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Ok. Start with the following stat array (20 pt buy) - assuming you're half orc, half elf or human with +2 bonus into str.
Str 16, dex 14, con 14, int 10, wis 14, cha 10
Domains: Liberation, Travel
Lv 1 feat: Combat reflexes
Lv 3 feat: Power attack
Any feats from lv 5 onwards are up to you. Run around fishing for AOOs with a longspear, while wearing a breastplate.
Fill your lv 1 spell slots with bless, until you hit lv 6, then switch to divine favour.
If you get as far as 9th level you'll really want Quicken spell. Otherwise, yeah, that looks good.
Weapon Finesse is a bit of a trap 90% of the time. You need to invest 3 feats (Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus, Fencing/Slashing Grace) to get Dex to work as an attack stat - and even then only with a weapon wielded one-handed that you can't power attack with. So as a Dex-based finesse human you could use your first three feats to be as effective as a Strength user with no feats.
Unchained Rogues and Swashbucklers can do Dex-to-damage fairly well, but not really anyone else.
TL;DR - Weapon Finesse does let you get more out of Dexterity but requires loads of feats to be half as good.
I like the idea of the Rapier.
Ignore Dex though, just pump STR and use it for what it was made for: bonuses to hit AND damage!
Finesse is pointless, IMO. Grab a chain shirt and be a light fencer type!
Spells just make you THAT MUCH MORE AWESOME.
Also, invest in a Tengu Drinking Jug. :D It's not CRB, but your GM will likely ok it.
If not, ask if you can have a custom magic item (which IS CRB) and then just remake it. It should cost the same, but you can change it from plum wine to, say, barley wine or a very strong beer. :D
Cayden is one of my favorite Pathfinder deities, good job, hope you enjoy the character!
p.s.
Go human, you can drop the bonus feat and the skilled trait for an extra +2 to a stat. :D
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Don't bother with the jug. If your GM will allow that, he'll probably OK the part of Inner Sea Gods that allows a cleric of Cayden Cailean to create ale or wine instead of create water. ^_^
Wait, what?
They can cast create beer?
*eyes open wide* Maybe my GM will let my hunter use that... :D
Contributor
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Don't bother with the jug. If your GM will allow that, he'll probably OK the part of Inner Sea Gods that allows a cleric of Cayden Cailean to create ale or wine instead of create water. ^_^Wait, what?
They can cast create beer?
*eyes open wide* Maybe my GM will let my hunter use that... :D
Yup!
ISG, page 43. ^_^
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Don't bother with the jug. If your GM will allow that, he'll probably OK the part of Inner Sea Gods that allows a cleric of Cayden Cailean to create ale or wine instead of create water. ^_^Wait, what?
They can cast create beer?
*eyes open wide* Maybe my GM will let my hunter use that... :D
Yup!
ISG, page 43. ^_^
I don't know how I could have missed this... I should have played a cleric rather than a hunter...
Unlimited booze with a 0 level spell... wow. :D
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Since you're playing a cleric, people are going to expect that you'll be a band-aid dispenser. If you want to be a battle cleric, I strongly recommend that you shunt those things off to magic items. Ask the group to pool funds to buy a Cure Light Wounds wand and a few scrolls (Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Remove Blindness, Lesser Restoration, etc.) to deal with patching the group up after fights.
With a combat-focused build you're going to be really inefficient at in-combat healing (certainly compared to a Life Oracle or a Cleric of the Healing domain) and you want to save your spell slots for bless, divine favor, aid, bull's strength, protection from evil, magic weapon (until you get an actual magic weapon), prayer, dispel magic.
Oh, and always keep a couple spell slots open so that if you come across something you need a specific spell for you can stop a moment, prepare it, and then cast it.
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I prefer prestigiditation for alcohol. At least I don't get hangovers the next day. Plus, I usually play arcane casters, so I can't imagine what wouldn't go wrong if I really got drunk...
Kalindlara: I prefer to give higher optimization base then lower, since you can easily tweak an optimised character to be less powerful, but doing the reverse is next to impossible. Are you the GM/or another player in the same game as the OP to know what the rest of the players are like?
If you want to fish for AOOs, you should use a reach weapon. Usually you won't get much aoos with 5 ft reach. Use your 5th lv feat to give yourself improved unarmed strike, or proficiency with armor spikes so you threaten at both 5 and 10 ft.
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Thanks for the advice guys. All noted.
I am currently thinking, Pump up my DEX and take weapon finesse with Caydens weapon being the Rapier and then taking combat reflexes as 2nd I will have more AoO due to having a higher DEX bonus. The I can also put points that would be in STR into other areas and just travel a little lighter.
Thoughts?
Core has no means of letting you add Dex to damage, and it'll be hard to keep both Dex and Strength up to date, so it's going to eat into your damage. Plus, without a reach weapon, you'll have to work a lot harder for those AoOs.
You may want to consider rocking a longspear, using the stats that Just a Mort suggested and Combat Reflexes would get you a really solid Reach Cleric. Move into a good position, spend your action on your top priority buff, and then let enemies wander in and give you your attacks via AoOs. Just keek a backup spiked gauntlet for close quarters and things to deal with DR Bashing/Slashing early on.
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I prefer prestigiditation for alcohol. At least I don't get hangovers the next day. Plus, I usually play arcane casters, so I can't imagine what wouldn't go wrong if I really got drunk...
Kalindlara: I prefer to give higher optimization base then lower, since you can easily tweak an optimised character to be less powerful, but doing the reverse is next to impossible. Are you the GM/or another player in the same game as the OP to know what the rest of the players are like?
If you want to fish for AOOs, you should use a reach weapon. Usually you won't get much aoos with 5 ft reach. Use your 5th lv feat to give yourself improved unarmed strike, or proficiency with armor spikes so you threaten at both 5 and 10 ft.
The OP and I have been in discussions for a while about the group. The players are all brand-new, and the GM has some experience.
It might be worth reading through TarkXT's very useful "Tark's Big Holy Book of Clerical Optimization". In general it discusses how to make an effective Cleric and has some sample builds. The Support or Battle clerics therein might work for the suggested role, and most of it's core stuff.
You don't *need* to optimise to be effective, but not building toward combat can leave you and the group frustrated. I've been in a couple of groups with rogues or bards plinking away for 1D6 damage per turn with shortbows at level 5+, no archery feats or composite bows. It gets boring fast.
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I hope you're able to find what you need in there Rushacre.
If as Kalindlara says you are new to Pathfinder it might be worth Googling "the forge of combat" which is also by Tark (IIRC). It's not specifically about clerics but provides a good grounding in group roles and dynamics. Understanding what roles you fill can inform how you build your character.
