Shedding tears for NPCs who knew they were going to fight a lich sorceror many times too powerful for them to even slow down... strange. I'm a bit confused as to why they didn't cast protection from evil on themselves the second they saw him but only the 6th level plus paladins would be likely to have the ability to cast a spell. Their "high saves" are coming from the assumption they have really high charisma scores, which is never required in 3rd+ edition to become a pally. The highest their charisma bonus might be is a 15 giving them a whopping +5 to 8 given my rough estimate of the guild's overall power level. The save for the spell is going to be at least 22 and I when dealing with NPC vs. NPC combat just have them get average rolls for everything until the victor is determined since the PCs aren't there only the outcome matters.
But paladins aren't exactly the easy to get the drop on with detect evil, sense motive, zone of truth, dispel magic, and a bunch of free immunities a paladin is a great class for any player. NPCs who get mostly average stats, rarely get treasure, and have token value to the plot aren't quite as lucky.