[PFS] Cleric Spell Focus - Conjuration or Necromancy?

[RainyDayNinja]

So my cleric just got to level 11, and I'm seriously considering retraining my Spell Focus feat from enchantment to either conjuration or necromancy. Both have some great offensive spells, and I specialize in save-or-sucks. I'm still trying to work through which school would be better for my Spell Focus.

Right now, my build includes:
-23 Wis (including a +4 headband, which I might upgrade to +6 soon)
-Selective Channel, Spell Focus (enchantment), Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Initiative, Divine Interference
-Lesser Bouncing Metamagic Rod (and likely a medium version soon)
-Lesser Persistent Metamagic Rod

So the spells I'm looking at using in each school are:
Conjuration:
2-Create Pit
3-Spiked Pit
6-Hungry Pit (from the Caves subdomain)
4-Hallucinogenic Smoke (30 foot cone, Fort save or be nauseated)
5-Plane Shift
6-Chains of Light (basically Hold Monster, but targeting Reflex and no SR)

Necromancy:
3-Blindness/Deafness
3-Bestow Curse
5-Major Curse
6-Harm
7-Destruction

I'm leaning toward Conjuration, because I can target all the saves, but I'm drooling over destruction also.

Any suggestions? I'm also open to retraining that feat to something else, if you have any other ideas.

[andreww]

Allow me to throw in a third option, Evocation. It will apply to:

2 - Sound Burst
2 - Burst of Radiance
4 - Holy Smite
5 - Flame Strike
6 - Blade Barrier
7 - Word Spells

It will also work very well if you chose to go down the Dazing Spell route.

I would also make a case for keeping Enchantment. Greater Command/Forbid Action and both very powerful options at this level.

If you are determined to change then Conjuration will be the better option. Harm and Destruction are not terribly good blast spells. Bestow Curse is OK, Blindness is great but targets Fortitude while Conjuration has far more control options, especially with the Caves domain spells.

[XMorsX]

Conjuration gets my vote. More versatility, and Plane Shift is a better save-or-suck/lose/die than destruction will ever be.

[RainyDayNinja]

andreww wrote:

Allow me to throw in a third option, Evocation. It will apply to:

2 - Sound Burst
2 - Burst of Radiance
4 - Holy Smite
5 - Flame Strike
6 - Blade Barrier
7 - Word Spells

It will also work very well if you chose to go down the Dazing Spell route.

I would also make a case for keeping Enchantment. Greater Command/Forbid Action and both very powerful options at this level.

If you are determined to change then Conjuration will be the better option. Harm and Destruction are not terribly good blast spells. Bestow Curse is OK, Blindness is great but targets Fortitude while Conjuration has far more control options, especially with the Caves domain spells.

Ooh, don't forget cold ice strike for 6th level. I'm going to keep one of those prepped anyway. But in general, I'm not too interested in straight blasting; I'd rather remove someone from the fight than just race the Fighter for DPR.

And the command spells would be great, except they're language dependent, and I only speak a handful.

[andreww]

The spells I mentioned arent really about blasting, it is all about the control.

Sound Burst is fort based stun. Great for denying them their Dex bonus enabling sneak attack or easy hits and disarms them as they drop anything they are holding. Also great for denying spell casters actions given their often low fort saves.

Burst of Radiance is area Reflex based Blindness. Blindness is a great debuff to apply to almost anything and it doesnt have the annoying extra saves like Glitterdust. The damage element is also party friendly.

Holy Smite is again all about the blindness but over a much larger area. Order's Wrath is an nice alternate to apply Daze and again the damage element and rider are largely party friendly (depending on alignments).

Flame Strike is a bit crap but makes a great target for a normal Rod of Dazing Spell or for Spell Perfection at level 15. Allowing half the damage to ignore any resistance or immunity means your Dazing will never be automatically blocked so you dont have to mess about finding alternate enery damage spells.

Blade Barrier is largely about area control. It is better than Wall of Stone which isnt hard to breach at mid to high level. Combine it with any form of forced movement from the rest of the party and it can cause significant damage.

Word spells are generally strong and with the right combination you can easily be looking at up to 10 extra caster levels with spell perfection and a magic item or two.

[RainyDayNinja]

Those are some good points. I do keep a Sound Burst and Burst of Radiance prepped at all times, plus Holy Smite if I'm fighting evil outsiders. But still, after neutralizing enemies in one shot with Blindness, Dismissal, and Plane Shift, I think I'm hooked on those kind of SoD/SoS.