Hello.
I just started playing Pathfinder, and I wanted to make a few really good characters. I was thinking about a cleric, some kind of a melee character, and a sorcerer of some kind. I am not certain what items to start with, which feats, which skills, I attempted to make a cleric, but not he is very good, or not. I want them to be really good long termed, very powerful overall. Also on a different note, I am not certain how I can achieve this, or what it is called but, I want to people to owe me favors, and money, and have people like me, and have good moral, and momentum.
Thanks.
Also I can post what I have for my cleric on here or whatever if it would help.
Clerics and oracles can make very good melee characters. Just go with a two-handed weapon, a post racial str of 18 or so, and take a feat that gives you heavy armor proficiency. Wisdom (or charisma for oracles) can be 15-16 post racial. Take a decent con score as well.
For example, a good human melee cleric could have something like:
18 str
12 dex
14 con
10 int
14 wisdom
8 cha
Feats: Heavy Armor and Exotic Weapon Prof (something big and scary)
Clerics make decent melee characters. Since you would need to spend resources elsewhere it costs in their other abilities. For example channel is a great ability of clerics it relies on cha. (I woulda have dumped int)
Kenders channel is 2 a day. The feats are gobbled up getting equal to a fighter(considering bab and hp)
Now there are ways for a cleric dip to greatly improve a melee fighter. Plant domain enlarge as a swift action can be powerfull.
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The way I see it, the Cleric's role in combat is to stay alive, heal everybody, and absorb damage. The Cleric's role in social situations is to win friends, influence people, and to know stuff.
Now, given those tasks, you can still build a fair battle cleric, who can dish out damage as well as take it, but don't dump your prime stat to acheive that.
I have a cleric that I put together as a trial "pre-gen" character. I was thinking about starting a thread on "pre-gen replacements", critiquing the existing pre-gens and seeing if we couldn't come up with a generic core character that anybody would be willing to play, and to have in the party.
This is Pregenirus Clericus, Cleric 1st level.
The goal was to have a character that had a lot of healing ability and good knowledge and people skills, and a good HP pool and good DPR (Damage per Round)
Human
STR 15 +2 (7 points)
DEX 10 +0 (0 points)
CON 12 +1 (2 points)
INT 13 +1 (3 points)
WIS 17 +3 (7 points for 15, +2 for human)
CHA 11 0 (1 points)
The DEX is not important, and I choose INT over CHA, because the INT would help on Knowledge skills, of which there are considerably more of than the social skills that run off CHA, and the extra Skill point(s) canbe used to offset the lower CHA. The fact that Diplomacy is a class skill and I can take a religious Trait that enhances that, means that fro 1 Skill point and 1 Trait, I can get a bigger bonus than if I upped the CHA to 13 and dropped the INT to 11.
Religious - Ease of Faith: +1 to Diplomacy
Grand Lodge - Observant: + 1 to Perception
Ease of Faith to offset lack of CHA.
Observant to reduce risk of surprise.
Endurance - +4 vs. non-lethal damage, and pre-req. for
Diehard - automatically stabilize and stay conscious with neg. HP.
These skills effectively double the HP pool, and let's the cleric take more damage than he could normally handle, and keep going long enough to heal himself, and the rest of the party. The alternative was to go for a dwarf to get the CON bonus, but then he wouldn't get Diehard at 1st level.
Diplomacy: 1 rank + 3 class + 1 trait(Ease of Faith) = +5
Heal: 1 rank + 3 class + 2 (Healer's Kit) + 3 WIS = +9
Know. Religion: 1 rank + 3 class + 3 WIS = +6
Perception: 1 rank + 3 class + 3 WIS = +7
As you level up take, spread you skills aorund to cover Sense Motive, Spell Craft. Use Magic Device, and Knowledge Skills, especially Nobility and Local, if you want to have people "owe" you favors.
I chose Healing Domain for the Rebuke Death ability and for the Cure Wound spell progression. I picked the Knowledge domain for the Knowledge skills as class skill bonuses and for the Comprehend Languages, Detect Thoughts, etc. chain of spells that will subsititute for missing social Skill ranks. Now I have to find a deity that believes in both Healing and Knowledge.
At 1st level, this character would have 13 HP, an AC (depending on Armor) of around 15, an ATK of +2 , and a typical DPR (depending on weapon) of about 6, and could potentially heal DAM equal to the HP of 2 other 1st level characters
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There are many ways to build a cleric. Chose one then focus on building around it. Your options are Battle Cleric, Casting Focus, and Channel Focus. They change how you go about building the character.
Battle Cleric : You can do this as a cleric. However Oracles, and Druids do this role better then the cleric. So if your going for a melee build look at the other two first. For range build Cleric, or Oracle is the top pick.
Casting Focus : You do have a good spell list. Just keep in mind that is not as powerful as a arcane caster. It dose not need to be as you have other options they do not have. Make sure you get a wand of lesser restoration on hand. And a few scrolls of remove blindness and remove curse.
Channel Focus : This in my option is one of the worst options for a cleric. For oracles this is a very good option. As there casting and channel is all off Cha.
For a melee character there are many options on doing this. Give a starting point of what you want the character to be able to do.
Example. : I want a melee character that fights with a animal companion. Barbarian (Mad Dog), or Cavalier (Huntmaster)
You need to narrow down what type of sorcerer you are looking for. As there are so many to chose from. Start with what kind of caster your looking to make. Damage caster, control caster, or utility caster all can do well you will need to pick what you want to focus on. Before you make a spell list and pick a blood line.
Channel focus can dominate. If you pick an alternative channel like envy and up the DC to high amount causing all the enemies to waste thier actions trying to steal provoking. It breaks the game. If you say what about undead, you command them.
Casting focus is just as powerful as arcane, but in a different way. You can use spells to control the enemies like murderous command, hold person etc. If you can blast someone with a hold person and your team make kills them next round it is more powerfull then a scorching ray that woulds them a bit. You have less utility than arcane as your spells do not do as a variety of things, but you can heal too. Healing is a huge thing. The amount you heal sucks, but being able to save someone's life because that 1d8+5 hp you give them make all the difference in the world.
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My current theory is: It's all about the money. I played up at 2nd level in a 4-5 mod and the mony i got from that let me buy crazy awesome gear. (For my level) it was all from the always available list but i was able to get the gear way earlyer.
I would play up with a higher level group if you can at lower levels. If you die at lvl 2 it hurts less and the money is awesome. If you are a channel cleric you can hang back and combat heal.
Thank you for your help. Greatly appreciated.