New character for OC: cleric/wizard, cleric/rogue, or cleric/fighter?

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Hello everyone.

I'm planning a playthrough of the OC, but am undecided about which character to play. What I know is that:

• I want to play a cleric;
  
• I want to play a character "morally able"* to do most of the campaign content;
  
• I want to multiclass only with one fo the classes mentioned in the title;
  
• I want to avoid using prestige classes;
  
• I want to keep the game as vanilla as possible, so no mods for now.

*: Roleplay-wise the character must be able to perform morally dubious acts, so will probably be of N, CN, or CG alignment.

The cleric/wizard (domains: magic, knowledge) would be my preferred choice, because I find it interesting and it would grant me access to the quests reserved to the arcane spellcasters. The problem is, I don't know how effective this build could be, and if it would be able to finish the campaign.

The cleric/rogue (domains: knowledge, trickery) is also pretty interesting, and maybe better fits the idea of a character with some "moral elasticity", but as for the previous idea I'm not sure it would perform well, and I'm also not sure about how to build it.

The cleric/fighter (domains: strength, war) is the least interesting one, but probably the easier to build and play, because like the previous one could not be "morally impaired" when it comes to loot clean some places, and also the combination is pretty easy to make work.

That said I'd like to hear some suggestions from you, both about builds and roleplay if possible, to be finally able to create a character I like and start the game, once and for all.

Thank you in advance for your help and time.

[DrLoboto]

Could be a cleric of Mask (CN), the Lord of Shadows, god of thieves. I'm far from being a Forgotten Realms buff, but a quick search tells me he still existed at the time of the NWN's OC (1372 DR), relinquished his divinity only two years later. Whether you can justify combining that with the Knowledge domain would be up to your imagination. Or, if you tend towards wizard, it could be a cleric of Oghma, the neutral Lord of Knowledge, who allows followers of any alignment.

No suggestion on the build, as I don't like multiclassing that much myself. Cleric/fighter sounds like a waste to me, cleric/wizard is cool in theory, because you get more variety in spells, but it also means lower spell levels for both classes and no armor for the cleric, cleric/rogue would give you sneak attack at least, which could be useful if combined with Bull's Strength and Knockdown feat, but you'd still be a subpar rogue and cleric ... Just not my thing, heh.

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Originally posted by DrLoboto:

Could be a cleric of Mask (CN), the Lord of Shadows, god of thieves. I'm far from being a Forgotten Realms buff, but a quick search tells me he still existed at the time of the NWN's OC (1372 DR), relinquished his divinity only two years later. Whether you can justify combining that with the Knowledge domain would be up to your imagination. Or, if you tend towards wizard, it could be a cleric of Oghma, the neutral Lord of Knowledge, who allows followers of any alignment.

I thought about Mask too, but aside Evil and Trickery there aren't other domains associated with him in the game, and I don't want to play an evil character for now. I'd probably choose Oghma, and make him some kind of "knowledge retriever".

For the cleric/wizard I would go with Mystra for his patron deity.

[Ninja]

I have a cleric/wizard in an RP server, which is very different than the OC so my experience probably wont transfer completely, but it's a fairly difficult build to start with because both classes aren't very strong early on. Wearing heavier armor/shield as a cleric you'll have a lot of arcane spell failure casting your wizard spells unless you're using verbal-only spells or wearing something to reduce spell failure, or Still Spell. Multi-classing between them also hinders you quite a bit because those two classes need their spells to be successful, and splitting them as you level pretty much halves your highest spell level for both (if you're evening out both classes). But it could be the most rewarding experience if you play one because it's more challenging. If you decide to have a henchman with you I think you'll be fine, and you can also summon creatures if anything. But if you're planning to just solo a cleric/wizard it might be a struggle. Cleric/rogue would be a good balance and it already sounds like you don't want to be a cleric/fighter since that's probably the easiest route

[wendigo211]

Without the Mystic Theurge prestige class, forget about a Cleric/Wizard particularly for the OC. Basically you want to keep your Caster level high, so probably no more than 2-4 levels of any other class (you're only getting to around level 17 in the OC). Rogue is probably the best choice for the skill dumps, but Fighter will give you 2 free feats and better weapon selection.

[Valden21]

Looking at the restrictions you've placed on yourself, one immediately leapt to mind: Elven cleric of Corellon Larethian. He's chaotic good, and one of his domains is Magic. Furthermore, Neverwinter Nights still uses the 3rd Edition ruleset, not the 3.5 rules, so the War domain loophole is till in effect. Basically, clerics that pick War as one of their domains and who have a deity whose favored weapon is a martial weapon instantly get both the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat and the Weapon Focus feat for that weapon for free. Correlon's favored weapon is the Longsword, which counts as a martial weapon.

[Ninja]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Looking at the restrictions you've placed on yourself, one immediately leapt to mind: Elven cleric of Corellon Larethian. He's chaotic good, and one of his domains is Magic. Furthermore, Neverwinter Nights still uses the 3rd Edition ruleset, not the 3.5 rules, so the War domain loophole is till in effect. Basically, clerics that pick War as one of their domains and who have a deity whose favored weapon is a martial weapon instantly get both the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat and the Weapon Focus feat for that weapon for free. Correlon's favored weapon is the Longsword, which counts as a martial weapon.

I don't think the War domain thing you're describing is actually a thing in NWN. The campaigns don't require you to choose a deity, nor do they have any implementation of deities unless there's custom content.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by Ninja:

Originally posted by Valden21:

Looking at the restrictions you've placed on yourself, one immediately leapt to mind: Elven cleric of Corellon Larethian. He's chaotic good, and one of his domains is Magic. Furthermore, Neverwinter Nights still uses the 3rd Edition ruleset, not the 3.5 rules, so the War domain loophole is till in effect. Basically, clerics that pick War as one of their domains and who have a deity whose favored weapon is a martial weapon instantly get both the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat and the Weapon Focus feat for that weapon for free. Correlon's favored weapon is the Longsword, which counts as a martial weapon.

I don't think the War domain thing you're describing is actually a thing in NWN. The campaigns don't require you to choose a deity, nor do they have any implementation of deities unless there's custom content.

You don't have to pick a deity UNLESS you're playing a cleric. I've played clerics in this game, and I've always had to pick a deity; it kinda goes with the territory. Having a personal deity is also accurate to the setting; almost every character in the Forgotten Realms setting worships at least one of the deities.

[Dr.Gloom]

Wizard idk, you already have domains that can fill that void, the two best imo at least for me are Air(Call Lighting, Chain Lighting, nuf said) and Magic(3 DD spells, and 2 buffs), plus you want to be in heavy armor so you would need Still Spell as well which is waste of feat. The Cleric is a terrific caster on its own. Rogue, again not the great combo imo, Rogues are benefitting from INT/DEX which are the two most useless stats for Cleric imo. Cleric/Fighter is your best bet, just a few levels of Fighter will do mainly for AB, feats, and weapon proficiencies.

[Dr.Gloom]

Originally posted by Valden21:

Originally posted by Ninja:

I don't think the War domain thing you're describing is actually a thing in NWN. The campaigns don't require you to choose a deity, nor do they have any implementation of deities unless there's custom content.

You don't have to pick a deity UNLESS you're playing a cleric. I've played clerics in this game, and I've always had to pick a deity; it kinda goes with the territory. Having a personal deity is also accurate to the setting; almost every character in the Forgotten Realms setting worships at least one of the deities.

No, you don't have to pick Deity, there is no Deity to pick from unless you type it yourself, it is optional. In NWN 2 on the other hand you have to.

[Knightlord72]

For to make all quest in OC of NWN, you need multiclassed Wizard/Druid

In chapter 1 you need Wizard, Sorcerer or Brad class to get and finish the quest in Wizard Tower (all other classes not trigger this quest)

[Knightlord72]

A multiclassed charcter with two spellcaster classes is not the best, you get not so high level spells, you need 17 levels of Wizard for 9 level spells for example, leave only 3 levels for the other spellcaster class.

Cleric is one of the best classes of its own (pure Cleric), maybe 1 level of example Fighter (to get 1 extra feats and access to Martial weapon instead use a feat for that)

When I use Cleric as a Fighter Cleric/Crusader, a choice almost all Sun domain (better against undead, and have low Charisma (often 10 (+/- 0 stat bonus)), other domains varies, but often Air och Heal (heal spells damage undead also).

If you use Cleric / Fighter and domain Strength / War, think you need high Charisma for the domains bonuses, but you need high Strength for Fighter in melee...

For Spells you need high Wisdom

So Wisdom is your primary if you will cast all your spells, Charisma or Strength is your secondary (Dexterity high only if you build a finesse Cleric, other, leave it at 8 or 10 (no higher than 12 (13 if you will have Dodge feat))