Help with Clerics and Druids

[Lili]

Greetings, I have some major confusions on how to make a successful Cleric or Druid. I understand what their primary ability is but not secondary and skills and feats to select with these classes as a staple.

Clerics, I seen three times of clerics in my time playing and all seem quite dull to my mind, 1. One that sits back and just does cure spells during or after combat and that is his only contribution faction to the group this is my favorite of the three.

The Cleric that spends 10+ rounds self buffing himself who by the time he ready for combat the fights over and he wasted almost all his spells giving himself god like powers for a few rounds that is now wasted.

The Cleric that buffs the rest of the party and hides until combat his over, This cleric is good but dull.

From the clercs i played and played with i feel more comfortable seeing a bard in the front lines or in combat over a cleric.

Druids, I've not seen a druid ever in combat so i'm not sure on any means what stats are important am i suppose to play a spellcaster or go into shapeshift form and charge into the fray. Wheather my Abtilties affect the abtilties i have when shape changing for example... will i hit more in cat form if in my elf form i have 18 dex instead of 14.

Or am i sorta wizard like character with a pet.. send my mighty beast forward as i hurl lighting bolts at enemies from the back

[Pupsocket]

Druids tend to do best as Str-based frontliners.

Useful fighting clerics tend to be reach clerics or archer clerics. You can also build a cleric to cast save-or-suck all day long, mostly with enchantment spells.

[Brad McDowell]

2 questions...
What books do you own, or do you use the website PRD?
What style of character is fun for you to play?

[Lili]

Question one
Core Rulebook
Advanced Player Guild
Advanced Race Guild
Ulimate Campign
Ulimate warrior
Ulimate magic
Ulimate equipment
Inner sea world Guild
Mythic Adventure

Question 2
I'm not sure yet, since most of my precious DND knowledge was based on Neverwinter Nights 1 by Bioware (1998) from that game i enjoyed rogues somewhat and wizards quite alot warriors types felt like a one trick pony "Can i hit it?, OK i swing my sword"

[pauljathome]

Speaking for myself, I like to very much roleplay the worship of the God for the cleric. So, picking the right God is at least as important as the mechanics.

Mechanically, clerics can be incredibly versatile. Buffers, martial, bad touch, debuffers are all quite possible.

My current PFS cleric is a dwarven cleric of Cayden and lots of fun to play. Mechanically he has a level of barbarian and decent strength. This lets him play almost like a fighter a lot of the time ( a fighter with a move of 50 ft, mind :-) ) with the spells and channels being almost afterthoughts (he rarely bothers to buff in combat).

[Brad McDowell]

I'll take the druid side...
My PFS druid is a storm druid before the Storm Druid Archtype was made. Pure casting, no animal. The versatility in the druid spell list makes for a fun time.

But you're right, you can go many directions with the druid. Use wild shape to do melee damage and bring along an animal for flanking? Heck yeah...

[Lili]

well what Abtilties would i go with

Such as say i have 18 str druid would that make my animal form strength.

What sort of stats do you have?

[Lili]

Anyone

So can i play a druid with 7 of every other stat and 20 wisdom and be fine or what else does a druid need besides wisdom

[pauljathome]

It goes against the various guides but I like to play a somewhat balanced druid. Admittedly she is played in PFS where versatility is very valuable but even in a normal campaign there is a lot to be said for versatility.

So I'd be very tempted to have STR and WIS both be at least 14 before racial modifiers, con at least 12, other stats to taste. Add in some combat capable animal companion and you'll be very effective in a great many situations.

If you're playing a caster druid a very attractive option is to take one if the domains that gives you an animal companion at 4th. With boon companion you then get spells AND an animal companion,

[Atarlost]

For melee:
Str>Con>Dex>Int>Cha Wis>13

You need con. You will take damage. Quite a lot of it probably. You need to be able to take a hit and keep going.

You need dex. Dex helps you not get hit and helps your initiative.

You need wis. I think 14 is the reasonable minimum since it has lower enhancement priority than your physical stats, but if you expect to be in a Monty Hall game you can start at 13 and rely entirely on headbands for spell access.

For a pure caster:
Wis>Dex=Con>Str>Cha>Int

You need dex. AC will come up and wildshape only gets you so far. Initiative is life.

You need con. You will take damage and death at a minimum removes you from the fight.

You need str. Carrying capacity matters. Not so much when you're flitting around pretending to be the wizard's familiar, but sometimes you're going to find that the best way past an obstacle is to turn into a giant vulture and carry people. You don't want to need to take the fighter in one trip and his armor in another. Carrying capacity is also important before you get wildshape, especially since you probably won't want to wildshape much until you get tiny forms or small elementals.