How about a Besmara Casting Cleric


Advice

Scarab Sages

I'm doing a Besmara cleric in the Skulls and sackles and wonder if i can turn it into a casting cleric. The domain are not really blasting oriented, but i want to focus on casting. Our groups have a ranger, a slayer a swashbucler and a sorcerer.

For now, my cleric look like that:

Wakaran Akwa #2¸:

Male undine cleric (theologian) of Besmara 4 (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 275, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 32)
CN Medium outsider (native)
Hero Points 1
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8
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Defense
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AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +1 Dex)
hp 40 (4d8+8)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +7
Resist cold 5
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.
Melee +1 returning steel harpoon +0 (1d8+1/×3) or
mwk dagger +4 (1d4/19-20) or
rapier +3 (1d6/18-20)
Ranged +1 light crossbow +5 (1d8+1/19-20)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 4/day (DC 13, 2d6)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +5)
1/day—hydraulic push[APG]
Cleric (Theologian) Spells Prepared (CL 4th; concentration +7)
2nd—aid, lesser restoration, slipstream[D,APG] (DC 15), spiritual weapon
1st—air bubble[UC], bless, murderous command[UM] (DC 14), obscuring mist[D], protection from evil
0 (at will)—detect magic, light, resistance, stabilize
D Domain spell; Domain Water (Oceans subdomain)
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 12
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 14
Traits besmara's blessing, shipboard caster
Skills Bluff +3, Climb +2, Diplomacy +5, Heal +9, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (history) +6, Knowledge (religion) +6, Perception +8, Profession (sailor) +10, Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +1, Survival +4 (+6 to avoid becoming lost when using a Mapmaker's Kit as you travel, +6 to avoid becoming lost when using this), Swim +13
Languages Aquan, Auran, Common, Custom Language
SQ focused domain, hero points, surge, variant channeling (ocean/sea/water variant channeling[UM])
Combat Gear screaming bolt (3), healer's kit; Other Gear studded leather, +1 light crossbow, +1 returning steel harpoon, mwk dagger, rapier, besmara's tricorne, bracers of armor +1, hospitality's hammock, backpack, climber's kit, compass[APG], grappling hook, mapmaker's kit[APG], parchment (10), scroll case, signal horn[APG], signal whistle, tindertwig, waterskin, 144 gp
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Special Abilities
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Besmara's Blessing (1/week) Reroll a Profession (sailor) check and take the higher result.
Besmara's tricorne (1/day) Spoken command word transforms hat into a small boat for 8 hrs.
Cleric (Theologian) Domain (Oceans)
Cleric Channel Positive Energy 2d6 (4/day, DC 13) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Compass +2 circumstance for Survival or Knowledge (Dungeoneering) to avoid becoming lost.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Energy Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Cold attacks.
Focused Domain +2 to cleric level for domain powers.
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Mapmaker's kit +2 Circumstance for Survival to avoid becoming lost.
Ocean/Sea/Water Variant Channeling (±1 Sacred) Climb & Swim bonus/enhanced harm for aquatic creatures
Shipboard Caster You feel an affinity with ships and the sea, and the rolling rhythm of the waves helps focus your mind. When on a ship or other water-going vessel, you gain a +3 bonus on concentration checks.
Surge (CMB +10, 6/day) (Su) Create a wave that can bull rush or drag a target.
Swimming (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.

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The best I can offer you is to take chaos and war/tactics. Then from there metamagic the heck out of bestow curse. Between rolling twice and at -4 someone else could easily get a kill to clean up. Unfortunately there isn't much to use for Besmera in the casting department aside from the normal tools that any cleric has. Your a great supporter but that's all I can see

Scarab Sages

Same lecture from me! Thanks.


I actually looked at doing something like this once.

Think I was going to Storm subdomain, and Ocean subdomain.

You get some attack spells as domain spells, but you get a lot of "control" type spell like abilities with a reasonably high dc.

"Ocean Subdomain

Surge (Su): As a standard action, you can cause a mighty wave to appear that pushes or pulls a single creature. Make a combat maneuver check against the target, using your cleric level + your Wisdom modifier as your CMB. If successful, you may pull or push the creature as if using the bull rush or drag combat maneuver. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Cold Resistance (Ex): At 6th level, you gain resist cold 10. This resistance increases to 20 at 12th level. At 20th level, you gain immunity to cold.

Domain Spells: 1st—obscuring mist, 2nd—slipstream, 3rd—water walk, 4th—control water, 5th—ice storm, 6th—cone of cold, 7th—elemental body IV (water only), 8th—horrid wilting, 9th—tsunami."

"Storm Subdomain

Storm Burst (Sp): As a standard action, you can create a storm burst targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The storm burst deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage + 1 point for every two cleric levels you possess. In addition, the target is buffeted by winds and rain, causing it to take a –2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Gale Aura (Su): At 6th level, as a standard action, you can create a 30-foot aura of gale-like winds that slows the progress of enemies. Creatures in the aura cannot take a 5-foot step. Enemies in the aura treat each square that brings them closer to you as difficult terrain. They can move normally in any other direction. You can use this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to your cleric level. The rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Domain Spells: 1st—obscuring mist, 2nd—fog cloud, 3rd—call lightning, 4th—sleet storm, 5th—call lightning storm, 6th—sirocco, 7th—control weather, 8th—whirlwind, 9th—storm of vengeance."


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Don't forget the Variant Channeling options. If you change to channeling negative energy, you can use your channels to blast either half electricity or half sonic(!):

Ultimate Magic wrote:
Weather: Heal—Creatures gain a channel bonus on saving throws against electricity, sonic, and wind effects. Harm—Each time you channel energy, you may change half the channeled energy damage to electricity or sonic damage.


Clerics can focus mostly on casting without needing to be an offensive caster. The cleric spell list works really well for buffing and summoning (at higher levels). Which means you don't need an incredibly high wisdom, just enough to cast your spells.

You can fall back on melee as a secondary activity.

For skulls and shackles your group is going to want you to help them with status removal, underwater and swimming buffs, etc. There aren't a lot of good offensive spells on the cleric spell list until you get to higher levels, and in my opinion it makes a solely offensive based caster really lack luster until higher levels. You're going to want to be able to fall back on some melee stuff.

STR: 10 DEX: 16 CON: 13 INT: 10 WIS: 18 CHA: 10

Pick up weapon finesse as you can finesse a rapier. I feel this is a good early on balance between casting and melee capability. Your damage output wont be great, but it is not your primary focus. Your primary focus is buff casting and utility spells while still being able to mix it up in melee to provide flanking and harass enemies.

Unfortunately while a high int would be nice, it cost a lot of point to get. You could potentially drop wisdom down to 16 and raise your int if you're really worried, but you also have a wizard and slayer in the party which will both have a good amount of skill points.

Scarab Sages

And don't really care about others having high skills points. A character without skill is not a playable character for me. It's the mains reason a hate that all class need high intelligence to have lot of skills. My PC is the captain of his ship. He need high charisma for bluff, diplomacy and intimidation.

I already have a summoner cleric, and I don't want to be a medic. So I want that one to be a controller/debuffer, but as Claxon said, I will need to buff my crew...

In my opinion, weapon feats are waste for a non-combat cleric. I will touch more easily right, but i will keep 1d8+0 damage all over the game...

The variant channeling is a nice option, but we have to resign the healing option. And it's a game must have. At least for all the non cleric players...

Domain Spells: 1st—obscuring mist (cleric1), 2nd—slipstream (non cleric 2), 3rd—water walk (Cleric), 4th—control water (Cleric 4), 5th—ice storm (non-cleric 4), 6th—cone of cold (wizard 5), 7th—elemental body IV (water only wizard 7), 8th—horrid wilting (wizard 8), 9th—tsunami (druid 9)."

For the domain spell, they are either already cleric spells or one level higher than Wizard spell... So it's not really attractive. And it's a weird game concept that a power given by a "specialist god" is less powerfull that the same spell from a wizard.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Eretas wrote:
The variant channeling is a nice option, but we have to resign the healing option. And it's a game must have.

No. It's. Not.

Use healing wands in between fights. If the other characters need in-combat healing frequently, the group should look more closely at buffing, investing in defenses, and/or better tactics. Also, there's the Versatile Channeler feat if you really want to use channels for healing as well.

Besides, pirates ("Those that fall behind are left behind").


Eretas wrote:

And don't really care about others having high skills points. A character without skill is not a playable character for me. It's the mains reason a hate that all class need high intelligence to have lot of skills. My PC is the captain of his ship. He need high charisma for bluff, diplomacy and intimidation.

I already have a summoner cleric, and I don't want to be a medic. So I want that one to be a controller/debuffer, but as Claxon said, I will need to buff my crew...

In my opinion, weapon feats are waste for a non-combat cleric. I will touch more easily right, but i will keep 1d8+0 damage all over the game...

It's reasonable to want skill points, it's part of the reason why I've house ruled everyone get's at least 4+int skill point if they're not an int based class. So I get where you're coming from. In games I play in I pretty much avoid all the 2+int classes because I also like having skills. To that end though, the idea that you need charisma to be good at bluff diplomacy or charisma is incorrect though. At most it's makes 2 points of difference. You're better off using traits to get bluff and intimidate as class skills over putting points into charisma, because outside of channel it just doesn't help you much (and channel just isn't useful enough to bother with unless you really want to focus on it).

As for weapon feat being a waste. It is 1 feat, and with an agile weapon you can add dex to damage. However, your GM may allow you to use Guided on a weapon, which allows wisdom to hit and damage. It's a 3.5 enchant, and personally I would never allow it. But your GM might.

I guess my point is don't completely discount melee because the cleric spell list isn't really an offense based spell list till you get to higher levels and you want to have something to do besides just your buff and control spells. I'm not saying invest heavily, but a minimal investment could definitely be useful to you. Once you get to higher levels you could always retrain that feat to something more useful once you start getting more offensive spells. And do keep in mind the problem with Domain Spell slots is you only get 1 of them per level of spells to cast your domain spells out of.


Do t take the ain't channeling. Unless you go up against an undead there is no resistance to negative channeling worth mentioning let alone immune. But electric resistance is fairly common. Plus channeling scales poorly in damage.

Besmera just isn't a casting deity as divine spell lists don't have neart as many good save or sucks or save or dies as arcane casters. Even the ones that you do have have a problem because other than bestow curse you have no reliable reductions in their saves. And unfortunately it's easier to reduce their saves than boost your DC.

Scarab Sages

So I ended up with that! It's more a reach cleric than a caster but hope it will be cool to play. As I was already an Undine, I used the advanced races rules to create a different Undine with force and wisdom instead of Wisdom and dexterity.

Wakara:
Wakaran Akwa #2
Male undine noble cleric of Besmara 4
CN Medium humanoid
Hero Points 1
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9
--------------------
Defense
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AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 36 (4d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +6
--------------------
Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor), swim 30 ft.
Melee +1 returning steel harpoon +3 (1d8+10/×3) or
mwk boarding pike +7 (1d8+9/×3) or
mwk dagger +7 (1d4+6/19-20) or
rapier +6 (1d6+6/18-20)
Ranged +1 light crossbow +6 (1d8+1/19-20)
Special Attacks channel negative energy 2/day (DC 11, 2d6)
Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +9)
5/day—copycat (4 rounds), touch of chaos
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 4th; concentration +9)
2nd—holy ice weapon[ACG], life pact[ACG], communal protection from evil[UC], slipstream[D,APG] (DC 14)
1st—bless, doom (DC 13), obscuring mist[D], protection from evil, shield of faith
0 (at will)—detect magic, guidance, resistance, stabilize
D Domain spell; Domains Chaos (Protean subdomain), Trickery
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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 19
Feats Combat Reflexes, Furious Focus[APG], Power Attack
Traits besmara's blessing, shipboard caster
Skills Acrobatics +3 (-1 to jump), Bluff +6, Climb +7, Diplomacy +3, Heal +8, Knowledge (arcana) +5, Knowledge (religion) +7, Perception +9, Profession (sailor) +9, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +5, Stealth +3, Survival +3 (+5 to avoid becoming lost when using a Mapmaker's Kit as you travel, +5 to avoid becoming lost when using this), Swim +11
Languages Aquan, Common, Polyglot
SQ hero points
Combat Gear screaming bolt (3), healer's kit; Other Gear mwk agile breastplate[APG], +1 light crossbow, +1 returning steel harpoon, mwk boarding pike, mwk dagger, rapier, besmara's tricorne, hospitality's hammock, backpack, climber's kit, compass[APG], grappling hook, mapmaker's kit[APG], parchment (10), scroll case, signal horn[APG], signal whistle, tindertwig, waterskin, 83 gp, 5 sp
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Special Abilities
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Besmara's Blessing (1/week) Reroll a Profession (sailor) check and take the higher result.
Besmara's tricorne (1/day) Spoken command word transforms hat into a small boat for 8 hrs.
Cleric Channel Negative Energy 2d6 (2/day, DC 11) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Cleric Domain (Protean)
Cleric Domain (Trickery) Granted Powers: You are a master of illusions and deceptions. Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth are class skills.
Combat Reflexes (3 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Compass +2 circumstance for Survival or Knowledge (Dungeoneering) to avoid becoming lost.
Copycat (5/day) (Sp) Create a single mirror image duplicate
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Furious Focus If you are wielding a weapon in two hands, ignore the penalty for your first attack of each turn.
Hero Points Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Mapmaker's kit +2 Circumstance for Survival to avoid becoming lost.
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Shipboard Caster You feel an affinity with ships and the sea, and the rolling rhythm of the waves helps focus your mind. When on a ship or other water-going vessel, you gain a +3 bonus on concentration checks.
Swimming (30 feet) You have a Swim speed.
Touch of Chaos (5/day) (Sp) With a melee touch attack, target takes the lower of 2d20 for each d20 roll for 1 round.
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Feat for later
Lunging Spell Touch level 7
Divine Protection level 5

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Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Inc.®, and are used under license.

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