Newbie to 3E and ahve a few questions

[Troll Slayer]

Thanks in advance for the answers,

Does a cleric wearing armor face a chance of spell failure due to the armor, and or shield?

If I start out as a level 1 paladin, then immediately multi to a fighter and rise 4 levels as a fighter, can I then go back to raising my paladin levels? What I want is to be a paladin of helm and get to level 4 fighter early on for the extra skills and feats and then only increase my paladin levels after that. Or would it be better to start out as a level 4 fighter, then switch to the paladin for the rest of the game.

Is it better to never multi-class an ECL character because of the level penalties?

Is two-weapon style any good anymore? I was thinking about making a bard that has 1 level of ranger in it. I am going for the blade kit from BG2 with this character. Or would a rouge/bard be a better character to try this with? I just want the two-weapon style, ambidexterity, and weapon finesse feats. Is this a wise choice?

What type of weapon is the holy avenger?

In the manual for spells it lists who has access to them at what levels. I was thinking about a cleric of tempus to serve as my backup tank. I noticed many spells said tempus 6, which means a tempus priest gets access to that spell at level 6, does clr 6 mean all types of clerics get access to that spell at level 6? I noticed sometimes a spell would have clr 2, tempus 2, wiz/sor 5. It was a little confusing.

Is there still a cap of 5 attacks a round no matter what bonus you have? i.e. magic weapons that give +2 attacks per round, and you already have 4 attacks a round.

Am I correct in reading that as you level up as a cleric you get more then 1 attack a round, but the extra attacks do not roll to hit as well? This is the same for fighters as well?

Are there any awesome bastard swords in the game that merit taking 3 feats in it?

That’s all for now.

[koz-ivan]

a - paladin of helm can filp back and forth between ftr & paladin, no need to get all your ftr levels first, depends on how you want the char to advance.

b - multi's & ecl's this is a matter of personal taste, the multi + ecl really seems to hurt spell casters, so i'd be careful there, but either way should work fine.

c - i like dual wield, it seems most effective w/ short swords, daggers & wpn finesse. for big hulking ftrs two handed weapons seem more effective. it also depends on what weapons you find / buy.

d - not sure about the ha.

e - spells are very confusing, clerics memorize two types of spells, vanilla & domain. if a spell is marked as "tempus 6" your cleric can memorize it as a 6th level domain spell.

f - i believe there is a cap, but i've not been lucky enough to hit it just yet.

g - all classes will get more than one attack a round, your first attack has the highest bonus, each additional attack is less and less accurate when you go down the list. (exception for haste & rapid shot feat)

h - there are some nice weapons of every class, i'm not sure the bastards are so much better that they warrant additional feats, i could be wrong.

(hope that helps)

[1-800-DOCTORB]

Just to clarify and add to some of koz-ivan's answers:

I'd start out as a fighter and go up to level 2 as a fighter before putting in some paladin because you get a bonus feat at level 1 and another one at level 2 that way, but only if your very first 2 character levels are fighter.

The Holy Avenger is a Greatsword
-Damage: 1d8+5
-Attack Bonust +5
-Enchantment +5
-Special: 2d6 against Evil creatures (which is pretty much everybody in the game, at least all the tough monsters anyway)
+15 spell resistance
-can cast dispell magic an unlimited amount of times per day
As you can see, this is a pretty impressive weapon.

I seem to remember a very impressive Bastard Sword late in the game. I honestly don't remember its stats, but I do know that I was disapointed that none of my guys had the proficiancy to use it. The Bastard Sword is the best one-handed sword in the game though if that'll help.