So, I have the opportunity to play a high level character, and I ended up choosing to play a cleric. Mulling through concepts, I settled on a battle cleric of Gorum.
My problem is, I'm not entirely sure how to make one. I've got some of the basics figured out, but I'm torn on where to go with certain directions. I've read through a couple guides, but I'm still not sure.
The build rules are level 15, 28 point buy, two traits, any official Pathfinder material. 240,000 gold, but if I have an item creation feat I can save 30k gold for that type of item. My character concept is pretty much settled on a human born to crusaders in Mendev, so he grew up fighting demons from the Worldwound.
For the mechanical stuff, I know that Power Attack is important, heavy armor is a good thing and fitting for a Gorumite, and that maxing Strength and my hit is important.
But I'm not quite sure of stuff like domains, ideal stat spreads, any other feat chains to pursue, etc. I'm pretty much the only divine character in the group (beyond the multiclassed rogue/paladin), so being able to heal in a pinch is nice.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
What's the rest of the group look like?
Diviner wizard, transmuter wizard/fighter/eldritch knight, knife master rogue, rogue/paladin, barbarian, and ranged Grenadier alchemist. All but the diviner are human.
I'd also look into taking create reliquary arms and shields from UM so you can make your greatsword your holy focus.
Why do that? I mean except fluff reasons.
As you got five other people in the group that would love inspire courage, I would advice you to check upon the Evangelist archetype, as I could not see a better addition to that group, tho if you are going a battle build, you might want to take a level fighter to offset that you lose your medium armor prof with that archetype, and in that way even get heavy armor prof for free. The only healing spell that is useful in a clutch lategame is heal, the rest are so action inefficent it is not even fun, and you do not even get heal as spontaneous casting so I woul'nt say you miss out of that much healing swapping out the cure line for some enhancement spells.
I was looking at a Theologian of Blood follower of Gorum. Grab preferred spell Vampiric Touch. When you are forced to move, run up and gain some extra hp's from enemies. You get to add wall of thorns to your spell list for some nice control, create Focused Spell Blade Barriers, all kinds of face smashing stuff.
The crusader is a solid idea get heavy armor proficiency as a bonus feat get Weapon Focus early. I'd use it to bounce into Holy Vindicator at 9th.
As far as feats go focus on the power attack line and see about the various assault feats. Then think about snatching versatile channeler (either positive or negative depending on whether youd rather heal more or hurt more) and get into holy vindicator.
With appropriate buffs, channeling, power attack, feats, and destruction domain you will hit very very hard.
It's also quite possible to ignore crusader entirely and grab the chaos or protean domains. Sometimes disrupting an opponents rolls (particularly with wizards about) is more important then the damage you can be doing. Plus if there are plenty of lawful foes you can take advantage of the chaos domains 8th level power.
Of course if this were me with such a group I'd be an evangelist.
Anyway hope this helps.
Crusader was tempting, but I was worried about gimping my spellcasting and losing a domain. Evangelist has nice buffs, but really doesn't fit my mental concept of the character. I'd contemplated either Holy Vindicator or Divine Scion, but I was worried about losing spellcasting for Vindicator or Channel Energy and some BAB for Scion.
As the sole divine caster, I'm trying to be sure I can provide for the parties divine needs, even if I'm not specialized in it. Though I'm not sure if there's any good divine spells that really matter that our wizard couldn't pull off equivalent results with.
The War domain seems perfectly fitting from a roleplaying perspective, and I had considered taking a few basic prerequisite feats (like Combat Expertise and Improved Unarmed Strike) to make the most of the domain power, but the fact that it's a standard action to use means it's almost never going to be worth it.
I was looking at Ferocity and Rage as potential domains for lots of smitey goodness, though I'm not sure what rage powers would be useful. Moment of Clarity, perhaps? The GM says I can use the domain to qualify for rage-based feats, which got me thinking about the one that lets me maximize vital strike damage, or the one that allows me to add my Con to damage rolls.
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I played a Cleric of Gorum through about half of Second Darkness before the GM had to quit. He began as a Half-Orc barbarian who "saw a vision" after a night of heavy drinking and brawling and became convinced he was Gorum's avatar.
These aren't so much build ideas, but some things I thought made sense for my cleric:
* No debuff or penalizing spells or attacks. I wouldn't use any spells or items that would weaken my opponents. Sundering weapons and armor was okay because it showed the character's strength and superiority, but I felt poisons and stuff like Hold Person were cheap, underhanded and unvaliant.
* Personal buffing spells over overt attack magic. My slots were filled with things like Bull's Strength, Magic Vestment and Align Weapon. I figured it made more sense to use magic that made my cleric a more powerful melee warrior than spells like Spiritual Weapon, Summon Monster or Sound Burst because those things either relied on external forces or sending others to do my dirty work.
* Heal the bad guys. I frequently stabilized or outright healed enemies if I felt they fought a good fight. Gorum likes it when a warrior lives to cause more conflict later.
* Don't heal the good guys. On the reverse, I often refused to heal my own allies if I felt they had shown cowardice or if they resorted to tactics I wouldn't use. I also rarely selected things like Neutralize Poison or Remove Disease because the cleric figured a creature that can't survive a fight with "the sniffles" isn't worth
Gorum's blessings.
* Be mighty. This just meant intimidating or inspiring my allies or enemies with feats of strength, valor or madness. My cleric ended up becoming the leader of the group because I played him to be confident, headstrong and a little bit crazy. When an orca dragged our Magus underwater, I dove in after it, grappled and punched it death with my spiked gauntlets.
I figure if you know how you'll play a character, it helps you figure out how to build the character so I hope this helps.
I was sort of imagining him as a juggernaut on the battlefield. Adamantine full plate and a really big sword can make for a durable foe. There's a feat from Faiths of Balance that allows me to deal damage with my armor spikes if I successfully bull rush or overrun somebody, so I was thinking of going along those lines.
To that end, perhaps taking the Rage subdomain for something like Strength Surge? I'd still get the Destructive Smite ability, which is nice. If I coupled it with Ferocity, I'd have even more options for smitey goodness.
Cornugon Smash is also a potentially effective route, slapping the shaken debuff on enemies as I smack them around, though without having a high Charisma I'm not sure how often it'd actually work.
HV has a lot of potent buffs in the class.
I'd either go with Versatile Channeler and Quicken Channel.
Be a Valour Alt Channeler (from UM)
Your 'heal' channel will buff your party AC, Charge Attacks (especially the Barb, if he's a Pouncer) and grant fear re-rolls.
Your 'harm' works normal. So your could channel twice in a round to harm your enemies for 24d6 that won't hit allies or cost a spell. (Phalactary)
Glory (Heroism) Domain will give you 8RDS of a swift action heroic aura, to buff everybody AND grant +2 to channel DC (there is a trait for another +1).
Destruction domain gives you the Destructive Smite power and Aura of destruction, which is MEGA AWESOME for Party vs 1BBEG fights, due to action economy.
HV has awesome channel goodness and will give you that heavy armor you want.
I'm worried about losing spellcasting. Frightful Aspect is a fantastic 8th level spell, but one I wouldn't get if I dipped into HV.
The channel focus also requires an investment in Charisma, which is tricky considering I also have to invest in Strength, Con, Wisdom, and Dexterity in order to remain defensively viable rather than a glass cannon. Even with the relatively high point buy, being MAD can still be an issue.
The phylactery also takes up a headband slot, the same slot as the Headband of Wisdom, so I couldn't have both unless I spent actual build points on Wisdom, worsening the MAD significantly.
The bleed damage of the Stigmata worries me a tad, as it can add up to a lot of damage and I'm already working with a d8 hit dice, and leaving core cleric means I lose my favored class bonus. A PrC also doesn't advance domain powers :/
I'm trying to stick as much to core cleric as I can, to fill the parties divine needs while still being a competent front liner. Thank you for all your suggestions, though, and I'd still like to hear any more thoughts.
I'd thought about Crusader, but Legion's Blessing is frankly crap, and losing the spellcasting might hurt.
Mendevian priest fits well enough from an RP standpoint, but is it worth losing a domain? So far the domains I've got in mind are Rage and Ferocity (for 14 smites a day). If I went with it, which one should I drop? The bonus feats are somewhat lacking, though I would save a feat on armor proficiency. The fact that Alignment Channel is on the list means I could use it as an easy way into HV if I decided to go with that.
The downside to teamwork feats is that they require other people to take them, and from what I've seen of the builds of the other characters, they're fairly feat-strapped.
Alignment Channel and Leadership are decent, though. And UC has the improved Channel Smite. Coupled with a Grayflame weapon, I could turn my channeling into a good offensive tool.
You could also go Full Cleric with Rage as your main domain, still gets destructive smite-Drop a quickened Divine Power or righteous might then rage, with reckless abandon and you kick a$$.
War domain for earlier feat access (Dazing assault)
or
Blood- Cause adding wounding to your weapon is cool.
or
Glory (heroism) for the swift action heroic aura AND +2Channel (+1trait)
with Valor alt channel (buffs allies when heal or harm enemies via versatile channeler, selective channel- you only need 2feats for that and mediocre CHA since the domain and trait buff your dc), although the standard divine presence power is ok too.
Your weapon should be a Furious, Greymantle weapon.
Dropping a Channel Smite on it while raging will add +3 to your weapon.
I had a similar cleric who had a to hit of about +40 when rage+reckless+divine power was up.
Pretty decent full attack for a cleric.
Heroism isn't a domain available to Gorum. Glory is, but not that particular subdomain.
I was contemplating Blood, particularly if I did decide to go with Holy Vindicator, since it fits for thematic reasons. Blood also gets Vampiric Touch as a domain spell, making it a good candidate for a spell storing weapon.
I wish Glory was better, but it's too...good themed and situational. Otherwise, I'd be all for saying that I have a 'cleric of Blood and Glory'. Touch of Glory is just crap.
Rage+Ferocity does equal a whole lot of smiting, which is nice. I might change around a few things and stop neglecting channeling so much, since it has the potential for a good bit of damage.
In a single hit, I could hit with the greatsword +8d6 channel +smite +discharge a Harm for a hell of a lot of damage if I need to nova something. And since they target Will, even with my mediocre Wisdom, I should be able to land it on most brutish enemies.