Help with first PFS character? Cleric of Magdh

Hello out there! This Daturday I am playing in my first PFS game and I'm pretty excited, but I'm also a greenhorn. I want to play an Ulfen Cleric of Magdh, but I'd be willing to play a Paladin or Fighter. My big thing is that I want a) to be a melee scythe user, and b) to be a healer. I know fighter doesn't fit for healer, and I'm not sure if I could be effective at both that and melee, but I wanna try.

The character's backstory is that he was raised in Whistletown in Varisia, and as a boy became friends with an old gnome by the name of Staerriffokkolliis, who held to the worship of Magdh. His great-grandmother was a cleric of Aroden, and when her god died she went crazy (long before he was born). Having heard that Magdh can see the future, my character has devoted himself to Magdh's worship to try and make sense of what happened to his great-grandmother.

I'm very overwhelmed by all the possibilities right now so any and all help would be appreciated!

The best healing can be done out of combat.

A single level of Cleric or Paladin can accomplish this.

What really matters is how good of a fighter you want to be, and how good of a healer you want to be.

Paladins excel at healing themselves in mid combat, and are awesome fighters against evil. The Lawful Good code is hard to follow, and even harder to play properly, without being Lawful Stupid.

Clerics can heal others in mid-combat, but its not the best use of their time. With buffing, they can be nearly as good (maybe even better) than a straight fighter. This takes a lot of time and effort though.

Fighters are, well, great fighters, just like the box says. a single level of Cleric can provide your healing flavor, along with a wand or two of cure light wounds. best all around fighting ability.

Well for Magdh, Knowledge and Luck domains seem pretty fun. Knowledge means you have all knowledge skills as class skills, you may want to take advantage of that. And both their domain abilities seem interesting/fairly useful.

PFS = 20 point buy, and you're a human, and you want to be a healer and a scythe user. You'll also be a buffer and utility caster, but not a debuff/control caster, and you won't be great at channeling or social skills, but okay.

Much of your healing should come after combat with a wand of clw, but you'll have a few channels just in case for in combat, and can always either use the wand or spontaneous cast a spell to cure in combat.

Str 16 (5 points plus 2 racial) +1 at 8th and 12th, +2 from magic item asap
Dex 12 (2 points)
Con 14 (5 points) +2 from magic item asap
Int 13 (3 points, +1 at 4th level, going for the skills/knowledges)
Wis 14 (5 points) +2 from magic item by 9th level
Cha 10 (0 points)

You'll get a bonus 1st and 2nd level spell with 14 Wis, though the DCs of your spells will be rubbish, focus on cures, buffs, and utility

Your domain spells will be:
1st: True Strike and Comprehend Languages (take true strike)
2nd: Aid and Detect Thoughts (both nice, depending on the situation)
3rd: Protection from Energy and Speak with Dead (Prot Energy is great by 5th level)

Feats:
1st: Combat Expertise, Improved Trip
3rd: Weapon focus (Scythe)
5th: Power Attack

You'll get 3 skill points per level until 4th, when you'll then have 4/lvl for a total of 16. Perception 4, Heal 1, Knowledges 7 (1 each in 3 or 4, and max knowledge religion or planes or whatever you want), Diplomacy 4.

I think I'm going to go with Paladin. So could I have help with a Paladin of Magdh build? I'm a big scythe fan and plan on weilding one.

Well, the only thing I'd keep them from my above recommendation is feats, since scythe is a trip weapon, and tripping is awesome. Aside from that, you'll want more Cha for smite evil, and beyond that I can't say since I've yet to build a Paladin. After your first scenario, spend 2pp on a wand of clw, and invest in both Perception and Diplomacy, the two most useful skills in PFS.

Actually, now that I see what rangerjeff wrote I'm back to being intrigued by the cleric. Sorry for the flip flopping, my Internet is really slow right now and I'm being indecisive. I love the wrote-up rangerjeff did.
Could I have a pally idea to compare it to?

Thank you so much, sorry my responses seem weirdly out of place. That's very helpful advice! And I like that there wasn't a dump stat. I hate doing that, as I feel like a minmaxer and not a roleplayer.

Assuming Magdh's favored weapon is the scythe, I'm inclined to say: just be a single-class Cleric with good physical stats. For healing, it's hard to beat the power of positive energy channeling in the heat of battle. I'd do something along the lines of:

Take the Dual Talent alternative Human racial ability from Advanced Race Guide

Str 15 (3 pts +2 racial) +1 at 4th level, +2 from magic item by and by
Dex 8 (-2 pts)
Con 12 (2 pts) +2 or more from magic item when you can
Int 12 (2 pts)
Wis 16 (5 pts +2 racial), +1 at 8th and 12th, +2 from magic item eventually
Cha 16 (10 pts) +2 or more from magic item when you can

Feats:
1st: Toughness OR Extra Channeling (if you take Dual Talent, you'll lose your bonus feat)
3rd: Weapon Focus (Scythe)
5th: Power Attack
7th: Cleave
9th: Great Cleave
11th: Improved Critical (Scythe)
13th: World's nearly your oyster. Empower Spell, maybe? Whichever feat listed at 1st level you didn't take? Something else that improves your Channeling?

It's not strictly necessary, but I suggest putting at least 1 skill point into Profession so you can make Day Job rolls. Alternatively, it sounds like you'll be putting ranks into Heal, so you could delay that whole scene a little and spend Prestige to gain the Temple Prestige Award (or whatever it's called, the one that lets you make Day Job Rolls with your Heal skill). Sense Motive ranks will be an extra-good choice for you, too, since you'll use it to detect feints and crap like that in addition to its valuable primary purposes.

I don't think a Paladin of Magdh is actually possible - She's NN, and your deity has to be within one step of your alignment.

Extreme ability scores don't make you a powergamer. I do it all the time, and I'm not a bean-counter. Besides, in this case all I'm suggesting is one mild reduction. A character with a low DEX and high WIS would likely be reflective, naturally indecisive and prone to hesitation, or maybe they have a physical disability, like being overweight, natural tremors/spasms, or certainly in your character's case, a bit of a 'musclebound' problem. I daresay I've seen real people with arms like G.I. Joe figures both in mass and flexibility.

A fellow worshipper of The Three. Fantastic! I have seen this day in a vision I will have next week when I look in a crystal-clear pool of water. It will be good to have another around who understands the tides and eddies of possible futures, rather than buying into the Pharasmin propaganda that there is only one fate.

While I have nothing against characters that don't have a dump stat, some of my most interesting characters are so in part because of a dump stat. My wizard with a low wisdom is very intelligent and figures things out quickly, but he often rushes in or does things impulsively, and a lot of my choices there come from my playing his low wisdom appropriately.

You can have whatever stats you like and still have a very interesting character with lots of roleplaying included.

Haha, yeah, also meant to say I liked the write up of your backstory. Definitely play it up at the table in PFS, even if you won't be able to play with the same people every week.

For spells as a fighting cleric that also offers spellcasting, you'll want divine favor, bless, aid, weapon of awe, bull's strength, and bear's endurance, they'll all beef up your melee. Protection from Evil and Magic Circle of Protection from Evil at 3rd level will also help. Edit: you'll also want to memorize Silence to shut down spellcasters, just don't target them but the ground they're standing on and they get no save!

Have you looked at an Oracle?

For a solid fighting Oracle, the Battle Mystery is right up your alley.

Cast "Cure" spells at whim, plus have a bunch of feats and special class abilities that really help with fighting....what's not to love?

Check them out.

@ I'm hiding in your closet evil clown guy... Day Jobs in PFS are HIGHLY overrated reasons to spend skill points. If you can spend prestige to use a skill you're already going to be maxing, yes.

And, I also frequently dump stats, but sometimes it makes the best sense for a character to be well rounded. My elven witch is 7/15/14/20/8/7 at 1st level, while my archer cleric is 14/16/14/12/14/10 at 6th, both very effective and fun to play.

And finally, again @ the evil clown, the OP is going 1) melee with Scythe and 2) healing, so putting so much into CHA for channels isn't necessary, and even the 16 WIS is too much since WIS for a cleric is kind of all or nothing (do you want to cast save or suck spells or not? if no, you don't care about DC, and you only need WIS to be able to cast spells, so 14 for 4th level spells = CL 7, 16 for 6th level spells = cl 11 and 12 = all you need for PFS really.)

Oh, I'm reminded, as a human you also get +1 skill point/level. for favored class bonus if you want to be melee it should always be hit points. But as a human that means initially with 13 INT 4 skill points/lvl, and then at 4 with +1 to INT that's 5, so 20 skill points total at 4, which is pretty nice.

Have you looked at an Oracle?

For a solid fighting Oracle, the Battle Mystery is right up your alley.

Cast "Cure" spells at whim, plus have a bunch of feats and special class abilities that really help with fighting....what's not to love?

Check them out.

I'm still kind of iffy about oracles RP wise. Need to take some sort of curse? Why? Yes there are awesome builds out there that let oracles do pretty much anything very well, but, maybe I'm too old school, I get clerics, but oracles seem weird. OK, basic mechanic, Clerics are like wizards and have to memorize but have a vast spell list, Oracles are like sorcerers and are spontaneous but with a very limited list of spells to choose from.

Str 15 (3 pts +2 racial) +1 at 4th level, +2 from magic item by and by
Dex 8 (-2 pts)
Con 12 (2 pts) +2 or more from magic item when you can
Int 12 (2 pts)
Wis 16 (5 pts +2 racial), +1 at 8th and 12th, +2 from magic item eventually
Cha 16 (10 pts) +2 or more from magic item when you can

This point buy doesn't make a lot of sense. If you switch things around a bit:

Str 15 (7)
Dex 8 (-2)
Con 12 (2)
Int 12 (2)
Wis 16 (5 +2 racial)
Cha 16 (5 +2 racial)

This way you only have 19 points spent. That means you can up constitution or intelligence to 13, or dexterity to 9, in preparation for bumping at level 8.

I would also not advise A) dumping dexterity (it's a very important statistic) or B) taking Dual Talent. It's often a trap option, as you give up a LOT for a measly +2 to a stat.

Thank you all for the helpful comments! And I'm glad you like the backstory! Gnomes are my favorite thing about Golarion but I wanted to play a massive bearded dude, so I found a way to combine the two.

@Arianrhod
It would be great to adventure with you some day! I'm glad not everyone trusts Pharasma!

@Im Hiding
Magdh is LN, thus allowing paladins. And you're right. All a low stat needs is a good roleplayer to make it work. Thanks for the write-up!

@Rangerjeff
The backstory might get tweaked just a bit, but it will definitely be the motivation for joining the Pathfinder Society. Now I just need to pick the best lodge for him. And thanks for the spells!

@Bomanz
I think an Oracle would be cool... Only thing is, I don't own the APG and I don't know the GM. The additional resources page said stick to what you own and I don't want any problems :-/ Oracle probably works with the backstory better too...

One of the nice things about PFS is, you'll have more than one character, ideally one for every tier. I've got a 9, a 6, a 4, and a 2 now. And between the first (when I only had Core) and now, I've picked up more than a couple books. So if you're intrigued, don't worry, your 2nd 3rd or 4th character will probably be an oracle! Also, don't forget online resources. Most PFS GM's are comfortable with Oracles, so even if you don't now own the book, if you do your research while putting the character together, you shouldn't have any problem with the GM on game day.

Also, (protip), Herolab.

Ok, starting at the beginning, Gnomes are the best race in the known universe!

Second, Magdh is perfect for Gnomes, and it is nice you tried to tie a Human into the best culture in existence, but;

Gnome Paladins are a thing of Beauty!

I would roll with the Gnome concept:

, or:

You lose 2 Str for being a Gnome, and you take a 25% penalty to carry capacity over a medium sized character with the same Str. Oddly, due to half weight and quarter weight items you will need as a Gnome Paladin, you gain a lot of total carry capacity. I know, that seems counter intuitive. Consider this:

In trade, you gain +1 AC for being small.
You also gain something very special. Should you chose a bonded mount, will be medium size, thus able to enter any area a medium sized can normally enter (read as, 'if the humans, elves, half-elves, half-orcs, dwarves, aasimar, tengu, tiefling, etc. in your group can fit, so can your mount').

I would also read:

Bodhi's Guide to the Optimal Paladin.

Edit: This was too long, so added spoilers, deleted content.

You lose 2 Str for being a Gnome, and you take a 25% penalty to carry capacity over a medium sized character with the same Str. Oddly, due to half weight and quarter weight items you will need as a Gnome Paladin, you gain a lot of total carry capacity. I know, that seems counter intuitive. Consider this:

A medium sized creature with 16 Str has a carrying capacity of 76 pounds.
Scythe = 10 pounds (76-10 = 66)
Buckler = 5 pounds (66-5=61)
Lamellar Armor (Horn) = 30 pounds (61-30=31)
Backpack = 2 pounds (31-2=29)
Water Skin = 4 pounds (29-4=25)
1 week's Trail Rations = 7 pounds (25-7=18)
Clothes = 8 pounds (explorer's outfit) (18-8=10)

After this basic gear, a medium sized can only carry another 10 pounds, or less, and remain at light encumbrance.

A gnome has a carrying capacity of 43.5 pounds, but;
Scythe = 5 pounds (43.5-5=38.5+
Buckler = 2.5 pounds (38.5-2.5=36)
Lamellar Armor (Horn) = 15 pounds (36-15=21)
Backpack = o.5 pounds (21-o.5=20.5)
Waterskin = 1 pound (20.5-1=19.5)
1 week's rations = 1.75 pounds (19.5-1.75=17.75)
Clothes = 2 pounds (explorer's outfit) (17.75-2=15.75)

After this basic gear, a gnome can carry up to another 15.75 pounds and remain at light encumbrance. (5.75 pounds, or over 50% more capacity AFTER basic, needed items are selected. Weird, eh?)

Actually, no it isn't. The smaller you are, the less power gravity has over you. It's why ants can carry potato chips! :)

Also: You lose more damage than just from the Strength penalty. Small weapons deal noticeably less damage.

Actually, no it isn't. The smaller you are, the less power gravity has over you. It's why ants can carry potato chips! :)

I am not complaining! I love small races, especially gnomes. Just making it clear the loss of 1 damage (and one die step) comes with the bonuses of:

1) Improved Carry Capacity (despite loss of Str),
2) Improved Mount (Mount goes anywhere the party can go),
3) Improved AC, AND;
4) The pure awesomeness that is Gnome.

Works slightly better if your Gnome is focusing on ranged touch attacks (gunslinger/sorcerer), but yeah, small characters get a lot of benefits.

But also don't forget the reduced base movement. Which of course won't matter once you're up on your mount!

@ I'm hiding in your closet evil clown guy... Day Jobs in PFS are HIGHLY overrated reasons to spend skill points. If you can spend prestige to use a skill you're already going to be maxing, yes.

Depends on your character and, for that matter, what you're saying they do. Also, spending "skill points" is not the same as "A skill point" - free money after every scenario is certainly worth a single skill point for most characters. Certainly, it's probably not what's best for OP's character, but gods know MY characters get a charge out of them. My Summoner, for example, does Craft [Painting], which means in addition to making a lot of extra money (and being Golarion's equivalent of H. R. Giger, being a CN, 7-WIS, Lamashtu-worshipping Gnome and all), she can make good use of Marvelous Pigments. My Witch is a Sculptor, and that helped him pull off an otherwise-difficult faction mission (or would have, if we hadn't managed to find another way to do it). I play high-INT characters (the lowest I've ever gone is 12), so I'm accustomed to having plenty of skill points.

And finally, again @ the evil clown, the OP is going 1) melee with Scythe and 2) healing, so putting so much into CHA for channels isn't necessary, and even the 16 WIS is too much since WIS for a cleric is kind of all or nothing (do you want to cast save or suck spells or not? if no, you don't care about DC, and you only need WIS to be able to cast spells, so 14 for 4th level spells = CL 7, 16 for 6th level spells = cl 11 and 12 = all you need for PFS really.)

As I said originally, I've found Channeling to be the best healing there is. If you can do it out of combat, great, but all too many combats can have parties going from fiddle-fit to dying in two or one rounds (especially with *shudder* Negative Channelers). This was my approach, then, to a fighting healer was someone who could Channel a lot. As for WIS, you have a valid point, but on the other hand if OP were to be a single-class Cleric as I was suggesting, ith would welcome bonus spells beyond just the first two or three levels.

Oh, I'm reminded, as a human you also get +1 skill point/level. for favored class bonus if you want to be melee it should always be hit points. But as a human that means initially with 13 INT 4 skill points/lvl, and then at 4 with +1 to INT that's 5, so 20 skill points total at 4, which is pretty nice.

I think saying "it should always be hit points" is going too far (especially since Humans get those crazy-ass special favored class bonuses, though in this case, what Human Clerics can get doesn't work that well for OP's plan), but certainly, some is good. My Cavalier hasn't done that but has done fine so far, and his CON is only 12 (no Toughness feat, either). For OP, ith will both be doing nasty damage AND be capable of healing, making auxiliary hit points even less critical, but I think ith'll be best off with a little of both (or maybe just skill points, depending on what other options we've presented OP ultimately takes).

This point buy doesn't make a lot of sense. If you switch things around a bit:

Str 15 (7)
Dex 8 (-2)
Con 12 (2)
Int 12 (2)
Wis 16 (5 +2 racial)
Cha 16 (5 +2 racial)

This way you only have 19 points spent. That means you can up constitution or intelligence to 13, or dexterity to 9, in preparation for bumping at level 8.

You're right, of course. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. On the other hand, I know that I hate permanently odd-numbered ability scores...make me kind of itchy. On the third hand, though, you could indeed put that point into INT and keep it there, permitting OP to take Combat Expertise.

I would also not advise A) dumping dexterity (it's a very important statistic) or B) taking Dual Talent. It's often a trap option, as you give up a LOT for a measly +2 to a stat.

What? Most (certainly not all) Clerics love their low Dexterity. They trundle around in armor as heavy as they can manage, don't normally bother with DEX-based skills, and crummy initiative can damned near be a boon when you're a healer. As for Dual Talent, you're certainly right about giving up a lot for it - but that's the idea. There's nothing 'measly' about another +2 ability bonus. OP wants scythe fighting and healing, and the question remaining then is how does OP want to scythe-fight and heal? rangerjeff's model offers tripping shenanigans, mine gives that up for raw force. If we tweaked my point-buy model the way Mergy suggested, OP could have a little of both (OP could have Combat Expertise at 1st level and nothing else, leading ith to function more as a defensive powerhouse than anything else for the first 2 levels).

@Arizhel Thanks for that write-up! While I'm gonna go cleric this time around, I've been thinking of a Gnome Paladin for a home game and that looks excellent! I'm not a fan of using a scythe on a small character because of the small attack die, so I'll be looking into other (probably better) weapon options. Glad to see I'm not the only rabid Gnome lover!

@rangerjeff @Evil Clown
Save or suck is not really my focus here. While I totally get its usefulness, I wanna be frontline putting on the hurt. How does one use trip effectively in combat?

Trip is not so great if you're the only frontliner. But if you have one or two others up there with you, you trip attack (which with improved trip doesn't provoke an AoO) using your CMB +4 (for scythe being a trip weapon and improved trip) and if you beat the target's CMD, he falls down. Now that he's on the ground, your melee buddies get to hit him more easily (at +4 to hit.) And when he tried to stand up, you all get Attacks of Opportunity, still at +4 to hit. If the guy just wants to stay on the ground rather than standing up and getting all those attacks of opportunity, fine, but he'll be -4 to attack you, and you'll still be +4 to attack him.

Doesn't work so well if you're the only melee attacker and the party has one or more ranged specialists, however, since while on the ground the target is actually +4 AC vs ranged attacks...

Since clerics are not full BAB, eventually you'll get less effective at this, but you can stay pretty good by getting things like the Ioun stone whose resonance ability with your wayfinder is +2 CMB/CMD, maybe getting Greater Trip feat eventually. And CMB goes up with strength, so you'll get better whenever you boost your strength (including when you cast Bull's Strength on yourself.) For trip, you also get to add your weapon's to hit modifier (so masterwork gets you another +1 to your CMB.)

Opposed CMD is 10+BAB+strengh+dex modifiers.

Your level 1 CMB with my build would be +7, or +8 with a masterwork scythe (which you should buy after your first PFS adventure.) A CR3 monster (a very tough opponent for a level 1/boss fight) might have a CMD of 10+3+4+3=20 (and that's really very tough, most CR1 monsters should have a CMD of 14-16.) You'd need to roll a 13 or higher to trip the CR3 guy here, so 40% chance to trip (45% with masterwork). Now, if the bad guy had a very low AC, like 14, then you'd at 1st level be able to hit him on an 11 (10 with mwk scythe) so 50%(55%) chance, a little better than the trip, so you may not want to trip... except remember once he's down, he loses 4 AC, loses 4 to attack you, and provokes AoO's at -4 AC if he tries to stand up (so basically the attack you lose by attempting to trip you might get back as an AoO if your trip succeeds but now you have a 70%(75%) chance to hit.) If the guy is tough with AC/heavily armored with AC 20, now you need 17 (16 mwk) to hit, so only 20% chance (25%), while you're still 40% (45%) to trip, and then once he's down/for the AoO you're now 40% (45%) to hit. So tripping a heavily armored opponent makes great tactical sense.

So yeah, that was rather technical, but I hope it illustrates the potential usefulness of trip.

It was very helpful! You all were great! Thanks :-)