Last month Kadithkanis asked in the general NWN forum if someone could give him a build for a stealthy paladin: “...I'm trying to create an investigator-type paladin. Sneaky, but deadly when the need arrives. Sort of an assassin for good -preemptive strike-type for the benefit of the holy cause...” I thought this was a challenging task and decided to give it a try.
Building this kind of Paladin is a bit tricky, but it is possible. You need a second class with hide/move silently as class skills. You have arcane archer, harper scout, monk, ranger, rogue and shadowdancer to choose from. The other options have alignment conflicts.
I decided on Pal/Monk/SD
The next question is what ability you're going to focus on. In other words, do you want a Str, Dex or Cha based warrior? Being a Paladin means you have much to gain from focusing on Cha. You need some Dex for your stealth skills, and your AC. You'll also want a little Str to be able to carry loot and do some damage when not using the Cha feats. You have Wis based spells and AC. You want some Con for hitpoints etc. You also want some Int to get enough skill points. So this means you have to spread the stats.
To keep the stealth skills near maxed (when you play the levels) you have to take the 2. class quite often and at regular intervals. I ended up taking monk or SD lvls every 3. or 4. lvl. I took monk at 1. lvl for extra skillpoints and ended up with Pal 29/Monk 9/SD 2. This gives 3 pal epic bonus feats, improved evasion, uncanny dodge I, HIPS and the other monk feats. 29 pal lvls give a reasonable smite and lay on hands.
I came up with this build for the Pal 29/ monk 9/ SD 2 Stealthy Paladin:
Human, LG
Str 14 Dex 14 Con 10 Wis 14 Int 12 Cha 14 -> 26
Feat, ability and lvl progression:
1 Monk 1, Power attack, Dodge, (Cleave as a free monk feat) 2 Pal 1 3 Pal 2, Mobility 4 Monk 2, Cha +1 5 Pal 3 6 Pal 4, Weapon finesse/Extra turning 7 Monk 3 8 Pal 5, Cha +1 9 Pal 6, Divine might 10 Monk 4 11 Pal 7 12 Pal 8, Divine shield, Cha +1 13 Monk 5 14 Pal 9 15 Pal 10, Improved crit Kama 16 Pal 11, Cha +1 17 Monk 6 (Knockdown/ Improved KD as free monk feats) 18 Pal 12, W. focus Kama 19 Pal 13 20 Pal 14, Cha+1 21 SD 1, Epic w. focus Kama, 22 Pal 15 23 Pal 16 24 Pal 17 Armour skin, Cha +1 25 SD 2 26 Pal 18 27 Pal 19, Toughness 28 Pal 20, Cha +1 29 Monk 7 30 Pal 21, Great Cha I 31 Pal 22 32 Pal 23 Epic prowess, Cha +1 33 Monk 8, Great Cha II 34 Pal 24 35 Pal 25 36 Pal 26, Extra smiting, Great smiting I, Cha +1 37 Monk 9 38 Pal 27 39 Pal 28, Great smiting II 40 Pal 29, Great smiting III, Cha +1
BAB: 28 AB with a non magical Kama: 34/31/28/25/22/19 AC: 25 naked – tumble bonus 8, monk bonus 3, dex bonus 2, armour skin bonus 2 HP: 418
W finesse is optional. Its usefulness depends on what items you wear. Extra turning can be taken instead for more divine might/shield uses. The persuade skill is not essential for the build and can be replaced eg. with more taunt ranks. I took SD relatively late. There is no problem taking it anytime after lvl 7. But I wanted Knockdown before epic lvls and didn't want to take the BAB hit from Monk5/SD1.
With his Cha boosting spells and divine shield the stealthy paladin gets minimum AC 36 naked. The AB can to some degree be boosted with the paladin spells. I also took the taunt skill to help improve the hit ratio.
When fighting unarmed he needs gloves to pierce damage reduction. When fighting with a Kama he can use his spells to enchant the weapon.
His smite attack does about 130 HP damage. When casting aura of glory and eagle’s splendour, he gets Cha 32 minimum, giving a +11 bonus to divine might/shield.
This guy can face an Old red dragon, naked, equipped with a mundane kama, and whack it down with ease. And he can stalk a Balor and kill it with a single strike using his smite. He kills the greater undead with a Lay on hands from the shadows. But this is probably the kind of things a lvl 40 character is supposed to do! _________________ There are no facts, only interpretations.