There's a lot of talk about how powerful/awesome wizards are. Frankly, I think that's true. However, Clerics are awesome too!
I want to hear about the coolest Cleric's you've experienced. Druids too, because I consider them a kind of specialized cleric. Oracles are divine too, but their are enough threads talking about them.
Tell me about the clerics in your games that have been memorable.
Why are they Awesome? Incident that showcased their awesomeness? Personalities? General badassery that made them memorable? Go go gadget Paizo community!
I want to hear about the coolest Cleric's you've experienced.
I had an awesome cleric of the god of teaching who smote everyone who used a plural apostrophe...
And yes, that's a lie and I'm really threatening you with smiting if you don't stop using the plural apostrophe. :P
Druids too, because I consider them a kind of specialized cleric. Oracles are divine too, but their are enough threads talking about them.Tell me about the clerics in your games that have been memorable.
Why are they Awesome? Incident that showcased their awesomeness?
I had a great druid I only got to play for one session. Half-orc druid, int 6, name "Hunting Wolf". Didn't talk like a total retard like people seem to think int 6 has to work. Instead, he had no idea about cities. He was a country boy, all about living in the woods, and never really using that much of intelligence, since mostly, he had been using his instinct and connection to nature (i.e. wisdom). Did I mention that was supposed to be a city campaign.
I did manage to pack enough awesome into that one session to rival some campaigns. Not just a character in a campaign, mind you, the whole thing!
He kept asking the other party members about the stuff he saw.
"What's that?"
"That's a house."
"What's it good for"
"Uhh.. A home? You know, shelter."
"How do you carry it around?"
"You don't. It stays in one place."
"Sounds bad. What if the place becomes bad for living?"
"..."
"What's that in the way in of the house?"
"Uh, the door?"
"What's it for?"
"To keep others out."
"You mean like predators? I thought you had no predators in the city."
"No, like a burglar."
"Never saw one of those. What do they look like."
"It's a person that steals."
"What steel?
"No, steal. Like take what's not yours."
"Uh. why?"
"..."
It was fun seeing how long it took the snooty elf duelist type to get exasperated about the whole questioning thing. It's like a child asking you stuff, except the child is over 6 feet tall, has a really dark voice, muscles that seem fit to bend pipes, and a sword as big as you are."
I want to hear about the coolest Cleric's you've experienced.I had an awesome cleric of the god of teaching who smote everyone who used a plural apostrophe...
And yes, that's a lie and I'm really threatening you with smiting if you don't stop using the plural apostrophe. :P
lol. Sorry. It's a bad habit i'm aware of, but have yet to get fully under control. I have however gotten much better about capitalizing words that should not be. ;-)
Moving on to clerics:
I did play several clerics mainly to make a point. Not the same point, obviously.
One was an elf archer cleric in 3.0 times. The point I tried to make is that this isn't 2e any more, clerics weren't a pathetically weak class only good for standing around until someone needs healing. That might be an exaggerated view of the 2e priest, but not much exaggerated in regards to what many people of the group thought about clerics. So this one was a doozy. You know how 3e archer clerics can get. Long story short, after that nobody thought clerics couldn't be used for anything other than healing any more.
The other was a dwarf priest, where I tried to make a point that there is more than one dwarf character out there, and that doesn't refer to the variation of the name from the pre-approved name snippets (orc, axe, hammer, beard, any sort of metal, any sort of stone). So this guy was NOT racist and proud of it, he did NOT have a serious drinking problem, he was NOT gruff to the point of being a sociopath, he did NOT think that mining and killing orcs (as well as insulting elves) were the only worthwhile things to do. And I did it without creating a ridiculous "anti-dwarf", like a dwarven fashion designer whose name is Fredegar.
The fun part was that another character in the group was also a dwarf - a dwarven loremaster. Both of them were LG. None of them were CLICHÉ! (which, by the way, is an Onomatopoeia, hence the capitalisation and exclamation mark).
The other was a dwarf priest, where I tried to make a point that there is more than one dwarf character out there, and that doesn't refer to the variation of the name from the pre-approved name snippets (orc, axe, hammer, beard, any sort of metal, any sort of stone). So this guy was NOT racist and proud of it, he did NOT have a serious drinking problem, he was NOT gruff to the point of being a sociopath, he did NOT think that mining and killing orcs (as well as insulting elves) were the only worthwhile things to do. And I did it without creating a ridiculous "anti-dwarf", like a dwarven fashion designer whose name is Fredegar.The fun part was that another character in the group was also a dwarf - a dwarven loremaster. Both of them were LG. None of them were CLICHÉ! (which, by the way, is an Onomatopoeia, hence the capitalisation and exclamation mark).
I so do love characters that break the mold. I played a dwarven transmuter in a very short-lived Forgotten Realms game once. He was a Gold Dwarf exiled from the Great Rift, an exceedingly nice person and a little too fond of disecting critters the party just killed (you just find the most interesting things in Leucrotta stomachs).
I can only remember one person playing a cleric, but that one prodded some buttock. We were around level 10. It was a cleric of Auril equipped with an ice axe. On one occasion, she buffed herself with Divine Power and continued to to one-shot kill three opponents in melee in a row via critical hits. (Look up the ice axe stats in Frostburn. I'll wait.)
Back? As you can imagine, I - playing a Warblade to test that class's performance - was a little bit miffed about that x4 critical modifier and her luck with dice.
Oh, and she single-handedly snuffed an adult white dragon that had snatched her up in its claws with a single casting of Harm.
In approximately the same amount of time the "awesome wizards" thread had blown up with good stories. I guess people are just far fonder of wizards than Clerics.
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There does seem to be a bias against clerics.
Since returning to playing RPGs a few months ago (after a 20+ year hiatus), I haven't had a cleric in any group I've played with. I've seen two druids and an oracle, but no clerics.
Reading the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, I saw the stuff about energy channeling and domains and thought they looked really cool, so I made a cleric character for Pathfinder Society, but I haven't had a chance to play her yet. Actually, I found it hard to find information about how to build a useful cleric around here, so I was looking forward to seeing what people had to say in this thread that might give me useful ideas.
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I'm awesome too!
I'm a druid, though since I don't really like animals all that well, people sometimes confuse me for a cleric (or ask me why I didn't become one in the first place).
Frankly, it had a lot to do with enjoying wandering, and also having trouble finding any temples to Ng.
But anyway! I like to think I'm pretty cool. I've killed zombies and ghouls just by throwing rocks at them, I've scaled cliffs with a silly gnome's riding dog strapped to my back, and I'm still a full caster, baby!
In approximately the same amount of time the "awesome wizards" thread had blown up with good stories. I guess people are just far fonder of wizards than Clerics.
I think that Clerics still are the most boring class in the game. Also, I picture the typical cleric more like the Cloistered Cleric, not as a warrior for the faith. (And I think that archetype must be a joke. Whyever does it get Diminished Spellcasting?)
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I think that Clerics still are the most boring class in the game.
How? They're the most pliable, flexible, and customizable class in the game. They have the most variables you get to mess with. The most options. The most possibilities. How can that be boring?
I am currently a pretty good at fighting and have a masterwork morningstar.
I avoid Clerics because its hard to find a god whose ethos I can stand to espouse, and because GMs too often use the god as a two-by-four to the head. "Your god wants you to do my adventure" etc. :)
I also dont like Druids, because a big BIG part of their power is the animal companion, but I hate dealing with animal companions, so I never take one, and so my Druid is always super weak and envious of those uber game-breaking Druids you hear about. And the spell-casting kind with no animal companion is a pale shadow of a druid with an animal companion. Maybe if they could simply cast their domain spells 3x a day.
Anyway, I had a vindictive Druid named Karl who was a hunter. No animal companion. Viewed all of nature as simply a resource, so he killed and ate animals, or used them on occasion as beasts of burden, but never as pets or companions. He also was loyal but vengeful. He would throw his spear right at the back of a fleeing pickpocket who may have absconded with his stuff, even if she *was* 10 years old and hungry. He was loyal and always gave people the benefit of the doubt, but if it ever came to blows, he would kill you. Never cross him. No takebacks.
Was a lot of fun.
OK as a long time player of clerics, druids and wizards I will try to relate some interesting stories if you'd like.
My cleric of Velsharoon in the Forgotten Realms Campaign was one of my favorites.
He started out as a human, did a ritual to become a half-vampire and then was rewarded with full vampire-ism at the campaigns end.
the rest of the party was totally evil like the cleric and we had a ball. I was the party "face" and diplomat and rode around on the back of a gold dragon(zombie, gentle repose) using a hat of disguise to pose as a paladin of Mystra(we were in and near Halruua)
A exhaulted deeds party found our lair and was trying to kill us. The sorceress we took out with np, the thief again np against our kobold trap-smith/monster of legend kobold. The paladin was the problem. He and my guy were too evenly matched, so I ran and used a few secret passages while the pally had to contend with the traps.
Finally I trussed up his fiance/sorceress and mad him swear to surrender and be the characters slave for 1 year and 1 day or else I coup-de-grace his love and then animate her as a wraith. He agreed so the lives of his friends were spared but I enjoyed making them mine and torturing them while he was made to watch and do nothing. Finally he snapped and broke his vows in order to gain revenge and so I caused a noble exhaulted pally to fall from grace forever.
That's the beauty of a cleric, they can save or corrupt the very soul.
My cleric of Mystra in the Tearing of the weave campaign was great because I took the appropriate feats and while everyone else was denied their spell casting I was fine and healing and flame-stikeing the bad guys.
The best druid I can remember was my very first one. I had just read the dark Walker on the Moonshea series and really wanted to play a druid of the Earth Mother so the DM let me. This was a 2nd ed game so no animal companion needed and the druid kicked much butt.
It was a 3 person party of a fighter, a mage and a druid. The other players were ladies and were playing their characters very cultured and refined. My druid not so much. I dressed like a tradesman, and had very little in the way of culture. We were all around the barons banquet table after having completed a mission and I got tired of listening to the locals men boast of this feat and that so I told them of Daniel's prowess with her two blades, the player was laughing but the character was mortified because she was the barons daughter and here I was telling everyone how she killed a troll then helped us finish off the wizard and so forth.
Clerics and druids both present the most amazing opportunity for role play IMO better than any other character.
Dimitri,
I didnt mean to make you have a sad face. Was it my ignorance, or something else? :)
Well, I played the same thing, so I am saying it about myself. And I played in a 3.x game, so I didnt even get any wimpy domain action. :)
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Well, I played the same thing, so I am saying it about myself. And I played in a 3.x game, so I didnt even get any wimpy domain action. :)
Domains aren't wimpy! Domains are awesome! Well, maybe not the ones druids can get. That's why I'm a cleric. :p
Praise be to Sarenrae for granting me the Heroism sub-domain!
How? They're the most pliable, flexible, and customizable class in the game. They have the most variables you get to mess with. The most options. The most possibilities. How can that be boring?
You can customise the domains. Because the cleric is all domains, channeling and bashing and not much else, it's boring. I don't complain about the spellcasting, though.
And they have the weakest selection of archetypes in the game. I agree that Paizo tried to give us a diverse selection, but several of the archetypes stunt spellcasting, the number one class ability. That's simply not acceptable. Clerics are supposed to be spellcasters first (speaking in game terms). Others, like the Theologian or Separatist are pretty pointless, because they simply do not change the way you can play the character much, mechanics-wise.
I do think like a caster. But remind me, since I dont have the book handy. Do the non-animal-companion druids with enhanced spellcasting get one domain spell per spell level? Or the ability to memorize domain spells in their normal slots? Or both.
Anything less than both isnt remotely comparable to the animal companion. Getting both might be getting warm, in that if every spell I memorized could be fire domain spells, and I got an extra per day, then that could be juicy. But 1 domain spell a day per spell level wouldnt cut it, in terms of comparing to an animal companion.
I am not saying those types of druids are useless; mine wasnt. But they seem to be missing one of the major components that gave druids their reputation of being overwhelmingly excellent.
But maybe my memory on how the domains work is off.
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I do think like a caster. But remind me, since I dont have the book handy. Do the non-animal-companion druids with enhanced spellcasting get one domain spell per spell level? Or the ability to memorize domain spells in their normal slots? Or both.
Anything less than both isnt remotely comparable to the animal companion. Getting both might be getting warm, in that if every spell I memorized could be fire domain spells, and I got an extra per day, then that could be juicy. But 1 domain spell a day per spell level wouldnt cut it, in terms of comparing to an animal companion.
I am not saying those types of druids are useless; mine wasnt. But they seem to be missing one of the major components that gave druids their reputation of being overwhelmingly excellent.
But maybe my memory on how the domains work is off.
Your memory is correct. You get one domain spell slot per spell level, and those are the only slots that you can use for domain spells. Druids are the same way, but they only get one domain, so they don't have a choice of which spell to prepare in their domain slot, unlike most of us clerics who pick from two domain spells for each slot.
As long as we've got a cleric thread going, let me ask everyone's opinion on some feats I was looking at. What do you think of all the channeling related feats? I was thinking I could easily spend half my feats doing extra stuff with channeling, between Alignment Channeling to smite evil outsiders, Channeled Shield Wall to buff the AC of myself and teammates who use shields as a swift action, Quicken Channel to still get another standard action in the same round as channeling, and Extra Channel to have enough channeling available to do all those things every day. Is it worth focusing on channeling this way?
Selective channeling is situationally awesome depending on gm and how many monster you usually face if you are always fighting an army it sucks if you channel positive.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Clerics are supposed to be...
Found your problem! ;)
Stuff
Yes, you just get the one domain slot. Though you also get some associated powers. For instance, the ever-popular Growth subdomain lets you enlarge yourself for 1 round as a swift action, 3+WISmod times/day.
And yeah, even with the extra spells and the powers and so forth, you might be weaker than an AniComp druid. But a "pale shadow" doesn't seem like an accurate description; the gap isn't that huge. You still have medium BAB; full spell progression that includes healing, blasting, utility, etc; and more skill ranks than the cleric. Dimitri has been doing very well for himself, and I daresay he may have been the MVP (or close to it) of his most recent adventure.
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Selective channeling is situationally awesome depending on gm and how many monster you usually face if you are always fighting an army it sucks if you channel positive.
Yeah, I didn't even mention Selective Channeling, because I just assume it's pretty much mandatory.
The question is whether I should focus on other channeling related feats, or if I'm better off putting my feats into other things (archery, combat casting, improved initiative so I can cast spells to buff my party before they spread out, etc).
Animal Companion Druids can do all that too. I know full well what they can do. As an animal companion hater (familiars too on wizards) I just regret that the trade off isnt remotely equal. That doesnt mean caster druids are useless. I played one in 3.5 d&d with no tradeoff, only the loss of the a.comp, which I simply dropped. And I was probably mvp in my game too, if largely for the second rate healing (we had no cleric) but for other stuff too.
To get back on the original topic I did use the command spell to capture someone as a prisoner by making them drop and then moving adjacent to him then making an intimidate check on the next turn so he surrendered.
I find the Cleric to be more powerful than the Wizard. They both have full casting ability and it's arguable if Wizard spells are better. But the Cleric get 3/4 BAB and 1D8 HD. They get Channel energy and domains, they get spontaneous healing. The can wear heavy armor and cast spells though aren't proficient in heavy armor. The wizard gets school powers and couple bonus feats, they can't cast spells in armor with arcane spell failure chance and they 1/2 bab and 1D6 HD.
As far as full casters go Cleric beat wizards in every way. I guess that's why Wizards are easy to GM but a cleric or druid can turn into nightmare.
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I have three PFS characters that are clerics. I enjoy playing all of these characters and they are all very different.
The first character is Fatum Aedituus Venificus an N 3rd Level cleric of Pharasma, / 3rd level Wizard (Necromancer) / 6th level Mystic Theurge.
My favorite quite for the character I used was “we have no fate but the fate we are given”. And to someone he was healing “ well perhaps this isn’t your time to die”.
Early in his carrier, I was playing through Voices in the Void.
At the final encounter we faced some undead skeletons and the big boss at the end of the scenario. Then my character had 2 levels of Cleric of Pharasma and 1 level of Wizard Necromancer. There was one amusing moment where I was able to use the Command undead class feature of the Necromancer to gain control of one skeleton. One of the players turned to me and said, “ Your Androan You can’t do that”. I handed my sheet to the GM and he replied, “Hmm yes he can”. So I used one skeleton to beat on the other and to retrieve some sort of box or case we needed. After which my character channeled positive energy to destroy the skeletion.
Another time we were in “amongst the living”.
And another player said “ hmm your character is kind of Spock like isn’t her? “ and I replied “affirmative captain”. We got a laugh out of that one.
I was able to use a combination of Command Undead class feature, the Command Undead spell, the Channel Positive energy and (Turn Undead), and the Repose domain ability: Gentle rest (via a spectral hand) to keep much of the undead at bay or occupied with themselves.
Well in short I have had fun with the character.
One of my other clerics Iago Isildur is a cleric of Asmodeus. He is LN, and channels negative energy with the Fire Domain, and the Trickery Domain. For skills he has Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense motive, and yes Profession: Barrister. (No heal skill).
A little over a year ago, I was visiting the PFS group in Washington DC at George Mason University, I think the game day was 9/11, /10, we were playing amongst the dead.
Our contact, was supposed to show us where the cult of Zyphus, or Ziphilus, as I kept calling him, was laired, He didn’t want to go in, but I kept after him about contracts consideration and both parties having to get something out of it for the contract to be valid. The NPC reluctantly agreed to go into the Dungeon complex with us. One of my neighboring players asked, “ what kind of law do you practice” I think my reply was, “no I'm not a lawyer, but I play one in Pathfinder”.
The character has been lots of fun to play. He got to berate the Blakros sisters for not having a copy of a bargain with an extra planar entity in the “penumbral Accords”. And in “the shadows Last stand” he a Chelaxian, was able to help convince the Andoran Assembly that one of their own was “corrupt”. Good times.
My last cleric Imam Gabriel Al Katheer is a cleric of Sarenrae. He is a much more traditional cleric with the Sun and Healing domains. I do try to give him a “mid eastern “ or “Indian Sub continent accent” anyways we have a good time with him.
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Here's my cleric from RotRL. Some of you have probably seen it since I like to flaunt the wiki system this small part of the Finnish scene uses, but there it is anyhow.
Michiell(MEKH-yell) Grellssen was my second venture into the system, which is immediately obvious by looking at the minutiae of the sheet, but he was a damn fun one. Somewhat tragic character, Michiell lost his mind after burning up the family farmlands in a torrent of cleansing flames upon finding his mother's corpse surrounded by a cult of ghouls in disguise. The area near Galduria was so devastated that people almost forgot the name of the family that used to live north of the Twilight Academy. He could and would not give a damn.
The character gained the somewhat ominous nickname "Gleam"(of the first rays of dawn) from that desperate act and felt shackled by his status as a field medic of Sarenrae. He had worked at the inquisition for so long though that the trauma eventually was buried deep and, once he took up serving the town of Sandpoint, it started to only manifest as slight pyromania. He reined it in, but the shocking discoveries following the death of his friend and the uncovering of an ancient evil civilization left his mind in tatters.
Having later led a group of friends and allies to the far north to battle said brutal and uncaring civilization he felt a small vestige of the old devotion again, having witnessed the lengths of his powers and the foul and base end of a people turned against their old gods. There were...things he had used to battle the threat - nihilistic spells and, in his eyes, utter genocide with blade and fire. On the brink of insanity, Michiell asked Sarenrae for forgiveness and aid on the eve of the alliance's final battle. Again in strong rapport with Sarenrae he sensed his luck turn when Arvindal Dawnflame the planetar general of the 2nd army of the Empyreal Regiments answered the planar call and pledged his might to the party's aid. With the overpowering ally the tide of evil was finally turned and Arvindal asked Michiell for one final promise - to answer the call to arms once he left his mortal coil.
His answer? A resigned sigh and a barely audible "Yes, lord Arvindal"
Currently on a crusade to the Worldwound he wields the fury of the sun(quickened channel positive vs evil outsiders+channel again) and tries to keep bay the whispers of a corrupt artifact weapon. Michiell, now no longer burdened by his past, strenghtens the will of the demon-opposing crusaders and lends his prowess to incursions into the blasted lands of former Sarkoris. He lives, he breathes, he's promised salvation and purpose and he's content.
Notes:
- almost turned into a cleric of Nurgal, the devouring sun during some of the more heinous slaughters in the ruins of Thassilon, a possibility for which I blame reading too much pulp horror
- had a background which introduced enough NPCs to have player characters for the next five campaigns' worth
- was significant during my career not only because of the status as high level campaign winner, but because through him I got to resurrect an older PC(and roleplay the subsequent dialogue, representing both friends!)
- once Paizo publishes a sequel of sorts to RotRL, I will play him again and kick some sweet sweet evil bottom
- had comepletely forgotten the +5 keen scimitar and other ridiculous gear
My unholy warhammer wielding cleric of Pholtus (google it) just died at level 5 in a Pathfinderized Return to The Temple of Elemental Evil campaign...
Quick channeling + extra channeling took care of any woes involved in healing. He usually just strode into melee, but he made good use of one of the law subdomain's command power.
I too had an elvish archer cleric in 3.0 - I believe it was in a Vault of Larin Karr game. The boo-coos of damages were nice, the on-demand party buffs were nicer.
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From a role-playing perspective, no class gets built-in hooks like a Cleric.
Religion is a profound enough subject that it has triggered and ended wars. Clerics have the benefit of not just faith, but knowledge of their god's presence and favor. Knowing from my toes to my hair that the God of Lost Socks considers me one of her chosen makes me feel ten feet tall and ballista-proof. Why wouldn't it?
One of my favorite writing exercises as a cleric is to write a homily. Making in-game experiences relevant in a particular religious framework can easily ratchet your in-game immersion to 11.
Two of my favorite role-play experiences come from clerics. The first was a cleric of Pholtus, the unbending god of Greyhawk fame, the Chaotic Good ranger and I got into a massive philosophical debate about the rights of man, the proper role of the church in society, all that good stuff. The second was a cleric of Lathander, Forgotten Realms' cleric of the Dawn and new beginnings. Lathander's clergy are the sort to write sermons that get you up out of the pew. This particular one had to give a sermon at a dawn (natch) ceremony. When so many characters in so many places are trying to play the "dark loner who cares for no one and needs no one," writing an uplifting sermon full of optimism can be quite the refreshing experience.
OK, enough resisting temptation. Here's why clerics are awesome:
Particular noteworthy events: