NWN - Bare Truth


The related fanfic is here

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OVERVIEW

Paladin 29 / Monk 9 / Shadowdancer 2

The is a stealthy, unarmed, robe-wearing Paladin based largely on this build by "Mick Dagger". Like, I pretty much just stole that build and changed a few things. It really is a Paladin build - 29 of the 40 levels are Paladin (and by the level 27 likely attainable in HotU, 19 are Paladin). But it is a very non-traditional Paladin.

I tweaked a few things from the original build to optimize it for a linked SoU / HotU playthrough. I'm expecting to get to around level 13 in SoU and around 27 in HotU. So even though the table below shows up to level 40, I tried to get certain things in by 13/27. If I were doing a straight-up level 40 build meant to either be played from 1-40, or created straight to 40, I might have done some things differently (or maybe just stuck with the build I used as inspiration).

Attributes are very spread out because this build needs decent scores in almost everything, leaving no room for anything to be really high. This leads to some compromises, especially in the early levels. Monk at level 1 is mostly for skill points, and then either Monk or Shadowdancer is interspersed regularly to keep the stealth skills usable. Taking mostly Paladin levels keeps Lay on Hands and Smite Evil usable through the whole build.

Overall, I'm expecting this build will not be as overpowered in combat as some other combos, but will be a lot of fun to play, and will give me a lot of options for how to handle different situations. (See my evaluation below the build table for how it turned out. Spoiler: really well.)

CREDITS

My research for this build consisted of thinking "I'd like to plan a non-traditional Paladin," then looking at something like 200 epic Paladin builds and getting really overwhelmed by the possibilities. Finally, I picked one as a starting point. See the end of the page for some of the builds that I looked up while creating this.

BUILD

Race: Human (feat and skill point bonus)

Alignment: Lawful Good (and stays there, this is not an alignment shift build)

Stats:
STR 14 (+2) Important for this character
DEX 14 (+2) DEX 13 required for Dodge/Mobility, which are Shadowdancer requirements
CON 10 (+0) Hate to have this low, but they can't all be high
INT 12 (+1) Avoid being too skill-starved. If you decide to work in Expertise, it requires INT 13.
WIS 14 (+2) Yet another important stat
CHA 14 (+2) This is important too. Sigh

Skills (max value): Discipline (43), Persuade (43), Hide (40), Move Silently (40), Tumble (31), Lore (7)

Feats I took (in order):

HA: Human Ability
PA: Paladin Ability
MA: Monk Ability
SA: Shadowdancer Ability
HBF: Human Bonus Feat
PBF: Paladin Bonus Feat
NEF: Non-epic Feat
EF: Epic Feat

Character Level Class Level Attributes Skills Feats Other
1 Monk 1 24 points
Hide+4 (4)
Lore+4 (4)
Move Sliently +4 (4)
Persuade+4 (4)
Tumble +4 (4)
Bank +4 (4)		 NEF: Dodge
HBF: Power Attack		 MA: Monk Weapon Proficiency
MA: Cleave
MA: Monk AC Bonus
MA: Stunning Fist
MA: Evasion
MA: Flurry of Blows
MA: Improved Unarmed Strike
2 Paladin 1 4 points
Discipline +5 (5)
Lore +1 (5)
Persuade +1 (5)
Bank -4 (1)		 PA: Light Armor Proficiency
PA: Medium Armor Proficiency
PA: Heavy Armor Proficiency
PA: Shield Proficiency
PA: Simple Weapon Proficiency
PA: Martial Weapon Proficiency
PA: Divine Grace
PA: Divine Health
PA: Lay on Hands
3 Paladin 2 4 points
Discipline +1 (6)
Lore +1 (6)
Persuade +1 (6)
Bank +1 (2)		 NEF: Mobility
 PA: Aura of Courage
PA: Smite Evil
4 Monk 2 CHA +1 (15) 6 points
Hide +3 (7)
Move Silently +3 (7)
Tumble +2 (6)
Bank -2 (0)		 MA: Deflect Arrows
5 Paladin 3 4 points
Discipline +2 (8)
Lore +1 (7)
Persuade +1 (7)		 PA: Remove Disease
PA: Turn Undead
6 Paladin 4 4 points
Discipline +1 (9)
Persuade +1 (8)
Bank +2 (2)		 NEF: Extra Turning
7 Monk 3 6 points
Hide +3 (10)
Move Silently +3 (10)
Tumble +2 (8)
Bank -2 (0)		 MA: Monk Speed
MA: Still Mind
8 Shadowdancer 1 CHA +1 (16) 8 points
Hide +1 (11)
Move Silently +1 (11)
Persuade +3 (11)
Tumble +3 (11)		 SA: Hide in Plain Sight
9 Paladin 5 4 points
Discipline +3 (12)
Persuade +1 (12)		 NEF: Divine Might PA: Summon Mount
PA: 1st level spells
10 Paladin 6 4 points
Discipline +1 (13)
Persuade +1 (13)
Bank +2 (2)
11 Paladin 7 4 points
Discipline +1 (14)
Persuade +1 (14)
Bank +2 (4)
12 Paladin 8 CHA +1 (17) 4 points
Discipline +1 (15)
Persuade +1 (15)
Bank +2 (6)		 NEF: Divine Shield
 PA: 2nd level spells
13 Monk 4 6 points
Hide +5 (16)
Move Silently +5 (16)
Tumble +2 (13)
Bank -6 (0)
14 Paladin 9 4 points
Discipline +2 (17)
Persuade +2 (17)
15 Paladin 10 4 points
Discipline +1 (18)
Persuade +1 (18)
Bank +2 (2)		 NEF: Toughness
16 Paladin 11 CHA +1 (18) 4 points
Discipline +1 (19)
Persuade +1 (19)
Bank +2 (4)
17 Monk 5 6 points
Hide +4 (20)
Move Silently +4 (20)
Tumble +2 (15)
Bank -4 (0)		 MA: Purity of Body
18 Paladin 12 4 points
Discipline +2 (21)
Persuade +2 (21)		 NEF: Improved Critical (Unarmed) PA: 3rd level spells
19 Paladin 13 4 points
Discipline +1 (22)
Persuade +1 (22)
Bank +2 (2)
20 Paladin 14 CHA +1 (19) 4 points
Discipline +1 (23)
Persuade +1 (23)
Bank +2 (4)
21 Monk 6 6 points
Hide +4 (24)
Move Silently +4 (24)
Tumble +2 (17)
Bank -4 (0)		 NEF: Weapon Focus (Unarmed) PA: 4th level spells
MA: Knockdown
MA: Improved Knockdown
22 Paladin 15 4 points
Discipline +2 (25)
Persuade +2 (25)
23 Paladin 16 4 points
Discipline +1 (26)
Persuade +1 (26)
Bank +2 (2)
24 Paladin 17 CHA +1 (20) 4 points
Discipline +1 (27)
Persuade +1 (27)
Bank +2 (4)		 EF: Epic Weapon Focus (Unarmed)
25 Shadowdancer 2 8 points
Hide +4 (28)
Move Silently +4 (28)
Tumble +4 (21)
Bank -4 (0)		 SA: Darkvision
SA: Uncanny Dodge I
26 Paladin 18 4 points
Discipline +2 (29)
Persuade +2 (29)
27 Paladin 19 4 points
Discipline +1 (30)
Persuade +1 (30)
Bank +2 (2)		 EF: Armor Skin
28 Paladin 20 CHA +1 (21) 4 points
Discipline +1 (31)
Persuade +1 (31)
Bank +2 (4)
29 Monk 7 6 points
Hide +4 (32)
Move Silently +4 (32)
Tumble +2 (23)
Bank -4 (0)		 MA: Wholeness of Body
30 Paladin 21 4 points
Discipline +2 (33)
Persuade +2 (33)		 EF: Great Charisma I
31 Paladin 22 4 points
Discipline +1 (34)
Persuade +1 (34)
Bank +2 (2)
32 Paladin 23 CHA +1 (23) 4 points
Discipline +1 (35)
Persuade +1 (35)
Bank +2 (4)		 PBF: Epic Prowess
33 Monk 8 6 points
Hide +4 (36)
Move Silently +4 (36)
Tumble +2 (25)
Bank -4 (0)		 EF: Great Charisma II
34 Paladin 24 4 points
Discipline +2 (37)
Persuade +2 (37)
35 Paladin 25 4 points
Bank +4 (4)
36 Paladin 26 CHA +1 (25) 4 points
Bank +4 (8)		 EF: Extra Smiting
PBF: Great Smiting I
37 Monk 9 6 points
Hide +4 (40)
Move Silently +4 (40)
Tumble +6 (31)
Bank -8 (0)		 MA: Improved Evasion
38 Paladin 27 4 points
Discipline +2 (39)
Persuade +2 (39)
39 Paladin 28 4 points
Discipline +2 (41)
Persuade +2 (41)		 EF: Great Smiting II
40 Paladin 29 CHA +1 (23) 4 points
Discipline +2 (43)
Persuade +2 (43)		 PBF: Great Smiting III

VARIATIONS

- I'm assuming NWN Extended Edition with patches that were current in July 2023. If your game is meaningfully different, you may want/need to change some things.

- Skills could be picked very differently. I decided to be really good at a few things rather than spreading points around. The exceptions are Lore, which I took a bit of early for when I expect to not have much gold, and Tumble, because I didn't have enough skill points to keep five skills maxed, and Tumble was the one I chose to let slip. You almost certainly want to put a lot into Hide and Move Silently at every Monk level. Otherwise, why have HIPS? And you need a certain amount of Hide (10), Move Silently (8), and Tumble (5) to qualify as a Shadowdancer. The rest is really your preference. Bluff, Concentration, Heal, Intimidate, Listen, Search, Spot, and Taunt would all be good choices.

- Feats could be taken differently, keeping in mind that you need Dodge and Mobility as prerequisites for Shadowdancer. In particular Extra Turning could be replaced by Weapon Finesse if you expect to use DEX gear and prefer the weapon bonus to additional Divine Might/Divine Shield uses.

- Leveling order could be changed. Taking Shadowdancer pre-epic gives up a tiny bit of BAB, and the original build deferred it until level 21. But I wanted Hide In Plain Sight during SoU, so I took the hit. You probably want some Monk every few Paladin levels, as an opportunity to raise Hide and Move Silently. But there's some flexibility in exactly when you do it. I also took the second Shadowdancer level early enough to get in HotU, but if you're doing something particular with your epic levels (maybe you want to max Search at level 40 or something) you might push it back.

- Kama vs Unarmed is an interesting question, and maybe a matter of taste. You can't technically dual-wield fists, but you can dual-wield Kamas. So going Kama means an extra attack (or two, with feats). And you get to use enchanted Kamas. And you get to use your own Greater Magic Weapon spell (and maybe Holy Sword? I didn't test that one) on yourself for a nice long-duration boost. But on the downside, to really maximize Kamas you'll want Two-Weapon Fighting, Ambidexterity, and Improved Two Weapon Fighting. And to get all that you'll need to bump DEX to 15 at some point. So you'll have to give up some other feats, and a bit of CHA. Also as Unarmed you can't be Disarmed, which is nice. There are a lot of tradeoffs, and several outcomes that are probably viable depending on your preferences.

MISC NOTES FROM VARIOUS INTERNET SOURCES (plus a few of my own)

Paladin Class Skills: concentration, craft armor, craft trap, craft weapon, discipline, heal, lore, parry, persuade, ride, taunt

Monk Class Skills: concentration, craft armor, craft trap, craft weapon, discipline, heal, hide, listen, lore, move silently, parry, persuade, tumble

Shadowdancer Class Skills: heal, hide, listen, lore, move silently, persuade, pick pocket, search, spot, tumble

Relevant skills that can only be taken as a Paladin: ride, taunt
Relevant skills that can only be taken as a Monk: none
Relevant skills that can only be taken as a Shadowdancer: pick pocket, search, spot

Paladin Unavailable Feats: curse song, extra music, lingering song, quicken spell, weapon specialization

Monk Unavailable Feats: brew potion, craft wand, curse song, divine might, divine shield, extra music, extra turning, lingering song, quicken spell, scribe scroll, spell focus, weapon specialization

Shadowdancer Unavailable Feats: brew potion, craft wand, curse song, divine might, divine shield, extra music, extra turning, lingering song, quicken spell, scribe scroll, spell focus, weapon specialization

Even though the Scribe Scroll feat is available in SoU, the necessary materials are not available until HotU.
Power Attack+Cleave is a good combo, especially at low levels. And Monks get Cleave for free. Combat Casting and Extend Spell are useful. Lots of passive feats are good fits (Toughness, Weapon Focus, Improved Criticial, Blind Fight, etc.). Expertise would be nice. Luck of Heroes is generally good, but might be unnecessary for Paladin.

Feats that can only be taken at level 1 are here. There are only 8: Artist, Blooded, Bullheaded, Courteous Magocracy, Luck of Heroes, Silver Palm, Snake Blood, Strong Soul.

Paladin epic bonus feat list is here

EPIC BUILDS

Here are a bunch of epic builds that might be helpful in creating this character.

These seem most interesting right now, although my preference may change by the time I get around to actually doing this:

These also seem interesting, but the leveling order isn't great. Not sure if they could be rearranged.

Here are a bunch more misc builds:
EVALUATION

Unsurprisingly, the build started off a bit slow. Spreading my attributes around, combined with dividing my early levels between Monk and Paladin, meant I wasn't very good at anything. The SoU J'Nah fight, which I did at level 5, was especially challenging. Around level 6, things got better, but I felt somewhat underpowered through most of SoU. Around level 12, I got 2nd level Paladin spells, allowing me to keep the Eagle's Splendor bonus to Charisma active pretty much all the time. That, along with better +CHA gear I found around the same time, made Divine Might and Divine Shield much more worthwhile, and everything came together. I rolled through the last part of Sou without much trouble.

I mostly used unarmed combat, but in early levels I occasionally equipped a kama or even a longsword (I found a Holy Avenger) for specific opponents when it seemed useful. On one particular fight (somewhere in the Interlude, IIRC) I even went full sword-and-board. This made me appreciate the combat versatility of mixing Monk and Paladin. I could take different approaches to fights depending on enemy resistances and vulnerabilities. But that one fight aside, I remained armorless the whole time, both to retain the various Monk bonuses, and because it better fit my character concept. I never equipped a weapon or armor in HoU, and didn't miss them.

Given NWN's faithful treatment of encumberance, it was nice to be armorless and weaponless. If I had been a traditional Paladin wearing the heaviest armor I could find and wielding a large weapon, I'd have had much more trouble carrying things in the early game, before magic bags became available. And to be fair, SoU allowing me to use my henchman's inventory helped quite a bit as well. My poor overloaded pack-mule companions did a whole lot of walking around really, really slowly in that part of the game.

Stealth in the NWN official modules is somewhat useful, but mostly not game changing. Still, it was nice to be able to sneak up to enemies, see what lay ahead, and start fights at my own convenience. That was especially nice for opponents with strong ranged attacks, as I could skip the part where they pew-pew'd or zapped me to death while I jogged to melee range. Instead, I could sneak up and start punching right away.

Hide in Plain Sight was very useful in combat. I could use Disengage (I put it on my quickbar next to Move Silently) and drop out of a fight, giving me time to heal (using Healing Kits doesn't break stealth) before resuming my attack. Occasionally, even if I wasn't badly hurt, I'd use HIPS to quickly drop out of combat and jump right back in. This would cause enemies to target my henchmen instead of me, effectively allowing me to use their health bar as extra health for myself. I was a little worried when I started the build that HIPS was going to a useless gimmick, but I ended up using it quite a bit.

I finished SoU at level 13, then played one of the community-created "bridge" modules to fill the gap (I went with Out of the Shadows). I started HoU at level 15 with quite a bit of gold, so I was able to equip myself pretty well right away by purchasing things from the early HotU vendors. (If you haven't played HotU, you don't immediately have access to any gear your character might already have, but you do have access to all your gold.)

The build continued to feel very strong throughout HotU. By the end of Chapter One, I had turned up difficulty to maximum, and was still rolling through most of the fights. HotU has massive amounts of powerful gear, which helped crank up my CHA to ridiculous levels and superpower my Divine Might and Divine Shield. None of the fights were especially hard, including the final one.

Overall, after a bit of a slow start, the build was very satisfying and effective. The one thing it lacked was a diverse set of skills/ I was dependant on companions or gear to deal with locks and traps, and frequently just bulled my way through, smashing stuff open and walking into traps. But my combat was great for both damage output and survivability, the ability to sneak around was fun, and playing as a Divine Monk / Unarmed Paladin was a neat twist on the normal builds. Very glad I tried it.