Help me with details for my PFS Dhampyr cleric of Urgathoa

[Chris Mortika]

Yeah, I was at GenCon, and yeah, I was lucky enough to get the Gravetouched boon, and I wanted to (a) test-drive the race, and (b) show it off to some of the locals at our game day, to garner interest in the Advanced Races Guide. With GM-credit, he's coming in at 3rd level.

So, a couple of comments and questions:

C1) Designing a dhampyr PC is certainly doable, but the lack of racial traits, racial alternative class options, and alternative racial traits (from APG) make me feel like I'm back in Season 1.

C2) I'm probably not catching the trick to the Oracle class. I tried building the character as an Oracle of Bones, but it never gelled into an effective character.

Q1) Is a dhampyr's skin pale, like vampires, or coal-black, like the illustration in Bestiary II? I swear, that illustration looks like Drizzt.

Q2) I've never gotten around to playing a cleric in 3rd Edition, let alone Pathfinder, although I've certainly run my share of them as Pathfinder Society villains. (It seemed for a while there that every final encounter was with a cleric of some evil outsider or another.) I'll take all the advice you can muster on how to play the character (a) to the benefit of the party as a whole, and (b) so that I have fun.

[EDWARD DEANGELIS]

I would say they might be a bit pale looking I think the pic from the book might be an actual drow dhampyr.

As for the cleric thing, it might be kinda cool to do the selective channeling combo and do negative energy. Be a more damage based cleric, but on the bonus side when you inflict damage, don't exclude yourself from the effect and it will heal you, while harming others.

[Deussu]

Hmm, an evil cleric sounds like a PFS character a friend here made. An ex-cultist, turned from evil to good (or neutral), channels negative (selectively) and wishes to burn everything (formerly a cultist of Moloch).

The difference is the cultist now asks for burnination rather than just burninate...

But yeah, evil clerics are good when they concentrate on what they are good at; damaging with selective channeling. This does, of course, mean the character needs a very high charisma (18 minimum) and even then a full table of PCs or extra animal companions will suffer a bad fate.

Of course I'd find a dhampyr paladin funny. So contradicting!

[Krome]

I play a negative channeling cleric of Asmodeus in Society. Eagle's Splendor is your friend! :)

Variable Channeling is a great choice for this as well.

A Cleric of Gorum, with Variable Channeling, would be great fun.

A Dhampyr Cleric or Inquisitor or Paladin of Saranrae who hunts undead would be fun.

A Dhampyr Sorcerer or Witch who hasn't chosen a "side" yet (that is neutral but tempted by both good and evil) would be great fun.

A new race to play with offers all kinds of new character concepts to play with. You don't need all those mechanics to make a character playable. Alternate race traits and options are nice, but really, so insignificant I looked at them once and never bothered to look again.

Clerics are THE BOMB dude. Built in flavor out the A$$! Pick two domains... why those two... how do they affect his behavior... play with or against the obvious options of your choices... orthodox or heretic... did the god choose him, or did he choose the god... if the god chose him how does he feel about this if say he wanted to be a Fighter but is now a toady for a deity... now pick your spells! why those spells? Just for combat effectiveness? Min-Maxing or is there some character to the choices? Why those skills? Why those feats? How do they relate to his deity? DO they relate to his deity and why?

In Society I play a Cleric of Asmodeus. The character is an Ulfen from Land of the Linnorn Kings. He grew up the son of a local jarl and dreamed of someday being a great Barbarian raging against a linnorn and doing battle against the beast and ruling his harskarls with power and strength... but Asmodeus had other ideas... he implanted these concepts of law and order in the character while he lived in a land of chaos... he filled him with a touch of control and magic and robbed him of his fury and strength... he led him south to be a great emissary to Cheliax...

But Starkard refused to be manipulated so completely. He turned his back on the cruelty of Cheliax, and on the barbarism of the north. He focuses on the nature of fire and magic, the interactions of law and chaos represented by those two domains. Without the one the other doesn't exist. Two sides of the same coin. So instead of following in the role his deity had chosen for him, Starkard decided to forge his own future. He chose to work with the Pathfinders to uncover ancient lore, to explore the natures of chaos and law, to refine his "unmanly" magic into instruments of deadly combat. He refuses to be evil, but the good are too weak to endure.

Skill choices... 1 rank in Perform (Last Rites)... come on it's just so COOL! Useless sure, but cool non-the-less! BTW this same concept would be so awesome with a Sin Eater Inquisitor... probably my next Society character... not sure which deity yet... but something I can play against... Asmodeus works well, you see... working against the deity in a way... denying him the sinful souls by consuming their sins... awesome fun!

[Doctor Smite]

Just be fair warned that Urgathoa is going to be a challenge. She is an evil deity and as a goddess of undead and diseases her minions are occasionally your enemies in a module.

That aside I have a friend playing the Deathlord Archetype and he worships Urgathoa and uses his negative energy to great effect. He is not a primary healer and is significantly hampered in his abilities when he has to act as one. When he does have to heal he makes good use of his undeath sub-domain ability to make us respond as undead to his negative energy channeling. He also often finds it difficult when playing with people who do not respect his characters religious views. Some of whom are his friends as we often accidently kill some of his minions. He has hard a hard time at several tables with peoples expectations of what a cleric does.

He only wears light armor and is more of a caster than a Channel Smiter. Moving 30ft each round helps him avoid people he can't safely selectively channel around. He has spell focus Necromany and Gspell focus Necromany, selective channel, improved channel and extra channel as his feats.

I also have a 11th level Cleric of Gorum who channels Negative Energy. I have an effective Charisma of 20 (Rod of splendor) so I can exclude 5 people. However, Extra people or Animal Companions often suffer. Dr Smite does not make apologies often, but I as a player do so ahead of time. I just took Versatile Channeler at 11th but I have not had the chance to use it quite yet. I have often run into people being very disappointed that I’m a negative energy cleric and I that I actually role-play Gorum’s religion. Since that happened I started telling musterers that I’m a fighter with an ability to use a cure light wands or a dps caster ;) I do take one cure spell at nearly every level just in case it is needed. I even pack a Heal if I have a low ac barbarian along.

I love my phylactery of negative channeling. I highly recommend it over a headband of wisdom or charisma. Invest in an ioun Stone for a +2 wisdom and a Rod of splendor for a +4 Charisma bonus item. While this is pricier than some options I have found it extremely effective.

I went with power attack, Channel smite, Heavy Armor, selective channeling, extra channeling, Improved Channel and versitle channel I think. It has been a bit since I played him.

[TarkXT]

Doctor Smite wrote:

Just be fair warned that Urgathoa is going to be a challenge. She is an evil deity and as a goddess of undead and diseases her minions are occasionally your enemies in a module.

The nice thing about most of the evil gods in Golarion is that they do have sides to them that work for good guys.

Urgathoa for example is not a goddess of death, not truly, she does not require you to die. She requires you to live, andf continue to live, and enjoy life long after Pharasma worked her casual cruelty on your body. She's a goddess that teaches that life is worth living and that you don't ahve to be a puppet to fate's uncaring design.

You could believe that such a thing has to be by a persons choice, as only those with much to live for will appreciate an existence in undeath.

[Tharg The Pirate King]

You want some non evil idea, play an Oracale with the Mystery from Pathfinder #39 Serpents Skull City of Seven Spears

JuJu Mystery. It removes the Evil Descriptor from all Necromancy Spells and then it allows you to create 6hd/level worth of undead per casting vs 4hd/level and it also creates the alternative JuJu zombies which for mindless are neutral alignment and the Inteligent Undead are same alignment of caster.

There are several other really fun features like having any creature under your spell effects that are mindcontrolling appearing to be undead zombies. and other fun effects.

[waytoomuchcoffee]

Tharg The Pirate King wrote:

You want some non evil idea, play an Oracale with the Mystery from Pathfinder #39 Serpents Skull City of Seven Spears

JuJu Mystery.

Unfortunately the OP requested PFS character advice, and the JuJu oracle is not PFS legal.

Chris if you do play a cleric of Urgathoa, remember that the Death domain is kick-ass for a negative channeler - at 8th level you start being healed by your channeled negative energy. Also look into the Sacred Conduit trait.

[TarkXT]

waytoomuchcoffee wrote:

Tharg The Pirate King wrote:

You want some non evil idea, play an Oracale with the Mystery from Pathfinder #39 Serpents Skull City of Seven Spears

JuJu Mystery.

Unfortunately the OP requested PFS character advice, and the JuJu oracle is not PFS legal.

Chris if you do play a cleric of Urgathoa, remember that the Death domain is kick-ass for a negative channeler - at 8th level you start being healed by your channeled negative energy. Also look into the Sacred Conduit trait.

This is hardly anything to worry about if he's playing a Dhampir.

[calagnar]

Dhampir
Cleric would not be my first choice for the race. Along with the limited spell list divine casters have. Oracle is a better fit for the race.

Cleric : Wis Spell DC, Cha Channel Energy DC,
With you needing both Wis and Cha. As a caster focusing on channel energy is fine at low level. It becomes less and less useful as you level. Any time after level 5 channel is nice extra healing but can not stay the focus of an effective character.

Oracle : Cha Spell DC
Playing to the strengths’ of the Dhampir race. Cha base caster with special powers is not a bad way to go. The only real choice is how to focus on your casting.

My top picks for Oracle Mystery.
Time : allows for large flex ability in your casting. Along with a lot of good revelations to back up your casting ability.
Wind : Same as time.
Fire : Good spell damage, but lacks utility of the other mystery.

If you have Inner Sea Magic, and it is PFS legal.
Mystery : Spellscar : With the combination of spell and revelations this is a very good casting base mystery.

[Chris Mortika]

waytoomuchcoffee wrote:

Chris if you do play a cleric of Urgathoa, remember that the Death domain is kick-ass for a negative channeler - at 8th level you start being healed by your channeled negative energy. Also look into the Sacred Conduit trait.

TarkXT wrote:

This is hardly anything to worry about if he's playing a Dhampir.

Exactly. I start out with negative energy affinity.

I really appreciate the advice. I am likely to move this character into the Undead Lord archetype, too. (I'm imagining that he has a pet animating spirit, which he places in different corpses as the needs of the situation require.)

[Chris Mortika]

Well, I played it this weekend, with three other folks who had been to GenCon. We had my Dhampyr cleric of Urgathoa (Undead Lord archetype), a Tiefling magus, a Tengu monk, and "Farmer Bob" the Half-orc ninja.

It was Monster Squad in Jalmeray. Which was ridiculous, but a lot of fun.

I suspect that we got a preview of what Pathfinder Society is going to look like in about 9 months.

[Trice the Traveler]

Chris Mortika wrote:

I'll take all the advice you can muster on how to play the character (a) to the benefit of the party as a whole, and (b) so that I have fun.

I played clerics quite a bit and I notice that the point where I have fun is when I put a lot character in the character. 2 skill points isn't a lot to play with but if you have it put it where you can get more out of the non combat situations. Diplomacy is great for that.

Play up your theme (domains) espouse your faith, oh and one other thing, some domain powers can give you a bit of an odd edge in the game. Do something unexpected can be fun too. (One cleric I played specialized in foresight and true seeing casting all the spells that gave him information about things (commune, planar ally, legend lore), I think there are spells that help your knowledge checks now too.)

When I played a halfling travel/luck domain in 3rd the character worshiped the God of Adventure it made the initial discussion of are you willing to help real easy.

I also liked the challenge, no one dies on my watch, (or is afraid or paralyzed or weak).

As that character advanced he decided he particularly hated outsiders to the point of putting together a Banishment kit.

Have your character look disapprovingly on any non healer that doesn't carry a wand of cure light wounds (free for 2 pp guys).

This also means fun spells can be cast more frequently and you don't have to spend your time healing.

Go to spells for 'Fun'
1. Magic Stone(esp against undead), Magic Weapon (don't forget Protection from Evil), Divine favor (if you like to swing in the front row)
2. Spiritual Weapon, align weapon, remove paralysis, Bulls Strength
3. Daylight, invis purge, dispel magic, vestments
4th OMG too many spells Freedom of Movement, Deathward, greater magic weapon, Dismissal, Air Walk, Blessing of Fervor (so much crack on that spell)
5 True Seeing, Flame Strike, Breath of Life, Dispel Evil/Chaos/Law
6 Breakfast, Heal, Greater Dispel, Banishment (same issue that 4th has too much to pick)
7 Here is where I am disappointed usually Summon Monster VII is the best and I also have used 7 to pick more 6th level spells (More Heal maybe even Harm) when I was learning I accidentally cast repulsion and it led to a near TPK, never took that spell again.
8 (I don't think we need to worry about 8, turns out you don't need to worry about 7th either . . . but one can hope)

Back in the day I would carry a wand for the spells that you go I hope I don't need this spell but if I do I would be sad that I didn't have it.

Remove Paralysis
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Lesser Restoration Restoration
Remove Fear

Though I had craft wand which meant they were roughly half off I think, but that's not allowed either, scrolls and potions would work (esp potions of lesser restore because they are faster than 3 rounds)

That's about all. Off to throw some monsters at some over powered 16th level characters