cleric/fighter or fighter/paladin?

[White Lancer]

Hey all, im thinking of maknig a holy-warrior type character. I cant decide between the fighter(4)/cleric(36) and the fighter(4)/Paladin(36) possibly with some Chapion of torm thrown in there for good measure.

Just so you know, this character will be going through SoU and then HotU. I haven't actually played HotU as yet, so please dont spoil me. Any SoU spoilers are fine.

[ 10-10-2005, 07:45 PM: Message edited by: White Lancer ]

[Zink Whistlefly]

Well, first of all you won't reach anywhere near level 40 if you play through SoU and then HoTU. The highest finishes I've had in the past are level 14 from SoU and then level 28 from HoTU, but this still gives you plenty of levels to make an amazing character.

As for the holy warrior - I'd personally go with the fighter/cleric option. You only need a few fighter levels to give you martial weapons, as well as the bonus feats which you can spend on combat abilities which you otherwise might be hard pushed to fit in with a pure cleric (weapon focus/power attack/cleave etc).

The cleric has some truly great buffs, as well as some powerful offensive spells. The Paladin can also buff up, but to a far lower degree, and is much more pure melee oriented. If you want to melee with your cleric, spells like divine favour and divine power, combined with bless/aid/battle tide actually gives you equal APR as a pure classed warrior, as well as superior attack and damage bonuses (in fact, due to a bug with divine favour, the extra attack is at full BAB. COmbine this with haste and you get 3 attacks ar your full BAB)! Then add offensive spells like call lightning (domain dependant)/hammer of the gods/chain lightning (domain dependant)/flame strike/blade barrier/earthquake/fire storm/slay living/destruction and of course the uber spells storm of vengeance and implosion.

This strong melee presence combined with an amazing array of buffing and offensive spells combined with the ability to summon powerful creatures makes for a stronger character than the melee based paladin/fighter.

[robertthebard]

Very good points Zink, but if it were me, I'd look at maybe going Fighter 4/Cleric 20 ( or so )/Weapon Master 7, at least. Set Int, Wis, and Str at a minimum of 13. Str can be a little higher, and add Wisdom as you progress through lvls. Charisma would have to be at least 14 too, I'd say. This still leaves enough stat points at creation to enable a very playable char. This does get out of the possible char lvl range in both campaigns though, but I'm used to playing online.

[Zink Whistlefly]

Interesting suggestion Robert - in HoTU that would still allow for a level 4 fighter/level 7 weapon master/level 16 cleric, getting the benefits of the weapon masters critical hit range and multiplier, as well as spell casting up to level 8. I like that idea.

It might be better to use a 12 CHA (which still allows to 1 extra turn undead per day, we well as one extra HD of undead turned), I'm only suggesting that since we would have to spread the stats out like you say - minimum of 13 STR, DEX, INT and WIS, with 12 CHA, which still allows for a 14 CON. Like you say, STR would need to be a little higher, so perhaps we could sacrifice CON to 12 and increase STR and WIS to 14? One of the figher levels (whilst we wait for the +4 BAB needed for spring attack) could always be used for Toughness...

[White Lancer]

I am also playing a rogue i made last week end... im contemplating adding some shadow dancer levels to get hide in plain sight... is it worth adding more than one level?

the character is currently level 8 in the OC. i want it to be a stealthy back-stabber, but i still want to be able to disarm traps/pick locks ect.

[robertthebard]

There are some really good benefits to Shadow Dancer, aside from the obvious. Shadow Evade is useful, while the summoned shadow, IMO, is really a waste, might work well in the OC though.
@Zink, by the time you get the required Dodge and Mobility for Spring Attack, BAB is redundant. Expertise is also necessary, for the WM lvls. All in all, I'd agree with your edited concept, and if you chose to configure your own package at char creation, you could take Toughness then, or maybe take Expertise, and Dodge?

[Mozenwrathe]

Man, was I ever stupid. Maybe if I had read this thread I would have made a far more successful version of Samurai Jack for Ziroc's online module. I never knew I needed an 13+ Intelligence score in order to get Expertise (which then allows you to acquire Whirlwind Attack). I was trying to make the character follow the television show's lead character (being Jack himself), but as you cannot set all your scores to 15 or 16 at the beginning, I made a reasonable guess while trying to keep his initial combat-related statistics high.

Bad move.

Now, if anyone could tell me how best to do a samurai character using regular NWN, it would be greatly appreciated. As well, if anyone else follows that show at all, what would be the best was to do the Kilted Scotsman who is quite possibly the only other character in the program to have similar fighting ability to Jack? Would he be a fighter/weaponmaster as well? Should their be (in either build) Champion Of Torm? Would you think that since I don't have an official samurai base class (as you can get if you use the PRC Consortium hakpack) I should throw in some levels of Paladin for Jack (as he is always out there smiting evil)? Ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[robertthebard]

While I really think it would be a waste of some of the monks abilities unarmed, perhaps monk/weapon master focused in katana? Imagine the surprise on a potential opponent's face, if successful in a disarm, left wishing he'd let you keep the weapon...

[Mozenwrathe]

have you ever watched Samurai Jack? he's all about the buttkicking with AND without the sword. in one episode, he is up against two monks barehanded and holds more than his own. in another episode, he does the whole ninjitsu thing using light instead of darkness. now how can you possibly manage to duplicate all of that inside of NWN???? *cries*

[robertthebard]

Monk/Sorc/Weapon Master???