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Summoning Evangelist. You lack dudes in your part. Add more dudes and buff them. Now you have plenty of dudes to be killing their dudes with.
tldr; make more dudes.
Well after working through that wall of text, what I think I got out of it was that I should summon stuff. :P Fair point.
Is there anything in Pathfinder like the Malconvoker from 3.5? I'm not sure I want to go crazy down the summoning path (seems like extra paperwork), but I always liked the Malconvoker fluff.
Are there any other ideas? I'll probably go Human, but that's not set in stone. I have read the various guides out there. There are just a ton of options for clerics, so I'm looking for any interesting angles on the class that would support the idea of a badass priest accompanying an inquisitor to root out bad guys.
neutral undead lord of pharasma you get a skeleton or zombie companion equal to your HD or a variant with no more than 1/2 hd and you can summon or command more
Interesting idea.
When you cast spells with the 'evil' descriptor, that's an evil act, right? So would you tend toward an evil alignment with this kind of setup? I'd like to at least remain neutral, if not good.
Lore-wise, how does Pharasma feel about her clerics summoning/animating the undead?
Considering that Pharasma absolutely hates the undead, fluff wise this build is a little bit problematic.
Pharasma absolutely forbids clerics creating/working with undead and there's a blog post that gives her new spells for her Death domain to replace animate dead etc.
I guess Summoner's probably closest to Malconvoker, still not that close though and a poor multiclass.
Make no mistake, you can still be an awesome summoner as a cleric. Take Augment Summoning and maybe Superior Summons and you're good to go.
Buffing will be kind of weak since you have only two people to buff (so party buffs like bless are weaker) and if you're doing in-combat buffs the inquisitor will be fighting on his lonesome until you're done casting.
I stand by my summoning suggestion. You have very few people in your group so being able to throw more warm bodies at them will certainly be extremely helpful. A bad touch cleric is great when you have plenty of people to take full advantage of the debuffs you are gently caressing people with but with only an inquisitor for backup you are quite better off giving her support and controlling the field with your summons.
Hi all,
I've been wanting to play a cleric lately, and my wife has decided she'd like to play an inquisitor in a little 2-player campaign.
Cleric and inquisitor seem like a decent pair, but I'm wondering how to design my cleric, given that the inquisitor will likely be a powerful character in her own right.
The cleric only has a few tricks that a inquisitor doesn't such as suggested above summoning, 2 domains, and channeling so getting the best out of those would be good. Feats such as augment summons and channel smite would get some milage here and channel smite will let you get guided hand reducing your need for a high str/dex on your favoured weapon.
I don't know yet the details - whether she'll be focusing on melee or ranged - but it's certain that we'll both be getting into melee at some point, so I know I can't just sit back and rely on spells most of the time. But, since there is some overlap with spells and skills, how would you go about playing a cleric paired with an inquisitor? Any archetypes spring to mind? Races? Skill foci? Any spells that would be particularly handy in this situation?Don't know a lot about the campaign yet, either, though likely we'll be sort of religious bounty hunters, tracking down demons, undead, general baddies, etc. And we'll be starting at level 1.
Looking forward to any tips here!
I'd suggest you ask if you can create this order of monster hunters as worshipers of the Empyreal lords as this gives you a strong theme and several specialization options.
For a melee cleric or Inquitor Ragathiel or Arshea will give you some interesting choices
For ranged Sinashakti nets you short bow (short comp bow is on average 1 point less damage than long)
The others add a little more full caster options such as the magic domain ect.
Feats ect. really depend on what style you end up with but hopefully these choices may help.
BTW have you looked at oracle? It's themed slightly differently from CLeric and inquisitor but could still work and give extra flexability to your "group".
With a party of 2 neither one of you will be able to specialize in one form of combat or another. The inquisitor does have better ranged weapons available then most clerics, but both of you will need to be able to do both. You are also both 3/4 BAB classes so taking power attack/deadly aim will not be as good for either of you.
As for spells although there is a lot of overlap between the classes on the spell lists but the Inquisitor is a spontaneous caster so does not have a lot of spells to chose from. Figure out what spells the Inquisitor is going to have and fill out the rest of what is needed. Summoning is a excellent choice for you but is kind of weak at lower levels until the duration is a little longer. Since you will not have a Arcane caster you will also need to have some area of effect spells to deal with things that can't be hurt by normal combat like swarms. Fire may be a good domain for you to consider for this.
Channeling is one thing the Inquisitor is not going to be able to do so this is another area for you to shine at. I would suggest Alignment Chanel for use against evil outsiders would work well for you. Both of you are able to use wands of cure light wounds so healing is not going to be as much of a problem.
Skills are another place the Inquisitor is going to have a big advantage. Not only does he have more skills, but he gets a bonus on a lot of them. Focus mainly on Diplomacy and be the party face. Pick up linguistics as you have a lot of language dependant spells. Put a few points into Heal, Sense Motive and minimal in Knowledge Religion.
Heavy Armor Proficiency would be a good investment for you. It does not hamper you in any way and gives you a much needed boost to your AC. You will not have a meat shield to protect you so that is going to be important.
As for race go human the extra feat at first level is going to be very useful. Take both Alignment Chanel and Heavy Armor Proficiency. Their Favored class bonus is real reason. +1 caster level to overcome the spell resistance of outsides is going to be extremely useful. The extra skill point is also helpful.
I would suggest not focusing on DEX so much. Reflex saves are not that important because for the most part they are usually just straight damage. As a cleric you will have a lot of protection spells that will be better than the save. If you pickup heavy armor a high DEX is not going to give you any extra AC. My suggestions for stats would be
STR 14
DEX 12
CON 13
INT 12
WIS 20 (+2 Racial)
CHA 18
STR of 14 will not only improve your melee ability but equally important allow you to carry more. Heavy armor is called heavy for a reason. Even medium armor is going to weigh you down. with a 12 STR wearing Scale Mail, Heavy Shield, and carrying a mace puts you at medium encumbrance. That does not include the crossbow or any other equipment.
CON of 13 gives you an extra HP before dying.
WIS of 20 means you get more spells at higher level and the important part is the DC of the save is higher.
CHA of 18 means more channels and the DC to resist is higher. Also helps with the diplomacy and Use Magic Device.
Alignment Channel is probably your best first level feat.
You may not be able to afford heavy armor at first level, but by second level you should have no problem with it. Splint Mail only cost about 200 GP.
Scribe scroll is also a great feat for a Cleric. I would probably take this either this or heavy armor at 1st and the other at 3rd
Spell Focus is a feat tax but still worth it but not till higher level when the duration of the summons are longer.
Trait wise Deft Dodger gives you a +1 Reflex save but +2 Init. from Reactionary is also good.
Dangerously Curious will give you UMD at +1 and a class skill which will allow you to use Arcane items.
For skills don't bother with stealth especially if you are going for heavy armor. Even with a DEX of 18 and maxed out stealth you will be +5 at 6th level. Get a ring of invisibility to cover this latter.
Even with the human and favored class bonus you are going to want at least 4 skills. Diplomacy and linguist have already been mentioned. But you will also want Spell Craft (Need for creating scrolls), probably at least a point in Knowledge Religion, and UMD. Max out UMD and alternate between the rest. Two of these are CHA based so boosting the CHA will be a major help there. The DC for UMD is fairly high so that should be your priority.
Since you are a party of 2 don't waste your few feats on weapon specific or situational combat feats. Point blank shot assumes you are fighting at range which you may not be able to do. If your party was larger than that would work better since you would have a meat shield to protect you. But by all means carry both a melee and ranged weapon.
As for the Medium load that was not using heavy armor. If you get Full Plate, Steel shield, heavy mace, heavy crossbow, cloak of resistance, and a handy haversack that puts you to 87 lbs. That does not include backup weapons, holy symbol or spell components.
The CHA will give you a couple of things bonus to UMD is huge as the DC for anything is 20 or higher. It also gives you bonus to your diplomacy so you don't have to spend a lot of skill points to get a decent bonus. It is also giving you extra channel energy.
I could see going a STR 13, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 12, WIS 20, and a CHA 18. That at least gives you a 100 medium load. Bellow that probably going to get slowed down too much.
Your spells are what is going to make the difference. Divine favor is your great low level buff and applies to both ranged and melee. Also if your UMD is high enough you can use Arcane wands. Tossing out a fire ball or lightning bolt will be nice.
Also don't forget domain powers those can be a nice supplement to spells.
I would probably stick with a standard Cleric. Domains give you more than just extra spells. Domain powers are an important part of a Clerics power. Also you would be giving up your an extra weapon proficiency.
If you have complete freedom to chose your domains I would consider Fire and Rage.
Fire gives you some nice damage spells that are not on a clerics list. The Fire Bolt is going to be more useful at lower levels but Fire Resistance is sweet.
Rage gives you Destructive Smite and at 8th level the ability to Rage like a Barbarian. You even get Rage powers at 12th and 16th.
Chose a good weapon for your Deity and you should be set.
I used mace as an example as it is a fairly common weapon for Clerics to use.
The Animal domain gives you an animal companion at level 4. With the Boon Companion feat, your effective druid level won't take the 3 level hit when it comes to determining what the animal can do. Alternately, the inquisitor can take this domain and get a pet, or both of you could.
Personally, I would focus more on melee, considering that there's only going to be two of you in the party. There's not going to be a meat shield between you and the bad guy(s). Summoning might be tricky as a result; it takes a full round to cast, and if something comes up and smacks you around, you could lose the spell (and essentially have wasted your turn). If you do pick up an animal companion, that will mean one more body between you and whatever you're fighting, but a pet does not a meat shield make. Having a summoned creature on the field is a definite plus, but if you're going to summon, be sure you'll be able to complete the spell.
The problem with the Animal Domain is that handle animal is not a class skill. It is a DC 25 to push an animal so even with maxed out animal handler at 4th level he needs to roll a 13 or better to get his animal to do something it is not trained for. It also means that until he reaches 4th level he gets nothing for the domain except for some spells that will not be all that useful. As a cleric he does not have a lot of skill points anyways, so he probably will not max out animal handler.
Leadership at 7th level will give him a 5th level cohort so he can pick up a meat shield there.
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Please be aware. If you plan on summoning creatures your GM will come to expect that you will summon things and will compensate by making encounters based around a party of greater then 2 people. That means that if you don't get a summon spell off, due to an enemy caster countering it, you could end up in a very bad situation very quickly. Make sure you plan around that possibility.
The Fire domain is a good domain especially early in a party without a arcane caster, which is why I recommended it. But as you level up fire resistance becomes more common. Picking up the feat elemental spell helps migrate that. Probably go for cold as not too many things have booth cold and fire immunity.
For a Deity I would probably go for Sarenrae. She has scimitar as a favored weapon and while the damage is not high it has the best crit range in the game. She also offers fire as a domain, and valor as an inquisition. I assume that you are from the same church so you will need to balance your domain with the inquisitor's domain. Abadar does not have as good of choices for both of you. Since a inquisitor does not get the spells from the domain the power s are the only thing they care about.
Don't waste a domain to get a free feat.