First Time Cleric


Advice

Liberty's Edge

I am beginning a 1st level Cleric but I want him to be able to heal as well as defend himself/kill junk as well. I have a 25 point buy and basic starting gold.

Any help?

Thanks
Erin


Don't be evil, and you'll have the healing covered automagically. Put him in decent armour and a shield + morningstar (or your God's preferred implement of destruction it that's better) and with a few buffs you'll have the self-defence bit covered.

As for killing junk... Are we talking about the boat, the addict, the debris or the body part?

Seriously though: you can't really fsck up a Cleric build: they have everything they need built in. Have you made a shortlist of which Gods you may want to worship (if any)?


I agree with VRMH, clerics are pretty easy. I like the Dwarven Cleric so that they are stout. Put him in heavy armor and he won't be encumbered because he still moves at full speed when he's heavy. Pick a deity that has healing if you want good healing, travel if you want to move even more quickly, or luck for some cool stuff.

If you want to kill stuff, just make sure that STR isn't your dumpstat. Grab a weapon that you'll be proficient in either by race or by the deity you worship. Remember that channeling positive energy is your best friend, just make sure that you are tactical with it because it can heal enemies as I found out with my first cleric hah! So I'd make sure my WIS/CHA are pretty high as well for your spells and channeling.

Liberty's Edge

I'd prioritize strength and wisdom about equally with con being a close 3rd.

Str 16
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 14+2
Cha 13

This is a pretty solid 25 point low-level build for human. My other recommendation would be to go dwarf with the following stats:

Str 16
Dex 12
Con 13+2.
Int 10
Wis 14+2
Cha 14-2

Dwarf with the first set of stats, which would end up with charisma at 11, would also be fine, but I'd like another channel per day. I'd take Heavy Armor Proficiency at level 1 and buy masterwork full plate as soon as you can. I'd choose a diety with the Travel domain and just prepare Longstrider every day so that past about level 5 or 6, you're moving at 40'/round in full plate. Go into battle with your shield and warhammer or just warhammer and mess stuff up, dwarf-style! If you can get Travel and Destruction (Rage), all the better for dealing damage, but I'd go for the Heroism subdomain for the Heroism aura.

Good Traits would include Glory of Old and Exalted of the Society, if your DM allows it (because you're not technically a pathfinder, I'd guess). Alternately, Zest for Battle can be pretty cool, because it gives you a +1 damage bonus when you have a morale bonus to attack rolls (so Bless becomes +1 to hit and damage for you). You might also consider Tomb Raider to get Perception as a class skill to complement your high wisdom score.

For skills, if you take Tomb Raider, I'd max out perception and spread your other points between diplomacy and heal, or knowledge (religion) if you want to go Holy Vindicator.


It's going to be about what you envision him to be as a character and what motivates him when you make your Domain and feat selections.

Get an idea of what you like and then try and find things that fit that idea.


Healing's easy. Channel positive energy, at which point you can either mass-heal your party (and, alas, anyone else in the radius unless you have Selective Channelling) and dump any of your spells for a cure spell of equivalent level. You don't really need feats for this if you save channelling for post-battle combat.

Battle means (a) have a useful weapon, (b) don't dump Strength -- you'll need it for carrying heavy armor and for extra weapon to-hit and damage goodness, and (c) use your feats and spell to boost your combat ability.

You WON'T have the same raw damage output as a full-BAB character (less BAB, probably less strength, not so many feats available), so you have to make up the difference with your other abilities. At first level, this mostly means casting bless and divine favor a lot, and maybe other spells. Later on spell selection broadens out.

Liberty's Edge

tonyz wrote:
You WON'T have the same raw damage output as a full-BAB character (less BAB, probably less strength, not so many feats available), so you have to make up the difference with your other abilities. At first level, this mostly means casting bless and divine favor a lot, and maybe other spells. Later on spell selection broadens out.

I'd like to clarify this a bit, if I may be so audacious as to assume your meaning: When you "make up the difference," look at it in terms of party effectiveness. Many times, Freedom of Movement cast on the fighter or wizard can be much more effective than Divine Power cast on yourself. This is actually a reason why I'd suggest the Heroism subdomain: It's a swift action and buffs everybody.

So I would aim to be a capable combatant, but don't lose too many spells or actions buffing yourself - concentrate on buffing the group (yourself included) and then wade into the battle once your job is done. Well, at least, until the wizard gets himself grappled. AGAIN.

Liberty's Edge

Most all clerics are decent at self defense and even a spell casting heavy cleric can have a ton of AC from the shield and enchantments like Magic vestment and Shield of Faith, and same said cleric even if he/she is a light weight in combat normally can turn into a living divine weapon of doom with the right spells. Heavy Armor is a good feat if your Dex is woefuly low and Selective channeling helps prevent you from healing the wrong people.

Though all in all the most important part is having fun and playing a character concept that amuses you.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I'll just pop in and say that it's hard to build a bad cleric. The class is just that flexible.


Axebeard is right that it's often more effective overall to make the rest of the party great than just to make yourself very good. However, the OP wanted his character to be battle-effective , and is 1st level., so a lot of higher-level stuff won't come into play for a while yet.

BAttle clerics are usually as survivable as fighters, particularly with heavy army proficiency, but they have to really work to get close in damage output.

It's hard to be bad as a cleric. Just build to your strengths and what you like to do, and don't try to do everything.

Shadow Lodge

as VRMH said, just being able to channel positive energy should be able to cover most of your healing needs. Otherwise just go look at some of the battle cleric guides and what not around. You probably won't need wisdom to high to begin with 14-15 will be plenty as should really only be casting buff spells or spells with no saves.

The only stat you can consider dumping is Int, you want everything else.

As for race, the human/demi human races have that floating +2 you'll probably want in strength. but to look at each race
Human: generally pretty solid, extra skill point(for that low int) and extra feat never hurts
Half orc, darkvision, orc ferocity and proficiency with the falchion and great axe will be pretty damn handy if you go the THW route.
Half elf, immune to sleep and low light vision aren't to bad, but the icing on this cake is Ancestral Arms, proficiency with any weapon? If you want an exotic an don't want the the god that comes with it or no god has the weapon as their favored weapon then this is probably your best bet.

other races:
halfling/gnome: no, not for a battle cleric
elf: if you want to do archery, maybe
dwarf: I have mixed feelings about dwarfs, +2 wis +2 con are great, -2 cha isn't, the weapons they get are good, not fantastic, but good. Slow and steady is ok, nothing to wet yourself over, but becomes good if you go the travel domain, but probably not as good as everyone else makes it out to be. a human cleric with the travel domain, haste cast on him/her while wearing heavy/medium armor will move at 50ft, a dwarf under those conditions will move at 60ft, and unless you really start trying to increase your move speed, that's as fast as you'll go, an extra 10ft...

Anyway, as far as domains go:
the growth domain is awesome for battle clerics
travel is amazing, it will help you get you into the fights, it'll help you set up flanks(once you reach 8th), you can ignore difficult terrain and has a freaking sweet spell list.
war domain is fantastic
the chaos domain has the touch of chaos which can really mess up some one's day and you get to add anarchic to your weapon for a few round a day, not bad
Good domain looks like solid choice as well.

A note on the healing domain, it's not very good
You get Rebuke Death at first, which only works on people below 0 hit points
Healer's Blessing isn't to bad, it's a free meta magic on cure spells.
But the spell list is just a giant pile of suck, the 5th, 6th and 9th level spells are the only good ones, having CLW in your domain slot for the first few levels might be handy as you might want all the healing you can get.

But TBH, try to get a wand of CLW, only cost 750g, have the party all chip in. Have all your out of combat healing done by channeling and CLW wands, that way you don't have to be the 'band aid' for the party.

that's about all i can think of right now...

Silver Crusade

I have made alot of 3/4 BAB characters. Ther my favort type to play. Not to focused on one thing. Versitle over spelization is the type of charcters I like. With that I do not make battle clerics any more. Most of what I make for divine casters of this type are oracle, or druid. I build this a few weaks ago for some one else asking for advice for battle cleric.

Battle Cleric:

Cleric(Divine Strategist)
Human Worship Shelyn
Str 16 +2 Human = total 18
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 14
Cha 8
Initiative + 7
A divine strategist can always act in a surprise round even if he fails to make a Perception check to notice enemies, though he is considered flat-footed until he acts.
Divine strategist gains a bonus on initiative +1/2 divine strategist level.
Allies able to see and hear the divine strategist gain a bonus on initiative + 1/4 divine strategist level

Weapon : Glave To Hit +4 Damage 1D10+6 Crit 20/X3

Triats : Reactionary : +2 Trait bonus initiative, plus one other.

Skill Ranks : 2 + 2 Int Mod + 1 Human = 5 per level

Feet's : Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes,(3rd)Power Attack, (5th)Weapon Focus Glave, (7th)Improved Over Run, (9th)Charage Through.

Domain : Protectin(Defense)
Granted Power +1 resistance bonus to all saves
Deflection Aura 1/Day


masterwork stone plate is awesome for a dwarven cleric!

Check this character for an idea or two!

Liberty's Edge

tonyz wrote:
Axebeard is right that it's often more effective overall to make the rest of the party great than just to make yourself very good. However, the OP wanted his character to be battle-effective , and is 1st level., so a lot of higher-level stuff won't come into play for a while yet.

Oh, yeah, but I generally think that I'd recommend Bless over Divine Favor just about every time (especially with the Zest for Battle trait), and Protection from Evil can be a lifesaver - so mostly that was in response to Divine Favor, which I think works better as either a spell cast at a higher CL because of its scaling effects and it representing a smaller fraction of your power due to having more spells. So even for a battle cleric, I'd prepare bless twice and my domain slot at level 1, assuming one bonus 1st-level spell from a high Wisdom modifier. Well, either that or buy a wand of bless and prepare one divine favor and one protection from evil. With the travel subdomain that lets you see on the other side of doors, you can always precast all of your buffs before you break into a room, making juggling wands a lot less demanding of a task.

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