Paladins in NWN

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After being a hardcore Archer in BGII, I felt a change of pace was needed once I started playing NWN.

I eventually settled on a paladin, but after playing about 4 hours with a Dex of 9 and some other bad character choices, I've decided to remake him, but I was wondering...

Are paladin spells worth it, and if so, what should my Wisdom be?

[This message has been edited by SlimShogun (edited July 26, 2002).]

 

Are any of those spells good? If so, can I boost my stats during levelups and still finish the game with the maximum amount of spells and spell slots?

 

In the end you'll have iirc spells like bull's rush, protetion from elements, prtection from alignment etc. Nice and sometimes handy. But let's put it that way: I don't play a pally for the spellcasting The lay on hands, remove desease, undead turning, fearlessness and other abilities are IMO much more important.

Unfortunately Pallys in NWN have no cantrips like detect evil - actually I miss that ability a lot

 

You need to have at least an 11 Wis by 4th level. I think the game requires you to start with an 11 as a paladin (leastwise, it did for my Ranger). You need to raise it to 12 by 8th level, 13 by 11th level, and 14 at 14th level.

So, as long as you start with an 11 and raise it at 4/8/12 you should be fine.

The spells aren't that great, particularly in the context of the single player campaign and its abundance of potions. However, its very silly to skip the spellcasting capability just to save a couple stat points. Wisdom also gives you better Will saves and some improved dialogue options, so it has other benefits as well.

 

Thanks, but I have another question...what weapon should my paladin focus on? I was thinking he should go sword-and-shield with a nice longsword...but would greatsword be a better option? Or what about a different weapon?

 

The 'traditional' paladin weapon choice is the knightly 'longsword and shield'. However, there is no particular reason to go with any one weapon over another other than style elements. You are only talking about 1 or 2 points of average damage. Its not 'nothing' but it sure isn't gonna make or break your character.

 

Well... In the "recommended" pally package (but, of course, you should NEVER use the recommended button most of the time...), the two feats you automatically get are power attack and weapon focus (greatsword).... This is only if you are a human, as other races don't get the bonus feat, so they just get power attack...

 

True, bioware does seem to like the two handed sword vision of the paladin. Carsomyr was a greatsword, after all. But the pnp stereotype is longsword and shield.

 

So what about starting feats...I was thinking of choosing weapon focus (longsword) but am clueless on the other feat...

 

Actually I am very happy with my version of the paladin: I chose the bastard sword to be my primary weapon.

I chose my feats like that: exotic weapon proficiency; focus b'sword - followed by power attack and cleave and then dodge and mobility.

Additionally I added a few (4 to 6) fighter levels to gain bonus feats and especially weapon specialization. However, that's a question of personal taste - I found the fighter levels very useful. I am very impressed how effective it is to use of taunt (first - to bring down the defences of your enemy) combined with called shot on the opponents arm & leg.

The IMO most interesting pally skills to develop are taunt and persuade (nice since you have hight chr anyway). Parry is somewhat wasted when you want to got for heavy armor and a shield - I haven't yet tried that with two-handed weapons or two weapons.

 

But can anyone explain why my level 2 paladin heals only 1 hit point with lay on hands?

 

You have low Charisma!!! That's why your lay on hands ability is so poor! With the added enhancements to my character by way of helms, necklaces, and the nymph cloak +2, my paladin has a +5 to Charisma...Which means he gets 5xlevel for LoH modifier, currently about 45-50 points per use.

In addition, I get bonuses to Turn Undead, which makes the ability that much better...Remember, most of the paladin's abilities stem from Charisma...So it sounds like someone needs to go to charm school!

 

Weapon focus is fine if you plan on using a longsword most of the time, which is certainly feasible. In NWN, the most useful feat for a fighter is probably cleave. I would recommend that you get Power Attack as your second feat since it a prerequisite for Cleave. Then you can get Cleave at 3rd level. Beyond that, there are a lot of good feats available. Knockdown and Extra Turning are good choices as well, but probably better as your later choices (6th and 9th level).

As a paladin, I would not recommend using a feat for exotic weapon. You only get a few feats and using one just to use a few exotic weapons doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The exotic weapons aren't much better than the martial ones (maybe an extra 1 pt of average damage). Other feats are far more valuable. You could, of course, go with some fighter levels for the feats, but that hurts most of your paladin abilities.

 

Bel, you're absolutely right. Thanks god for the ring I got from Bodyknock (regeneration and +3 on chr) and the mask of persuasion High chr is really very handy in NWN - when playing a pally chr is the key ability for your abilities - for combat, of course, that's str

 

@Ragusa: When did you take those fighter levels? Does the game allow to get levels in other classes and still advance as a paladin? It's forbidden in 3ed rules

 

Yes, taking other class levels is allowed, which is why I have the spare feats to use another weapon option: bastard sword and shield. Long live the paladin/fighter! Perhaps the longsword and shield model is more popular in PnP because it would be extremely difficult to use a greatsword from the back of a horse. Since Bioware seems determined to make paladins walk everywhere, a greatsword seems a bit more practical. It's really just a matter of fighting style: do you want to hit harder or be harder to hit?

[ January 31, 2003, 16:53: Message edited by: knightlight ]