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is difficult to hit with the ability to deal area effect damage via spells

2. GREATSWORD MANIAC: heavy armored, built for damage dealing and survival.

Ability Score: str 16, dex 12, con 12, wis 14, int 14, cha 8.

Domain: Trickery, Magic. You will be wielding a greatsword, so no shield, hence, less AC, you want to be able to survive, so Trickery is important thanks to improve invisibility's  50% concealment. Basically you will rarely get hit. Magic for 4th spell stoneskin, for the times you do get hit, and for 5th lvl Icestorm, nice way to soften things up before melee.

Feats - martial profiency, knockdown, extend spell, empowered spell, improve knockdown (requires high intelligence), improve critical, spell penetration.

Humans can grab knockdown at level 1 instead, and weapon focus at level 3.

Weapon: The biggest and baddest greatsword or axe you can find. For singleplayer, the quest sword with additional flame damage is nice.

Equipment: Same as TANK except no shield. Belt of Giant Strength & Gauntlet of
Ogre Power to bring str to 23. Then cast empowered bull strength on yourself!
It can add 7 strength, bringing your max to 30!!

Summary: 4 attacks per round if hasted. Very hard to hit thanks to improve invisibility, and can absorb blows thanks to stoneskin. If needed, cast a empowered area effect (icestorm, flamestrike etc) to help. Make sure to cast Bull's
Strength on yourself after a rest, really adds up the damage you can inflict.

With extended divine power in effect, this variant will tear through enemies so fast it isn't funny. Against tough foes, improve knockdown will work wonders, especially against mages or other classes with low discipline.

RANGE: bow and arrow, or sling and shield. damage from afar, rely on summons/henchman to take care of frontlines. This variant will be based on damaging spell types. You can make another variant, which relies on summons to do damage, and you use your spells to disable enemies. It works fine either way.

Note: If you play elven, you can use the longbows without needing martial weapon feat.

Ability Score: str 12, dex 16, con 12, wis 15, int 10, cha 10. By lvl 20, have wisdom 20. Elves should try to have 18 dex, lowering charisma if need be.

Domain: Air, Animal. Animal is nice for this variant, since you need a decent front line to keep enemies busy while you cast spells or shoot arrows/bullets. Air for call lightning, which will be your staple diet for all through the game, and turning elementals can help, though not much.

Feats (elven) - point black shot, rapid shot, extend spell, empowered spell, improve critical (longbow), spell focus evocation, maximize spell.

If you are not elvish, you need to grab martial weapon proficiency for longbows.
Cast extended divine power as a 5th level spell, and your archery skills will sky rocket!

Weapon: Longbow. Crossbows are slow and you'll only ever get 2 attacks per round with it if you are hasted, whereas bows & slings work on the normal cleric attacks per round. Though heavy crossbows ARE superior until you reach level 8 when you obtain your 2nd attack per round, though if you take rapid shot, longbows are better from when you get it.

Equipment: Stick with leather, your high dex can provide the protection required.
Though going full plate works fine, generally, i like to stick with hide armors for the "right" look. :) Those who go with slings can equipt a nice Tower Shield as well! Belt of Agility, Cloak of Fortitude, Ring of Power, Boots of Haste,
Tomi's Ring that gives +dex or a Ring of Resistance, Gauntlets of Dexterity.

Summary: With 4 attacks per rounded hasted, backed up by a strong frontline summon, and a vast array of area damage spells, this variant performs very well with minimal risk. Perfect variant for playing online in persistant servers or as a solo adventurer or with a party hunting group. Even better in the single player campaign due to the help of a henchman as well as a summon creature.


PURE SPELL CASTER: clerics in my opinion, are the strongest spell caster class in
NWN. It may differ in PnP, but for NWN, they are in a class of their own. The main reason why is they get a lot of spells with no save allowed.

Ability Score: str 10, dex 12, con 12, wis 18 , int 10, cha 10. WIS 23 @ lvl 20, more if boost via amulet/spell.

Domain: Air, Magic. Magic gives very nice bonuses, namely the extra spell Ice Storm at spell lvl 5, and Acid Arrow at lvl 2, which now has a very effective offensive spell. Air is for the call lightning. Chain Lightning is inferior to Blade Barrier, also a lvl 6th spell for this build. With this, you have attack spells from lvl 2 onwards.

Feats - toughness, spell focus (evocation), empowered spell, maximize spell, spell penetration. optional: great fortitude, lightning reflex.

There's not many feats you need as a pure spell caster, so the last two choices can be anything you like.

Weapon: You won't need to melee for most of the time, but you can if you wish since your AC will be very high, hence, you can cast spells in a crowd without worry. I suggest a weapon that gives you haste if you can equip one.

Equipment: Heavy Armor, Tower Shield, pretty much same as a fighter type. Take full advantage of the Cleric's ability to be a real tank and cast spells without worry of failure. If your weapon has haste, you can wear boots to boost constitution or give you immunity to knockdown, etc, otherwise use Boots of Speed.
Amulet should be used to futher boost wisdom. As always, try to get the highest
AC so you can cast without worry of being hit, and try to raise your saving throws, especially reflex types to avoid damaging spells.

Summary: Can cast splenty of spells thanks to high wisdom, decent HP, high AC, and plenty of offensive spells to select from. Use blade barriers in a way that melee enemies rush over it to get to you, and if you really want to abuse them, move back and forth and let them follow you. With your vast array of acid arrow, searing light, call lightning, destruction, and storm of vengence, you can pretty much tear everything apart with impunity.


5. MULTIPLAYER CLERICS

TEAM ORIENTATED: Your strength lies within friends and allies. Serve them well, they shall serve you well.

Build her pretty much like a pure spell caster, but with a "healing" mindset. Wear heavy armors to get that AC up as high as possible, so that you can run into crowds to heal and resurrect fallen comrades. Boost the party via spells like Bull's
Strength, Endurance, Bless, Aid, Protection from Evil etc. Summon animals to aid in the fight. Focus skills in healing, and make good use of medikits. If all else fails, your high AC means you can hold the front lines to allow the team to form new tactics, or finish off enemies from a safe distance.

If you play on servers where resting is restricted, take the domain Healing.

SOLO ADVENTURER: Independant, and the ability to survive on your own.

Make good use of summon creature, since they will be your only companion during your long trek into the wilderness. Take skills in healing to keep you fit and healthy, and conserv spell slots for offensive spells since you have to take everything down by yourself. Can build him similar to a ranger for the added appeal. :) Myself, i always use this build for online rpgs eversince ultima online. Range weapons, summons, offensive spells, and healing. Nice and effective.

PVP or DUELIST: The pace at which you can crush your foes is frightening. No one, and i mean no one is safe against you (unless they cheat with custom items giving them immunity to EVERYTHING - which is why i suggest you find good server vault pvp servers ^^).

I will expand on this a bit more detailed than the two above instances, since this needs more planning to be successful.

Note: This is designed with the default NWN ruleset and item set in mind, if the server you play on is totally different or you cannot obtain especially the short sword "The Lucky One", i suggest you experiment with dual classing, 19 Cleric &
1 Monk to gain the feat Evasion.

Race: Preferably Dwarven (+2 saves against spells, more CON)

Ability: str 10, dex 12, con 20, wis 15, in 8, cha 6. WIS 20 @ lvl 20.

Domain: Trickery & Sun.

Feats: martial weapon, empowered spell, maximize spell, lightning reflex, greater fortitude, toughness/iron will, spell penetration.

Weapon: The Lucky One (shortsword, grants feat improve evasion)

Equipment: Ring of Power, Boots of Speed, best Full Plate available, Tower Shield
+5 (requires lawful alignment), Amulet of Natural Armor +5, Cloak of Fortitude +3,
Ring of Resistance +3, Greater Swordsman's Belt or Brawler, depending on enemies you face, you can switch belts to suit situation. Brawler to block icestorm's bludgeoning or monk fists, Swordman to block fighter/barbarian blades. Any helm you like, don't worry about stunning fist since your save will be high enough to avoid it easily. Though a helm which adds to saving throw is always great.

With this setup, you have 43 AC, and saving throws of +6 via items & +2 via feats, totalling +8 to saves. Your base saves will be Fortitude: 12, Reflex: 6, Will: 12.
Add in items => Fort: 20, Refl: 14, Will: 20. Then add in bonus via stats, you can easily get 25 in fort and will, and around 17 in reflex if you drink cat's grace potion. Finally, if you took my advice and took Spellcraft, you gain +5 to ALL saves, and being a dwarf, that's another +2. So your Fort & Will saves are 32, reflex 24. It's the fort & will saves that matter most since it protects you agaisnt a lot of nasty spells. 24 in reflex can avoid most reflex spells if you roll 4 or more, and thanks to The Lucky One, if you save, you receive ZERO damage, not half. Even if you don't save, you automatically receive half.

What this means is that almost the entire selection of sorcery spells to hurt you will be negated.. the only ones that can hurt you will be magic missile, negative energy ray and horrid wilting. Horrid cannot be maximized or empowered, so it does
20D8, you will save against it easily, so it ends up doing 10D8, on average, that is 40 damage. NER is a wis save spell, easily done for you, it ends up doing 2.5D6.

The fact that only few spells can hurt you and the 6th level spell Heal, it can really put the hurt against wizards & sorcerors, more likely they run out of spells before you die. :)

If you really want to annoy the nuts out of wizards/sorc, then just cast spell resistance, let them disjunction it, then cast it again, or do the same with improved invisibility. :) If they have spell level absorbtion, just hit them on the head in melee. Wait til it runs out, either way, they cannot kill you before they run out of spells.. then you can just chase them around all over the place.

Melee classes won't have a chance against you, thanks to 43AC, and 50% concealment.
With 20 in constitution, and the feat toughness, you end up with 280 hp at level
20. More if you drink endurance potion or cast the spell.

Your main attacking spells are: Searing Light @ lvl 2, Searing Light @ lvl 3,
Empowered Searing Light @ lvl 4, Maximized Searing Light OR Slay Living @ lvl 5,
Harm @ lvl 6, Blade Barrier @ lvl 6, Destruction @ lvl 7, Empowered Blade Barrier @ lvl 8, Maximize Blade Barrier @ lvl 9.

Defensive Spells: Improved Invisibility, Heal, Spell Resistance, use as needed or required. Remember, Heal @ lvl 6 will simply make you a god in PvP.

Destruction is a very powerful spell, guaranteed 10D6 even if enemies save, if they don't save, they instantly die. Blade Barrier is a real killer, up to 20D6 NO
SAVE (use to be no save, but 1.29 put in partial save!). Won't work on monks if they are level 20 (blade barrier deals normal physical damage, monks are basically immune to normal physical @ lvl 20), but works on everyone else unless they use custom items to give them immunity to the spell school, or mages with spell level absorbtion on (but they wont last long and will wear down fast). Blade barriers don't just summon a wall, it tracks enemies just like a flame arrow would, it lands, hits, and deals damage and blades pop up where it hits and deals more damage if your enemy is still on top of it. It's incredibly overpowering since it does so much damage.

Harm is also another key spell, especially agaisnt melee fighters. It is very easy to connect since a "touch" attack bypasses most of the target's AC rating. If they have negative energy protection, then forget it though, but if they don't, they will learn soon enough to have it next time. This is an evil, evil, but excellent spell. One of the reasons people run away from clerics is due to this, they gotta get out of melee range. :)

There are no legal items within the game that negates Divine damage, so searing light will always be a killer, and due to taking Sun, you have plenty of it to chuck around.

Personally, i would hate to face against someone with 43 AC, 50% concealment, hasted, and the ability to dish out so much damage that doesn't allow me to save against.. not to mention the ability heal and summon balors, then proceeding to cast improve invisiblity & stoneskin on said balor, while filling the screen with blade barriers.. ouch. Nuf said, clerics as they are now are in a class of their own. Unless bioware "nerfs" them via future patches, they remain to be the most powerful PvP class.


6. MISCELLANEOUS TACTICS

Do you know of a nice trick that's useful as a cleric? If so, don't hesitate to give me an email. I'll include it in future versions of this guide if it's worthwhile. :)

Dual Classing opens up a lot of opportunities, but i believe for most purpose, it is better to stay a cleric all the way to level 20, since the extra high