So here's the situation. Playing in a campaign heavy with undead and evil, and currently playing a ninth level Paladin, who naturally is demolishing everything so far, save for some advance half-fiend trolls and a battle cleric. Here's the bad news: I'm the entire front line of my party, which has no real support except for a wizard only interested in as many fireballs as he can deliver. Inevitably, I'm going to eat it. However, I'd like to be somewhat prepared for this event, and not just sit through the rest of the session mourning my loss. The class I'm interested in is a cleric.
I'm looking at either Urgathoa or Zon-Kuthon, but I also don't want to be useless against evil/murdered by my own party(mainly aligned Good). I considered Undead Lord, but is it worth giving up the second domain? Or would a Death & Darkness battle-esque cleric of Zon-Kuthon be better?
Also, improved suggestions would be appreciated if it turns out these all suck.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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What led you to those deity choices? What are you after? I ask partly because when I first read the nature of your campaign, I thought of the Sun and Glory domains. Put those together and you can nuke undead like nobody's business. If you tweak Glory to the Heroism subdomain, you can activate one of the best buffs in the game as a swift action (since you're already past level 8), which would go very well with your intent to be a battle cleric.
Or did you have something specific you were wanting from the deities you mentioned?
Undead Lord was pitched to me, but Sun and Heroism do sound pretty good.
Yeah, just general interest in the Death domain.
What would statting out a Sun and Heroism battle cleric look like? We're on a 20 point buy.
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Undead Lord was pitched to me, but Sun and Heroism do sound pretty good.
Yeah, just general interest in the Death domain.
What would statting out a Sun and Heroism battle cleric look like? We're on a 20 point buy.
I'm only 3rd level, but click my name and have a look. :)
Note that I'm dealing with a CHA penalty. You might go with one of the aasimar heritages that gives +2 STR/CHA. (High WIS is less important if you're not flinging saves around.)
On the other hand, there's an alternate FCB for tieflings that boosts your CL check against SR of outsiders, and you did mention that in your OP...
Why not go with Pharasma?
If you're just looking for the Death Domain, Pharasma works, and you can be Neutral Good and have it still work.
A decent favoured weapon would be preferable to having a dagger or something.
EDIT: Base damage dice isn't something I'm going to obsess over.
Almost all of my characters have had Sarenrar though. I love her as a deity, but I feel I'm overusing her. My Ranger, Paladin, and this Cleric will all have been Sarenrae. But not many other choices, I suppose.
Yeah, that's true. I just love scimitars. Critting on a 15 is fantastic. My paladin used to with a keened falchion before the Sun Blade I have now.
@blackblood - Thanks for all the info. I guess I'm not making the Death cleric this time around, but next time I can definitely utilize that a lot better.
As per Iomedae, our cavalier/cleric has some weird mission or other involving his homeland and Iomadae, so it would kinda make sense having them pick up a cleric of Iomedae.
Last thing, though. Suggested tree of feats?
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Last thing, though. Suggested tree of feats?
That really depends. For me, I took Armor of the Pit at 1st because I wanted tank-like AC without giving up movement speed (I now use a mithral breastplate as well). Then at 3rd I took Extra Channel because 3 was a little weak but I couldn't afford a higher CHA. At 5th, it's likely to be Toughness because my FCBs aren't going to HP but I'm trying to front-line fight. Or it might be Weapon Focus to keep my to-hit up.
Basically, your race/stats/preferences will affect your feat choices. What do you envision?
Race will most likely be Aasmiar, stats Str, Wis, and Cha being higher, with int probably nerfed, con kept at least at a 10-12, and Dex at maybe a 10(although a 14 might be the most wise).
I want to be able to keep myself toward/on the front line, but not totally forsake cleric, as it would defeat the purpose, and I could just make a fighter. Extra Channel is always good, I'm a little iffy on selective, because it won't come up every session (especially right now in a vampire and undead infested forest city-state thing), but Toughness and Armor of the Pit seem to be pretty good choices too.
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Armor of the Pit won't be an option unless you're a tiefling. If you're looking at a low DEX anyway, you could consider Heavy Armor Proficiency instead (if you're okay with 20ft movement, before items).
Selective Channeling only matters if you plan on channeling to heal in combat, which is more of a healbot tactic. For a battle cleric, skip it - your channels will be either undead nukes or post-combat group hugs, neither of which really need Selective. Except in cases of emergencies, you won't be channeling to heal in combat at all.
Also, a battle cleric doesn't prioritize WIS all that highly. You're not casting many offensive spells, so your save DCs are of low importance. If you take the aasimar heritage that gets +STR/CHA, you could try this:
STR 20 (14+2race+2level+2item)
DEX 12 (if you take HAP)
CON 14 (you want good HP if you're at the front)
INT 10
WIS 16 (14+2item)
CHA 15 (13+2race, your DC against undead is as though you had 18 thanks to your domains)
Feat options would be Toughness, Dodge, Weapon Focus, Power Attack...
@Jiggy They look good. I might tweak it a bit, though. Thanks a lot for your help!
@Flintas You're telling me. I got it for damn cheap for going toe to toe with a gnoll strength cleric at least 2 or 3 levels higher than me. If not for Hero's Defiance my pally wouldve eaten it there.
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Having played the Cleric in Kingmaker where the party has only 1 front liner too...
I would suggest playing a summoner Cleric. You don't need Augment Summoning. Just summon monsters to block and tank attacks.
Summons are great in stopping charges, blocking enemy paths and stopping enemy spellcasters from getting spells off easily.
Since you are level 9, you can even make a cleric with the Glory domain and summon 1-3 monster and buff them at the same turn. Grab sacred summons for quick summoning of certain monsters like lantern archons and you can easily spam the battlefield.
You are still 1) Tanking, 2) dealing damage, via pets and 3) Able to do all out spell casting like a normal cleric.
True, but certain feats and domains make summoning much more effective.