So, not sure exactly where to ask this on the forums, figured this is the best place.
I'm currently making a level 10 cleric for a campaign that is homebrewed a bit different than a regular cleric. It cannot channel energy or cast ranged touch spells, but instead has full BAB & one bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels. In addition my ability scores are 16/8/20/8/18/8 (With 2 points to spend).
I'm very unused to playing divine spell casters, especially one like this. I was considering going a dark tapestry & catastrophe domain combo with spell-storing weapons.
Any tips or ideas to capitalize on this template?
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This homebrew rule system makes clerics much more martial and slightly more powerful. Instead of 3/4 BaB you get full BaB plus you get bonus feats. Sounds like the GM wishes to encourage battle clerics.
This doesn't really change a lot. You lose Channeling, which is minor. There are few worthy divine ranged touch spells, so ignore that. Extra feats are great. All the regular cleric guides apply, with little change.
By 10th level your cleric will be able to cast powerful spells, so it often won't be worth your time to fight in melee combat. A reach-style battle cleric would work especially well for you, since you are both martially capable and a high level caster. A reach cleric casts a spell on your turn and relies an AoOs to inflict damage during enemy movement. That way you use both the caster part and the martial part of the character, at the same time.
The first question you want to ask yourself is "What type of cleric do I want to play?" Please post back to this thread once you have an idea what sort of cleric you want to play.
Sorry for the delay: I was looking at playing a more disruptive cleric. One that relies on spellstoring weapons, powers, and summons to overall be an annoyance. The character's background mostly prevents unarmed combat so the one bad touch cleric build I reviewed seemed difficult to recreate.
I don't need to be damage (everyone in party is that) and the group has two healers already so I'd most likely end up being negative energy for purposes of inflict spells.
Domain wise, one is free but the other one I have to choose dark tapestry due to how the character's lore is set up. So overall alot of mind altering effects or severe debuffs. AoE is a plus given most combat situations have 10+ enemies. Most of these are humanoids or constructs.
Overall the character is a stark contrast from the party. A low intelligence two headed ogre where each head worships a separate god (and they argue with one another) allowing me to pick one domain from each god, which is GM allowed. Dark tapestry is a must because the one head is chaotic evil & personality wise it fits best (other one is chaotic good). Given the incredibly high strength I start with I figured use a 2h weapon would be preferable, but even reviewing the bad touch build I'm not apt to really design it perfectly. I was considering using spiked gauntlets with spellstoring + 2h weapon with spellstoring and when things get hairy can have blindness in the gauntlets to punch someone (If this is even possible).
If you want to be an "annoying" cleric, you could be a reach cleric that uses your AoOs to sunder or trip (but check to make sure that's a legal use of an AoO). You might want to use your bonus feats to get Teamwork feats, and position yourself in combat to grant flanking bonuses to your allies--and yourself.
EDIT: Summoning is also a major feature of reach clerics. Have you checked out the reach cleric guide? You may want to increase your Dex to at least 12 if you plan on taking Combat Reflexes.
Also, my new favorite spell is murderous command which forces one opponent (if they fail a Will save) to attack another opponent. I wonder if it would be worth taking the Magical Lineage trait and apply Extend Spell to it?
If you want to be an "annoying" cleric, you could be a reach cleric that uses your AoOs to sunder or trip (but check to make sure that's a legal use of an AoO). You might want to use your bonus feats to get Teamwork feats, and position yourself in combat to grant flanking bonuses to your allies--and yourself.
I would do that, but the fighter we have literally specced into cavalier, rides a horse, and does nothing but trip people en-mass. Our other three people are a paladin/vitalist/cleric/something else pure healer, a psionic with something like 26 intellect, and a magus. Both magus and psionic are pure damage builds.
OK, are you going for battlefield control? Buffing? Pure damage? De-buffing?
I once played a druid that used Improved Counterspell to trade prepared flame strikes to cancel out opposing fireballs and lightning bolts. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure light wound wands. ;-)
If you are a summoning cleric, I bet you would really annoy opposing healers by countering cure spells with your prepared summons. Maybe not super effective, but fun and annoying.
By the way, a two-headed ogre sounds super awesome and fun!!! I love that they bicker about their different deities. :-D
OK, are you going for battlefield control? Buffing? Pure damage? De-buffing?
I once played a druid that used Improved Counterspell to trade prepared flame strikes to cancel out opposing fireballs and lightning bolts. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure light wound wands. ;-)
If you are a summoning cleric, I bet you would really annoy opposing healers by countering cure spells with your prepared summons. Maybe not super effective, but fun and annoying.
By the way, a two-headed ogre sounds super awesome and fun!!! I love that they bicker about their different deities. :-D
Counterspell? I"d have to look into that! I'm most likely going to go a reach build, possibly increase my size with a spell & use combat reflexes. With the mixture of domains I was considering Catastrophe & (Void i think?) Subdomain. This way if I can't get in range (Ogre race we made has 20ft movement) I can summon something each round I'm out of range. Exact 'racials' of the race are:
See in Darkness
Medium Sized
20ft Movement Speed
+2/-2/+4/-2/+2/-2
Dual-Minded: Members of this race gain a +2 bonus on all Will saving throws.
Fiendish Resistance: Members of this race gain cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.
Natural Armor + Improved Natural Armor: +2 Natural AC
Hard to Inturrupt Two Heads: +5 to Concentration Checks (Homebrewed)
Its also 25 point buy, but the GM said he'd prefer it if I kept the ogre thematic with a low CHA/DEX so it makes sense.
EDIT: Redid ability scores, after adding level 4 & 8 scores its now 18/12/18/10/18/7 Would this be better for a reach debuffing/summoning cleric?
Looks pretty buff!