NWN Paladin (8) / Champion of Torm (20)

A Paladin / Champion of Torm used to play the Neverwinter Nights Official Campaign (OC) and Shadows of Undrentide (SoU) plus Hordes of the Underdark (HotU). This paladin is nothing less than a divine tank.

The character is mainly a melee fighter with divine additions. It's high in Armor Class (AC) and Attack Bonus. A lack of Strength compared to a pure fighter is easily compensated by its divine abilities. Skill points therefore go into Charisma. After some buffing up it will just hack and slash through everything.

Weaponry
A longsword is used as the main weapon, the cross bow as a secondary ranged weapon but in practice it is hardly used. The one-handed longsword allows the use of a Tower Shield for extra defense. A Full Plate completes the build but due to its weight there's little space for loot. Well, a paladin shouldn't go around looting anyway.

Spells and feats
This character depends heavily on both spells and feats for extra damage and protection. Attack Bonus can be boosted by the spells Bless Weapon and Bless. For tougher fights Divine Shield and/or Divine Might will boost AC and damage respectively. An extra boost is given by Aura of Glory and Potion of Eagle's Spendor which both increase Charisma. As a spell Aura of Glory is preferred over Eagle's Splendor because of the more stable Charisma boost and additional healing and saving throw benefits. Later in the game Divine Wrath will give an extra boost to Attack Bonus and damage.

Companions
As a henchman bards can be used. Bard henchmen, especially at low levels, seem to have low AC and therefore ranged weapons are preferred for them. An additional benefit of having Sharwyn as a henchman in the OC is that her quest gives  access to the Belt of the Performer which boosts Charisma.

Leveling and gameplay
In the OC a character will normally reach level 16. In SoU level 13 is reached and in HotU level 27. Therefore a level 28 build is presented. The current version has gone through the OC while it has been played in SoU and HotU a long time ago. The paladin doesn't come across any situations it has trouble handling as the Divine damage will cut through enemies like through paper, rock and scissors.

Possible improvements
The build has been optimized a couple of times but there's space for some improvements.

First of all it's a question whether Champion of Torm levels 11 and 12 are actually reached at level 19 and 20 as Prestige Classes can only become Epic (above 10) after level 20. This is something to check as I hadn't noticed any effect of this rule while playing.

Skills have not been looked at in detail and might be mixed with other skills. Discipline should be available as a Class Skill for Paladins, however, for some reason in my last play through it wasn't (costing 2 skill points for each rank). Regarding Lore a maximum of 10 points would suffice as this would enable identification of items worth up to 2500 Gold Points (GP), with more expensive items the 100 GP identification charge is worth it.

Regarding Feats the question is whether Divine Might and Divine Shield are very effective at lower levels as they will only last a few turns and starting with Cleave might be a better idea. On levels above 12 the choice of Feats might also be improved or varied.

Build

* Feats written in cursive and preceded by a + are gained automatically.

Equipment