Reach Cleric

[Hector Gwath]

My party is in sore need if some divine magic. At this point we are somewhat of a mercenary group, though our GM is slowly roping us in to greater things.

Anyway, I'm looking to make a neutral cleric. Problem is I don't know what god or archetype to take. GM seems pretty firm on clerics needing a god.

Any help on what god (and therefore domains) would be good, as well as any good archetypes if necessary.

Thanks in advance!

[DeltaOneG]

Madness, Chaos(Protean), and Exploration are my favorite domains though I haven't played much with any.

The cleric advice in the sticky on this forum has pretty good information too.

[Hector Gwath]

I looked at the reach cleric guide, but it pretty much glossed over neutral gods due to the Sacred Summons feat... Which is great and all, but provides little support for. Neutral cleric.

[Elosandi]

Is this your cleric that needs to be neutral, does your god also need to be?

Gorum is generally considered a decent choice, flavor wise the god of battles should work, and he does have the tactics domain, which is quite useful. He's chaotic neutral, but neutral clerics can still choose him.

[Salindurthas]

If you are mercenaries and want to focus on that, then Abadar is a decent choice.
I don't quite remember exactly, but he is God of stuff like money, banking, cities, and trade.

The Travel domain makes sense for a mercenary, in my mind.

[Pontificor the Great]

I would look at the plant domain the alt bonus for that is a swift enlarge doubling your reach. If you alreayd have a reach weapon you would have a 20 foot reach while enlarged.

[Gauss]

I love reach clerics. I have several versions of them but here is one of them:

Human
Starting Ability Scores: 14str, 14dex, 13con, 12int, 16wis, 10cha
Traits: Adopted (halfling): Helpful and one other (varies)
Feats: 1) Combat Reflexes, 1) Bodyguard, 3) Craft Wondrous Item, 5) Spell Focus Necromancy, 7) Gr. Spell Focus Necromancy, 9) Lunge
God and domains: Desna, Luck (Curse) and Travel

Things he is good at:
He will use bodyguard+aid another to boost the AC of his nearest ally by +4 vs melee attacks.

From behind the tank he will try to attack, trip, or use aid another.

He will deliver BBEG stopping Bestow Curse or Blindness/Deafness spells. He starts with Malign Eye in the first round and then in the second round he will cast Blindness or Grace+Bestow Curse. Eventually he will have a Rod of Persistent spell forcing the BBEG to have to save twice.

Things he is bad at:
Raw damage output
Channeling Energy (making him less useful in an undead heavy campaign)

A note about bodyguard and reach weapons. Some people claim that since you are using a reach weapon through cover you cannot use Bodyguard to aid another. This is not true since there is no AoO made against the enemy. The requirements for Aid Another are that you threaten the enemy (which you do even from cover). The AoO is not made against the enemy but for your ally. However, before using this you should confirm it with your GM to make sure you are both on the same page.

- Gauss

[Hector Gwath]

I have starting thinking about a cleric of nethys... Apparently he asks nothing of his followers except to use magic to further your goals... I'm wondering if destruction and protection might be good domains, considering the characters end goal is to carve out a kingdom for himself, to protect it, and expand it.

Abadar isn't a bad idea, but it seems too... Ordered.

[vermura]

An excellent guide, honestly, the best I've read since it proposes something wholly new.

Just a few notes.

1) You cant use an unarmed attack when your holding a 2-handed weapon with both hands. Sure, it seems quite reasonable to transfer the weapon to 1-hand with a free action, but you can't take a free action when it's not your turn. Therefore, you cannot simultaneously threaten 5' with a spiked gauntlet and 10' with a long spear. Using a spiked gauntlet does still save you from drawing a weapon, so there is still a good reason to use one. I'm less sure that you couldn't do it with a monk, but it'd really be up to DM fiat.

2) Sacred summons is very powerful, however, if it's not available to you, there is always spiritual ally. Not quite as good, but still useful and does not require a feat. You can also ask your DM to allow it to use CHA instead of WIS if you cast it as an oracle.

3) I favor using greater magic weapon to bolster my weapons enhancement bonus, while using any extra +'s to add more damage. So for example, a +1 holy longspear in the hands of a lvl 12 cleric/oracle will still be +3 due to greater magic weapon - giving you a much needed boost to dmg/hit.

4) The more damage your doing (due to 3 above, or other abilities) the less important the damage from power attack is (your getting less of a % boost from it). However, the to hit penalty and the cost of the feat must always be suffered if your using it.

5) It's possible to avoid the "MAD" aspect some what by worshiping shelyn (favoured weapon glaive) and then investing in channel smite and guided hand (now you use +wis for hitting with your glaive). Doing so would permit you to still have a high wisdom score while being able to roll dice and connect with any melee attacks you do.

I liked the guide, but the central ideas are combat reflexes and a reach weapon while using standard actions for spell casting. The same principle can be used for any class that would like to whack things, but is busy using standard actions for other things. Using sacred summons to summon monsters is a very good use of a standard action, but it's not the only one ;)

[Gauss]

Vermura:

1) A monk's Unarmed Strike can be made with any part of the body. Some people believe this extends to normal Unarmed Strikes as well. The rules are silent on the matter. Thus, check with the GM.

2) Sacred Summons in general, does not work. The number of creatures available to use with Sacred Summons is very small.

5) Guided Hand is not Pathfinder material (check the date of publication, it is 3.5 era). It would have to be GM approved.

- Gauss

[Pupsocket]

Gauss wrote:

5) Guided Hand is not Pathfinder material (check the date of publication, it is 3.5 era). It would have to be GM approved.

- Gauss

You're thinking of the weapon property. The feat is from Ultimate Combat.