Foreword This build was inspired while I was attempting one of the most extreme unusual build that I have discussed with Avado, and has not been done, which didn’t exactly worked the way I wanted it to. So I moved on to yet another unusual one. As far as I know, this combination hasn’t been done with this certain leveling and combination. Again, avado gave me some advices that turned out to be the best for this build.
And this build has worked well so far for me.
HOWEVER, this build is extremely slow to level due to that all good things don’t really come until near the end. But I am satisfied with this.
Another thing, I noticed that pretty much all builds have leveled up straight in one class then another. I disliked that, I wanted to balance fighting, divine and arcane aspects, hence the reason why it’s slow, but it’s still playable in my opinion. It’s only after 20th level that I start to focus more on Wizard while mixing some shadowdancer and single level of paladin for Discipline dump.
I hope you will enjoy reading the story as I have writing it.
Story A battered man was thrown into the prison without any food and water. The condition of the cell is unsanitary and unclean, but this didn’t bother the man who is the current occupant. The door clanged shut and audible click of lock was heard. In background, several rough men were laughing as they departed.
The man got up, patted off his torn and ragged clothes, and then knelt facing the only source of light in the cell. The light shone on his face, revealing it in its entirety. He had a thick stubble beard and a very long black hair. He also had a singular scar running from right temple to cheek and angling toward the jaw. He was whispering, keeping his ears open for an opening that he has been looking for…
“It is time.” said the man as he smirked and stood. He muttered a spell and hoped that it wouldn’t make too much of a noise. The lock on the cell’s door clicked, not quite as audible as before. He took his time opening the door, to prevent any creaking sounds. Fortunately for him, the floor was as hard as stone which enabled him to move faster than you would on wood. He snuck up behind a guard and snapped his neck.
“Shh… rest in peace.” He said as he laid the limp body on the floor. Before moving on, he stole the guard’s long sword and shield. “Now, I need a decent armor…” He muttered another spell, the instant he completed it he disappeared.
Two guards were walking down the corridor as he walked around them. The second guard felt a brushing but didn’t see what it was; he paused and asked the first guard, “What was that?”
The first guard shrugged and both resumed their patrolling.
It wasn’t until after fifth door that the prisoner found what he wanted. He muttered the same spell he used on the cell’s lock to open the armory chest. He pulled out a heavy armor, he was pleased with it. “Ah... excellent… good quality full plate.” He donned it and exchanged out his pathetic shield in favor of tower shield.
He worked his way out of the prison basement and up into the tower to get to the man he wanted to kill. All of this was done without a single incident except for that guard whom he has killed.
A door was opened and the man inside spoke, “Well, well… Shrouded Hunter… I am curious as to how you got out of that cell and all the way to my room without sounding any alarm.” Old, but not quite old, man turned to face the intruder. Upon a quick glance, anyone can tell that this man is the practicer of arcane arts. Another glaring sign of that is of all of the scrolls and potions in the background.
“No matter… you will die. My little friend will take care of you.”
A huge bulk of flesh blocked the light source as he moved in to block Shrouded Hunter. “Heh heh,” was all what the man said.
Hunter took a look at the man and looked around the bulk, “Is this the best you got?” He scoffed and smirked at the towering man. This unsettled the wizard’s guard somewhat.
Hunter muttered few spells quickly and engaged the big man. The swords clanged and sparked. They were evenly matched, Hunter held the man at bay with his sword, but, he had a trick up his sleeves. He brought his face closer to the guard’s face and uttered one word out loud, “FLARE!” Right from his mouth, a blinding flash of light blinded the guard, causing him to stumble backward and cursing as he held his face in palm of his left hand.
“You are a paladin! You shouldn’t be able to do this!” screamed the guard, as while the wizard looked with some surprise.
“You will die for that!” the guard screamed as he lunged at Hunter. Unfortunately for him, his guts were split open with sharp edge of Shrouded Hunter’s long sword. All of the guts and blood spilled out quickly that the man was dead before he even hit the ground.
The wizard hissed and spoke once again, “Well, it appears that you possess knowledge of arcane arts... considering it’s forbidden for paladins to learn them to begin with.”
“Feh, it’s a tool and it’s a mean to an end. I am not your usual paladin, I follow tenets of my god and he does not care how I follow it as long I get the job done. And you are the job. You are an abomination in my god’s eyes. Therefore, it’s my job to make sure that you are erased from the face of this realm!”
The wizard moved his hands in fury and from it emanated a fireball. As the fireball hit the ground, Hunter disappeared. Wizard screamed, “No, it’s impossible! You CANNOT walk among the shadows!”
One by one, the wizard’s protective spells fell, all thanks to hunter’s holy avenger spell that he had. There were still more protective spells still in effects; Hunter muttered one or two spells that further stripped the old man of his spells.
Wizard screamed some more and was furiously casting spells in all directions, hoping to get the hunter before any further damage was done to him.
“Sorry old man, you are done.” Shrouded Hunter said as he appeared behind the wizard with sword hovering above Adam’s apple. He slit his throat and let the body fall to the floor. “Such a fool. This is what you get when you force people to your will.” Hunter muttered another spell again and this time he disappeared and escaped the tower.
Pros/Cons Pros:
HIPS
Complete spellbooks of both Wizard and Paladin.
Decent HPs
8 Skillsets
Decent AC
All saves in 20’s *this can be boosted further if you get hands on CHA boosting items.
Auto-Still Spell I-III
Evasion
Uncanny Dodge II
Immunity to Fear and Diseases
Can use arcane and divine scrolls without the need of UMD
Cons:
Slow Leveling
None of the goods are obtained until near the end
Lawful Good…
Shadowdancer is not obtained until level 20
Smite evil and Lay On Hands is mostly useless
Bonus
HORSES! Even if mods or server doesn’t support horses, you still just look damn cool riding one!
Character Shrouded Hunter
Paladin(14), Wizard(21), Shadowdancer(5)
Race: Human Starting Class: Paladin Alignment: LG Abilities:
Author’s Notes Originally, I wanted to do weapon focus in greataxe for greater damage… but I realized that there is more benefit in weapon focus in any one-handed weapon plus shield which in turn gave you more AC.
You will also notice that the skills are invested somewhat awkward, but this was the best route that I could see that enabled you to maximize most of the skillsets, especially once reaching first and the final SD level.
You can easily switch around the pre-epic feats without much of impact.
Notes: * - This feats can be exchanged in favor of some another one-handed weapon, unless you want to do more damage, greataxe. ** - Knockdown can be exchanged out for Maximize Spell if you want to focus on spellcasting aspect than melee and to have more option of spells, such as maximized IGMS.
If the server you play on has immunity to knockdown, you can exchange discipline skill for something else if that’s desired. Can put the extra points from Discipline into Spot to bring it up some more.
Any thoughts?
Anuis _________________ - Epic Character Builders Guild
- Life is but a dream...
- I know more than I am letting on...
-I think, Therefore I am.
Edited By Anuis on 06/28/10 04:15
Why WIS 18?
Quote: Posted 06/28/10 01:38 (GMT) -- onion eater
Why WIS 18?
Ah, I forgot to put that in the notes.. I needed slots to cast paladin's spells.
Anuis _________________ - Epic Character Builders Guild
- Life is but a dream...
- I know more than I am letting on...
-I think, Therefore I am.
Edited By Anuis on 06/28/10 02:38
Quote: Posted 06/28/10 01:38 (GMT) -- onion eater
Why WIS 18?
LOL Onion, that was the first thing I pointed out to Anuis! Being the evil genii that he is, he stayed true to his vision and kept it at 18! In my humble opinion, this is a very "advanced" thing to do, as i have not seen it done before, as best as my memory can recall. Most of us forget that 14 pal gives access to lv 4 spells, but you need a higher base wisdom to access them.
In all, I do like this guy! We talk so much today about all the good ideas being done already, yet, here is a builder who made builds before many of us even considered playing nwn, and he's still doing them! Thanks for letting me take part man! It is inspiring. _________________
Quote: Posted 06/23/04 21:16 (GMT) -- Anuis
Suolucider, Blitz 04, avado, Quisition, Boourns, ... welcome to the guild! Anuis
Makes me feel OOLD!!
I would prolly go 23wiz 15 pal 2sd for a slightly more powerful/optimized version.. I believe 23 wiz gives undispellable? 15pal ups the spells a bit and gives the full +5 div favor.. 2sd for mid and end lvl tumble dumps while retaining (late) uncanny dodge. _________________ Workings of a Chaotic-Neutral mind:
Mind to Subconscious: Sir! Host is being asked to read the rules! Subconscious to Mind: But theres pr0n to watch! Mind to Subconscious: Happy to report Host has beaten us to it! Subconscious to Mind: We ROCK!
And if getting those extra couple of wiz levs, i would prolly swap in Epic Warding and EMA in place of a couple of Great Ints?
Also probably cut Int and up Str a bit more? .. end up around 34AB which is a big diff to 31.
I would easily give up the smoother progression of skill dumps that 5sd gives for an extra couple of lvls of wiz, and opening up the two most useful wiz feats. Still a late bloomer, but with Hips, Autostill3, EMA, EW, all the reciprocal shields, mords etc etc
Is that too different to the original concept? _________________ Workings of a Chaotic-Neutral mind:
Mind to Subconscious: Sir! Host is being asked to read the rules! Subconscious to Mind: But theres pr0n to watch! Mind to Subconscious: Happy to report Host has beaten us to it! Subconscious to Mind: We ROCK!
Edited By jumjones on 06/28/10 23:12
Quote: Posted 06/28/10 23:06 (GMT) -- jumjones
Is that too different to the original concept?
LOL I dont think so (since i tried to talk Anuis into at least 15 pal myself!). Anuis and I, just last night, were discussing some interesting variants that could be done with this sort of template. The mark of a solid, imho, is when others take it and start to play with it! That has always been a strength of this guild.
Since you don't take SD before lvl 20, I'd take it at 21. So the pre-epics would be Pally 14/Wiz6. Preserves all the AB you can. I'd never bother taking WIS above 14 either, it costs way too much. Maybe in the olden days, when Folken of Yore had a use for Holysword. After 1.69 it's mostly useless. I'd do my gamble for items and go for higher STR, maybe even INT. 15/23/2 would def be a better split, agreed on that. 95% undispellable is nice. There are decent Arcane buffs too, although we tend to forget them.
Really interesting build all in all, Anuis. _________________ We are sons of Odin, and the fire that we burn inside is the legacy of warrior-kings who reign above in the sky I will lead the charge, my sword into the wind Sons of Odin fights to die and live again
Like Avado said, this build is merely a template, it can be adjusted to suit your taste or environment that you are in.
Anyway, personally, I prefer to keep all shadowdancer to keep a smooth transition of skill increments. But if I absolutely had to, I would dump three SD in favor of additional P and two W.
And in regards of Holy Sword.. how is it useless? Has there been changes that I may not be aware of? I haven't played as Paladin after 1.69 patch, err I think the last time I played as such was back when Death Hunter was created.
In regards of dropping INT, it's not recommended. You would lose some number of skill points (too lazy to do math at the moment). Paladin and wizard only gets 2 skill points plus INT modifier per level.
Anuis _________________ - Epic Character Builders Guild
- Life is but a dream...
- I know more than I am letting on...
-I think, Therefore I am.
Quote: Posted 06/30/10 22:03 (GMT) -- Anuis
And in regards of Holy Sword.. how is it useless? Has there been changes that I may not be aware of? I haven't played as Paladin after 1.69 patch, err I think the last time I played as such was back when Death Hunter was created.
It stripped buffs like there was no tomorrow earlier, and made pancakes of Clerics especially, but just about anything trying to fight buffed which couldn't kill you before you rolled a 20 or two. Now all it does it cast Dispel magic based on your Paladin or character level. I don't remember which and it hardly matters, you won't disple much anymore.
Quote: Posted 06/30/10 22:03 (GMT) -- Anuis
In regards of dropping INT, it's not recommended. You would lose some number of skill points (too lazy to do math at the moment). Paladin and wizard only gets 2 skill points plus INT modifier per level.
Anuis
I suggested more INT, not less. _________________ We are sons of Odin, and the fire that we burn inside is the legacy of warrior-kings who reign above in the sky I will lead the charge, my sword into the wind Sons of Odin fights to die and live again
The caster level on the holy avenger dispel is set at caster level 10 now, which is still has a 50% chance of triggering on a hit. It isn't useless, but not what it used to be. It can be good against builds that use potions or have low caster levels to buff themselves, but it won't touch dedicated casters.
Quote: Posted 07/03/10 01:01 (GMT) -- Grimnir77
I suggested more INT, not less.
Sorry, the INT comment was directed at jumjones.
In regards of the Holy Sword... why change something that wasn't broke?
Anuis _________________ - Epic Character Builders Guild
- Life is but a dream...
- I know more than I am letting on...
-I think, Therefore I am.
Edited By Anuis on 07/03/10 04:42
Quote: Posted 07/03/10 04:34 (GMT) -- Anuis
In regards of the Holy Sword... why change something that wasn't broke?
Indeed.
Quote: Posted 07/03/10 15:08 (GMT) -- onion eater
Quote: Posted 07/03/10 04:34 (GMT) -- Anuis
In regards of the Holy Sword... why change something that wasn't broke?
Indeed.
But it was broken to start with. Sure they could have changed it from overpowered to useful rather than aiming directly for crap power. _________________ They can't stop us Let them try For Heavy Metal We will die
