Am I right in my understanding that if I mix classes, every time the two classes are more than 1 level apart there is an experience penalty?

But if I am a Paladin and I choose Aasimar, I can mix and match to my heart's conent because Aasimar is the Paladin's favored class?

So how do you take 1 level in for example ranger, and the remaining 19 levels in paladin (or any similar scenario?) without getting smacked with penalties if you don't use a favored class?

And do the penalties stack?

Thanks

Because different races have a different favourite class.
Paladin = Aasimar
Sorcerer = wild elf
Fighter = dwarf, Earth Genasi, & others.
Ranger =yuan-ti or wood elf
Bard = Gnome
Cleric = Gray orc
Any = human or half elf

Therefore if your race is Aasimar, human, wood elf or yuan-ti then there is no penalty because they can all ignore one of those (paladin or ranger) two classes… it's worth noticing that all prestige classes don't count towards these penalties so if you can find one that gives the skill | ability you are looking for then that is often the better bet.

p.s. nwn2db.com is a good builder that lets you play around… always pick storm of zehir as the template regardless of which of the three main campaigns you want to play with gog as that will have all the feats| races and updates.

p.p.s yes they do stack so eg. a dwarf paladin 10 | ranger 5 | cleric 1 would have two penalties but a dwarf paladin 8| fighter 2 | doomguide 6 | Divine Champion 4 would not have any.

Thanks. And do the penalties get worse the more distant the classes get? As in would the penalty on a Paladin10/Fighter6 be less than a Paladin 10/Fighter 2?

Also, why wouldn't the dwarf paladin 8| fighter 2 | doomguide 6 | Divine Champion 4 have any penalty vs the dwarf paladin 10 | ranger 5 | cleric 1? Sorry for stupid noob questions.

No they don't get worst as such… the above two examples have the same adjustment.

Dwarf paladin 8| fighter 2 | doomguide 6 | Divine Champion 4
Because Dwarf can ignore fighter classes and therefore only counts the paladin levels… doomguide & Divine Champion are prestige classes and remember I said that they don't ever count.

Dwarf paladin 10 | ranger 5 | cleric 1
Dwarf can only ignore fighter classes and there are no prestige this time so all 3 classes counts giving two separate (fixed) penalties witch stack together.

Dwarf paladin 4 | ranger 5 | cleric 4
would be ok, a bit of a weird character but no penalties.

p.s. If it helps then this is how I make my characters but feel free to ignore any or all of it… it's your game!

1. What Campaign are you going to play?
1st (OC) is 1-20, 2nd (MotB) is 20-30 and 3rd (SZ) is 4-15ish… this has a big impact on how powerful your character can become but also decides what magic items are lying around and the kinds of monsters you are likely to encounter.

2. What skills | roles do you want to have?
OC and MotB lock you into playing 1 person so for example if you want to be able to disarm traps then you must take a level of Rogue… yes there is a cute npc that can do that job but the plot doesn't always allow you to pick her and even if you can there is still the matter of your shiny goody two shoes hanging out with (turning a blind eye towards) a less than completely honest companion. (SZ) is a smaller overall Champaign but allows you to play as a real party where the Ranger leads the group through ruff terrain with his scouting ability then the Rogue | Bard unlocks the tressure chests and the Paladin uses her Diplomacy skills to sell it all for a good profit… the dynamics of this change are subtle but perhaps not for everyone.

3. What type of combat ability does your character like to use?
Diplomacy is all well and good but sooner or later the game dissolves into combat and I'd recommend building your character from the top down… if you know that Devine shield is desired then make sure to have at least 13 in both str | dex & take power attack. A character that rocks the heavens at level 30 is probably going to be utterly useless at levels 5-20 so don't just take the first build you see... think about what you want to eventually be able to do but also consider how long it takes before you can start to fight without your other party members having to carry your share.

To clarify, the penalty is 20% for each class that's out of whack, so in ussnorway's second example, the penalty would be 40%

Thanks for the help!

If I decide to make a Cleric, is it correct that if I make him human I will not have any multiclass penalties if I only choose 1 other class to multi with? Confused on the human and 1/2 elf multiclass rules

Correct. Humans and half-elves get to ignore their highest level class when determining multiclassing penalties. So if you only take two non-prestige classes then there will never be an experience penalty. If you take three (or four) non-prestige classes then one of those classes will be ignored when determining penalties.

For example, if early in the campaign your character is Human Fighter 5 | Ranger 1 | Rogue 2 then there will be no multiclass penalty since Fighter levels are ignored and Ranger and Rogue levels are within 1 of each other. If later in the campaign that same character is Fighter 5 | Ranger 11 | Rogue 4 then there will still be no penalty, as in this case Ranger levels are ignored and Fighter and Rogue levels are within 1 level of each other. However, a Fighter 6 | Ranger 10 | Rogue 4 would incur a penalty, as the Ranger levels are still ignored, but the Fighter and Rogue levels are now two levels apart, triggering the penalty. Additionally, a Fighter 10 | Ranger 9 | Rogue 1 would also incur a penalty, as it's the Fighter levels (highest level class) that are ignored, leaving the Ranger and Rogue levels which incur a penalty (in this case a Halfing or Tiefling would let you avoid a multiclass penalty with a favored class of Rogue, while Human doesn't let you avoid the penalty).

Thanks. I see. Would the Priest that Mad3 created in a previous post that i pasted below have any penalty issues? Also, if you do screw up, does the game let you know you are being penalized?

The Priest:
Requirements: lawful good alignment, deity kelemvor
Stats: (aasimar) str 14, dex 10, con 14, int 12, wis 17, cha 16 increase wis to 20, then increase cha
Classes:
1 level cleric, select the two following domains: earth (more hit points and stone skin spells), air (more damage spells)
3 levels of paladin (higher saving throws, immunity to fear and disease)
Continue as cleric until you can become a doomguide
10 levels of doomguide (immunity to death spells, many divine feats)
All remaining levels as cleric
Feats: spell caster prodigy at level 1, practiced spell caster (cleric) as soon as you have all feats required for doomguide, extended, persistent and empower spell if you like casting or power attack and more divine feats if you like fighting.
Pros: very good in casting and turning of undead, even useful in melee combat, more hit points than most casters, casting in full plate and shield, immunity to several dangerous effects
Cons: less melee damage than warrior or thief and less magic damage than the mage (except when fighting undead), little skill points and you have to spend them on concentrate, spell power and diplomacy
Note: for role playing reasons, let him fight with the holy avenger and if you go for epic levels, teach him the epic spells vampiric feast and summon balor (you have observed your enemies carefully and learned to use their best tricks against them)

I can't recall if the game lets you know if you're being penalized, but I don't believe it does. I can't remember ever seeing anything when I played a penalized character, anyway.

As for the character build, you'll receive no penalty for that one. Paladin is the favored class for Aasimar, so it's ignored and Doomguide is a prestige class, so it's ignored as well.

Ok - now I understand. Thanks for the patience.

On a different note, upon entering a combat situation my party goes berserk and runs off on a killing spree. Is there a setting to reign them in a little bit? I see a puppet mode, but if I understand that, the party will not do anything without my direct input. Seems there should be some middle ground?

About the priest:
-Aasimar are an ELC+1 race. This means they will always be 1 level lower
than a race without ELC penalty (and most party members).
Humans are often the best choice for beginners.
The official campaigns are not very difficult, so a char that is good in the beginning
may be better than a char that is min/maxed at max level, because then the game is over and
you have companions that cover the weaknesses of your own char.

PS: What means ELC again?

- Taking paladin levels means that you learn cleric spells slower.
This build learns lv 9 spells at lv20 (=max level at OC, usually not reached in SoZ)

-I took a similar char for NWN1 Hou/sotu (forgot exact abriviations, it was some time ago)
It was a pala2, CoT2, rest cleric. It was rather easy because it was a buffed fighter with good
diplomacy and healing skill. buffing before battles was annoying sometimes, but without buffs its not a good fighter.
It was surely easier than a pure fighter would have been.

about behaviour:
Go to a save position and tell your party to wait (hold right mouse button, command "stand your guard". (Warning, giving commands does NOT affect the char you control at that time). Take a tank char, pull a group of enemies and run to your group. When the enemies come close to your group, command them to attac.

Warning: When you use the wait or follow command your group members will not attac. This was the reason why some battles were extremely difficult. Whenever a battle starts directly after a cut scene, the first thing to do is to command your group to attac.

You can issue them commands… in a safe area press your [v] key to bring up the social interface… the groups are pretty self-explanatory and individual orders can be dragged over onto your controls quick bar; 'Hold', 'Attack my target' and 'Follow me' are IMO the most useful but remember to watch for the tell tail "should I attack?" messages that will now pop up.

Without trying to be rude, there's little point to having levels of Paladin in a caster build as it just suspends your spells. Generality the point of adding a splash of Paladin to a Doomguide build is that the extra 'turn' can be burned to power up divine feats such as shield or might which is fine for melle but doesn't really work as well for casters because they shouldn't be trying to enter combat. In a caster build I wouldn't add any Paladin levels but Favoured soul is charisma based and synergizes very well for a melee divine build at doesn't need Wisdom as well… it's your game of course!

p.s. Epic builds can unlock epic smite with a splash Paladin build… unlike smite evil, the epic version counts all character levels and is popular with people that like to see big alpha strike numbers.

You can go to the behavior page and adjust their behavior accordingly. Hitting the sweet spot takes some experimentation.

Another option is to use the "follow me", "stand your ground", and "attack nearest" commands as a leash.

It's ECL, and it means "effective class level"

I'd strongly advise beginners to avoid ECL races.

I'd agree that the Paladin/Cleric build only really matures in epic-level play. Before that point, the lost spellcasting just isn't worth the trade-off. However, you'll quickly make up the difference in epic-level play and it's all gravy from there.

It seems like I end up getting bogged down in the details in these types of game by trying too hard to make a character that is just right but still within the confines of the games rules. I am by no means a power gamer, and with my limited gaming schedule and attention span I will be lucky to even get through the 1st campaign anyway!

I really like the good old knight in shining armor with a sword and shield, so I think I will just go with a paladin and be done with it. I think it will be easiest for me and a character that will be less complex. Seems like there are so many rules and things to remember! But based on this board's responses, it sounds like a human would be my best choice.