|
I have never played a cleric before, and my first time will be considerably simplified by being bound to the Core Rulebook only. I will either go for Nethys and take the Rune and Magic domains or Desna and take some combination of Travel, Liberation, and Luck domains.
I was thinking that using a reach weapon would be quite handy as I could spend my standard's casting spells and potentially make attacks of opportunity during my attacker's turns. This is all the more appealing when considering the Rune domain's first level power. I could as a standard place a rune in front of me, and then should a foe choose to attack me I might get both an attack of opportunity as well as a magic landmine.
A bit gimmicky I know, but the the concept tickles me.
I rolled a rather stunning set of scores : 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 13 and was considering how to array them. Part of me wants to (adding human +2 in here) go with 18, 15, 13, 15, 16, 15. It is hard to turn down high strength, particularly with so many buff spells that would affect both myself and my allies.
Is this unnecessary? Should I focus more on stacking charisma and wisdom for channeling and spell DCs?
Any other advice is more than welcome!
I really like the Reach Cleric though fishing for AoO's takes a little party team work.
Human or Dwarf would be good Race choices and Desna would fit both thematically and the domains are sweet. Human will get you Combat Reflexes and Power Attack right out the box. Add in furious focus and your melee needs are pretty set. I know dipping is sometimes frowned on but you could make a pretty sweet Fighter(1)/Cleric(?) to get some different weapons and armor.
I like Dwarf Unbreakable Fighter 1/ Cleric of Desna(i suppose).
Gets you endurance and diehard, heavy armor proficiency and access to the Dwarven Longhammer for your reach weapon.
Another cool option that could work would be a Ranger Dip. Two good saves and nice skill points along with some really useful skills. Put that wisdom to use with some perception. Favored enemies Giants and the trait for RotRL for more bonuses against giants. Maybe throw in Big Game Hunter later on along with being a Dwarf. Layith the Holy Smack down on some Giant Candy Asses.
Really wish i made a good Dwarf Cleric or Ranger for the RotRL campaign i'm in.
Others with actual Cleric advice will be able to better help you with the build.
Oh, i will say that selective channel will be a good feat to grab due a lot of time spent in cramped confines.
Dwarf Cleric/Ranger.
16/15/15+2/13/16+2/15-2
Cleric
1st: Combat Reflexes
2nd: Dip Ranger or Fighter
3rd: Selective Channel
5th: Power Attack
Here is my 15 pt cleric for RotRL - Iomadae. Heavy armour and Toughness make me an ok front liner( though my equipment / wealth doesn't allow for the good stuff yet). I'd be overjoyed if I had 18 Str and not 14 :)
Depends on what you want to do with a cleric. If you want to run around delivering debilitating touch spells/powers Wisdom should be your highest stat so you can have very high save DCs. Also advisable for Clerics that want to be more 'caster-esque'... generally the Theologian archetype.
Battle oriented clerics would want to focus on strength because you don't generally need a very high wisdom score to drop buffs on yourself or willing creatures (the party).
If you like the idea of a more battle oriented cleric, Erastil is a surprisingly good deity if you can select subdomains.
Growth (subdomain) essentially lets you use a swift action to gain the benefits of the Enlarge Person spell for one round 3 + wisdom modifier times a day.
Using a reach weapon with Blast Rune and Spell Rune is clever and might result in some success if your party is willing to work with you. Getting Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat can be pretty nice too if you can remember to track crafting time religiously and use every possible hour scribing scrolls to increase the number of spells you have available.
The reach weapon means you won't have a shield though. That could make your AC a little low, especially if you don't wear heavy armor. You might consider the Summon Monster line of spells as a way to create expendable front line units and flankers as well as inflicting some pretty decent damage at higher levels. In a Core Only game it isn't like a Summoner will join the party and show you up in this role. I suppose you could also have a summoned monster lead enemies into your Runes.
I think Selective Channel could be pretty good in RotRL, especially if you do choose to focus a bit on summoning. There's an item called the phylactery of positive channeling which adds +2d6 to your channel, and all the PCs plus your summoned monsters could benefit from a hit point boost while the enemy doesn't. Meanwhile you can still hang around waiting to make your AoOs.
|
|
Ah so many things! It looks like the party will be quite melee focused, with a rogue, fighter, and barbarian. The sorcerer might also be pseudo melee with low level cone spells.
Like you say Devilkiller, the Rune domain has quite a bit of charm, but I am thinking with so many melee oriented allies it is less important, and hazardous (particularly to a raging barbarian) should we all be shoulder to shoulder.
One thing I had considered was taking a few levels of paladin for martial and heavy armor Prof's, but I would not be able to be a cleric of Desna (clerics needing to be within one step of their chosen god's alignment) if I did that. Erastil is a possibility but alas no subdomains in core only.
I think I will go ahead with Desna and reach. The toss ups now would be feats and domains. I really like the Luck domain, but the Liberation domain feels stronger (the 8th level power sounds proper good). With my Human feat I will take some combination of Improved Initiative, Selective Channeling, and Combat reflexes.
Thanks ya'll!
If you're considering Erastil or Paladin that potentially opens up mounted builds, which I really enjoy. There would be plenty of places where you could ride a mount in RotRL. Even a mount with an effective druid level of -3 could be quite nice for moving you around while you cast spells, make ranged attacks, summon monsters, etc. If you're into channeling energy the mount pretty much gets healed for free.
It would also give you a way to make a few attacks even during rounds where you have to spend your action saving an ally with healing or some other spell. The defensive benefit of hiding behind the mount for +4 AC is also not to be overlooked. I'd probably avoid multiclassing into anything which weakened the already below full power animal, but using a light shield and lance could be an interesting way to have the best of both worlds plus double damage on charges. I'm not sure if I'd spend a feat on it when archery might be more effective though.
I'd recommend Toughness since you're going to melee without a shield, extra hp is always nice.
Luck and Liberation are both amazing domains... I'd go with Liberation since your party looks melee oriented which will make it more likely that your aura domain power will cover most of the party.
The two domains kind of overlap in what they provide. Liberation is going to be a bit more defensive.
Actually, with so many melee comrades, I would consider a full-caster cleric build with 20 Wis at 1st lvl. Just use a crossbow at low lvls when you run out of spells, but his way you will be able to make good use of debuffs and save or suck spells, and of course you will be much more effective at higher lvls.
Or go for some bad touching.
Half-Orc cleric of Gorum. Use Greatsword. Smash face.
My wife created a human cleric of Desna with Luck and Travel domains for a Rise of the Runelords campaign that started today. Clerics of Desna fit perfectly into the opening of the adventure: the annual Swallowtail Butterfly Festival in honor of Desna. And the Travel domain is awesome.
Human or Dwarf would be good Race choices and Desna would fit both thematically and the domains are sweet.... I know dipping is sometimes frowned on ...
ezrider23's advice is solid. Human or Dwarf are the best choices. And I can't argue against dipping Ranger, since I played a gnome ranger/monk in Rise of the Runelords and had lots of fun. I took Guide archetype for Ranger, so I didn't have to pick a Favored Enemy.
On the other hand, if the party has plenty of martial characters, focus on being a pure cleric for the spellcasting.
I rolled a rather stunning set of scores : 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 13 and was considering how to array them. Part of me wants to (adding human +2 in here) go with 18, 15, 13, 15, 16, 15. It is hard to turn down high strength, particularly with so many buff spells that would affect both myself and my allies.
Is this unnecessary? Should I focus more on stacking charisma and wisdom for channeling and spell DCs?
Any other advice is more than welcome!
Spell DCs are not important for a cleric who enters combat himself, because his spells will be spent buffing himself into a fighting machine. Nevertheless, I still like Wisdom 18 for the bonus spell at 7th level. That way you can spend your 4th-level stat boost increasing one of the 15s into a 16.
Strength 16 is good enough for the minor unbuffed combats. Reach weapons are wielded two-handed, so the the Strength bonus gets a 1.5 multiplier for damage, turning +3 into +4.
Don't dump Charisma--put a 15 there instead of the 13--but it is not a vital stat. A cleric who plows through enemies has to do little healing afterwards. Enemies will die before they deal damage.
With all that melee you could go for a pure caster Cleric of Erastil for Longbow proficiency. (Or once again back to the dip, Ranger 1/Cleric of Desna)
Human
STR- 15
DEX- 16
CON- 15
INT- 13
WIS- 15+2(Human)
CHA- 16
Go for the Community and Law domains(lack luster but okay)
FEATS
1st- Point-Blank Shot
HUM- Precise Shot
3rd- Selective Channel
After that you can either go whole hog into archer feats or caster feats as needed. Toughness and Improved Initiative would be nice.
Having a Ranged focused character will come in handy at times and this gives you a better option for your own tactical placement. Get yourself a myriad of Blanches for bypassing DR and whatnot and away you go.
You should try to convince the Fighter player to go Fighter/Wizard(?Transmuter?)/Eldritch Knight. I think having the Arcane spellcaster will really benefit both the story and the party.
I'm personally working on a Trapper Ranger 1/Wizard 3 of some sort, since my Teleportation Wizard just died in RotRL. We wanted some Trapfinding/Stealthy Scout for the party.
|
|
Hmmm the archer option is pretty decent, and since I am sold on Human I I would be able to take the all to critical precise shot, otherwise I really have no hope of shooting into melee.
I am still tickled by the idea of the rune landmines, particularly at higher levels when spells can be attached to them and you can make amusing use of the Command spell, and similar magics.
However it is better to have something that consistently works well and does not rely on such elaborate setup.
Knowledge domain might be good so I have access to all knowledge skills, and Magic is still a bit tempting as I could melee and ranged combat (via hand of the apprentice) with no extra investment.
RotRl practically screams Dwarven Cleric. Desna has superb domains, but try to come up with a plausible back story, if you do that. I'd recommend Abadar - for your standing in Varisian Society and it fits dwarves (imo).
Dwarves get Darkvision and Weapon Familiarity (Hello Warhammer) Abadar gets the Travel Domain, too (you'll be faster than dem longshanks most of the time!)
Replace the Hatred Racial Trait with Giant Hunter (although both have their advantages in the AP).
For stats I suggest:
Str 16
Dex 15
Con 15+2
Int 13
Wis 16+2
Cha 15-2
Don't focus on channeling at all - you can now do it 4/day, that's enough. You will be a decent melee combatant in the low to mid levels, but not extraordinary, but that is not your duty. Focus on wisdom (Level-ups, headbands and what-have-you) and become the invincible full caster that you should be in the second half of your career.
Edit: I only see now that you are sold on human. Never mind!