Paladin

Classes

Arelith Wiki
Character Creation:
Creation (New Players Guide) Race - Deity - Class Gifts - Backgrounds - Alignment Mark of Destiny - Epic Sacrifice Customization - Head List - Builds
Character Systems:
Description - Disguise / Covered Languages - Experience - Quests Pickpocket - Rest Death - Lycanthropy - Investigate Sequencers - Runic Sequencers
World Systems:
Settlements - Factions Quarters - Shops - Bank Riding - Sailing Communication - Portals Time - Containers/Bags Radiant Heart - Assassin's Guild Sencliff's Pirates
Item Creation Systems:
Alchemy - Art Craft - Carpentry Herb - Smith - Tailor Dweomercraft - Runes
Armor Weapons - Melee / Ranged / Siege Resources - Poison
Arelith Changes:
Classes - Skills - Feats Spells (list) - Summons Familiar Reskins - Misc
Help:
Rules - Roleplay - Maps Console Commands Common Bugs - Staff Support Tickets - Character Remake [The Astrolabe]

Paladin is a default base class with Arelith specific changes.

Introduction

Arelith Paladins enjoy changes that benefit their spellcasting and martial abilities. Mechanical changes are included in the #Class Mechanics on this page and explained in the #Arelith Changes section. Base mechanics can be found on NWNWiki. The #Roleplay Tips section provides suggestions for character development.

Requirements

Alignment restrictions: Lawful good only

Spellcasting: Requires a Paladin Deity as their patron deity.

Class Features

Hit die: d10

Proficiencies: armor (light, medium, heavy), shields, weapons (martial, simple)

Skill points: 4 + int modifier ((4 + int modifier) * 4 at 1st level)

Class Skills: concentration, craft mastery, discipline, heal, intimidate, leadership, listen, lore, parry, ride, sail, spot, taunt

Unavailable feats: weapon specialization

Primary saving throw(s): fortitude

Base attack bonus: +1/level

Spellcasting: Divine, charisma-based (a base charisma score of 10 + the spell’s level is required to cast a spell, bonus spells are based on modified charisma, and the charisma modifier affects spell DCs), and spontaneous cast (no spell preparation required)

Level Progression

Hit points rolls on Arelith are always maximum.

							Known Spells						Base spells per day
Level	BAB	Fort	Reflex	Will	Feats	HP	0th	1st	2nd	3rd	4th		0th	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Divine Grace, divine health, lay on hands	10	2	-	-	-	-		2	-	-	-	-
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	aura of courage, fearless +2, Divine Smite	20	2	-	-	-	-		2	-	-	-	-
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	remove disease, turn undead	30	3	-	-	-	-		4	-	-	-	-
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1		40	3	2	-	-	-		4	0	-	-	-
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	fearless +4	50	4	2	-	-	-		4	0	-	-	-
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Oath	60	4	3	-	-	-		4	1	-	-	-
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2		70	4	3	-	-	-		4	1	-	-	-
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	Fearless +6	80	4	4	2	-	-		4	1	0	-	-
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Fearless: Fear Immunity	90	4	4	2	-	-		4	1	0	-	-
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3		100	4	4	3	-	-		6	1	1	-	-
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3		110	4	4	3	-	-		6	1	1	0	-
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4		120	4	4	4	1	-		6	1	1	1	-
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4		130	4	4	4	1	-		6	1	1	1	-
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4		140	4	4	4	2	-		6	1	1	1	0
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5		150	4	4	4	2	-		6	1	1	1	1
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	Greater Oath +1 AB +1 Divine Damage	160	4	4	4	3	1		6	2	2	1	1
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5		170	4	4	4	3	1		6	2	2	2	1
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6		180	4	4	4	3	2		6	3	2	2	1
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6		190	4	4	4	3	2		6	3	3	3	2
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6		200	4	4	4	3	3		6	3	3	3	3

Spells

See Category:Paladin_Spells for a list of all spells by category.

Cantrips	1st level spells	2nd level spells
Cure Minor Wounds Light Resistance Virtue	Bless Bless Weapon Cure Light Wounds Deafening Clang Detect Poison Divine Favor Endure Elements Magic Weapon Protection from Alignment Remove Fear Lionheart	Aid Aura of Glory Bear's Endurance Bull's Strength Cat's Grace Cure Moderate Wounds Eagle's Splendor Fox's Cunning Lesser Restoration Owl's Wisdom Remove Paralysis Resist Elements Sustenance Vengeful Mount
3rd level spells	4th level spells
Aid Cure Moderate Wounds Cure Serious Wounds Dispel Magic Good Hope Greater Magic Weapon Halt Undead Healing Circle Magic Circle Against Alignment Prayer Remove Blindness/Deafness	Banishment Cure Critical Wounds Cure Serious Wounds Death Ward Freedom of Movement Holy Sword Negative Energy Protection Neutralize Poison Restoration Pacifying Shackle

Epic Class

Bonus feats: The epic paladin gains a bonus feat every three levels after 20th. In other words, at levels 23, 26, and 29.

Epic bonus feats: armor skin, epic prowess, epic reputation, epic spell focus, epic toughness, epic weapon focus, great smiting, greater spell focus, improved combat casting, overwhelming critical, perfect health, planar turning

Unavailable epic feats: epic weapon specialization, outsider shape, construct shape, dragon shape, undead shape

Level	Feats	HP range
21st	CL +3 against dispels, Improved Turning	210
22nd		220
23rd	Bonus Feat	230
24th		240
25th		250
26th	Epic Oath +2 AB +2 Divine Damage, Bonus Feat	260
27th		270
28th		280
29th	Bonus Feat	290
30th		300

Arelith Changes

Change	Level	Description
Chosen Deity	-	Clerics, Paladins and Druids must be one of the cleric alignments of that deity. See Chosen Deity to read more. Paladins are required to select their patron from the Paladin Deities.
Detects Evil	-	By using the -detectevil command, a paladin can detect the presence of evil characters near by. However, this comes with a cost to the deity's power and presence, as well as the loss of 100xp per use.
Spell changes	-	For specifics, see Category:Paladin_Spells.
Class skills	-	Paladins gain Intimidate, Listen Sail and Spot as class skills.
Bonus Language	-	Celestial.
Spellbook	-	Can save and load Spellbooks through the Crafting Skills menu. Special Abilities > Crafting Skills > Choose "Spellbooks" from the menu.
Lay on Hands	1	10 minute cooldown rather than uses per day.
Remove Disease	3	3 minute cooldown rather than uses per day.
Paladin dispel resistance	21	character gains a CL +3 against Dispels.
Paladin and Harper Priest	21	If you have at least 21 levels of paladin and at least 3 levels of harper priest, you will get 2 less CL towards dispels.
Divine Synergy	21	Type of feat: Blackguard Class, Liberator Class, Paladin Class Automatically granted by: Blackguard 17, Liberator 16, Paladin 21 Required for: None Specifics: Using Divine Might or Divine Shield automatically applies the other feat. Both feats are needed for this to apply. The effects will not stack, they are simply activated simultaneously. Use: Automatic
Divine Smite	2	Instant use. Adds Charisma Modifier to AB and class levels to damage (Capping at 20). Cooldown is 6 seconds between use, increased by 1 second per Great Smiting feat. You can save up to a single use of this skill, Extra smiting allows you to save up to 3 uses. A single use refreshes every 3 minutes, Extra Smiting halves the refresh time to 1.5 Minutes. Only works with melee weapons. Divine Smite shares the character's weapon threat range and critical multiplier, with the exception of bonuses granted by Weapon Master feats. Divine Smite has a customized implementation, see the #Divine Smite table below. -usefeat divinesmite works for use on current target
Turn Undead	3	This feat has been heavily modified on Arelith, read more about it here
Fearless	2	A Paladin is conditioned to charge into battle against even the most fearsome of opponents and gains a +2 bonus to saving throws vs fear. This bonus increases to +4 at level 5, +6 at level 8, and becomes Fear Immunity at level 9.
Aura of Courage	2	Removed and replaced with Fearless.
Improved Turning	21	A Paladin receives this feat as a free feat. This feat was previously known as Extra Turning but has been renamed and customized on Arelith

Divine Smite

---

Divine Smite is an instant use ability. Adds Charisma Modifier to AB and source class levels to damage (Capping at 20). Cooldown is 6 seconds between use, increased by 1 second per Great Smiting feat. You can save up to a single use of this skill, Extra smiting allows you to save up to 3 uses. A single use refreshes every 3 minutes, Extra Smiting halves the refresh time to 1.5 Minutes. Works with melee weapons and unarmed. Divine Smite shares the character's weapon threat range and critical multiplier, with the exception of bonuses granted by Weapon Master feats.

Divine Smite grants scaling Damage based upon the difference between the smiter's alignment and the alignment of the recipient of the Smite.

The full amount of Smite damage (100%) is delivered at opposite ends of the Alignment Chart, meaning a Lawful Good smiter and a Chaotic Evil recipient (or vice versa). Partial Smite damage is delivered based upon the following:

• Start at 0% Smite Damage (same alignment)
• Each difference on the Law <-> Chaos axis is +10%
• Each difference on the Good <-> Evil axis is +40%
• A small, unknown RNG amount is then added to help prevent alignment metagaming

Great Smiting

Great Smiting can be taken as repeating additional feats to increase their potential smite damage. The character's potential Divine Smite bonus damage increases to 1 + (smite tier / 2) times their combined Paladin, Divine Champion, Blackguard, Harper Paragon, and Zhentarim Enforcer levels, up to a maximum of 20 * (1 + (smite tier / 2)).

Instant Attack:

Instant Attack Feats (Activated): Instant attacks share a cooldown timer: Dirty Fighting, Divine Smite, Eldritch Blast, Eviscerate, Elemental Maelstrom, Elemental Strike, Misericorde, Whirlwind Attack Using instant attacks lower attacks in the following round by 1. This is meant to offset the free attack gained by activating them. Instant attacks are made to look and feel like regular melee attacks while actually being an entirely independent feature. Cannot trigger cleave and similar abilities for this reason. Instant attacks mirror the animation delay of regular attacks via a short cooldown after casting a spell. Parrying instant attacks works differently the normal parry mechanics because it is scripted and implemented differently. Parry cannot riposte instant attacks, but parrying the instant attack does not count against parries-per-round. Against a character that has 4 APR and additionally uses an instant attack every round (like a hasted Spellsword), parry builds can parry 4 of these 5 attacks per round and riposte three of them. Most instant attacks (except Whirlwind Attack) ignore Weapon Master crit feats. Exception is elemental strike/maelstrom which only allows Ki Critical for Bladesingers (where the feat is built-in to the path) to enable their extra threat range. If an attacker is running, their melee instant special attacks against PCs now roll at a disadvantage. This disadvantage applies to both attack and threat rolls, causing the attacker to roll a d20 twice and proceed with the lower result. Replaces a prior 0.5 second movement speed penalty. Epic Dodge does not cause Instant Attacks to automatically miss due to an engine limitation (Epic Dodge is hard coded to affect normal flurry attacks). It instead forces any Instant Attack to roll at disadvantage until it causes one to miss. Then it goes on cooldown for 6 seconds. This means attacking a target that has Epic Dodge while moving will roll twice at disadvantage. Effectively rolling four times.

Alignment Chart

Percentage		+10%
	Axis	Lawful (70-100)	Neutral (31-69)	Chaotic (0-30)
+40%	Good (70-100)	Lawful Good (LG)	Neutral Good (NG)	Chaotic Good (CG)
	Neutral (31-69)	Lawful Neutral (LN)	True Neutral (N)	Chaotic Neutral (CN)
	Evil (00-30)	Lawful Evil (LE)	Neutral Evil (NE)	Chaotic Evil (CE)

Oaths

Oath feats define a Paladin's skillset and are selected at class level 6. Higher tiers of the chosen oath are automatically granted at Paladin levels 16 and 26; Harper Priest and Harper Paragon count towards this level requirement. A Paladin can only ever have one Oath. Once selected, the Oath may not be changed.

There are five Paladin Oaths, that focus on different aspects of the class.

• Oath of Inquisition: Specializes in the elimination of undead and extraplanar threats.
• Oath of Perseverance: Specializes in the art of healing, bolstering his allies in their moments of greatest weakness.
• Oath of Reckoning: Specializes in the virtue of persistence, remaining stalwart even in the face of crushing despair.
• Oath of Vengeance: Specializes in sacred warfare, honing his skills to undo evils all over Faerûn.
• Oath of the Ancients: Specializes in ancient traditions and druidic rituals, fostering the spark of life and smiting any who dare obscure it.

Oaths	Tiers	Level Req.	Skill Bonus (Total)		Passives (Total)		Abilities
			Skill	Bonus	Attack Bonus	Damage Bonus (Divine)
Oath of Inquisition	1	6th	Spot	+3	+0	+0	Improved Turning feat (granted earlier than usual). +1d2 additional bonus to turn checks per oath tier.
	2	16th	Spot	+6	+1	+1	Bless Weapon bonus damage increases to 2d10, when cast on the Paladin's own weapon. Gain the Planar Turning feat. Gain the feat Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration, if the Paladin also has Spell Focus: Abjuration.
	3	26th	Spot	+9	+2	+2	Eldritch Blasts targeting the Paladin inflict reduced damage. The Paladin has a 50% chance to bypass immunity against critical hits. Holy Sword also applies all immunities granted by the Undeath's Eternal Foe spell. Holy Sword grants attacks a chance to restore a use of Turn Undead on hit. Triggers once per flurry
Oath of Perseverance	1	6th	Heal	+3	+0	+0	Remove Disease also cures various other negative effects. (Ability Decrease, AC decrease, Arcane Spell Failure, Attack Decrease, Curse, Blindness, Charmed, Confused, Damage Decrease, Damage Immunity Decrease, Dazed, Deaf, Disease, Dominated, Entangle, Frightened, Level Drain, Paralysis, Petrification, Poison, Saving Throw Decrease, Sleep, Slow, Spell Failure, Spell Resistance Decrease, Stunned)
	2	16th	Heal	+6	+1	+1	Lay on Hands cooldown decreases to 5 minutes. If has either Divine Shield or Divine Might, gain the other. Heal spells are automatically empowered (All dice rolls are multiplied by 1.5). Bless Weapon: Successful melee attacks heal the Paladin by 2 HP (+1 at levels 16, 21 and 26). Triggers on every hit.
	3	26th	Heal	+9	+2	+2	Lay on Hands healing increases by 25% when self-targeting and heals both the target and, to a lesser extent, the Paladin when targeting other creatures. Holy Sword also cures various other negative effects as per restoration when cast. Holy Sword: Successful melee attacks heal the Paladin and nearby allies by 5 HP. Stacks with healing from Bless Weapon. Triggers on every hit. Gains Inspire Courage similar to Knight Protector (3 Minute Cooldown, Removes all negative status effects from all affected allies as per the Restoration spell, Saving throw bonus is +2)
Oath of Reckoning	1	6th	Concentration	+3	+0	+0	Heroic Shield feat (Guard ability only, no Knight immunities unless the Paladin is also a Knight)
	2	16th	Concentration	+6	+1	+1	Divine biteback damage (1d8 + hard CHA modifier. Unaffected by Spell Breaches). Divine Shield, if the Paladin also has Power Attack.
	3	26th	Concentration	+9	+2	+2	Divine Shield AC bonus increases by 2 while a shield is equipped. Holy Sword: Duration increased to 3 rounds/level; also grants +5 regeneration. Holy Sword hits lower the target's AB by 2 for 3 rounds (Will save, DC 10 + 1/2 class levels + base CHA modifier). Triggers once per flurry.
Oath of Vengeance	1	6th	Leadership	+3	+0	+0	Movement Speed increases by 10%. Gain Extra Smiting feat.
	2	16th	Leadership	+6	+1	+1	Gain Great Smiting I feat. Gain the Divine Might feat, if the Paladin also has Power Attack.
	3	26th	Leadership	+9	+2	+2	Divine Might damage bonus increases by +2 (+3 while wielding a two-handed weapon). Holy Sword grants attacks a chance to restore a use of Divine Smite on hit. Triggers once per flurry. Holy Sword grants a damage bonus vs. evil of +1d6 divine damage.
Oath of the Ancients	1	6th	Animal Empathy	+3	+0	+0	Knows Animal Language. Can tend to plants. Paladins with an Oath of the Ancients can turn animals, beasts, magical beasts and vermin, just like Clerics with the Animal Domain. Gain the Woodland Stride feat.
	2	16th	Animal Empathy	+6	+1	+1	Improved Expertise, if the Paladin also has Expertise. Remove Disease also grants a lesser Barkskin effect (+4 AC).
	3	26th	Animal Empathy	+9	+1	+2	Gain the Nature Sense Feat. Gains 1 less Passive AB, making this Paladin slightly weaker in Urban environments, but stronger in Natural environments. Remove Disease's Barkskin effect improves to +5 AC. Holy Sword hits can entangle the target for 1 round (Reflex save, DC 10 + 1/2 class levels + base CHA modifier). Triggers once per flurry. The entangle effect on Holy Sword becomes a 90% movement speed decrease.

Roleplay Tips

- Author: Zeral

Origins of Paladins

Paladins are holy warriors. The operative words being holy, as in divinely inspired or patronized, and warrior, which implies an amount of martial prowess in terms of being used against other living, and unliving things. All paladins must have a patron deity, and for good reason, without it they'd lose the majority of their class abilities, and they'd have no idea how to live their lives. Paladins are required to have a code. They must live by a set of principles or ethics to maintain their class. If you want to arbitrarily decide how to do good, and do it without 'restrictions', the chaotic equivalent of the paladin is the Holy Liberator.

Becoming a Paladin

Becoming a paladin is always a conscious decision. However, this does not imply that one simply bucks up and joins the paladin core, and becomes one in a brief training montage. Some people can be paladins, and some people just flat-out can't. About one in every thousand members of any sentient species has the capacity for being an adventurer, about one in every five hundred of those could become a paladin. Scale those ratios down extremely for inherently evil races. When one realizes they should be spending their life helping people and keeping things peaceful to the best of their ability, they go discover how to become a paladin. It's a calling, not an organization.

Paladin-hood is something culturally notable. People are not paladins because they feel like it, and they do not become paladins because they spent weeks in the wilderness communing with their god. Unless that's part of the initiation, but that comes later. Paladins are recognized by the priesthood, and generally welcome, though not all paladins work directly with priests. And, in some cases, the conflicting interests of the lawful good-aligned paladins and the slightly more flexible priesthood can cause them to not abide each other. Faiths fight within themselves as well as outside, even the good ones.

Paladins, as mentioned before, must have a code. The code is usually inherited from preceding paladins, which eventually extrapolates into what is known as an "order" of paladins. Most paladins have had at some point a mentor. People do not instinctively know how to do the right thing in all situations, and so, upon learning that there exist people with their same shameless drive for moral action in all things, paladins go to learn from them. On occasion this happens later in life, when people have encountered many paladins, until they find an order or mentor that best speaks to them.

The actual initiation, and when the character is deemed 'paladin' is decided either by the mentor, order, or society. The mentor may stand one day and say "You're done." to their pupil, call them a paladin and equal, and send them packing. Equally, an order may set forward a specific set of guidelines or test to finalize inclusion. Less frequently, upon the death of mentor, or unavailability of the order, a paladin my deem themselves to be 'paladin'. This is an extremely rare situation, however. And, as always, the final decision is up to the god.

Being a Paladin

Any character, ordained and armed as a paladin, generally armored, is suddenly put in a precarious situation. Unlike most priests, that can say "I am a cleric of Cyric." and have the common folk flinch, paladins are not recognized as frequently by their faiths so much as their occupation. A paladin is a paladin to most people. This means, among other things, that people do not come to paladins for consolation, answers to life's questions, or donations. They do, however, hear 'paladin', and think of evil that they need squelched. Paladins are frequently heroic figures, and often more than any other class manage to rise into higher levels of power. The common people will see a glowing, peerless fighter who can defeat dragons with the loss of only an eyebrow, regardless of how powerful the paladin actually is. It is for this reason that paladins are frequently roamers. It's unhealthy for people to expect their heroes to be on-call for the rest of eternity, and having the convenient and completely true excuse of "I must move on." allows a paladin to occasionally delegate problems beyond him or her to someone more capable.

Paladins, by and large, are not idiots. They tend to be well-educated, civilized and highly socially aware. The majority are astute, considerate and fairly blunt. They are, more than normal people, aware of what their action or inaction is doing to the world. Should they linger for the grand feast when that ring really needs to be thrown into the caldera? Probably not. They know this. Yes, it's possible and completely understandable to get the occasional naive paladin, but they do not tend to live long or at all. Quixote should have been killed three times over, if he had not somehow chosen highly inept people to 'challenge'.

What the paladin must do in their life, however, is adhere to the tenants of their code, and do good. You must, and may not ever willingly commit an evil act for the sake of a sin. There are some murky waters surrounding this general statement, but it remains by and large inviolable. If the shopkeep is refusing to tell you where the evil ritual to bring ruin to the world is taking place out of fear of reprisal, you have permission to break his nose to get the information out of him. You're holy warriors, darn it. Not holy wusses.

That being said, a paladin is not to be faulted for on occasion not showing compassion, or getting fed up with people. They are not to be faulted for raising a fist in anger, briefly, given that they lower it with significantly less anger.

The largest development point for a paladin is probably selection of a deity. Lawful good and neutral good deities really never conflict with their paladins. They say 'go for it'. No issue with a bit of law and good in the world, even the neutral ones will concede that point. The god of a paladin defines their priorities. A paladin of Tyr wants justice out of all situations, whereas a paladin of Kelemvor or Illmater would likely be interested in less life being lost in any situation. Always take your deity's preferences into account before acting in a given situation, as a paladin.

There is a lot of variation and development for different ways for people to play paladins. They are not all the 'crusader' type, nor the righteous avenger. They have as much variation in preferences and activities as rogues or fighters. Just keep in mind the best intentions and a slightly stoic mindset concerning life, and you should be good.

External Links

Information about default NWN class are available on NWNWiki.