NWN - Stalwart Believer

Here is a build I am considering for a NWN original campaign playthrough.

The related fanfic is here

======================


OVERVIEW

Cleric 16 / Fighter 4

The Stalwart Believer is a melee-focused cleric who focuses on buffs, especially long-duration ones. A similar playstyle could be achieved via Paladin, or just a potion-guzzling Fighter. But the Cleric has a lot to offer for this playstyle, isn't alignment-restricted like Paladin, or consumable-dependent like Fighter.

Because this build was designed for the original campaign (aka Wailing Death), it tries to get as much as possible in by level 16, on the assumption that the character won't get enough XP to level much past that. So while this is technically a 20-level build, the last 4 levels are kind of "bonus", and not really expected to be achieved.

CREDITS

My research for this build consisted mostly of randomly googling ancient posts from many years ago and fusing bits and pieces of various ideas into what will hopefully be successful. I've never played a cleric in NWN before, and have honestly never found them all that interesting in pen-and-paper campaigns. But I think I've been unfair to them, so I'm going to give it a try. See the end of the page for some of the builds that I looked up while creating mine.

BUILD

Race: Human (feat and skill point bonus)

Alignment: your choice, I went with Neutral Good

Stats:
STR 14 (+2) Not quite as strong as the fanfic suggests, but still not bad
DEX 10 (+0) Not a primary stat, anything about 12 would be wasted in plate armor
CON 14 (+2) With buffs, this should be sufficient
INT 14 (+2) More skills, just because I enjoy them. Also unlocks Expertise.
WIS 15 (+2) Primary stat. Taking this to 16 would take 2 points away from other attributes.
CHA 10 (+2) Just enough to not get a penalty

Skills (max value): Concentration (23), Discipline (23) (take as Fighter), Heal (20) (low priority), Lore (7) (useful early), Persuade (21) (take as Cleric), Spellcraft (21) (take as Cleric).

Feats I took (in order):
Luck of Heroes
Power Attack
Cleave
Blind Fight
Extend Spell
Weapon Focus
Improved Critical
Toughness
Expertise
Empower Spell
Weapon Specialization

HA: Human Ability
CA: Cleric Ability
FA: Fighter Ability
HBF: Human Bonus Feat
CBF: Cleric Bonus Feat
FBF: Fighter Bonus Feat
NEF: Non-epic Feat
EF: Epic Feat (There aren't any, as I stopped the build at 20. But who knows? Maybe I'll extend it someday.)

Character Level Class Level Attributes Skills Feats Other
1 Fighter 1 20 points
Concentration +4 (4)
Discipline+4 (4)
Heal+4 (4)
Lore+4 (4)
Bank+4 (4)		 NEF: Luck of Heroes
HBF: Power Attack
FBF: Cleave		 FA: Light Armor Proficiency
FA: Medium Armor Proficiency
FA: Heavy Armor Proficiency
FA: Shield Proficiency
FA: Simple Weapon Proficiency
FA: Martial Weapon Proficiency
2 Cleric 1 5 points
Concentration +1 (5)
Persuade +5 (5)
Spellcraft +3 (3)
Bank-4 (0)		 CA: Simple Weapon Proficiency
CA: Turn Undead
CA: Strength Domain
CA: Trickery Domain
CA: cantrips
CA: 1st level spells
3 Cleric 2 5 points
Concentration +1 (6)
Persuade +1 (6)
Spellcraft +3 (6)		 NEF: Blind Fight
4 Cleric 3 WIS +1 (16) 5 points
Concentration +1 (7)
Persuade +1 (7)
Lore +2 (6)
Spellcraft +1 (7)		 CA: 2nd level spells
5 Cleric 4 5 points
Concentration +1 (8)
Persuade +1 (8)
Heal +1 (5)
Lore +1 (7)
Spellcraft +1 (8)
6 Cleric 5 5 points
Concentration +1 (9)
Persuade +1 (9)
Heal +2 (7)
Spellcraft +2 (9)		 NEF: Extend Spell
 CA: 3rd level spells
7 Cleric 6 5 points
Concentration +1 (10)
Persuade +1 (10)
Heal +1 (8)
Spellcraft +1 (10)
Bank +1 (1)
8 Cleric 7 WIS +1 (17) 5 points
Concentration +1 (11)
Persuade +1 (11)
Heal +1 (9)
Spellcraft +1 (11)
Bank +1 (2)		 CA: 4th level spells
9 Cleric 8 5 points
Concentration +1 (12)
Persuade +1 (12)
Spellcraft +1 (12)
Bank +2 (4)		 NEF: Weapon Focus (?)
10 Fighter 2 5 points
Discipline+9 (13)
Bank-4 (0)		 FBF: Improved Critical (?)
11 Cleric 9 5 points
Concentration +2 (14)
Persuade +2 (14)
Spellcraft +1 (13)		 CA: 5th level spells
12 Cleric 10 WIS +1 (18) 5 points
Concentration +1 (15)
Persuade +1 (15)
Heal +1 (10)
Spellcraft +2 (15)		 NEF: Toughness
13 Cleric 11 5 points
Concentration +1 (16)
Persuade +1 (16)
Heal +2 (12)
Spellcraft +1 (16)		 CA: 6th level spells
14 Cleric 12 5 points
Concentration +1 (17)
Persuade +1 (17)
Heal +2 (14)
Spellcraft +1 (17)
15 Cleric 13 5 points
Concentration +1 (18)
Persuade +1 (18)
Heal +2 (16)
Spellcraft +1 (18)		 NEF: Expertise
 CA: 7th level spells
16 Cleric 14 WIS +1 (19) 5 points
Concentration +1 (19)
Persuade +1 (19)
Heal +2 (18)
Spellcraft +1 (19)
17 Cleric 15 5 points
Concentration +1 (20)
Persuade +1 (20)
Spellcraft +1 (20)
Bank +2 (2)		 CA: 8th level spells
18 Cleric 16 5 points
Concentration +1 (21)
Persuade +1 (21)
Spellcraft +1 (21)
Bank +2 (4)		 NEF: Empower Spell
19 Fighter 3 5 points
Discipline+9 (22)
Bank-4 (0)
20 Fighter 4 WIS +1 (20) 5 points
Concentration +2 (23)
Discipline +1 (23)
Heal +2 (20)		 FBF: Weapon Specialization (?)

EVALUATION

Encumberance was annoying early on. At the end of the first post-prologue zone (Peninsula), my equipped gear alone weighed 102 pounds, and I could only carry 116 pounds without being encumbered. Add in some plot items, potions and scrolls, healing kits, etc. and I was above my encumberance limit even before I started looting things. I had to cast Bull's Strength on myself just to move around at normal speed. Such is the life of a medium-Strength character who wears plate armor and carries a tower shield, I suppose. By midway through Chapter Two, I'd found enough Strength-boosting gear to overcome it. As the game continued, I ended up wearing more Strength gear than I'd expected to, in part because it helped in combat and in part just so I never had to worry about encumberance again.

Combat-wise, I didn't have much trouble. The early Fighter level, plus the forgiving nature of the early portion of the game, got things off to a good start. By around level 5, I had enough buffs for the character to start feeling like I expected to. I bumped the difficult to Hardcore after the first zone of the first chapter, then to Very Difficult after the second zone. A few fights were a little tough, but this build handled them well. Playing on Very Difficult for virtually the entire game meant that I didn't feel even a little bit guilty when I gave myself enough experience for level 20 at the start of Chapter Four. I could have easily completed the game without doing that - I was already at level 16 and might have hit 17 without using the console - but I wanted to see how the full build would work out. The final two Fighter levels were very welcome, and even with the difficulty still maxed, I basically walked all over the last chapter, chugging a few of the very abundant Cure Critical Wounds potions between fights.

I did find myself casting in combat more than I expected. Mostly because my irrational fear of burning my buffs on trash mobs then needing them later led to me getting into some of the harder fights without fully pre-buffing. I mean, it isn't like resting is hard to do in the vast majority of places in the game, but I still found myself holding off more than I should have. Anyway, it made the points invested in Concentration worthwhile.

I bounced around between henchmen throughout much of the game, mostly taking each one to the zone they talked about. Tomi and Sharwyn were probably best for this character, because of their lockpicking abilities. Not that bashing was ineffective, it just isn't as classy. Tomi was very effective early, while Sharwyn felt weak. Sharwyn did pick up later in the game. I set her to not cast spells (radial menu, "Toggle Spellcasting") and use her ranged weapon. That didn't prevent her from singing or healing me, and her late-game bardsong was a nice buff that effectively auto-applied to me. By contrast, I found Boddy the least helpful - unless I micromanaged his behavior he'd burn his spells on trash mobs and be useless by the time we reached a boss. And I also got really tired of watching him Haste himself. Umm ... I'm the one over here with a troll in my face and you're standing by yourself in the back. Maybe, y'know, buff me instead? I mostly took Tomi in the late game, as he was a nice combination of damage dealing (via Sneak Attack) and handling locks/traps.

As expected, the amount of Lore I took got me through the first bit of the game. It wasn't too long before I had to either bump my skill via Fox's Cunning, Lore Potions, etc. or (occasionally) pay a merchant to identify things. I still consider those points well-spent, because they made the early game go more smoothly. But the build would have been more powerful in the late game if I'd spent them elsewhere.

VARIATIONS

- I'm assuming NWN Extended Edition, or otherwise some way that SoU and HotU additions are available. For a pure original NWN build, some substitions will be necessary.

- Distribute the Fighter levels differently. Discipline can only be increased when taking a Fighter level, so I spaced them in a way that seemed reasonable. But there are lots of other possibilities.

- Paladin could be substituted for Fighter, if you don't mind being Lawful Good (and the other various tradeoffs). You'd get Taunt as a class skill on Paladin levels. You'd lose two Fighter bonus feats at Fighter 1 and Fighter 2. But you'd gain Divine Grace (saving throw bonus), Divine Health (immune to disease), Lay on Hands (heal), Aura of Courage (immune to fear) and Smite Evil (attack bonus). Theoretically, you'd lose the third Fighter Bonus Feat (almost certainly Weapon Specialization) but gain Remove Disease and (if your CHA is high enough) a first-level Paladin spell. But in the Wailing Death campaign, you probably won't get to high enough a level for the theoretical part to matter. You'd probably want to drop INT and/or DEX a bit to bump CHA, because the Paladin abilities are CHA-based. And you might substitute something else for Luck of Heroes at level 1, because Divine Grace covers that.

- Ranger could be substituted as well. The attributes would be fine as-is. You'd lose Heavy Armor Proficiency but gain Animal Empathy, and gain Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Set Trap, and Spot as class skills on Ranger levels. And you'd get more skill points to spend. You'd lose two Fighter bonus feats at Fighter 1 and Fighter 2. But you'd gain Dual-Wield, Trackless Step, and a Ranger bonus feat (your choice of Favored Enemy or Greater Spell Focus, the latter being kind of interesting for this build). Theoretically, you'd lose the third Fighter Bonus Feat (almost certainly Weapon Specialization) and gain only a first-level Ranger spell in return. But in the Wailing Death campaign, you probably won't get to a high enough level for the theoretical part to matter. Note that wearing Medium Armor negates a Ranger's Dual Wield ability.

- Barbarian is an interesting alternative for Fighter. As with Ranger, you'd lose Heavy Armor Proficiency. But you'd gain more hit points and skill points when taking Barbarian levels. You'd lose Concentration as a class skill, but could make that up when taking Cleric levels. And you'd gain Intimidate, Listen, and Taunt as class skills when taking Barbarian levels. You'd gain Barbarian Fast Movement, Barbarian Rage, and Uncanny Dodge I, but lose three Fighter bonus feats, and couldn't take Weapon Specialization. Fighter seemed like a better fit for how I intended to play the character, but Barbarian wouldn't be bad if you cared about those things.

- I didn't explore any other races. Human is probably the best fit, but nothing in here absolutely depends on it if you're comfortable with the tradeoffs. Watch out for XP penalty if you choose a different race. Dwarf would avoid the penalty, as Fighter is a favored class. Half-Elf, like Human, ignores the highest level class and therefore also would not receive a penalty.

- Balance the Lore and Heal skills however makes sense to you, taking less of one and more of the other according to your preference and needs. I took a bit of Lore at the beginning, when I expect to be low on gold, then switched to Heal.

- Feats could be reordered in many different ways, depending on your preference. In particular, I deferred Weapon Focus because I wasn't sure what weapon I was going to prefer for this character, so this gave me some time to decide. But if you already know, you might want that sooner.

- The stats are probably too balanced, but I'm a sucker for conversational skills, and for not having my characters be bad at stuff. INT/CHA/DEX could be lower, allowing WIS/STR/CHA to be higher.

- I put all the attribute bumps into WIS. Because this character is buff-focused, spell DC is less important than for an offensive caster. And because we expect to only get Cleric level to around 14, we'll only be able cast level 7 spells, and therefore only really need WIS of 16. So once you get WIS 16 at character level 4, bump whatever you think helps you the most. For the Wailing Death campaign (aka original campaign) you won't make it to level 20, and (especially if you always use henchmen and/or aren't a completionist like me) you might not even make it to level 16. So plan accordingly.

- I did not even consider the feat chain that (pre-epic) ends in Whirlwind Attack, as I didn't want to take DEX that high. That line is very useful and powerful, and the build could be juggled around to achieve that, but it'd take significant changes.

- I did not take any Tumble, because I'm planning for this to be a Heavy Armor + Shield character, and the armor check penalty would make Tumble of little to no value. If you're planning a different armor type, Tumble might be worth considering, even though it'd be cross-class.

- I didn't specify a preferred weapon, and I'm not sure it matters all that much. Pick whatever makes sense to you. Longsword, Bastard Sword, and Scimitar seem like popular choices, but some people also like Mace or Morningstar. You do you.

- An epic version of this build might consider either Champion of Torm or (assuming you have access to it) Purple Dragon Knight. With enough additional Fighter levels to achieve the prereqs, Weapon Master is another option, and a few people have even worked Harper Scout or Shadowdancer into similar builds.I'm playing this character as Good alignment, so I didn't consider Blackguard, but it might fit as well. You'd probably want to bump CHA, though. See the end of this page for a ton of epic builds that you might draw inspiration from. Note that Prestige classes are ignored for XP penalty purposes. There are also a number of base classes that might work in well (Paladin, Rogue, etc.) but you'd probably want to redo the early levels to avoid a penalty.

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

Cleric Class Skills: concentration, craft armor, craft trap, craft weapon, heal, lore, parry, persuade, spellcraft
Fighter Class Skills: concentration, craft armor, craft trap, craft weapon, discipline, heal, lore, parry, ride
Fighter gets Discipline, Parry and Ride, while Cleric does not. Cleric gets Persuade and Spellcraft, while Fighter does not.

For this character, both Discipline and Concentration are useful, but not absolutely essential. In particular Concentration is less important than for an offensive caster, because they'll tend to cast buffs before combat starts. If I take Discipline, 15 points is probably sufficient. A bit of Lore is good early, when gold is scarce, but probably don't need to push it very high. Heal applies only to medkits, not spells, so is of dubious value. Spellcraft is probably pretty good.

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

Cleric cannot take Weapon Specialization. Fighter cannot take the Divine or Spell/Scroll feats.

Even though the Scribe Scroll feat will be available to me, the necessary materials are not available in the Wailing Death or SoU campaigns.
Power Attack+Cleave is a good combo, especially at low levels. 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+Strong Soul at level 1 is good if using Fighter, but probably unnecessary if using 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. Luck of Heroes is probably the best - it makes Strong Soul irrelevant and several others less valuable.

Fighter bonus feat list is here

War+Strength would be a good domain choice. Except War's special power is CHA-based and our CHA isn't great. Trickery isn't bad, for Improved Invisibility, or Plant for Barkskin or Magic for Mage Armor. Knowledge is good for convenience, but isn't much help in fights. Strength+Trickery might be the best combo for this particular build.

Swords are great weapons (Bastard Sword, Longsword, Scimitar), but maces do well too, and there's a good one relatively early in Wailing Death, and Morningstar is good too.

A decent equipment set is: Tower Shield, Amulet of Natural Armor, Ring of Resistance, Ring of Power, Cloak of Fortitude, Boots of Speed, Greater Swordman/Brawler/Archer) Belt if you can afford all and switch against different enemies, if not, go with Swordman belt, since most enemies deal slashing damage. Gauntlet of Ogre Power.

Main spells for this build:

Other spells that may be useful for this build:

This is not really an offensive caster build, but a few offensive spells worth considering are (we won't get level 8 or 9 spells, but they're listed anyway):

Playstyle:

Here are a some builds that might have good ideas:
https://world-of-greyhawk.github.io/builds/data/build243382.html
https://world-of-greyhawk.github.io/builds/data/build245368.html
https://nwn2db.com/build/?266406
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nwnecbguild/level-20-melee-cleric-build-good-aligned-t2355046.html

And some various links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/neverwinternights/comments/pilq5k/domain_choice_for_a_melee_cleric/
https://www.reddit.com/r/neverwinternights/comments/cs8n5l/need_help_making_a_cleric/
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nwnecbguild/an-insight-into-the-cleric-class-t515461.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/neverwinternights/comments/dz73b2/fighter_cleric_build_need_help/
https://www.reddit.com/r/neverwinternights/comments/6opwdd/nwn1_oc_solo_cleric/
https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/06/20/neverwinter-nights-cleric-class-guidefaq-425287
https://www.gamebanshee.com/neverwinternights/strategies/cleric.php


Dual-wield melee cleric with a double-sided weapon (so darkfire and greater magic weapon apply to both sides with a single cast)

4 levels of fighter before level 20 to reach the maximum number of attacks (I'm using Paladin for this instead)

Plant and Earth domains for barkskin, stoneskin, and energy buffer.

Starting DEX of 15, to satisfy the Ambidexterity prerequisite (although it mostly goes to waste, as he'll wear heavy armor)

No combat casting. Just cast every hour/level buff spell (which actually means 2 min/level in real time) and minute/level buff spell (with Extend spell metamagic so that they last as long as the hour/level spells) on yourself and your equipment

Stoneskin and Protection from Elements absorbs whatever gets through your absurdly high AC and strong saves.

In the OC just make sure no enemies are around when you know traps are around and make sure Protection from Elements is cast. Then you can just eat the trap and bash any crates. There are few traps I can recall off the top of my head that can 1 shot you if you fail your saving throw

Clerics have the Find Trap spell which can disable all traps in a 30 radius... And if you take Knowledge domain, you get the Knock spell which does the same with all locks in 50 radius.


From https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/188666-neverwinter-nights/57345611

If you go straight cleric, a sword and board build with a katana works fine. Though taking cleric past 15 is kind of marginal gain.

Trickery + Magic Domains are the most broken domains. (Improved invisibility + Stoneskin, mage armor and mass damage spells are nice)

so your fine with 18 WIS. If you are Sword and Board you don't need dex much cuz heavy armor.
Human
STR 14
DEX 8
CON 14
WIS 16
INT 10
CHA 14
Feats lvl 1
Power attack + Cleave
Lvl 3
Exotic weapon prof
Lvl 6
Weapon Focus katana
Lvl 9
Divine Might
Lvl 12
Improved Critical Katana
Lvl 15
knockdown

and I'd probably just take Fighter for the last two levels, (can you get weapon Spec or do you need 4 levels of fighter for that?)
Toughness, and Weapon Spec katana I guess would be my ideal options.

Alternatively you go for level 9 spells and pack a few implosions of something.


From https://lilura1.blogspot.com/2020/10/Neverwinter-Nights-NWN1-Best-Builds-Cleric-Martial-Builds.html

NWN Cleric Build 2: Fighter 4 Variant

Cleric Build 2 wields scimitar NWN and fires from longbow NWN. Remember that we can switch between bow and sword/shield setups with a single quickbar click (drag and drop both the sword and the shield to the same quickbar slot).

NWN Cleric Build 2 Stats

STR 14
DEX 13
CON 12
INT 13
WIS 16
CHA 8

NWN Cleric Build 2 Progression

01. Fighter (1): Weapon Focus: Scimitar, Power Attack, Cleave
02. Fighter (2): Blind-Fight (or Point Blank Shot NWN)
03. Fighter (3): Toughness (or Zen Archery)
04. Fighter (4): Weapon Specialization NWN: Scimitar, Wisdom +1
05. Fighter (4) Cleric (1): (cantrips: 3 slots, 1st level spell slots: 3)
06. Fighter (4) Cleric (2): Extend Spell (or Rapid Shot NWN)
07. Fighter (4) Cleric (3): (2nd level spell slots: 3), AB: +9/+4
08: Fighter (4) Cleric (4): Wisdom +1, (buff: +16/+11)
09: Fighter (4) Cleric (5): Extend Spell, (3rd level spell slots: 3)
10: Fighter (4) Cleric (6): --
11: Fighter (4) Cleric (7): (4th level spell slots: 2)
12: Fighter (4) Cleric (8): Wisdom +1, Improved Critical: Scimitar
13: Fighter (4) Cleric (9): (5th level spell slots: 2)
14: Fighter (4) Cleric (10): AB: +14/+9/+4 (buff: +30/+25/+20)
15: Fighter (4) Cleric (11): Improved Critical: Longbow, (6th level spell slots: 2)
16: Fighter (4) Cleric (12): Wisdom +1
17: Fighter (4) Cleric (13): (7th level spell slots: 2)
18: Fighter (4) Cleric (14): Empower spell
19: Fighter (4) Cleric (15): (8th level spell slots: 2)
20: Fighter (4) Cleric (16): Wisdom +1, AB: +19/+14/+9/+4
(buffed: +40/+35/+30/+25)
1-6 +6, critical 15-20 x2 (dmg: 7 magic, +1d6 +10 fire, 12 raw)

Skills: Heal, Concentration, Spellcraft, Tumble.
Spell slots (0-8): 5-8-7-7-7-5-4-4-3

This results in about 40 dmg per hit -- without items other than an unenchanted, generic weapon.

The second build misses out on 9th level spells (at least, within a 20 level range), and also has fewer spells slots (which can be relevant under rest restrictions), but sports a superior AB as well as 15/20 crit threat range of the scimitar. Note that four levels of Paladin would also do the trick.


EPIC BUILDS

Here are a bunch of epic builds that might be helpful in creating an epic version of this character. Some don't exactly match in the pre-epic portion, and some are for other races or are themed diferently. But I'm assuming that they could either be modified, or that the character would be recreated from scratch for the epic version.

These are really similar and could be used directly or almost directly:

These would require some structural changes, but not massive pre-epic philosophical ones. So they're probably the best starting points if I want to change the feel of the build in epic levels.

These are useful for inspiration, but have enough structural differences that they'd be harder to do:
Not really applicable for one reason or another (a lot of them are DEX builds, which is fine but not what I want for this character), but keeping around because of interesting ideas: