So, I've got this battle cleric I've built, and he's got most bases covered, but he is slow as he's in heavy armor (I just took the feat nothing complicated), eventually he will get boots of sprining and striding, but that doesn't solve the problem, it just ameliorates it somewhat. The issue is that being good at range requires dex and feats, neither of which he has, he carries a few javelins but that's it.
What is the best way for a cleric to close on fast moving and/or flying creatures. I've thought that potion of fly, followed by blessing of fervor or potion of haste would work, but that's expensive, short and time consuming. I would not be totally opposed to a umd solution, but as it would be difficult to become reliable at it, as while I have a decent charisma, it's not a class skill.
Idealy the solution should be reliable, and not terribly expensive in spells or money, and hopefully doable in one round. Quicken spell is part of the build, so is available.
Solutions that involve other party members are useless as this is hypothetical mostly and he has no party at the moment, and I'd like him to be as self reliant as possible.
Thanks in advance.
So no level on it yet? Solutions are level based after all, need a base line to work with. Most basic is travel domain for base 10 feet extra movement.
Travel domain.
Not travel domain, already using both, seperatist of gourum rage and deception. lets say lvl 11
Dips into monk and barbarian would help over the career of the character.
@Buri Not really, heavy armor, what extra speed? Also to get extra speed out of monk levels is more than a dip, movement bonuses start when? Lvl 3, lvl4?
Air walk does not solve the problem of speed
@Buri Not really, heavy armor, what extra speed? Also to get extra speed out of monk levels is more than a dip, movement bonuses start when? Lvl 3, lvl4?
You're doing something the class wasn't built for. This is where multiclassing makes sense. Don't dismiss it. You can similarly not multiclass and stay subpar in heavy armor. But, hey, you're still a cleric. That's always cool, too.
Try finding a suit of mithral full plate of speed. It will change your speed penalty from heavy to medium and you have a hate effect whenever you need it.
I'm not unwilling to multiclass, however barb and monk don't do anything for me as I'd need to abandon heavy armor and that's central to this builds defense. To change that aspect would mean I'd need to make a completely different character, that is not the point of this thread. The build as far as I can tell has exactly one weakness. One. It's not sub optimal it just has one weakness. I'm asking for creative solutions, not snide remarks.
@Arlandor That is great, action economy and everything. However I should note there is no difference in speed penalty between medium and heavy armor unless you are running.
I have yet begun to be snide.
Armored Swiftness (Ex)
At 2nd level, an armored hulk moves faster in medium and heavy armor. When wearing medium or heavy armor, an armored hulk can move 5 feet faster than normal, to a maximum of her speed. This ability replaces uncanny dodge.
Yo face
Do the haste rounds of the mithral full plate of speed need to be spent all at once, or can you use them as needed?
I have yet begun to be snide.
Yo faceArmored Swiftness (Ex)
At 2nd level, an armored hulk moves faster in medium and heavy armor. When wearing medium or heavy armor, an armored hulk can move 5 feet faster than normal, to a maximum of her speed. This ability replaces uncanny dodge.
Ah touche (don't know how to do the accent) however you should have lead with armored hulk, When someone says barbarian I think vanilla barbarian. 2 levels is more than I'm willing to invest for 5 feet however.
Also no, no YO face my friend, Yo face.
Aka I'm open to multiclassing but I don't want to multiclass.
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It is easier to build speed from the ground up than it is to add it on later.
I would've been a dwarf and worked on adding to his speed instead of trying to combat encumberances and such. That is way easier than finding alternates later.
That said, there are a bunch of spells that help, like the various flight spells, and then you can also look into items that grant speed boosts or flight in some form. You also need to look at how often you expect to need the speed. For a couple of my pcs the answer was Celestial armor (1/day fly) and a Winged shield (1/day fly with weight restrictions). Others needed Winged Boots, Boots of teleportation, Boots of Speed, Boots of Striding and Springing, Cloak of the Bat....I had one dude that used Figurines of Wondrous power and a couple ranks in ride to do it.
Aka I'm open to multiclassing but I don't want to multiclass.
I'm sorry buy 2 levels for 5 feet, are you serious? A cleric is full caster! If I'm gimping my spellcasting a whole spell level it better be for more than peanuts.
Boots of S&S, or UMD and a wand of Longstrider.
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Or just cast Effortless Armor in battle.
Effortless Armor
School transmutation; Level cleric 2, inquisitor 2, magus 2, paladin 2, ranger 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 minute/level
Armor you wear no longer reduces your speed. You also reduce the armor's armor check penalty by 1 + 1 per five caster levels (maximum 5).
I use Wings of Flying. Prohibitively expensive, but solves the problem very well. I used Boots of Striding and Springing before I got my wings.
If ranged air creatures are becoming a problem, maybe look at other ways of bringing them down. Constricting Coils for example.
I'm sorry buy 2 levels for 5 feet, are you serious? A cleric is full caster! If I'm gimping my spellcasting a whole spell level it better be for more than peanuts.
You can make that up with a trait.
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How about a different approach to attacking far away things: control the middle range by expanding your threatened area. There are several ways to do this. For example, the Growth domain with a reach weapon lets you full attack a target that starts the round 30' away: swift action enlarge 5' closer, 5' step, strike 20'. You would hinder enemy movement in a 50' diameter doughnut.
As for handling truly long range foes, consider an alternate approach to a mediocre ranged attack: put extra buffs on a ranged ally. You have several ways to accomplish this. E.g. Luck Domain's Touch of Luck on an allied Archer, or Blessing of Fervor. The net effect might be better than you e.g. throwing javelins and not buffing the archer ally. Especially since you continue to interdict enemy movement in your threatened area, protecting your allied archer.
Do the haste rounds of the mithral full plate of speed need to be spent all at once, or can you use them as needed?
you can use them in 1 rd increments, up to 10 rds per day. one thing you could do if you really wanted to get back to 30ft base speed is take 3 levels of fighter to gain armor training. that coupled with mithral full plate of speed will set you up pretty nice. only bad thing is the obvious, you wont get 9th level spells till level 20. but if you are going heavy melee it shouldn't hurt you horrible. if you are level 11 cleric already you have your best spells for melee, Righteous Might and Divine Power. it will hurt having to wait 4 or 5 levels to gain access to Greater Restoration, and Regeneration, but you could just pick up some scrolls of those and make due. but even with out the levels of fighter the mithral full plate should suffice.
Travel domain also give you longstrider at 1st level. +10 ft enchantment bonus for 1 hr/level.
Travel domain also give you longstrider at 1st level. +10 ft enchantment bonus for 1 hr/level.
This is better.
Expeditious Retreat, either potion or wand UMD would give you great speed for a short burst.
Perhaps better is to understand why this is such an issue. If you are facing large amounts of creatures attacking your party at range you need to find a way to make ranged attacks or increase your movement (and then, flying is probably required.) If though, the real issue is that your fellow party members are rushing past you to attack foes in melee, then perhaps the real solution is to discuss party tactics. If a group plans for it, it can be better to force the opponents to come to you, rather than charging after them. This is usually best with a party that has good ranged options and members with reach weapons.
Expeditious Retreat, either potion or wand UMD would give you great speed for a short burst.
Perhaps better is to understand why this is such an issue. If you are facing large amounts of creatures attacking your party at range you need to find a way to make ranged attacks or increase your movement (and then, flying is probably required.) If though, the real issue is that your fellow party members are rushing past you to attack foes in melee, then perhaps the real solution is to discuss party tactics. If a group plans for it, it can be better to force the opponents to come to you, rather than charging after them. This is usually best with a party that has good ranged options and members with reach weapons.
You can't make expeditious retreat a potion as it's target is personal. UMD may be an interesting option later on. The problem with a wand is that it is a move action to take it out, standard to cast, and move to put away. That's a lot of actions.
As I said earlier this is mostly hypothetical. This is not a character I'm playing, and thus has no party to discuss tactics with. The reason I started the thread is because I saw a flaw in a character I built (I built him for a game that never happened) and wondered what the best, cheapest, fastest solution was. I may play him in the future, as the build seems quite fun, especially at higher levels, and in that hypothetical game there may turn out to be no need for extra speed because of the rest of the party, making this thread somewhat moot.