Building a cleric, too. Was hoping someone could link to a "So and so's Guide to the Cleric" like Treantmonk has done for a bunch of other classes.
Thanks.
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Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I would suggest going anti-mage. Generic Clerics can already heal, and it is typically a bad concept.
For stats, I would look at
Str: 12+
Dex: 14+
Con: 12+
Int: 12+
Wis: 15+
Cha: 14+
Domains, (in my opinion all kind of lack), But Protection and Artifice, Knowledge, Luck, Magic, or Repose will help you a lot.
Also, get your Sorcerer to start investing in the heal skill.
It looks like you have combat fairly handled, (outside of magic), so I would look at keeping your Skills (Knowledges and Socials) high, and work towards uping your defenses. Get the highest Saves, AC, and CMD you can, so that when everyone else go down, you can save them, (for example through mind effects).
Your spells should be focused around either the "Remove" spells, (remove paralysis) (probably not remove fear though), and group buffs, enemy debuffs, and more importantly, battle field control.
For Feats, I would look at Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, Combat Casting, and Imp. Counterspell. (Bonus feats might go towards Dodge & Mobility). I would also pick up Selective Channeling, but you can wait on Extra Channeling.
As you level up, make sure you improve yous Wis, obviously, but also keep up your Dex and Int. Do not go with Heavy Armor, (until maybe you can afford Mithral Full Plate), but rather go with lighter armor for mobility and bump up Dex.
For gear, don't worry much about buying magic armor/shield. Magic Vestment has a duration 1 hour/Level, so at your level, practically all adventuring day. Do not worry about Cloak of Protection (Protection Domain), but look at items that increase Wis, Dex, Int, and Cha, in that order probably. Greater Magical Weapon will also do for your weapon what Magic Vestment does for Armor/Shield, plus, your probably not going to be a melee damage dealer with your party.
Other options to go with are scrolls and potions of spells you want to have, just in case, but are not going to use often. Metamagic Rods would be good also. Ring of Sustenance, Boots of Striding, and bag of holding are sort of "universal" adventuring gear to go for early.
Is that helpful? It is off the top of my head, let me know if you want more and I'll go into it more.
Forget Heavy armour proficieny and just get mithral full plate
selective channel/extra channel are very good feats. Combat casting as well to help you out with the very difficult defensive casting that pathfinder has. maybe some creating feats like craft wand/scribe scroll too if you want cheap items to use.
if you are going anti-mage, perhaps spell focus so your debuffs hit the spellcaster harder. keep your caster level high for dispel and spell penetration checks.
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Forget Heavy armour proficieny and just get mithral full plate
Pathfinder has changes this. You need Proficiency with the original Armor type even with Mithral. So you need to have Heavy Armor Proficiency for Mithral Full Plate, not Medium Armor. I would avoid it in general, anyway, and try to keep your touch AC higher too by going with Dex based bumps.
Pathfinder has changes this. You need Proficiency with the original Armor type even with Mithral. So you need to have Heavy Armor Proficiency for Mithral Full Plate, not Medium Armor. I would avoid it in general, anyway, and try to keep your touch AC higher too by going with Dex based bumps.Forget Heavy armour proficieny and just get mithral full plate
OH snap, i just read the mithral section in special materials and yeah, you are right.
forgive me, im still adjusting from 3.5
looks like i got some bad news to tell one of my players.
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Pathfinder has changes this. You need Proficiency with the original Armor type even with Mithral. So you need to have Heavy Armor Proficiency for Mithral Full Plate, not Medium Armor. I would avoid it in general, anyway, and try to keep your touch AC higher too by going with Dex based bumps.Forget Heavy armour proficieny and just get mithral full plate
OH snap, i just read the mithral section in special materials and yeah, you are right.
forgive me, im still adjusting from 3.5
looks like i got some bad news to tell one of my players.
Not a problem. I started a thread a long while ago, specifically to highlight some of the new changes in PF from 3.5. I'll see if I can find it for you. It helps, a lot, because so many minor things have changed.
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Here we go:
Things You Might Have Missed.
Editted in. . .
Cool, finally figured out how to do that. . .
:)
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I'm not an expert, but I do like my cleric so of course like everybody I have my opinions. I'm not a full-fledged optimizer though, so don't think of me as such.
Ability Scores:
It all depends on what you want to be. WIS is always important and you should have it fairly high for the bonus spells, but hopefully you're not casting tons of things that require a save DC (instead buffing your party), so it doesn't need to be phenomenal. Charisma is useful, but I'm not sold on all the channel attempts, especially as you go up in level (you'll see why below). You're now limited to medium armor, which makes DEX far more important than it used to be, in fact I'm going to propose that perhaps (since nobody wants to just be casting all the time, and there are instances you'll be low on spells) you should put this above CHA in importance. Then take a deity that uses a bow, or be an elf. It's a double hit, a nice AC buff and a nice way to help out your friends outside of buffs (though stick to those buffs most of the time). I also wouldn't worry a whole lot about STR (unless you're going to go full blown battle cleric), since the inflict spells are touch attacks, which means you can get by a whole lot easier with the lower strength and medium BAB.
Feats:
Regardless of how you build yourself, I do suggest the "Selective Channeling" feat. You may not heal a whole lot in combat, but the ability to catch nearly everybody in your group for your channel energy dice (ignoring your enemies, since they're normally caught in the burst) works wonders. It may only heal on average 17.5 hit points, but that's enough to bring up all your disabled allies in one round should you need it.
On the other hand I'm on the fence with extra channeling. I'm not sure the 17.5 damage is really worth you taking tons of channeling (unless you're going to go for evil and command undead in an undead heavy campaign).
I also always suggest combat casting. Casting in combat got a whole heck of a lot more difficult in Pathfinder, and there will always be times you're in the middle of your friends and need to cast while threatened. That +4 to concentration is HUGE when there's no skill to buff anymore.
Beyond that it all depends on your ability scores and how you're trying to present yourself (and I'm terrible myself with feat selections, so I'm going to leave this to the more experienced).
Domains:
Domains with the ranged touch attack are fantastic at low levels, but there reaches a point that the 1d6+4 points of damage isn't even worth your time. That time is most certainly before level 9. On the other hand you can't ignore their spell lists. Remember that your domains are your opportunity to gain access to spells you may not otherwise have, so I'd start focusing there and then move on to the special abilities (I see the special abilities as the icing on the cake, not the cake itself).
I personally am a fan of the following: Charm (for constantly growing-DC charm person), Death (take with channel negative energy and the command undead feat and watch your mini-army grow), Good (I'm a sucker for holy weapons and prot from evil), Liberation (although the spells generally are on your list, that AoE burst to remove grapple is HUGE), Luck (spells are sub-par, but I'm a sucker for re-rolls), Madness (confusion aura with adjusting-DC, mass confusion, nightmare, oooh the potential for battlefield control!), protection (scaling resists, anti-magic shell, nice), Sun (if you're going to channel, this is the way to do it though I still think there are better choices), Travel (I'll be honest, 3/4 of the clerics I make have this domain, between fly, longstrider, fly, teleport and fly...and the dimension hop ability this is by far the best domain), and Trickery (a bunch mage-only abilities and spells).
Stuff and Things (Equipment)
I'm not as sold on the "don't buy magic armor or shield" comment made before. Magic Vestment is great, but losing magic protection is HUGE and since all your spells are dispellable, and I think you should be using them as combat buffs, not as your de-facto way to protect yourself (it stinks when that 10 minutes per level casting is up and you get surprised). On the other hand, magic weapon (or greater) can go a long way to making your weapon magical (again why I suggest a DEX build with a bow since 50 arrows can be enchanted that you can doll out to the rest of the party AND use yourself)
Stat increasing items are always a good idea especially on WIS (increase save DCs and provide more spells per day) and depending on your armor, DEX. As mentioned before, metamagic rods are pretty nice, as is the heward's handy haversack (good for pulling out that scroll or potion you need RIGHT NOW, which IMHO makes it better for spellcasters than a bag of holding). Make sure you have a happy stick or two (Cure Light Wound wands are THE way to heal up between fights).
Beyond that, just have fun!
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Feats:
Regardless of how you build yourself, I do suggest the "Selective Channeling" feat.I also always suggest combat casting.
Which really just begs the question, why are these two not cleric bonus feats to begin with? Pathfinder was souppossed to be getting rid of skill and feat "taxes".
:)
Selective Channeling? Yes, this feat is too big (especially at low levels).
Combat Casting? Not sold it needs to be built-in. Everybody gets concentration and can cast when concentrating. This IS just a bonus. A huge bonus, but a bonus.
Personally, I think healing is overrated and it's more efficient to end the fight earlier and take less damage. My preferred method, mainly because I'm playing one, is the negative energy channeling cleric. Sure, your enemies get a chance to save but if you boost the DC up enough, they won't do it often. If you want to talk about pure damage per round, I would say that you aren't going to find a PF core character that can top this as long as your DM averages around four enemies or more per encounter.
Here's a link of a suggestion I made for somebody else recently.
Pathfinder has changes this. You need Proficiency with the original Armor type even with Mithral. So you need to have Heavy Armor Proficiency for Mithral Full Plate, not Medium Armor. I would avoid it in general, anyway, and try to keep your touch AC higher too by going with Dex based bumps.Forget Heavy armour proficieny and just get mithral full plate
There is one notable exception to this rule, not of much help to clerics but worth mentioning nonetheless. Elven Chain is treated as light armor in all ways, including dertermining proficiency.
Just my two cents, as I am currently playing a cleric.
Abilities - Wis, Dex, and Cha or Int are going to be the best ones to focus on. As for Cha or Int, it depends on whether you want to go the face of the party route or skill based knowledge monkey route for out of combat; both seem to be roles that are currently not filled in the party, although I would check with the sorcerer to see what he has planned as far as those functions are concerned.
Healing is a role that all clerics do, and my personal experience is that relying on in combat healing on a routine basis is not the best tactic available; going anti-mage with buffing as needed is a far better route.
Feats - so many options and it all comes down to what you select for your domains. Selective channeling and combat casting are nice, and I am playing a buffing cleric, but I have neither and haven't really missed either of them that much. While the selective channeling would be nice at times, like I said above, relying on in combat healing is not a tactic that I care for; also, the 13 Cha requirement for that feat is something to watch.
Domains - Protection definitely; for the second one, Magic, Liberation, Knowledge, Luck, or Healing could all be useful for the above mentioned build. While I personally like Travel like several other posters, I'm not sure it is the best for what you are looking to build; that said, it is a solid domain that can be used effectively by any cleric.
There is one notable exception to this rule, not of much help to clerics but worth mentioning nonetheless. Elven Chain is treated as light armor in all ways, including dertermining proficiency.Pathfinder has changes this. You need Proficiency with the original Armor type even with Mithral. So you need to have Heavy Armor Proficiency for Mithral Full Plate, not Medium Armor. I would avoid it in general, anyway, and try to keep your touch AC higher too by going with Dex based bumps.Forget Heavy armour proficieny and just get mithral full plate
So is celestial armor.
If your DM is letting you take alternate races... look up the Aasimar in the Bestiary. Dynamite stat bonuses for a cleric and shouldn't require any Level Adjustment fiddling if your DM is an old 3.5 player.
If you think you are going to do any healing during combat with channel positive energy then selective channel is a MUST.
The other thing I would mention is
Phylactery of Positive Channeling Slot
headband; Price 11,000 gp; Weight —
Description
This item allows channelers of positive energy to increase the amount of damage dealt to undead creatures by +2d6. This also increases the amount of damage healed by living creatures.
I seem to be a bit of a rarity, but tactics is also not my groups strong point. I do a LOT of healing in combat and between the two with and extra channel thrown in works really really well.
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Trait: Dangerously Curious (+1 UMD + class skill)
Trait: Desert Shadow (no penalty full speed stealth)
-James
AKA, 2 Levels of Rogue.
>< grrrrr. wish i had known about these traits, when playing my rogue through SD.
OT:
Cleric + Sun Domain + Extra Channeling has been keeping my melee heavy CoT group running. That he has a blasty Mcguffin, helps, but the healing still plays a significant combat role.
Your spells, as has been suggested should likely start with Remove xxx at every level it's important. High level play includes controlling the weather, causing earthquakes, and the like, so that's always fun.
-t