OK, after the last responses (thank you!), I'm going to play some type of paladin character. My question now is what weapon to choose to go through SoU and HotU? I know that Desert's Fury is a morningstar and that Enserric is a longsword? Should I adopt one of those or take a more traditional choice (scimitar, etc)? I know that I can change Enserric at some point in Hordes. I just hate focusing on a weapon and then getting to a point to say "wish I had done x". Thanks a lot.

It seems to me that there is a paladin specific thing you can get, but I don't know any details on it. Never ran a Pally through.

only weapon I found in the game that was more "holy" than other s was the war hammer of justice.

course, you caqn always make a mini mod, to equip yourself before starting.....

You mean people don't already do that?

If you are going to play through SOU then HOTU, you might want to be weapon focused in long swords. The Holy Avenger is available in a Paladin only accessable area in one of the catacombs you will explore in SOU. It is usable only by Paladins and has some special properties. I think it is a longsword, either +2 (or +5 against evil with extra divine damage) and casts dispel magic on hit. Never having played NWN, SOU or HOTU as a Paladin, I would have to defer to those with direct experience with the Holy Avenger, but to me it seems a little underpowered. A longsword focus would also let you use some good swords in HOTU. There is Enserric and in one or two places there is also a vorpal blade, Aramil's blade, that is pretty powerful. Plus 8 strength, at a cost of -4 dexterity, but also vorpal. Conveniently enough, you can also pick up a belt +4 dexterity in HOTU as well, balancing out that -4 dex. I forget whether there are other good long swords in SOU since I played it as a monk and mainly used weapons to sell for cash.

Of course, the cheesey way out of it is to have immunity to level/ability drain. If you equip the immunity item first, I believe there is a ring, and an ammy that you can find, in Hordes, anyway, the negative effects will not be applied.

Do you mean that an item with immunity to level/ability drain will also stop the negative four to dexterity that the sword has? I didn't know level/ability drain immunity would do that. I thought it only protected from level/ability drain from undead. Cool. You could use that amulet and not need the belt of agility with +4 dex then. I'll have to go back and give it a try.

Do you really think it is cheesy? I usually figure that if it is in the rules, then you are good to go. Of course, I mostly play singleplayer, so my only concern is whether or not it makes the game interesting or more fun, without taking all the challenge away. Early in my gaming career and when the WWW was relatively young, I went wild with cheat codes. Cool at first, but it didn't take very long to make any game kind of ho-hum, yawn, another boss bites the dust,,,, Console commands, codes and editors are good, but you have to be selective in their use or it just takes all the fun away from the game, and makes your victories meaningless. The occasional exploit, on the other hand, doesn't really seem to take away from enjoying the game.

Well, even without being drained you can still die, so on that note, it's cheesey, but not overly so. There are worse things you can do. It is in the game, somewhere, and it's not cheating, just kinda defying creatures that can drain levels or abilities, or that cause disease, or use poison. Immunity to the effects of something is the same thing as being immune to the thing, so while your life bar may change colors, you're actually not affected by what ever. There in lies the cheese.

Going to throw my two cents in here on Pally weapons - go for the greatsword! The Holy Avenger in SOU is underpowered and you won't be using it for the long haul. With a two handed weapon, you get the extra damage per hit to go along with your smiting multiplier that you can jack up greatly with Great Smite (big help against certain foes in HOTU). Plus, the thought of a Paladin cowering behind his shield doesn't seem right to me. Make evil fear your wrath.

**Of course, if you're playing EFU and not the single player version, I recant this and will say you have to use a shield.

[img]graemlins/Funny_post.gif[/img] Yeah, perspective is everything...