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I've got an idea for a leprechaun wannabe character for Pathfinder Society - a halfling cleric of "Lady Luck" who speaks with an Irish accent and takes pride in "spreading the luck around". Suggestions to fill out the details would be appreciated. Here's what I've got so far:
Seamus (still needs a last name), Halfling Cleric of "Lady Luck" (Desna)
Goals in life: Satisfying his stereotypical halfling wanderlust, helping people in need, and bringing "luck" to his friends and allies (buff specialist)
Alignment: Chaotic Good, just like his goddess
Place in battle: Exactly 5 feet behind the party member who gets the most attacks per round, so he can touch them with Bit of Luck every round. He'll also be healing and casting other buffs regularly, and wielding a light crossbow for when he runs out of divine magic or wants to save it for later. But he'll definitely be a wimp who avoids being on the front line in combat.
Stats: This is what I've got so far. I was thinking of maybe taking points from dex or elsewhere to boost wisdom some more, or maybe trying to pump up int, since clerics get so few skill ranks, but I think I'm relatively happy with this as is. Wisdom will be the stat to increase at levels 4 and 8.
Str 7 (-1) (-2 racial)
Dex 16 (5) (+2 racial)
Con 12 (2)
Int 12 (2)
Wis 16 (10)
Cha 14 (2) (+2 racial)
Domains: Luck is definite - that's the main point of the build. I'm thinking probably Travel for battlefield mobility as my second domain. But I was wondering if a riding dog would work for that and make the Travel domain unnecessary, in which case maybe I'd take the Good domain instead, for more buffing power.
Favored Class Bonus: Always add to the number of times per day to use Bit of Luck. This is half the point of making the character a halfling.
Traits: Good question. I haven't looked into this yet. Suggestions would be welcome.
Faction: Another good question. What part of Golarian would a halfling with an Irish accent come from? I'm thinking based on his morality of freedom and goodness that Andoran would be a good fit, but I already have another Andoran character, so I'd like to vary things a bit. I might just go with Grand Lodge and have him just try to be helpful to all other Pathfinders, intentionally avoiding the faction infighting.
Feats (in no particular order): Selective Channeling, Improved Initiative, Lucky Halfling, maybe Weapon Finesse, since I usually need to stay near the front line, so I may as well bring a melee weapon. For the crossbow, stuff like Rapid Reload, Point Blank Shot, and Precise Shot might be options. I need to look into other options to see what else jumps out at me, especially when it comes to metamagic and channeling.
Weapons (in order from most to least often used): The other party members, light crossbow, and with this strength, should I even bother with a melee weapon?
Armor: Light armor and buckler until I can afford mithral breastplate or a riding dog. With such short legs, I can't afford to wear armor that'll slow me down. Besides, with 16 dex and +1 size bonus, my AC should be pretty good for someone who isn't a front line combatant.
Spells: Buffs, buffs, and more buffs. Spontaneous cures as necessary, though I'll pick up a wand for that early. Suggestions would be welcome on exactly which buffs are best, since I'm no expert on clerics.
Skills: Ride? That would be good with a riding dog. Not many skill points as a cleric, so I'll probably mostly focus on the usual diplomacy, sense motive, perception, and try to throw at least one point into every class skill.
Other classes: I might consider a 1 level bard dip just for Timely Inspiration and a few rounds of Inspire Courage per day, plus a few extra skill ranks. Actually, 2 levels of bard would give me Versatile Performance, so my skill ranks could go farther. Personality wise, bard would actually go well with his friendly, free form, "I just wanna spread the luck around" form of Desna worship.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
This was the first thing to come to mind based on your thread title.
How does he feel about gambling? (Profession: Gambler)
How about "Iron Liver" as a trait? ("Just a wee drop of the creature, laddie.")
Maybe the tank could get one of those "Yoda backpacks" as featured in Empire Strikes Back. :-)
A shamrock embossed codpiece for protecting his "lucky charms".
too bad this is pathfinder socity. There was a huge amount of luck feats way back in 3.5...
Somethings I'd look for myself is picking up "non-spell" spells. Basically spells that could be passed off as just being lucky.
Like in 3.5 I had a battle sorcerer that I carefully selected his spell for, all them where as close as I could get to just being V and not having spectacular effects. Like feather fall, No matter where I fell, there was a pile of hay, leaves or something else equally soft.
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How does he feel about gambling? (Profession: Gambler)
How about "Iron Liver" as a trait? ("Just a wee drop of the creature, laddie.")
Maybe the tank could get one of those "Yoda backpacks" as featured in Empire Strikes Back. :-)
A shamrock embossed codpiece for protecting his "lucky charms".
I was thinking that making him a gambler would work with his personality, but clerics just don't get enough skill ranks to train a profession skill.
The other problem is that much of the "luck" he spreads around only works on others, not himself. ie Bit of Luck from the Luck domain, which is one of the best buffs he'll ever get, even though it's a 1st level ability. That would make it hard for him to give himself extra luck at the Poker table. Though again, he could put the luck into his friends and aim them at the card game, the same way he uses them as his primary weapons in battle.
You could take the Halfling Jinx Trait. Then give you party members a Bit of Luck and send a bit of bad luck at your foes
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Basic Cleric buffs (and debuffs) are as follows (IMHO, with key spells with *):
0 - Resist, and that's about it for 0-lvl
1- Bane (debuff); Bless*; Divine Favor (personal; Doom (debuff); Sanctuary (personal)
2- Aid; Animal Buffs depending on class (bull, bear, eagle, owl); Resist Engery*; Grace*; Weapon of Awe
3- Bestow Curse (debuff); Prayer*; Protection from Energy*; Sacred Bond
I'll leave it at that, as I'm assuming you're at 1st lvl. I'd for SURE pick at least Bless, Resist/Protection from Energy, and Prayer. These are by far the best Cleric buff spells at lower levels, and can be quite useful at higher levels, too. As a buffer, you'll be using them quite a bit. Grace can be really nice, too, if you need to get a heal somewhere in a hurry. Threw in some nice debuffs, too, if you want to "take the luck" from your enemies.
As for feats, Selective Channeling is a must. Take that first. The rest is mostly for flavor, but as you're going for a buffer/healer, take some feats to make that roll even better. I wouldn't worry about taking feats for your crossbow, except Precise Shot which is another "must have" if you're going to be shooting a lot. And, might as well take a melee weapon. It's always nice, unless you want to stab your enemies using a bolt as a dagger.
Hope that helped. (spells only from core and APG)
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Always carry a melee weapon, even if it is a sharp stick you usually use to roast marshmallows. Past that, if you are dedicated to the idea of a buff/heal only cleric, you could conceivably drop wis to 14... by the time you can cast 7th lvl spells a +4 wis headband is pretty easily obtained, and extra spells can be gained from pearls of power. Those stat points could go towards either CHA if you wanted to go bard, and/or be exceptional at CHA based skills, or to str to be able to carry... anything, and to swing your sharp stick without hitting yourself in the face :P
It is just an alternative idea, not something I think is more or less optimized.
For something that IS terribly unoptimized, what about cleric 1/bard 2/wiz(sor) 1/cleric x?
More cantrips than you can shake a stick at! (At lvl 4 you would have a BAB of 1 lol)
I don't think I'd want to spread my classes out that much. I'm not even sure about dipping into bard, vs sticking to straight cleric. It's something I thought of to consider, but I might want to try playing as straight cleric for a level or two first before deciding if I want the additional bard skills.
I was figuring I'd probably carry a dagger or two, one of them probably hidden in a boot. But with small sized damage and a -2 str penalty, I can't imagine using any melee weapon with any regularity. I've got the crossbow for those rounds when I'm not using magic, and if I'm on the front line, without a tank between me and the enemy, then something's already wrong.
And the high wisdom determines how often I can use Bit of Luck and my other 1st level domain power. And high wisdom gives extra spell casting. Besides, while 90% of my spells will probably be buffs or heals, the other 10% might include some things that allow saving throws by whatever enemy I'm trying hit with bad luck (debuffs), so wisdom is good for that.
And I'm ok with the low strength - fighting in melee isn't the point of this character, and small sized weapons and armor weigh half as much as medium, so I should have no problems with encumbrance.
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Basic Cleric buffs (and debuffs) are as follows (IMHO, with key spells with *):
0 - Resist, and that's about it for 0-lvl
1- Bane (debuff); Bless*; Divine Favor (personal; Doom (debuff); Sanctuary (personal)
2- Aid; Animal Buffs depending on class (bull, bear, eagle, owl); Resist Engery*; Grace*; Weapon of Awe
3- Bestow Curse (debuff); Prayer*; Protection from Energy*; Sacred BondI'll leave it at that, as I'm assuming you're at 1st lvl. I'd for SURE pick at least Bless, Resist/Protection from Energy, and Prayer. These are by far the best Cleric buff spells at lower levels, and can be quite useful at higher levels, too. As a buffer, you'll be using them quite a bit. Grace can be really nice, too, if you need to get a heal somewhere in a hurry. Threw in some nice debuffs, too, if you want to "take the luck" from your enemies.
As for feats, Selective Channeling is a must. Take that first. The rest is mostly for flavor, but as you're going for a buffer/healer, take some feats to make that roll even better. I wouldn't worry about taking feats for your crossbow, except Precise Shot which is another "must have" if you're going to be shooting a lot. And, might as well take a melee weapon. It's always nice, unless you want to stab your enemies using a bolt as a dagger.
Hope that helped. (spells only from core and APG)
Thanks for the suggestions. That's very useful.
I actually have another cleric character that I just started playing, along with this one that I haven't built yet, so I've been looking through the 1st level spells but haven't gotten very far past that yet. I knew Aid and Prayer looked like good ones, though.
I notice you left off Shield of Faith and Magic Weapon at level 1. I thought those looked decent for 1st level buffs. The one time I played my other cleric so far, she had Bless and Shield of Faith prepared, though she ended up not using either of them. I think I spontaneously cast Cure Light Wounds once, and never used the other. But that character's more of a weapon fighter than this buff specialist, so she wasn't focused on spellcasting during fights.
Aid and Protection from Energy are both Luck domain spells, so I'm sure I'll usually have those prepared once I reach those levels. Actually, if I do go with the Travel domain, which I'm leaning towards, Protection from Energy will have to compete with Fly for that domain slot. But Aid clearly beats out Locate Object for the level 2 domain slot, except maybe on rare occasions for specific missions.
I was just skimming the list of traits at [url]http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits[/url], and I think I'm leaning toward Focused Mind and Good Dreams. Good Dreams looks interesting, and actually seems like it would work well with my character from an RP perspective, but may take some extra work for both me and every GM I play with. I think I'd probably have to buy the book that contains that trait, and make a point of showing it to the GM before every session I play with this character. Now I'm wondering if it can be combined with the Lucky Halfling feat to give an ally the Good Dreams bonus instead of myself.
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You're welcome :)
I left out Magic Weapon because it doesn't stack with masterwork, although it can be of use before there's actually masterwork weapons available as they're essentially the same thing. Shield of Faith hasn't been much of a use for me, as I usually go for Bless for a first level spell. It's a party-wide buff, so unless you're going for single-character-buffing only, Bless is the superior choice IMO.
Remember that you can have any spell on any given day...I would take the ones most useful in the given situation. If you're up against ele's, use prot/ele, if not, grab fly. you could even have both! just see which one you'll be using more once you get to that level.
Focused Mind sounds good, but I would be weary. Depending on what spells you have, you may not really be needing to worry about a high concentration. Unless, of course, you're casting defensively or on a mount. But that's me...my Oracle has no issues passing them when needed. As for Good Dreams, it'll give your DM bad dreams. I had a character who wanted it, and it cause me HUGE grief...just a lot of pre-planning and REALLY knowing the player and character. Then again, if your DM is down for it, it can create some great RP potential, foreshadowing, and false leads. I'd suggest asking your DM(s?) if they'll allow Lucky Halfling to apply to the Good Dreams effect. I don't see why it wouldn't, and there's nothing specific about it, so it would be up to the DM's discretion.
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Part of the problem with Good Dreams is that this character is for Pathfinder Society, so it'll be a variety of GMs. In my local group, there's only a small number of GMs, who would all know about my character before I play him, so they could plan for it. I'm more worried about going to conventions or something, which might happen occasionally.
Although I could tell any GM who doesn't want to plan for it in advance that they can just tell me "You don't remember your dreams from last night." And then later in the adventure, when something with a saving throw comes up, they could follow it up with, "As this occurs, it all seems very familiar, and you suddenly remember that you dreamed this exact situation last night." That would let them improvise it, instead of having to plan it in advance.
About Magic Weapon, that looks like it does slightly more than a masterwork bonus, because it affects damage, too. But I don't think it stacks with an actual magical weapon. So it could be handy at levels 1-3, but not so much past that.
I can't imagine this character ever using Divine Favor. He's not doing the fighting himself, so his buffs just aren't going to be self buffs. He'd rather cast Shield of Faith or Magic Weapon on a teammate who runs to the front line.