Paladin

From HGWiki

Paladin information on NWNWiki

Paladins are powerful holy warriors. Through their divine powers they are protected from sources of evil and can deal great damage.

Contents 1 HG Customization 2 Paladin Types 3 Play Guide 3.1 Defenses 3.2 Damage Output 4 See Also

HG Customization

• Some Paladin abilities including Charisma based saves bonus and spell casting requires the character have a Good alignment dimension, prior to level 41 you need to be Lawful Good, post level 41 you can also be Neutral Good or Chaotic Good.
• Legendary BAB: +15
• Forum Class Ability Board
• Legendary Ability Bonuses: Legendary Paladins gain +1 per 5 legendary levels to Strength and Charisma.
• Guardian Angel: At Paladin level 20 and total character level 30, characters can acquire the ability to call upon a guardian angel to bring them back from death once per day.
• Divine Might: Divine Might duration doubles with at Cleric 21, Paladin 21, or Blackguard 21, and triples at character level 41 if the previous requirement is met. If the Paladin does not belong to a quasiclass and has 21 levels in the class, they receive a 50% bonus to their charisma modifier for divine might damage.
• Divine Shield: Divine Shield duration doubles with at Cleric 21, Paladin 21, or Blackguard 21, and triples at character level 41 if the previous requirement is met.
  • A divine damage shield is also added to the effect at level 21, inflicting damage equal to the character's CHA bonus + 1d6 on anyone swinging at the character in melee combat. The base damage also increases by 50% at character level 41, to (3/2xCHA bonus) + 1d6. It also provides 1% immunity to divine damage per point of charisma modifier, regardless of caster level.
  • Characters with control class Paladin or Blackguard gain Shield AC equal to their Charisma modifier / 2, if they do not receive Wisdom AC (1 level of Monk or 2 levels of Ranger) from any other source and do not belong to a quasiclass.
• Smite Evil/Good: Only pre-legendary levels count for damage calculating purposes. Pure Paladins and or Blackguards regain one use every minute.
• Great Smiting: Legendary Paladins, Blackguards, and Champions of Torm receive +1 Strength for each Great Smiting feat they possess upon taking level 41.
• Mass Resurrection: At Cleric 30 or Paladin 25 and total character level 40, characters can acquire the ability to cast a mass resurrection spell once per day.
• Divine Grace: Divine Grace requires good alignment to grant its Charisma bonus to saves.
• Divine health requires Paladin level 3 instead of level 1.
• Lay on Hands: Legendary Paladins who Lay Hands on an ally will grant that ally immunity to critical hits for one round per Paladin level.
• Divine Inspiration: Clerics, Paladins and Blackguards with at least 36 base Charisma can find the Divine Inspiration ability which allows them to use Turn Undead as a Bard Song substitute.
• Smiting has been significantly enhanced. Check out the Greater Smite page for more information on the details of this ability. Paladins can use Greater Smite to do Fire, Positive, Magical, or Divine damage to a small group of targets. If the Paladin does not belong to a quasiclass, their Greater Smite will also deal Sacred damage.
• Turn Undead has been significantly enhanced. Click the 'show' button below to see all the details.

Turner Changes

Turn Undead now has enhanced mechanics and enemies have a Turn Resistance (TR) value proportionate to their difficulty. A turner's turner level is equal to their cleric level. In addition, if the turner has at least 3 levels in Paladin or Blackguard, 2 less than their number of Paladin and Blackguard levels are added to the character's turner level. Further, if the character has Smite Good or Smite Evil uses remaining and the Planar Turning feat, a Smite use will be expended and the 2-level penalty for Paladin or Blackguard will not be applied. Legendary levels count as turner levels, if the control class is Cleric, Paladin or Blackguard. Turner level is further increased by certain cleric domains. Sun Domain adds +1 per 2 legendary levels for turning undead. Plant Domain adds +1 per 4 legendary levels for turning vermin. An elemental Domain (Fire, Water, Air or Earth) adds +1 per 4 legendary levels for turning elementals, if the Cleric has the Planar Turning feat. An alignment Domain (Good or Evil) adds +1 per legendary level for turning outsiders, if the Cleric has the Planar Turning feat. A turner may turn a total TR value of monsters equal to (turner level + Charisma modifier) * 3. A turner's destruction DC is equal to 10 + (Turner levels / 4) + (Cha modifier) + (2 within Medium radius or 1 within Huge radius). When rolling to turn, a turner's Turn Power (TP) is equal to their turner level. For all valid targets except constructs, if the turner's TP + d8 is greater than or equal to the target's Turn Resistance, the target will be turned. In addition, if the TP roll exceeds the target's TR by 10 or more, the target must make a Will save against the destruction DC or be destroyed. For turning constructs (requires Destruction Domain), the turner rolls TP + Spell Penetration + d20 against the construct's Spell Resistance. If successful, the construct will take 1d3 points of damage per point of TP. In addition, if the turner has the Planar Turning feat, the construct must make a Will save against the turner's destruction DC or be destroyed. Targets that are turned but not destroyed will be immobilized and unable to act. If they are damaged, they receive up to one Will save every round (against the turner's destruction DC) to free themselves. Optionally, the targets can be feared rather than immobilized, by using the !opt turnimmob SIMTools command. Characters with the Planar Turning feat may now buy the Sun, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Destruction, Good, Evil, and Plant domains as feats in legendary levels. These will not add domain spells, but do increase the breadth of turning ability. Only characters with Blackguard levels can turn creatures of good alignment.

• Note: To access metamagic spells using level 5 slots (people quite often take Extend Spell for longer duration if they have a spare feat) you will need the following - !enhmode must be switched on for the character in question, you must have a base casting stat (Wisdom in the case of Paladins) of 15 and you must be wearing gear with added level 5 slots.
• Paladin Spell Changes

Paladin Types

Paladins are nearly always built as tanks, but there are several ways to achieve this. Pharlan, Hound Archon and Half-Cloud Giant are the best subraces for Paladins, but Baseborn Titan and Fallen Angel are also good.

• STR Smiter Paladin: Disciple of Tyr, Holy Swift Talon

Smiter builds focus on maximizing damage from their Greater Smite ability to do a great chunk of AOE damage every 1 or 2 minutes (pure builds have a 1 min cooldown timer). To do this they need to take Extra Smiting and all 10 Great Smite feats before level 40. Apart from improving smite, for each Great Smite feat a Paladin has before level 41, they receive one point of STR (maximum +10). This lets Paladins achieve both great AB and smiting ability. Smiter builds are usually close to being pure for the best smite damage.

• Str Paladin: Holy Weapon Master

Paladins don't necessarily have to be smiter based. By skipping the Great Smite feats a Paladin can maximize it's melee capabilities and do excellent damage using a weapon alone. By dropping Smites a Paladin can take feats such as Devastating Critical and splash Weapon Master for better crit ranges. Such builds still have access to lots of other Paladin features, such as Holy Sword and Crit Immune.

Play Guide

Defenses

Lacking concealment, paladins are fairly reliant on AC and buffs for survival. The most important buff available to Paladins is their Death Ward spell, which grants crit immunity if you have 40 base STR and death magic immunity. Also useful are Aura of Glory and Divine Shield which give phys/div/pos immunities. Freedom of Movement is handy as well for a bit of extra speed. The guardian angel secret is also important, bringing your character back from death once per day. Since paladins don't have any of their own concealment, it is a good idea to get Mass Camo or Displacement from other casters at the start of runs.

Don't forget that your Lay on Hands ability grants a single party member crit immunity. This is best put to use on a fragile and important character such as the bard, druid or cleric.

Damage Output

Paladins can GMW their own weapons. With a Ssithrak Enchantment tome GMW will reach +13 and at the cost of one feat, can be further boosted to +14 with LSF: Enchantment.

Divine Might and Divine Favor both grant bonus damage and need to be kept active at all times (divine favor is very short duration and should be cast extended). A special on hit ability of a Paladin is Holy Sword, which makes their melee weapon do lesser spell breach on hit. This is great for stripping buffs off of enemies quickly, especially at Aboleths where normal targeted mords do not work (Only a Pally with 31+ levels can bypass the breach immunity). Holy Sword also adds additional divine damage depending on the number of paladin levels you have.

All Paladins not of Half-Elf base race should consider taking the Blind Fight Feat to gain access to LSA Listen as Listen is not a class skill for Paladins.

See Also

• Paladin Builds Forum