My Cleric is feeling a little lost - build progression help needed.


Advice


Hi All,
Hopefully you can provide some insight on how to proceed with my Cleric. My original thought was a battle cleric that could do all the standard cleric-y stuff while dealing decent damage to compensate for a lack of optimization in some of our newer or busier players. Right now I feel he is not really fitting in with the group and I feel like my combat role and plan are becoming a bit murky.

Currently my cleric is a level 2 Dwarf Cleric of Gorum with the Strength and Ferocity domains. His stats are as follows. Note that I have no dump stat as my GM will use dump stats against players regularly. I should also mention that I can't really see this campaign progress any further than level 7-8.

Str 15
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 16
Cha 10

Feat: Extra Channel - taken to make sure I had enough out of combat healing.

My GM ruled that my Dwarf should be proficient with all Dwarven weapons so I am using a Dwarven Waraxe as my main weapon... also I could not afford a great sword at lvl 1. Overall I find that my 'to hit' combined with my crappy rolls means that I miss alot. Right now I am reluctant to use my Axe two handed so I question going down the power attack -> furious focus -> cleave tree let alone buying a great sword.

The group consists of a:

Half Orc Druid 1 / Ranger 1 w/ Raptor pet
Gnome Sorcerer 2
Gnome Rogue 2
Elven Barbarian 1 / Ranger 1
Human Fighter 2

I also find that melee gets very congested during some fights. The Elf ranger, Raptor Pet, Rogue, Fighter and myself are all in melee alot of the time. I'm hoping the ranger takes precise shot so that she sits back a little more in the future but I'm not sure she will.

I guess my questions to the community are:
1. Should I grab a great sword or stick with my wareaxe?
2. Should I continue to go down the power attack line?
3. Should I grab a weapon focus feat to improve my 'to hit'
4. Should try to shift my character to a more standard buff / ranged cleric
5. Any other thoughts?

Ugh... this is alot longer than I intended. Thanks in advance for any insight / advice.

-Torg


Try a warpriest or switch to a bow if you want a more support role

Sovereign Court

A warpriest would have been perfect for these low levels but anyway...

Extra channel wasn't necessary, for healing, just buying a wand of cure light wounds would cover most healing easily but anyway this choice is already done.

Just embrace the brute force, Power attack. As a Battle cleric unlike the other melees, you want to take some time to buff at least one round, so divine favor is your bread and butter for a very long time, hell would even say your entire career. At level 7, you will finally get 4th level spell, so Blessing of fervor would be a nice buff, for you and your entire party, well beside that...yeah beside just do like this imo:

-Power attack at 3rd
-Improved Initiative at 5th (you want to go first, so you can buff yourself)
-Toughness at 7th (brute monsters hurt a lot, you'll need some extra hp)

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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I like melee clerics, and especially ones that follow Gorum, but it sounds like your party needs another melee combatant like the hobbit needs a fourth movie...

You're only second level, honestly I'd suggest asking your GM if you could rebuild to something that better suits the party. If he says yes, rebuild as an evangelist cleric- the performance ability will get a lot of mileage in a party like yours. And you could focus on battlefield control with your spells. You would have to raise your wisdom (and maybe charisma a little bit too) to do that well though.


If your melee is getting congested a dwarven longhammer (which you should be proficient with under your house rule) will give you reach which may make things easier. Sure you may wind up with your friends giving soft cover penalties, but in those situations you weren't going to get an attack at all without reach.

Otherwise I second Eltacolibre.


Hoo-boy. Here we go.

You miss a lot. You're second level. Second level characters miss a lot. I wouldn't freak out about this. The die roll is much more important than the bonus at level two. This changes as you gain levels.

One thing I've learned from studying and teaching probability is that people are absolutely terrible at estimating it. I'd be interested in actual data, hits and misses over the length of the session, if you've got it.

You can help yourself out a bit, if you want to hit more, with things like bless and divine power and (soon) bull strength. Flanking is useful as well, especially with so many in melee.

I urge you to watch what happens when you do connect. Count the number of hits it takes to drop a foe. Sometimes, the increased damage doesn't matter. It'so really only a boon if you can move from four hits to three hits.

But more to the point, what kind of character do you want to play? What's fun? Play that. You're not single handedly responsible for balancing the party.

That said, power attack is a good feat, and becomes more valuable as you gain levels. I would take it someday, but maybe not at third level. Weapon focus becomes less valuable, because a +1 bonus matters less and less with time.

One thing you could do would be to ask you GM if you can switch str and wisdom. If most of your spells target you and your allies, then spell dcs don't matter.


Wow, I wasn't expecting so much great advice so quickly!

Eltacolibre said wrote:
A warpriest would have been perfect for these low levels but anyway...

To be honest, I hadn't looked at any of the hybrid classes so I hadn't considered a warpriest. Reading it just now was a total /facepalm moment. Eltacolibre, jagisama32, you are right. I think it would have been perfect. I think I'll have a discussion with my GM about how much change he'll allow at this point. Maybe I can fall out of favor with Gorum and atone myself as a warpriest or something like that.

The longhammer is a good tip too. I think I'll pick one up just to have... maybe I'll try to mold him into a 2nd line guy to protect the Sorcerer / Druid.

Anonymous Visitor 163 576 said wrote:
...people are absolutely terrible at estimating it. I'd be interested in actual data, hits and misses over the length of the session, if you've got it.

I don't have that data but I appreciate your perspective and the points you've made. Maybe I've been rushing into battle a bit too quickly without properly buffing for a couple of rounds. Do you guys think a quicken metamagic feat might be worth it to save a couple of actions?

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