17th level holy word spammer help?

[Andy Ferguson]

Our group is going to run the Witchwar Legacy as sort of a one shot, and I really liked the idea of a high level divine caster who breaks his enemies with the power of his divine glory. So I looked to optimize holy word, and this is what I've come up with.

Stats (rolled by the GM)

Str 11
Dex 15
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 17 (32)
Cha 16

I'm thinking all level ups in Wisdom, +6 stat item, GM wants us to be middle aged, and with a +2 tome I'll have a 32 wisdom which will grant two additional 7th level spells.

Feats
1 Spell Focus (evocation)
3 GSF (evocation)
5 Varsian Tattoo (evocation)
7 Reach Spell
9 Quicken Spell
11 Persistent Spell
13 Spell Specialization (I figure he hits middle age at that point)
15 Spell Perfection (holy word - Persistent)
17 ???

Traits Gifted Adept (magic trait, +1 caster level for Holy Word)

I dunno what I want at 17 for a feat, and human as race seems like the best bet, so really I have two more feats if I want them.

Gear
Orange Ioun Stone
Couple of Karma Prayer Beads
Glove of storing with a permanent Symbol of Vulnerability
+2 tome of Wisdom

If I can pop a karma bead before I use Holy Word I'll be at caster level 29 (17 base +1 Ioun +1 trait +4 bead +6 doubled feats) with a persistent save DC of 31 (10 base +7 spell + 11 stat +4 GSF doubled). I can as a free action bring out the Symbol of Vulnerability, which will effectively raise my DC by 4 more, and give a effective 33 for beating SR (which should be pretty solid for beating SR, though I've thought about grabbing spell penetration)

I'm kind of open on God's, Desna is always a good choice, and the idea of a guy who worships a butterfly destroying cities of evil folk kinda makes me giggle.

Is there anything I'm missing as far as raising my caster level?

Are there any feats or items that buff up Good descriptor spells?

A lot of things are immune to paralysis and blindness, is there any way to get around that?

Is there a reason to not go human?

Are there some standout feats I'm missing?

I understand I'm skipping much thought into the roleplay aspects of this character and making choices based solely on mechanics, but seeing as it's a one shot(and likely combat heavy), I'm not getting into the thoughts and feelings of the character.

[DreamAtelier]

I would recommend not grabbing Gifted Adept, but instead taking Magical Lineage (Holy Word). This will reduce the effective CL of your casting by 1, but allow you to apply a whole lot more metamagic to the spell, since the final level of any metamagic applied is reduced by one.

Thusly, you'll actually be able to use more versions of it over the course of a day.

I'd also recommend abandoning Reach Spell and instead getting Heighten spell. Partly because of the abusive way that you can now cast all your Holy Words as though they're 8th, 9th, and 10th level spells, while only using 7th, 8th, and 9th level slots.

If you do get Heighten (either by doing this, or any other thing you might do to grab it), I'd suggest spending your spare feat on Preferred Spell (Holy Word). By doing this, you'll effectively be able to spontaneously cast Holy Word like it is a cure spell, and even apply metamagic to spontaneously cast version WITHOUT adjusting casting time.

[Andy Ferguson]

I took Gifted Adept instead of Magical Lineage because caster level is king in regards to Holy Word. Also Magical Lineage and Heighten Spell cancel each other out. Magical Lineage lowers the actual spell level by one, which is what the save DC is based upon.

Spell Perfection allows me to apply Persistent to Holy Word while still leaving it as a 7th level spell. I don't know that there are a lot of other metamagic feats that I want to apply to it. Magical Lineage could allow me to apply Widen Spell instead of Persistent, but I don't think we are going to fight huge armies of mooks, I'm assuming we might be fighting groups of relatively tough individuals where persistent will help out more.

I can grab Spell Specialization Greater with one of the free feat slots if I want to cast Holy Word spontaneously, which I am leaning towards. It's basically the same as Preferred Spell. I do think casting it spontaneously would be nice.

[DreamAtelier]

The other thought that crosses my mind is that you might want to think about the rest of your party. I'm not entirely sure what their alignments are, but any neutrals might be hit by the spell every time you cast it.

Selective Spell might be another feat you want to consider, therefore (and would again go back to the Magical Lineage being useful, since it would essentially be free).

Also, I admit that looking more closely, your reading of the Heighten and ML trait is probably closer to RAI than mine.

[Andy Ferguson]

I'm mentioned at our last game session that if everyone agreed to play good aligned characters, I would play the cleric. So they know that they have to be good, otherwise you are right, selective would be mandatory.

[SirGeshko]

If you're planning on relying on Holy Word, consider swapping Wisdom and Charisma and playing an Oracle.
At 17th level, you lose out on 9th level spells, but cast eight (8) 7th level spells per day (6+2 high Cha) as opposed to 5+domain. If I'm not mistaken, Heavens mystery grants free metamagic, as do some others that escape me at the moment.

[Andy Ferguson]

I've thought about Oracle, I'm just not sure a few more castings of Holy Word is better then access to Miracle though. I'm fairly sure we aren't going to level with these characters.

I've not seen any oracle mysteries that pump up the caster level or free metamagic.

[SirGeshko]

Andy Ferguson wrote:

I've thought about Oracle, I'm just not sure a few more castings of Holy Word is better then access to Miracle though. I'm fairly sure we aren't going to level with these characters.

I've not seen any oracle mysteries that pump up the caster level or free metamagic.

Miracle is pretty amazing.

d20pfsrd, Heavens Mystery wrote:

Guiding Star (Su): Whenever you can see the open sky at night, you can determine your precise location. When the night sky is visible to you, you may also add your Charisma modifier to your Wisdom modifier on all Wisdom-based checks. In addition, once per night while outdoors, you can cast one spell as if it were modified by the Empower Spell, Extend Spell, Silent Spell, or Still Spell feat without increasing the spell’s casting time or level.

Flame, Stone, Waves, and Wind get a similar ability as their capstone, usable all day, but can only apply the metamagic to their associated elemental damage type.

Granted, Extend and Silent Spell would not be useful in this instance, but increasing the duration of the deafness, blindness, paralysis, and the damage on a successful save by 50% through Empower is nice.
Silent spell would allow you to cast while bound and gagged, and has the nifty thematic effect of not originating from you. Instead being a booming voice from the heavens or telepathic shout. ^_^

[Andy Ferguson]

Wow, heavens oracle does look pretty attractive with Guiding Star. I end up being nocturnal, but whatever.

Silent spell would be amusing, playing a deaf oracle who uses Holy Word would be fun. Dual Cursed would allow you to force a boss to roll three times against Holy Word, which would be cool.

[Argus The Slayer]

Andy Ferguson wrote:

I really liked the idea of a high level divine caster who breaks his enemies with the power of his divine glory.

We've been seeing dedicated Holy Word builds since the beginning of 3.5. In this case your cleric can paralyze, blind and deafen monsters that are up to three levels higher than you are (w/o the Karma bead) with a ridiculously high save DC.

Not to be an arse, but I would suggest checking your build with your DM. Your don't-have-to-level, built-for-holy-word "character" is likely to make the whole adventure extremely boring for your fellow players -- and very frustrating for your DM. Or maybe you could ask the DM if you could solo the adventure, and just bring your friends in for the final fight.
;)