| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Right so I haven't actually gotten to the holy vindicator part yet, however I've covered my opinions of your channeling options, traits, and feats as well as where I would put my stats for a channeling primary character:
Abraham Spalding's Guide to the (to be honest) channeling.
As always comments, concerns, criticisms, and the like are welcome and appreciated.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your view) channeling is still one of the more straight forward aspects of the game.
Done as suggested.
Click the avatar to see the Optimised Holy Vindicator stats.
Diety- Imodae (clerics of this god cast good hope as 4th level spell)
Domains -Glory(Heroism) get +2 channel dc and Aura of Heroism
Good(Archon) Aura of Wrath
Build Cleric.8/HV10/Cleric 10
Touch of Good, Touch of Glory, +2 DC to Offensively Channel, Channel Energy 1d6, +1 Allies, Selective Channel, Alignment Channel
Cleric2
Cleric3
Channel Energy 2d6, Quick draw or Improved Channel or Extra Channel
Cleric4
Cleric5
Channel Energy 3d6, +2 Allies, Power Attack
Cleric6
Cleric7
Channel Energy 4d6, Quicken Channel
Cleric8
Aura of Wrath, Aura of Heroism
Vind1
Vindicator’s Shield, Channel Energy 5d6, Wpn Prof: Falcata
Vind2
Stigmata, Channel +3 Allies
Vind 3
Faith Healing (empower), Channel Energy 6d6, Improved Critical
Vind 4
Divine Wrath
Vind 5
Bloodfire, Channel Smite, Channel Energy 7d6, QuickenSpell
Vind 6
Versatile Channel
Vind7
Divine Judgement, Channel Energy 8d6, +4 Allies, Dazing Assault
Vind8
Faith Healing (maximize)
Vind9
Bloodrain, Channel Energy 9d6, Spell Penetration
Vind10
Divine Retribution
Cleric9
Channel Energy 10d6, Divine Interference
Cleric10
Channel +5 Allies
Your build while neat has one huge flaw in it from my perspective: You cannot take versatile channel unless you are neutral and follow a neutral god. I do however appreciate it as an example of what a positive energy channeler can look like and will remember about the glory domain when it comes time to mention domains.
Your build while neat has one huge flaw in it from my perspective: You cannot take versatile channel unless you are neutral and follow a neutral god. I do however appreciate it as an example of what a positive energy channeler can look like and will remember about the glory domain when it comes time to mention domains.
The Versatile channel is the HV class ability that lets you channel in a line or cone.
What the build offers is:
BAB 17/9th level spells
Can cast, and channel in the same round.
Divine Wrath/Retribution is awesome- paired with a falcata for high DC critical hit curses.
Utilising a Quickdraw light.shield and quickdraw feat can abuse free actions to have Vindicatiors shield up all the time (63 odd AC)
Can heal all allies for 20d6 or harm evil outsiders/undead for 20d6 with a standard channel/quickened channel in the same round.
Two awesome Aura's.
Can.cast.the.best bard buff (good hope)
This guy is definately a.'Battle Cleric' who utilizes channel for evil blasts and can buff allies.
Ah, I see I was thinking the feat -- however he can't blast all evil -- just undead or evil outsiders. I still agree that he's still a solid channeler, and an excellent example of one type of channeling character.
I personally like Clr4/Cav2 to qualify for HV. That gets you in 1 level ahead of straight cleric and you only lose one channeling level if you take Order of the Star (which also benefits from the CHA you should be pumping). Trade out the mount with the Standard Bearer archetype to give your allies bonuses to charges and against fear for a little more utility. And if you don't mind the hit to channeling, Cav4/Clr2 as a Human can get you the Banner of a 10th level character at level four thanks to the Favored Class bonus.
Pld5 qualifies sooner but it can only channel positive (no Versatile Channeling feat!), which might be a problem. Not sticking around until Pld6 also means you miss out on mercy and a slight increase to saves (only Ref benefits).
So why not just take Clr 7 (or 8) like most people? Earlier entry means you get more of the Vindicator abilities sooner, obviously! And the more your Stigmata bleed, the more righteous fury your character can bring down on your foes. Isn't that what playing this kind of holy warrior is all about?
Sidenote: As a GM, I would allow Channel Smite as an alternate pre-req for the class and replace the fifth level feat with Improved Channel Smite. It makes more thematic sense to me, and doesn't act as a tax on players in campaigns with few undead and outsiders.
EDIT: Also, if your GM allows 3pp stuff, the Death Knight from SGG makes a decent fit as it gives negative energy channeling.
And Rite's Divine Channeler is awesome at it too :)
Abraham Spalding, would you be up to a challenge?
| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Regarding Channeled Revival - the feat is even worse than your description. The only real point of Breath of Life is to bring somebody back from the dead, so it's useful only one round after the person has died. But Breath of Life is a touch spell, and Channeled Revival is a full-round action, so it's only applicable if the target happened to die within 5' of you. Terrible, terrible feat.
Cheapy -- I like challenges.
Alientude -- And it's rated red. I can't rate it redder since there isn't a redder red in the rating system.
Well actually, since the dead condition doesn't prevent you from taking actions, you could die and then use it on yourself to get back up. :p
Challenge to Abraham Spalding ONLY: Optimization guide for the Nature Warden to a level I find acceptable.
Reward: $10 Paizo.com Gift Certificate.
To be honest, my criteria for a nature warden guide is "isn't complete trash".
Hey that one is actually fun -- I think I might enjoy this.
And we have an update on this guide as well -- now we are including the primary options for entering into holy vindicator.
Soooo no mention of the merciful healer archetype for clerics?
Soooo no mention of the merciful healer archetype for clerics?
You mean the very first blue option under the healing channeling part?
Ah, didn't see that.
Not a problem, happens to us all.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Challenge to Abraham Spalding ONLY: Optimization guide for the Nature Warden to a level I find acceptable.
Reward: $10 Paizo.com Gift Certificate.
To be honest, my criteria for a nature warden guide is "isn't complete trash".
I always thought of the nature warden as a NPC prestige class, the whole keeper of the forest(or wichever terrain it focuses on) vibe doesn't match the epic journey style of most Adventure Paths and campaing a I played in.
Humbly,
Yawar
And that's why it's a challenge :-)
Actually when I look at it again I think I see a lot of potential to make GM's cry with it. We'll have to see if it bears out when I get typing next week though.
Currently I'm remembering that rogues have access to favored terrains as a rogue talent and they can take it with feats... and each time they do so it their previous favored terrains increase in effectiveness.
So I'm thinking rogue 2 followed by druid or ranger.
The nature warden could actually make good use of the beastmaster ranger archetype since each creature gets DR and actual magical weapons of significant bonuses are fairly rare in actuality when it comes to NPC and monster equipment.
World walker druid can single class it. But this is a topic for a future thread!
Although to make it interesting, non-big cat advice would be nice.
Too true -- next week I'll work on that one.
You don't list the halfling race anywhere. If you're focusing on healing (positive energy), size doesn't really matter and the +2 bonus to Charisma is great. No Wisdom makes them less potent as, say, the Aasimar and the Strength penalty / small size makes them less desirable for the Holy Vindicator role. I personally play my halfling as a Oracle of Life.
Alexander -- thank you for pointing out that oversight. It is now fixed.
Looks like this was added to the Guide to the Guides
If you are refferring to the second boon shax grants (treat bleed as fast healing), effectively turning the bleed from stigmata into a boon, it's a damn powerful option.
Only 2 problems are:
Most dm's wouldn't allow such a depraved, torturous char into a party, unless playing an evil game.
The feat is probably a bit far from core to put in a handbook.
Certainly it's awesome for an NPC villian.
You missed out on one of my favourite feats for negative channeling clerics.
Shatter Resolve
(From Faiths of Corruption)
For this you must worship Urgathoa, but if someone fails their will save versus your Channeled Energy they are Shaken for a number of rounds equal to the number of dice it damages with. They fail again, they're frightened. Quick Channel it to pretty much end the encounter in one round!
Mirrel I don't have that book (or the one that Jadeite is referencing, but if you can PM the prerequisites I will look them over and consider adding them into the guide.
Hamor I had already added this and my other guide for arcane tricksters to the guide of guides but thank you for the help and making sure it is there.
How come evil chars get all the awesome options? :(
Interesting guide! Here are a couple comments I've come up with while reading:
- You state that the life oracle doesn't gain as many uses of channel energy as a cleric, but I don't think that's correct at all. Since channel energy is based on Charisma (the primary stat of an oracle) they'll actually end up with quite a few more uses, unless the cleric takes a strong approach to focusing on charisma and the oracle decides to invest heavily in strength.
- For selective Channeling it's worth mentioning that strong party tactics and focusing fire on a single enemy can remove the need for this feat for the healing-focused channeler. After all, why get upset about healing a bunch of enemies who are at full health already?
- Channeled Revival is doubly useless because it's only got a 1-round grace period, requires a full-round action to use, and is range: touch. Unless you're standing by them when they fall you're basically out of luck.
- For life oracles, Gnome should be blue instead of green. Life oracles have a lot of stuff that draws from their own pool of HP, so a boost to con as well as their primary stat is an incredible boon for the race. (I wrote a guide on oracles, so I'm a little biased.)
And that's all I've got. Great little guide! I really enjoyed reading it.
I'm going to set the expiration date for the challenge to be the beginning of PaizCon. There needs to be some end in sight :)
I'll move that date up to the 6th -- if I'm not done by then I won't be done until after my AIT sometime next April. However I hope to have something actually typed in next Tuesday as that's my next 'slow' day.