Hello everyone,
i ran the first 3 books of CC as a DM. A player that was killed by Auren Vrood (Circle of Death) is going to take over as the DM now.
The party current setup:
Human Paladin / Iomadea / Undead Scourge
Half Elf Sorceress / Celestial
Half Elf Ranger / Switch Hitter
Human Rogue
The Human Witch just was just slayn.
I am thinking of playing a cleric starting 9th lvl. I have never played a cleric and looking at our group would tend to play a casting-heavy cleric. I was thinking on support / buffs / debuffs and some Damage spells?
What do you think? It seems to me that mosed clerics wade after some spells into melee. We have not yet played at such high levels and i thought it could be an option to directly focus on casting and take a low strength score.
I had a Desna (luck / freedom) or Saranrea (good/glory) cleric in mind. Human, half elf or Aasimar.
What feats would you choose? Does a cleric have at this tier enough spells for a whole battle to be built like a wizard/sorcerer or witch?
Or would it make more sense to go the regular route with some armor and battle centered feats as a cleric can also buff itself for melee?
Thank you
Markus
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
By 9th your certainly a fully stocked cleric, and can buff and do battle if you choose. Consider as well the Oracle of Battle, or ancestors mystery.
My experience with clerics is they can be awesome in battle if they have enough time to buff. And otherwise they spend the first three rounds of battle getting ready to battle, which is more boring then just buffing your friends.
If you want to keep a high AC, spend your money on beads of karma, and a lesser metamagic rod of extend. Add in the protection domain, and you can have magic vestments on your shield and armor and barkskin, going for most of the day, for much less then the cost of the same bonus armor. (or spend that money on adding stuff like fortification and ghost touch.)
Carroin Crown? Somewhat undead heavy, right?
Aasimar Cleric of saranrae, Glory + Sun
Wisdom-charisma build
Racial Preferred class bonus: + 1/2 damage when using channel energy.
Traits: I would get Birthmark and hopefully there is one that increases the DC vs your channelling by 1.
Feats: Scribe Scroll (for your utility spells that are infrequently needed, fast to use), Turn undead (it's nice to have them flee in a blind panic)
The key here is support, sustain and backup the mainline tanks, probably bodyguaring the sorceress. nIf your spend 3 rounds buffing yourself befor egetting into combat, you're doing things wrong.
Depending on your party, The following additional feats might be ineteresting:
- Leadership (I would ask if and advanced Lantern Archon is possible. They are cool and fire laser beams)
- Craft arms & armor, but it's my understanding that the ap doesn't give you much opportunity for that. Might let you start off with a bit more toys.
-Extra Channel.
Your channelling can heal, although spamming a 30' 5D6+13 fireball of positive energy with the DC of 10+cha bonus+4 (1/2 level)+2+1 (or having them panic) may prevent far more injuries than you could heal.
The following items may be useful (if you can afford it)
+1 guided undead bane silversheen scimitar (eventually add in keen or get a feat...)
Are you using points or rolling the stats?
we are using skill points!
Thank you for the advice.
That sounds good, i am not really wanting to wade into battle but guarding the sorceress also sounds good and supporting the remaining group.
The question is if the Aasimar Saranrae Glory and Sun Cleric would be a good choice or a Desna Luck / Freedom Cleric. Will an Aasimar get a racial adjustment as it has so many advantages?
The Desna Luck and Freedom Cleric would work more on supporting the others but you are right the Saranrea would do damage. I have a hard time to imagine what my Desna Luck / Freedom Cleric would actually do after buffing people if it doesnt want to do melee or focus on doing damage by channeling!
Is this the right analyses? A cleric can, besides being the buffer / supporter of the group focus on channeling or going into melee?
As we already have 2-3 melee fighters and our sorceress focused some on battlefield control - maybe the channeling focused cleric would be a good idea..
I was at first more focused on the Desna Cleric but I think a cleric misses the offense damage spells and feats to focus on if he doesnt channel or go into melee.
What are your thoughts?
For an Undead camp cleric u can get no better than an assimar imo. Take the blood of angels feat, so u can take the wings feat at 11th.. Flight will go along way for u not being molested while lay spell blat.. I would also look at the deathless spirit alternate racial for this campaign. I believe u can also swap somthing, possibly your sla, to get an additional +2 to wisdom or chrisma, which i would do if allowed.. Feats i would consider heavy armor prof, selective channel, scribe scroll, blood of angels, angel wings, maybe extra channel a few times.. I would also look into taking divine inteference at either 11th or 13th, it would be a hard choice for me to take over the wings at 11th, because it could be a lifesaver..
divby0 wrote: we are using skill points!
I meant Point-buy or stat rolling :-)
Depending on attributes, it can widen the options. We can even give you advice on how to build the character...
divby0 wrote:
Thank you for the advice.
That sounds good, i am not really wanting to wade into battle but guarding the sorceress also sounds good and supporting the remaining group.
The question is if the Aasimar Saranrae Glory and Sun Cleric would be a good choice or a Desna Luck / Freedom Cleric. Will an Aasimar get a racial adjustment as it has so many advantages?
There is no level adjustment in pathfinder, unless you GM decides to houserulesuch a system in.
divby0 wrote:
The Desna Luck and Freedom Cleric would work more on supporting the others but you are right the Saranrea would do damage. I have a hard time to imagine what my Desna Luck / Freedom Cleric would actually do after buffing people if it doesnt want to do melee or focus on doing damage by channeling!
Is this the right analyses? A cleric can, besides being the buffer / supporter of the group focus on channeling or going into melee?
As you already have 2-3 who can melee, AND you're in an undead heavy campaign, channelling for healing or incineration/turning undead is a good thing. My feeling is that the Desna luck/travel combo is better for "general" adventuring.
Think about it this way. It would be like taking a gillman or undine ranger or druid in skull & shackles. A powerful combo for the adventure path.
divby0 wrote:
As we already have 2-3 melee fighters and our sorceress focused some on battlefield control - maybe the channeling focused cleric would be a good idea..
I was at first more focused on the Desna Cleric but I think a cleric misses the offense damage spells and feats to focus on if he doesnt channel or go into melee.
What are your thoughts?
Cleric makes a good secondary fighter. But if all of you are charging the enemy, what happens when the sorceress gets attacked from behind? Shadows travel through walls to get to her?
Clerics are generally not good at blasting, but are great at making sure that everyone else is up and running.
Now, if the rogue has Use Magic Device, then you can have fun:
Make scrolls of Consecreate.
When it's a room full of undead:
- Rogue uses scroll, lays a consecreated area.
- You either turn them or zap them in that area.
For blasting, if it's undead, you have quite a few options... starting with searing light :-)
Carrion Crown is an undead heavy campaign, But don't over specialize.
It is worth considering instead of wading into combat to hang back and counterspell; keep a high number or Dispel Magic's available for this as there are a large number of casters set against the party.
When I ran that part of the adventure I killed off the party wizard with the Circle of Death. Tis a nasty spell.
Clerics are difficult to play for the one reason that other players seem to consider them a walking talking wand of cure all that ails you. Don't get bogged down in just healing the party; although you do need to keep them alive and channeling is a good way to do this.
Take the selective channeling feat then you can channel in the midst of combat and not heal up your enemies if they happen to be living. Ready actions afterwards to counterspell any casters which I can assure you will frustrate your DM :)
Make sure the rogue and sorcerer have wands of cure light or cure mod if you have the cash; Ranger and Paladin should already have some and be able to use them in emergencies.
As mentioned previously Combat cleric's are good but they do take a long time to buff so your best off leaving the combat to those who excel at it and save your spells for the important things in life.
Make sure you add Ghost Touch to everything you can with the money you save. The AP is crawling with incorps, as you might have guessed.
You don't need a silversheen weapon, just make it out of Mithral.
You'll want a Guided Undead Bane Ghost Touch weapon.
There's a rod you get in the first adventure that lets you cast spells that affect incorps, but CHannel Energy doesn't have that problem.
Keep in mind that 5d6+13 isn't going to kill any undead at level 9, and Will is an undead's strong save. If you're doing it for burst healing, you probably want to play a paladin with different mercies then the other Paladin in the group. An Oath of Vengeance Paladin (undead) is somewhat different then an Undead Scourge...use wands for out of combat healing.
Support spellcasting is going to be a different road then a sorceror, everything needs to be worked out. The biggest thing is you're going to have Raise Dead available, or the short term one that rescues them if you get to them within a round so you don't need to blow 5k.
Do you have a crafter in the group? Because there's nothing better you can get for the party then continuous Amulets of Death Ward.
==Aelryinth
I played a cleric of Saren Rae through it, had fun, was way useful later... I was a blaster, and my party complained I didn't heal enough but only one guy died from damage (other than myself and before the finale) and that was from full to dead before my init.
Breathe of Life is your friend, pearl threes to get back your fireball are too.
WerePox47 wrote: For an Undead camp cleric u can get no better than an assimar imo. Take the blood of angels feat, so u can take the wings feat at 11th.. Flight will go along way for u not being molested while lay spell blat.. I would also look at the deathless spirit alternate racial for this campaign. I believe u can also swap somthing, possibly your sla, to get an additional +2 to wisdom or chrisma, which i would do if allowed.. Feats i would consider heavy armor prof, selective channel, scribe scroll, blood of angels, angel wings, maybe extra channel a few times.. I would also look into taking divine inteference at either 11th or 13th, it would be a hard choice for me to take over the wings at 11th, because it could be a lifesaver.. where do I find the rules for switching out the SLA (daylight) for more bous to wisdom or CHA?
Also do you really think the flying ability is worth two feats (angelic blood and wings)?
If i power up the Channeling with Sun / Glory and Feats (extra, selective, quick) and the damage with Aasimar and traits, will it not get to weak at higher levels?
I read alot that channeling against undead is good at lower levels but sucks at higher levels.
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