Steve Witham's page

Wow, I came back to a ton of good advice!

I'm surprised this thread stayed on topic as well as it did, thank you all.

I agree I'll be doing some in combat healing and some in combat buffing, but my goal was to find an all-powerful divine wrath dealing place to start and then backing off slowly until I find a comfortable middle ground.

That works well with the fact that in this campaign I'll be joining a pre-existing group of players and I'm not sure how each of them play so I want to be able to shine on my own while settling into how to best buff the group while maintaining my own enjoyment of combat magic.

While I don't know how they play I do know the group has the following characters.
Paladin
Fighter
Melee Cleric
Archer Ranger
Summoner
Wizard
I was pretty sure the physical damage side of the party was covered and as the other cleric doesn't always make the game, the group needed a solid cleric who could keep the group up.

As a side note, were playing in Greyhawk and using Greyhawk dieties but only domains and subdomains PF has stated so I do have quite a bit of flexibility in what I pick domain wise but I still don't get to port over any 3.5 stuff like Celerity Domain.

There's a ton of good info on spells and feats here. We only pick one trait so I was thinking of Focused Casting or due to what was mentioned above perhaps birthmark to save a hand for holding a rod.

Is it worth it to take reach spell for spontaneous cures even if they are a full round action or would a lesser rod of reach be more than sufficient? Preferred spell on a domain spell, that's brilliant! Are there any FAQ's as to if you can only sacrifice Domain slots for such a thing?

If I can get away without the human need of the extra feat I was hoping to go halfling and dump Str taking a high dex and a mithril breastplate and try to create the toughest nut to crack I could defensively in base saves and AC while using my spells for offensive actions unless buffing or healing was needed. This might still fit the Evangelist theme if I can squeeze in enough feats to quicken alternate channel. Are there any other alternate channeling abilities worth looking at or just disease if I'm going to quicken to have the ability to buff?

I do plan on using some summons but I'm not sure yet if it's worth a two feat investment just yet.

Thanks to Zark for going over good stats, feats, items and domains. And Calagnar for pointing out the spell highlights and a Huge thanks to Fionnabhair as that proved to be just what I needed to start having faith in my spell list, the bread and butter I need to love in order to enjoy playing this class.

On a side note, I've read the malconvokers handbook and it's the first time I really looked at the planer binding spells. As a cleric I'll have access to the planer ally spells. What kind of things do you offer in trade, that's not really ever specified and I feel like I'm loosing out on a great aspect of the game by ignoring these since I've never summoned one to make a bargain.

I need help putting together a level 9 caster cleric. Someone who doesn't plan to ever go to the front lines unless he's going to dish out some melee touch attack spells.

I've seen advice on putting together a melee cleric and the spells Righteous Might and Divine Power seem to support this style of play pretty well but I'm interested in a character who can call divine wrath down upon an enemy and I'm not seeing a good way to do it.

20 point buy, Pathfinder only material. And nothing from the bestiary for a race.

Need help with stat priorities, feats, skills, traits but especially spells, I want to see divine magic shine and I'm not seeing a way to make it fun other than buff and heal. I don't plan on not doing those things, but how to I hold my own first and foremost then back off for some buffs if they help the group more.

Thanks for the help, new to pathfinder and going back to just Core spells seems hard for some reason now.

Initial thought was Air or Water domain as in 2 levels I can toss out Cone of Cold or Chain Lightning. But that's not totally necessary, the cleric has lots of great utility but the goal of combat is to get the other guys to 0 hit points.

Thanks guys, this all makes a lot more sense now!

And very quick responses :)

I may be misunderstanding then.

"Spellstrike (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks."

To me this says Spellstrike is a seperate attack and that the normal full attack swings you take, even if they connect, would not discharge your held touch spell. You specifically get a free melee attack as part of casting the spell.

So the way I understand these abilites
Spell Combat lets you Attack and cast a spell in the same round (this economy of action is what I'm so interested in about the class)

Spellstrike is a new modification to the way touch spells are delivered, you have to swing at full AC but if you hit, you get to do weapon damage and use the weapon crit threat range in addition to the normal spell effect.

So the possibilities are separate for each that I need an answer for.

Spell Combat
A.) You have to actually cast to get Spell Combat's bonus action.
B.) You can either cast or attack with a charged spell to get Spell Combat's Bonus action (ala TWF but with a spell always as your off hand attack)

Spellstrike
A.) You only get the ability to make a weapon attack with a touch spell at the time you cast the spell.
B.) You can continue trying to make weapon attacks with a charged touch spell as long as it stays charged.

"You can make touch attacks round after round until the spell is discharged. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates."

So if I cast truestrike I loose the shocking grasp spell.

I realize I could still use a standard action to make a touch attack with this spell but I'd like to keep up the full attack + spell attack flavor of the class and as worded I don't think I could.

I don't want to charge two hands, I just want to see if I can use the one spell until I hit with it while still full attacking. Because as I read it now, I have to actually cast a spell every round even if one is still charged to get the bonus of spell combat.

I apologize if this is answered somewhere but searching these terms gives me a lot of information from the original playtests and I don't have access to those so don't know if this changed or not.

Simple question.

Through Spell combat I try to do a full attack and cast a touch spell like Shocking Grasp.

I successfully cast the spell defensively but I miss the normal attack through Spellstrike.

Next round I've got a charged Shocking Grasp spell still active as melee touch spells don't discharge if you miss. Can I use spell combat and try to spellstrike with that charged spell again or would I need to cast another spell discharging a perfectly good spell in order to keep the full attack + spell attack onslaught going?

Basically, is the act of casting required to use Spell Combat and/or Spellstrike or is attacking with a spell sufficient?

The difference being if Spell Combat is fine but Spellstrike is not, I could still make the touch attack in addition to my full attack on subsequent rounds.