Cleric in a low magic world...

[jlord]

Never played in a low magic campaign and I am actually a bit excited. Magic is really rare, and thus if I am too open with my magic it could cause problems if npcs start to find out. So any good advice on how to keep the magic on the down low and how to play a cleric in a low magic campaign? Big 6 magic items are out, replaced with some sort of power up per level system. Other magic items will be rare and nearly impossible to buy. Making magic items is possible, but getting the money towards it will be challenging without the magical loot to sell. The party is me, a sword and board fighter, a bard archeologist and a barbarian.

Here is the stats for the character. We have not started the game yet so I can probably make some changes if need be.

Human Cleric of Sarenrae (Merciful Healer)
Stats (heroic array)
Str 13
Dex 12
Con 10
Int 8
Wis 16
Char 15

Feats: Selective Channeling, Toughness

1 skill ranks into heal and sense motive
Domain Healing

Equipment:
Scale mail
Buckler
Scimitar
Hvy Mace
Sling

Took the missionary trait (Doom, Divine Favor, and Command) and the Sarenrae feat that deals 2 fire damage on crits.

Any Advice or feedback would be appreciated.

[Helaman]

Nicely done character... If it were me? I'd drop Cha to 14 and up Con to 12.

If its low magic, you can expect to see a fair swack of standard battle and a decent Fort save AND hitpoints (above and beyond toughness) will help. There should be circumstances when you cant use magic in such games and you need to be prepared for that.

Pity about skills but you can't do much about that - clerics aren't made to be skill monkeys. Nice traits.

[Lightbulb]

Hidden Priest would help at level 8 (Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Magic - so not core).

However you are a priest. You do not cast spells, you perform miracles. You just need to use Diplomacy to convince people of this.

Consider you are a Missionary: Lots of converts to your religion when you show the power of your god.

Also in a low magic world no one will have Knowledge: Arcana or spellcraft so how will they know what you are doing?

I would say so long as you are using your powers to help/heal people you should be ok.

However it totally depends on how or why magic is low. If it an oppressive state that bans magic and stamps on transgressors it will be different to a land where people call all magic users witches and try to burn them.

[jlord]

Stats were heroic array, not point buy. (15,14,13,12,10,8) So I wouldn't be able to make that Cha and Con adjustment.

Both of you make good points, maybe I will adjust one of my skill points to Diplomacy.

Magic is rare, I am not sure how it will be reacted. The DM said that if I start healing people, I might be swarmed by people to heal their sick, as one example. It will probably depend on the situation and the spell cast what the reaction will be.

[Lightbulb]

Well your character was born in the world right? He would know surely?

[Secane]

Well, if you can't heal people, then just grab spells, like Magic weapon and Sun metal. They target your allies weapons and you can RP it as a sign of Divine Favor.

2nd observation is that your fellow player choose to play a bard archeologist. This is both good and bad. Good, as it means your party can handle traps. Bad, as a normal bard can hide his magic quite easily, but not so for a bard archeologist.
This also means you are the main "buffer" for the party, so just restrict your spells to "prayer" like spells like bless and shield of faith and you will be fine.

On skills, I would suggest Knowledge Religion over Sense Motive for RP reasons.
As a normal Cleric/priest of any religion you should know your religion well. It may not be in dept, but you should know most things. You have no excuse not to know...

Finally, is there a good reason why you only have 1 domain? Cos... a 2nd domain would help you a lot! (Many Domain powers are buffs that you can RP as "blessing" an ally, like the luck or good domain's lv 1 powers.)

[Benicio Del Espada]

For skills, you started fine. At 2/level, you don't have many to throw around. If you have any PCs who can take up the knowledge slack, good. If not, religion should get a point in a level or 2.

I'm a fan of putting at least a point into most of your skills as you progress. I'd keep putting points in heal for 3-5 levels (it comes in handy, especially in a low-magic setting), and adding a point in a new skill each level. You never know what may come up, and the guy with a +12 to sense motive can still fail his roll while you make it with a +4.