I'm making a cleric of Cayden Cailean for an upcoming campaign, and really drawing a blank on feats. It's a 15 point buy, and so far my stats are:
S 10 D 10 Co 10 I 10 W 16 Ch 14 with 5 points left to spend. I'm a human, and starting at lvl 1. He's part of a family of brewers, and uses his ability to create water/ale/wine to share samples of his family's various ales with the world. I don't really want to make a healbot, since clerics are decent healers anyway, otherwise I'd go for Extra Channel and Selective Channel right away. The other characters in our party so far are a rogue, a two-handed weapon fighter, and a druid, with the possible addition of a gnome fey bloodline sorcerer. His traits are Fast Talker and Good Natured, and he's CG aligned. I would appreciate any ideas that anyone thinks would help.
Should I resign myself to being a healbot?
Any thoughts on variant channeling (I was thinking bravery)?
Where should I spend those last 5 points...phys stats to make him a viable combatant, or Int or Cha to make him a better face man?
Seriously, what feats does a jolly drunkard take?
|
Ability-wise...I'd go with this (assuming you don't want to dump anything):
Str 14 Dex 10 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 16 Cha 13
You raise Charisma at 4th, then Wisdom from then on. That's assuming you want to be a spellcaster first and foremost, of course. If you'd rather focus on melee combat (that'd be my preference), swap Str and Wis (and raise Strength with level-ups).
As for a Feat, whichever route you take, I'd be inclined towards Combat Casting or Warrior Priest, but only if you expect to cast in melee. Or, if you go Variant Channeling, Selective Channeling.
Alternately, if you're already going a melee route, you could grab Heavy Armor Proificiency (won't be that useful for 1st level, but you'll need your 3rd level Feat for Power Atack).
There are a bunch of non-healing things you can be good at... melee, archery, debuffs... what appeals to you?
If you're really stumped on feats, Toughness and Improved Initiative are pretty solid choices for pretty much any kind of cleric.
Also, the save bonus feats are never a bad idea, and could reflect the luck of Caiden Cailean.
|
If you're not going for heavy channeling anyway, you could afford to drop your charisma to 12. As a 15 point buy you could go
Str 12, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 12
or you could say that too much drinking has dulled your wits and go
Str 12, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 16, Cha 12
Gain a point of AC and +1 to Ref and Will, as well as buff your caster stat, while losing only one skill per level.
|
Goodness, no. A player should never feel "resigned to playing X"; if you do that you are in effect doing MMORPG style grinding, and it's about as rewarding as it sounds.
Now to be fair, you will be doing a lot of healing as a Cleric. That is one of the class' jobs, and it's going to come up. However, Cleric is a pretty versatile class and your Feat selections could let him be decent at a variety of roles. Beebs has already mentioned many of them, but some detail might help.
Melee combat is an option, and certainly one the class is built to do with its decent armor, passable weapons selection, etc. You already have a heavy-hitting Fighter though, so may not need to specialize your Cleric in it.
Archery might be more appealing, depending on what spells the Druid and Sorc focus on. Having a meaningful long-range punch in the party is helpful, and while you might not rival a Ranger or Fighter you can still be okay at it.
More significantly, damage the party never takes obviously never has to be healed. Now, this cannot be taken to an extreme... let's face it, this is Pathfinder/D&D, the PCs will take some hits. Still, you can avoid some of them with 'situation control' spells like Command. The obvious concern is what a CG-align Cleric of the CG-aligned God of Freedom is doing with the Command spell, but even many real-world libertarian schools of thought allow the justification of "A person gives up their right to freedom when they hurt other non-aggressive, innocent people."
Burning Disarm might also be an interesting spell for such purposes, and has less of a freedom-violating bent to it. There are other possibilities within the Cleric 0, 1 and 2 spell level lists too, and I imagine Domains would add a few more fun choices.
Yes, you will be healing as a Cleric. Please don't feel like that's all your character can or should be doing. Talk to the other players beforehand, make it clear you won't be playing a Walking Heal Dispenser to the exclusion of all else, and are hoping to have some tactics in place that outright prevent damage. Clerics are such a versatile class, and I'd hate to see you feel pressured into playing a 'healbot' for the party's benefit. That's no fun for you, and that defeats much of the purpose in a Role Playing Game.
This should help a little bit.
Cayden Cailean really is one of the better god choices out there.
|
This should help a little bit.
Cayden Cailean really is one of the better god choices out there.
Second to Desna as far as Domains go I guess... I'm kind of partial to Travel>Exploration and gaining the +10' speed bonus & door sight.
I considered Shelyn, too, but decided that while she might be better mechanically I would rather role play a Cayden Cailean cleric. I went with Exploration (still get the +10 movement, and a handy look through walls ability) and Love (you're gonna hit me? no, you don't wanna do that) as my domains.
Thanks for all the great advice! That link was especially handy, TarkXT.
|
Should I resign myself to being a healbot?
NEVER!
Any thoughts on variant channeling (I was thinking bravery)?
There are some nice ones. I would say it depends if you have somebody else willing to be a secondary healer at your party...
Where should I spend those last 5 points...phys stats to make him a viable combatant, or Int or Cha to make him a better face man?
If it was my character i would build it like this:
STR 14, Dx 12, Con 13, Int 07, Wis 17(racial mod here), Cha 12
Seriously, what feats does a jolly drunkard take?
Improved Initiative
Well, I see Cayden Cailean as a swashbuckler, so I'd focus on Wisdom, Dexterity and Charisma in that order. You will get rapier as a proficient weapon, just as Weapon Finesse and use buffs to make yourself the greatest swashbuckler ever, and buckle your swash as no swash has ever been buckled before!
I would suggest the guided hand feat. Lets you use your wis modifier on your diety's favored weapon. This means that you can really pump your wisdom and it help your attack and spells. This might free up some points for other stats.
|
|
I would suggest the guided hand feat. Lets you use your wis modifier on your diety's favored weapon. This means that you can really pump your wisdom and it help your attack and spells. This might free up some points for other stats.
At the cost of two feats, I don't think this is optimal. He also would be doing poor damage even if he did hit.