammers, the rest is open.

May the grandmaster of the Order of the Everfull Chalice and/or his faithful followers illuminate me with their wisdom.

[ February 07, 2006, 01:27: Message edited by: Colthrun ]