| Elbedor |
Ok, I've tinkered with this guy after looking over some Cleric guides and wanted to get feedback on how to make him shine. I have him planned out to 11th level on purpose. I'm not sure how much play he'll get once he hits 12th. So I'm really focusing on 1-11 playable range.
Logus Blithe
Human
Cleric of Desna
Chaos (Revelry) and Luck Domains
Longspear for reach
STR 17 +1
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 15 +1
CHA 07
Feats:
Combat Reflexes, Additional Traits, Impr Init, Toughness, (empty), (empty), Divine Interference.
As you can see my 7th and 9th lvl Feat picks are empty. I could go with Power Attack as he'll be wielding a spear and something else to feed off that (like bullrushing to push targets back beyond spear reach so they have to close in again). I considered Sacred Summons, but in looking at his spell selection that I'd most likely run with, there isn't much room for Summoning. Was really REALLY hoping to Retrain for Quicken SLA (Bit of Luck) out of the Bestiary...but in PFS, no go. :(
Traits:
Fate's Favored (Faith), Observant (Grand Lodge), Reckless (Combat), Paragon of Speed (Regional)
He's set to gain a nice little bonus to any Luck effect on him (which will be from Divine Favor/Power and Prayer mostly). Observant and Reckless make Acrobatics and Perception class skills so he's less likely to be surprised and can frolic about the battlefield as needed.
Skills (all favored class bonuses here):
Acrobatics and Perception both 11.
Some in Heal, Profession, and Sense Motive.
1 point each in various Knowledge, Linguistics, and Spellcraft (he didn't pay much attention in class).
Some Gear:
+1 Conductive, Courageous, Vicious Longspear
+4 Str Belt
+4 Wis Headband
+1 Moderate Fortification Mithril Breastplate
Sprinkling of Ioun Stones placed in Wayfinders (+2 Dex, +1 Init, +2 changeable skills x2, +1 Saves).
Pots, Scrolls, Wands, and other odds and ends.
His tactics would be to Enlarge via pots (early on) or Righteous Might (later) for size and reach. Spend his actions casting, buffing, and healing. AoO anything that moves around the battlefield with either Longspear (15-20ft) or Unarmed (5-10ft). I could add spikes to the armor and pick up Martial Proficiency (armor spikes) instead of having IUS through the Dex Ioun, but not sure that's worth the feat.
He can deliver his Chaos Touch through his weapon so BBEG has to double roll on attacks or saves and he can buff friends with Luck. Bless, Good Hope, Prayer, Divine Favor, Divine Power, and Righteous Might would all get some play (making sure not to layer similar bonuses that don't stack). And between his Trait and Weapon, he'd be enjoying a +1 to any Luck or Morale bonus (although I could drop Courageous for the +1 there and free up 14k gold for something else).
Ok. So what am I missing? What can I improve? What change can make my delicious bundle of chaos an awesome force to be reckoned with and a welcome ally to whatever party he runs in?
Advice?
Kyoko Hitomu
|
Well I know switching to Evangelist you would lose a few things but you could inspire courage and give yourself and your allies morale bonuses. I know Magda would give that advise also as it's been quite effective for her.
Later down the road you'll be doing less and less damage where as summons would out scale greatly. I personally don't care for summons though because I don't like the extra management. Without something like Evangelist you'll feel quite 2 dimensional and underpowered the higher level you get. You're tanking Cha so your low amount of channels won't help your team out much and the tanks are going to do more damage every round past 7th level.
Playing a fair amount of PFS I've seen most of the difficult fights being demons and evil clerics. Demons typically have abilities to teleport so reach isn't of much help. Same with Evil clerics as they'll get your team within a 30' reach and just double negative channel.
IMO, I'd say if you're looking to melee Cleric pick Evangelist or the under appreciated Forgemaster class.
EDIT: In other words, you're lacking healing as you have little to no channels and you're using most of your buffs for self melee enhancement. As you get higher level enemies will have fly, flyby attack, or teleport and your battlefield control will be less helpful. You'll be missing more often and doing less damage than most frontline fighters/barbarians and you'll be spending some of your rounds self buffing to be competitive during a fight, where as a casting cleric would be summoning or controlling the battlefield and gaining the advantage.
On the other hand, you will have the advantage of keeping the enemies at bay with your AoO range and during the early and middle levels you should outshine most enemies.
I tried a melee longspear cleric and after a few scenarios found myself sitting out a fight due to advancing up and getting flanked by two rogues. Luckily I didn't die but I have to admit that playing a Reach Cleric you're usually mediocre AC, low hp, and putting yourself in an area to get hammered on by monsters. Just throwing that out there that I found the Reach Cleric to be a riskier choice for a Cleric build.
| Elbedor |
This build isn't a Channel healer so I'm not worried about lack of channels. And the CHA dump is on purpose. With the Domain selections he has access to Good Hope, which will cover the Morale buff in a fight which will stack with Prayer.
I could consider putting in Sacred Summons and then just make sure to have the proper spells slotted to put it to use.
Beyond that, I'm considering slapping Benevolent on his armor, swapping his Regional Trait for Adopted (Social) and picking up Helpful (Halfling), and filling one of those empty feat slots with Bodyguard.
This means as a Standard he can give an ally a +4 on a skill check or attack roll and as an AoO up to a +8 on AC if I strip off Moderate Fortification.
GM: "Ally is hit by the demon."
Logus: "I burn an AoO to increase Ally's AC by +8"
GM: "Nice. Were the Ally not raging, it would have helped. But the Rage penalty means the roll is good enough to hit."
Logus: "Did I mention I'm also burning a spell slot via Divine Interference so the Demon has to roll again?" =D
Regarding Monsters, the goal is to keep moving as necessary (high Acrobatics for lots of frolicking), outreach them (20ft), and limit them to standard attacks rather than full attacks by forcing them to move more than 5ft.
Regarding some rogue flanking.....Blur pots. :)