Paladin

Paladin
**Description:** Paladins take their adventures seriously, and even a mundane mission is, in the heart of the paladin, a personal test - an opportunity to demonstrate bravery, to learn tactics, and to do good in the world. Divine power protects these warriors of virtue, warding off harm, protecting them from disease, healing them and their allies, and guarding against fear. Divine power also guides their sword arms, making them among the most effective warriors against undead and evil outsiders. Many of the paladin's special abilities also benefit from a high Charisma score.

**Alignment restrictions:** lawful good only

**Hit die:** d10

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

**Skill points:** 2 + int modifier ( (2 + int modifier) \* 4 at 1st level)

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

**Unavailable feats:**
curse song, extra music, lingering song, quicken spell, weapon specialization

These general feats cannot be selected when taking a level of paladin.

**Primary saving throw(s):** fortitude

**Base attack bonus:** +1/level

**Spellcasting:** Divine (spell failure from armor is ignored), wisdom-based (a base wisdom score of 10 + the spell's level is required to cast a spell, bonus spells are based on modified wisdom, and the wisdom modifier affects spell DCs), and requires preparation.

Paladin

## Spells

* Bless weapon
* Cure light wounds
* Deafening clang
* Divine favor
* Endure elements
* Magic weapon
* Protection from alignment
* Resistance
* Virtue
* Aura of glory
* Bull's strength
* Eagle's splendor
* Remove paralysis
* Resist elements
* Dispel magic
* Greater magic weapon
* Magic circle against alignment
* Prayer
* Remove blindness/deafness
* Death ward
* Freedom of movement
* Holy sword
* Neutralize poison

## Level progression

*Being able to cast 0 spells of a certain level per day means the paladin cannot cast spells of that level unless bonus spell slots of the appropriate level are granted by a high wisdom.*

Epic paladin
## Epic paladin

Standing at the forefront of the battle against chaos and evil in the world, the epic paladin shines as a beacon of hope to all who fight the good fight.

**Hit die:** d10

**Skill points:** 2 + int modifier

**Bonus feats:** The epic paladin gains a bonus feat every three levels after 20th. In other words, at levels 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, and 38.

**Epic paladin bonus feats:** armor skin, devastating critical, epic prowess, epic reputation, epic spell focus, epic toughness, epic weapon focus, great smiting, greater spell focus, improved combat casting, improved critical (whip only), overwhelming critical, perfect health, planar turning

*The inclusion of improved critical (whip) in this list is likely a bug.*

**Unavailable epic feats:**
automatic quicken spell, automatic silent spell, automatic still spell, bane of enemies,
construct shape, dragon shape, epic spell penetration,
epic spell: dragon knight, epic spell: epic mage armor, epic spell: epic warding, epic spell: greater ruin, epic spell: hellball, epic spell: mummy dust,
epic weapon specialization,
improved ki strike 4, improved ki strike 5, improved sneak attack,
improved spell resistance, improved stunning fist,
lasting inspiration, mighty rage, outsider shape,
terrifying rage, thundering rage, undead shape

These general epic feats cannot be selected when taking a level of paladin.

## Prestige class tips

* The champion of Torm prestige class improves upon the paladin's already considerable melee and defensive abilities.

## Notes

* Improved critical (whip) can be taken as epic paladin bonus feat (most likely a bug).
* A single level of paladin is used in some charisma-based bard (this is, however, impossible without an alignment change) and sorcerer character builds. In addition to improving all saving throws with divine grace, the paladin's weapon and armor proficiencies can be helpful. Sorcerers sometimes take a level in paladin very late in order to maximize the discipline skill as it is a cross class skill for sorcerers. (Maximizing discipline skill is a common practice in character building which allows the player to decrease the likelihood of being victim of knockdown during combat.)

### Pencil and paper

* In the pencil-and-paper version (and in *Neverwinter Nights 2*), the paladin has an effective caster level only half his class level, giving the NWN version a significant improvement.