I was recently accepted into an evil-characters-only campaign, and I decided to build a cleric. Taking a cue from Victor Zsasz, my concept is a sadomasochistic cleric of Zon-Kuthon. I wanted to build him fairly battly, and get some use out of my negative energy channeling as well. As such, I chose the Pain alternate channel and went towards making an (un)Holy Vindicator.
Using the Focus and Foible method, I rolled fairly well, ending up with 18 16 14 13 13 8.
What I have so far is:
Victor the Scarred
Half-Elf Cleric
STR: 20
DEX: 13
CON: 16
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHA: 13
Weapons: Falcata (gained proficiency through Ancestral Arms), Spiked Chain
Armor: Breastplate, Quickdraw Light Steel Shield
Domains: Darkness, Destruction
Traits: Murderer (campaign trait, +1 to damage while flanking), Magical Knack (+2 to Caster Level)
Feats:
Bonus Feat: Blindfight
1: Scribe Scroll
3: Quick Draw
Bonus Teamwork Feat: Escape Route
5: Selective Channeling
7: Power Attack
9: Improved Initiative
11: Improved Critical
13:
15:
17:
19:
I was planning on taking Cleric levels up to 8, then HV 10, then finishing with Cleric 2. Is this a good idea? Is there anything I could do better? And does anyone have any feat suggestions?
I've seen people take a couple levels of fighter for quicker access to (un)holy vindicator and better proficiencies.
If you do that, I suggest being an angel blooded aasimar. Obviously STR helps, and more CHA means more negative channels.
Bonus feats are nice too.
I considered fighter, but I wanted to have full clerical caster level. With Magical Knack and an Orange ioun stone, that should be possible.
As for being an Aasimar, I have a knee-jerk negative reaction to them.
Suli might have the same bonuses, if you can death with the INT penalty.
Hmm... That's interesting, but I get falcata proficiency for free with Half-Elf. Plus, I sorta want to play him as more of a mundane race that snapped, as opposed to an outsider or god-child.
Addem Up wrote: Hmm... That's interesting, but I get falcata proficiency for free with Half-Elf. Plus, I sorta want to play him as more of a mundane race that snapped, as opposed to an outsider or god-child. I meant be Suli IF YOU TAKE A LEVEL OF FIGHTER. That way you get falcata proficiency for free because of martial weapon proficiency.
As for flavor, do what you want.
Falcata's an exotic weapon.
If Zon-Kuthon is not a necessary part of the build, I sugest worshipping Belial for the Rage domain. Couple it with the Law domain. This way you will have access to rage at 8th lvl.
Make Sacred Conduit one of your traits.
Pain is fine, Rulership is even better though. If you choose one of the archdevils to worship it makes sence too (as each rules a layer of Hell).
I would take my feats like this:
1: Selective Channeling
3: Quick Draw
5: Power Attack
7: Alignment Channel (necessary for taking lvls of HV, I guess you forgot it)
9: Quicken Channel
11: Improved Channel
13: Critical Focus
15: Staggering Critical
17: Quicken Spell
19: Divine Interference
Do not take the feat improved critical, instead make your weapon keen or buy a scabbard of keen edges.
An alternative is Moloch for the Tactics domain. It works best though with combat expertise , which means swifting your int score with your dex score. It will hurt a bit at the lower lvls.
If you decide to stay with Zon-Kuthon, I will again suggest to take combat expertise, so that you can have access to the moonlight stalker feat. It will work even better with a cloak of lesser displacement (on top of your cloak of resistance of course, rememeber you can pay an extra +50% of the cost of the item in order to combine it with another item in the same slot).
Of course, if you take combat expertise, make sure you also take the improved and greater trip feats.
Addem Up wrote: Falcata's an exotic weapon. Oops. Still, if you dip two levels of fighter, a bonus feat can be used on EWP. You still get heavy armor proficiency, one bonus feat, and better BAB.
While I can't ignore the value of rage, we're stuck with core deities only. And besides, I like the idea of a sadomasochistic evil cleric. Interesting point about Sacred Conduit, though I think Magical Knack would suit me better. I do still want to have my caster level= my level. Maybe the additional traits feat would help...
I don't want to focus too much on channeling. It would be more of an option and less of a focus, especially with Vindicator's Shield.
How do these look?
Revised Feats:
Bonus Feat: Blindfight
1: Scribe Scroll
3: Quick Draw
Bonus Teamwork Feat: Escape Route
5: Alignment Channel
7: Power Attack
9: Selective Channeling
11: Improved Critical
13: Additional Traits (Sacred Conduit and Witty Repartee)
15: Staggering Critical
17:
19:
In an evil game, I'd do something along these lines. Here is a rough outline of what I'd try to put together.
I'd take Death domain to get negative energy healing you, or go Dhampir. I don't much see the point in spending feats on Quick Draw. Destruction Domain for sure, Trickery if you go Dhampir. Drop Murderer, take reactionary. Drop Imp. Initiative and Imp. Critical. Go for spell perfection Disintegrate, drop scribe scroll and Quick draw. Take Spell Focus, G. Spell Focus, Spell Pen and G. Spell Pen. Add up all the bonuses to Disintegrate (spell con., spell pen, Holy Vindicator bonus etc) then double it due to spell perfection. Take damage boosting meta magic feats. You'll have a brutal attack spell, insane armor, AoE damage via Channel Neg. Energy that heals you. Or you could spell perfection something like suffocation (if you take the murder domain) and be a tank version of the vacuum wizard build that's been posted. If possible look at taking Fey Foundling at level 1 to boost your healing. For some fun, toss a level of Diabolist in and get an Imp companion, have it learn the scribe scroll feat for you.
All right. So here's what I have locked in.
I want to be a battle cleric, focusing on using my spells and powers as options to use when I can't smash rather than my main focus. Strongly leaning towards Zon-Kuthon, and almost definitely going to be a half-elf. I'll channel negative energy with Pain as a debuff tactic, or use my channel in the Vindicator's Shield.
I need to take one of the Way of the Wicked traits, and I'd want Magical Knack as well to keep my caster level high. I could take the Additional Traits feat if necessary.
With that said, I'm reconsidering just how useful Scribe Scroll would be. Quickdraw does add .5 STR damage to my attacks by letting me two-hand with my falcata, so unless there's a feat that would work better, that stays. I'd want to have cleric 10 and HV 10 in order to cast 9th level spells.
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