So how important is Charisma to a Paladin?

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How important is charisma to a pally? I know that spellcasting of pallies come from wisdom. And, for them to be good fighters strength is important.

I'm thinking about going max str & wisdom to start. but, i dont want to make a mistake and finding out later that charisma is necessary for a pally.

Also, how effective is a pally multi classed with wizard class?

 

Charisma provides the pally with his save bonuses, as well as some other things. The Pally's CHA bonus is added to any save rolls, as well as the usual bonuses, and a high CHA can really help a pally resist a lot of magics.

I personally never found pally spellcasting to be all that valuable, particularly if one has a good cleric to cover all those spells.

Multi-classing a pally with a wizard? Never tried it. But it's not a good symbiotic combination, because INT isn't an important stat for pallies. The pally/sorceror combo is better due to CHA being a strong stat for both classes, although of course, you cannot advance the pally levels after taking your first sorc level. Many people will start with 1 or 2 pally levels and then switch over to sorc ... just to get those early level pally benefits. It's really a shame that one of the pally "kits" in IWD2 is that pally/wizard Pally of Mystra, cuz it is such a lame combination.

 

heh it didnt mention anything aobut charisma affecting save throws.

thank you for the heads up guess its time to remake the pally.

 

If you install custom.dll fix, then paladins of mystra can also get sorcerer as approved class.
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/dl.php?s=IWD2&f=IWD2/IWD2Custom.rar
Not that there's any use of mixing in more than one level paladin. In fact, I suspect that the level 2 Aura of Courage that a paladin radiates, makes it impossible for your party to go undercover in a certain map in the game.

 

It's not the aura of courage which makes it impossible to go undercover in the certain map (it worked for my fighter4/paladin10), only pure paladins refuse this disguise (which won't yield a lasting benefit btw).

While strength is the most useful stat for paladins, starting with maximized wis is a bad idea. During the game even pure paladins get only enough levels to cast level 4 spells, 14 wis is sufficient for this, more is wasted.
While high charisma is nice for saving throw bonuses, better "Lay Hands" and "Smite Evil" it's not as useful as physical stats, you don't have to make saves very often and there are many spells to boost them or make them unnecessary.

 

14? sweet. just remade the paladin. That info gave me lot of breathing space to put pts into other stats

 

Paladins are quite difficult to build since they benefit from a lot of stats (unlike fighters and barbarians that only need high str and con, decent dex and not too shabby wis.)

Just remember to NOT give your pally too much dex since you'll probably give him heavy armours later on. 10-12 is enough unless you plan on taking a feat that requires 13.

And minimize int! You only need concentration as the only skill and you always get at lest 1 skillpoint/lvl even with an int score of 1 or 3 (unless you're human as they get at least 2).

That should give you a lot of points to spend on str, con, cha and 14 wis.

 

Keep in mind that Paladins, more than anybody, should be getting long-term buffs from other party members/wands. These next three should be on all the time. You can recast them if you get a poor roll on the random buff.
Eagle's Splendor: +2 to +5 CHA
Cat's Grace: +2 to +5 DEX
Bull's Strength: +2 to +5 STR. You definitely want to recast this until you get +4/+5.

 

That holds true for most characters. I haven't used Eagle's Splendor, because of the relatively short duration, but they are definitely worth it. And you can equip luck items on the caster, or sing Tymora's to save you reloading too often.

 

Actually, I think the duration for Eagle's Splendor is much longer than what's documented (i.e. on par with Cat's Grace). I often use it at the beginning of the day and never need to re-buff.

 

Doesn't it also increase the number of times you can use 'Turn Undead'?

 

It does, but turning undead two levels lower than the cleric isn't too useful.
Eagle's splendor lasts 1 hour per level, resting lasts only 8 hours.

 

wow guys so much useful info!

Thank you!