Cleric focusing on channeling

[calartnick]

So I'm doing a negative energy cleric that will focus on raising undead starting at level 5. I will be taking feats to make channeling more viable (with extra feats I will take spell focus, augment summoning to give me some more options pet wise). As far as spells I plan on mostly using buffs.

We roll for ability scores (i know i know, what is this, 1987?) and I was lucky enough to get an 18. my second highest score was a 14.

My biggest question, should I put the +2 in cha to make it a super score of 20, or boost my wisdom up to 16?

[Arachnofiend]

Wisdom needs to be high enough to be able to cast all of your spells, which is going to be difficult to do without sinking money into a wis headband starting at a 14. If you don't expect your campaign to go past level 12 you should be fine sticking with the 14 and just using your level up bonus points to pump wisdom, but after that you start to fall behind.

[zylphryx]

I'd run with the boost to Cha ... when you create undead (outside of skellies and zombies with animate dead), you don't automatically control them ... the command undead feat burns a channel use, and since Cha determines both the DC for your channels and the base number of channels per day, a 20 Cha would serve you well.

You can bump your Wis at 4th, 8th, and 12th levels (getting you up to a 17 in time for you to be able to cast 7th level spells). Granted your spell DCs will not be great, but they will be OK. Spell Focus (necromancy) will give you a little boost to DCs of your primary undead related spells as well.

And when you have cash to burn, look into a combined phylactery of negative channeling/headband of inspired wisdom (or mental prowess cha/wis) combined item. It will be pricey, but it will definitely give you a nice boost to your spell DCs as well as the potency of your negative channels. you will need the magical boost to Wis by 15th level at the latest or you will have a one level delay in accessing 8th level spells (you would not be able to bump Wis to 18 until 16th level) and without a headband bump of at least +2 you won't have access to 9th level spells until you hit level 20.

[calartnick]

Awesome! Thanks! We probably won't ever get beyond 15th level, I'm guessing we stop somewhere between 10-12. I'm not too worried about spell DCs since I plan on mostly using spells for buffs, summoning and utility.