I am currently in an Eberron/Pathfinder campaign, and it's possible that we will soon have too many gish characters. Two new players just joined as a Bard 7 and a Ranger 2/Witch 5, and another player wants to ditch his current character to play a vanilla Magus. I am a Fighter 2/Sorcerer 3/Dragon Disciple 2. The only other player left is a Rogue. I fear that we will be stepping on each others toes because we will basically all be filling the same role, just as different builds.
Right now we only have a NPC healbot, so I decided that I would be a Cleric when the other player becomes a Magus. Our GM would rather one of us be the party healer anyway. I don't want to dedicate myself to healing, though. I'd rather be a battle Cleric. I figure that between me and the Bard, we could heal well enough together.
Another thread (forgot which one) inspired me to see how quickly I could qualify for the Dimensional feats from UC. It seems that a Cleric with the Travel domain and the Theologian archetype is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this, and get the most uses of it per day right away. I get Dimension Door as a domain spell at 7th level and can prepare it using my normal spell slots.
I've seen someone play a Cleric, but have never actually played one myself. I'm not sure how to make the most out of what I've got. He worships the Traveler, so his favored weapon is scimitar. We roll our stats, and I rolled well enough with 11, 11, 14, 14, 15, 18. He would be an 8th level human with the starting wealth of 23,500gp. This is all I have for feats so far:
1st: Selective Channeling and ???
3rd: ???
5th: ???
7th: Dimensional Agility
I would take the rest of the Dimensional feats right after Dimensional Agility, excluding Dimensional Maneuvers. That takes up the 9th, 11th, and 13th level feat slots. I thought Weapon Focus (scimitar) and Power Attack were obvious choices. I would like to be decent in melee to serve the Dimensional feats well, but also not suck at channeling. Any thoughts?
*BUMP*
Please to help? I'm not so good with prepared divine spellcasters.
Here's an option:
Human Theologian 8
Domain: Travel
Stats:
Str: 20 (18 + 2 racial)
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 11
Wis: 17 (15 + 2 levels)
Cha: 11
Feats:
1 - Improved Initiative, Scribe Scroll
3 - Power Attack
5 - Furious Focus
7 - Dimensional Agility
Use your channeling (and scrolls for more obscure ailments) to heal people after combat. During combat, focus on helping the group by killing your enemies faster!
I'd recomend Preferred Spell over theologian for repeated dimension doors. It's far more flexible.
On the healing thing -- don't try to cure damage except if necessary) -- arrange things so as to prevent the damage in the first place.
Resist energy, prayer, and a couple of other basic defensive buffs while make a lot larger difference than you would expect at first. Regular use of divination spells, assuming you have a GM you can work with, will also help the party by letting them prepare for what they're dealing with. (Scouting in general is a neglected art; people just try to bull through encounters and then heal up afterwards. Find stuff out -- clerics are very good at this with Sense Motive, Diplomacy, and quite a few useful spells -- and then memorize the spells that will help in the situation you need.)
Aid and similar spells can give players a nice cushion of temporary hit points (they fall down less in the first place, meaning you're less diverted from attacking by providing healing, meaning you can attack, meaning enemies die faster, meaning there's less need for healing all around).
While not wizards, clerics have some very useful debuff spells (particularly blindness/deafness, sound burst, and silence, all low-level spells that are very handy; hold person and hold monster can easily turn the tide of battle too.)
For feats, you need to decide what you're focusing on. The Dimensional tree suggests that you're planning to be a battle cleric rather than a total buffbot, so consider the following:
Improved Initiative (buffing or attacking always goes better when you move first)
Scribe Scroll (works very nicely with your HUGE list of available spells, you can always have those "wouldn't it be nice once in a blue moon" spells available that you never memorize but need very badly when you need them) -- also cheaper than buying scrolls
Power Attack/Furious Focus -- great if you're doing melee attacking yourself, not so much so otherwise -- and since you have so many melee types in the party, consider if making _them_ more effective might be a better use of your actions
Extend Spell (great for many long-duration buffs)
Ignore the channelling feats. Mostly you use channelling after combat or when a lot of PCs are damaged (one channel heals 4-5X more hp if it affects 5 people than if it affects only 1 -- if only one guy is injured use a cure spell).
Combat Casting - very handy if you're going to be throwing spells around in combat, which you might be doing a lot of; or as an alternative:
Reach Spell -- use to spontaneously cast cure spells on people you can't quite get to stand besides.
I'd recomend Preferred Spell over theologian for repeated dimension doors. It's far more flexible.
This. Theologian's are good for blasty types.
With so many melee types in the group? I'd go Evangelist.
I would prbably go feat wise something like.
1 Heighten Spell
1 Improved Initiative or Extend Spell
3 Power Attack
5
7 Preferred Spell (Dimension Door)
9 Dimensional Agility
11 Dimensional Assault
13 Dimensional Dervish
15 Discordant Voice
17 Quicken Spell
You can still heal and you can still channel energy after a time. But you can also fight and wield a two handed weapon. More than that you can stay fairly good support for your mostly melee group.
Thanks for the advice so far, guys. I'm going to stick with Theologian as it better fits my character and is still able to spontaneously cast cure spells. However, if I go the vanilla Cleric route, I could pick up Trickery as a second domain from his deity. I just won't have as much access to dimension door if I do that.
Preferred Spell might be good for me after the Dimension feats when I have nothing better planned. Metamagic feats and I don't really get along (I never, ever use them), but it's still a good idea. Reach Spell is also a good idea for cures, but then I'd have to prepare cures and I don't want to dedicate myself that much to healing. Spontaneous cures only, really.
One thing you all put down is Improved Initiative. I'll go with that for now, and the obvious combat feats. My GM is a decent guy, so he'll let me retcon this character if I screw it up too badly.
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As a follow up, I had a complete change of heart after speaking with my GM. I dumped any archetype to get my second domain back. I now have Travel and Trickery, which I think are both pretty darn awesome together. I also decided to go the Preferred Spell route so I can spontaneously cast Dimension Door. I kind of had to compromise with my ability scores, but I think it'll do for a versatile MAD character.
STR 16 (15 +1 level)
DEX 14 (11 +1 level, +2 belt)
CON 11 (will increase hp with spells)
INT 14
WIS 20 (18 +2 racial)
CHA 16 (14, +2 headband)
1] Heighten Spell (level), Improved Initiative (human)
3] Weapon Focus: Scimitar (level)
5] Power Attack (level)
7] Preferred Spell: Dimension Door (level)
After that, I'll follow up with the Dimensional feats. It delays learning the feats, but I'll have plenty of other tricks I can do before then. I also now see the use for Heighten Spell in conjunction with spells like Hold Person. The flexibility to increase DCs of prepared spells is a nice option, as opposed to Spell Focus. It took me a while to come around to it, but it really is much better now.
I like this build. Go for it.