This is my second time making a character for Pathfinder. The first one was a fairly simple half-elf Wizard, he was cool. That was in Pathfinder Society, where there were a lot of restrictions. Now we're playing a home game and people are doing some frankly insane things. One guy is playing as a Lyrekein Artisan - that's a 3rd-party class and a race that is a FAMILIAR.
I guess I was kinda feeling pressured to do something crazy myself when I made a Samsaran Cleric of Healing and Fire. I do think this is a cool concept, I covered my bases nicely with the domains, Fire for spells and Healing for the 6th level Empower ability.
I really want to use my Mystic Past Life feature in a meaningful way, but I'm still really new at the game, I have no idea what to look for. For those who don't know, it lets you take 1 + WIS modifier spells from another spell list of the same type as yours. (since I'm a Cleric, that means 6 spells from a Divine list) The GM has also ruled that all of these spells must be from the same list, and I cannot add spells to my spell list if they are already there. (so no stealing a 4th level Greater Angelic Aspect from the Paladin list) I also don't know how long the game is going to last us. We started two weeks ago at level 3, and it LOOKS like we might be playing for a long time, but there's no guarantee we'll be reaching level 20, as far as I can tell. If I take a 9th level spell, will I ever be able to cast it?
I've mostly been looking at the Shaman and Druid lists. Shaman struck me as the one that would have the most spells that are unlike anything in the Cleric list, but I've run through everything from 1st to 5th level, and Druid has many more non-cleric spells then the Shaman list has. The thing is, I'm already the best class in the game at healing - even better once my domain power comes into play - and I've got the Fire domain covering my damaging spells if I need those (gonna be kicking some ass once the Artisan can make me a wand of Fireball) so I really don't know what else needs doing. Should I take some Lightning spells just to hit another energy type? Maybe something like Entangle or Baleful Polymorph?
I have a list of every Shaman and Druid spell from 1-5 that isn't on the Cleric list, minus the ones that are obviously unhelpful, such as ones relating to my familiar or my hexes or whatever, so I can post that too if anyone wants to see what I'm working with.
I agree with the above.
Paladin still has some goodies. As a cleric you could cast Holy Sword at 7th level. Then there is most of the Litany line of spells, with Litany of Vengeance being especially nasty because it's permanent because of the Instantaneous duration.
The spell energy comes and goes the instant the spell is cast, though the consequences might be long-lasting.
It cannot be dispelled and does not go away in an Antimagic Field.
Inquisitors can get Invisibility, See Invisibility, Heroism, and stoneskin off the top of my head. Keen edge maybe, too.
Druid has Faerie Fire (specifically counters blur & displacement) and Barkskin.
Not sure if there are any divine classes with glitterdust, mirror image, or blur/displacement.
Ranger might have some nifty spells. Paladin also gets some unique spells aside from the early-entry (which you can't get).
Edit: Holy Sword is great and paladin-only. Some of the litany spells are also nice.
The OP said his GM isn't allowing early-entry spells with this ability. He also has to choose a single class.
I hope he doesn't count Domains as part of the cleric class list. Otherwise Holy Sword(Glory 7) will be out despite not being on the cleric list.
Yeah, inquisitor or druid is probably best, and maybe paladin depending on the noon-martial-melee support spells (I'm not familiar with paladin spells).
I suppose I may as well clarify: the party basically said "we need a healer," and I said "I'll do it." First and foremost, I AM a healer, hence the Healing domain. (Restoration subdomain actually, because there's really no reason to not) I will say though, my starting point was the Fire domain, partly cause I thought it was an interesting concept, but once I took a look at it, I saw that it gives 9 spells that aren't on the Cleric list, all of which are at least usable and many of which are unlike anything else Clerics can do. From there, I looked for deities with the Fire domain, there's 13 core ones, 10 of which are evil so no channeling positive. Sarenrae was the obvious choice of the remaining three, so yeah, Fire and Healing. No Ash subdomain though, I've heard good things about it, but it's just not allowed if I'm using Sarenrae, and I don't feel like I could play a reasonable no-deity cleric yet. It sounds a tough concept to wrap my head around.
I'd probably be allowed to use Holy Sword, it's not "on my list" if I'm not of the domain, I think. Still not sure about the Paladin list, are you sure there's going to be 6 things there that aren't things I'm already doing anyway?
Inquisitor looks interesting though, can't believe I didn't looks at that list. Invisibility, Hold Monster? Yeah, I can see this being interesting. >:]
Thanks for the suggestions! I gotta admit, I was probably gonna mess with the Druid list or something, but no, Inquisitor was a really good idea. :)
Not so sure about 6 things from it, but Adept gets spells like Scorching Ray and Lightning Bolt.
Is adept arcane or divine?
I hope he doesn't count Domains as part of the cleric class list. Otherwise Holy Sword(Glory 7) will be out despite not being on the cleric list.
A clerics domains ARE counted as being part of his class list.... one of the devs clarified it a while back
Was it FAQ'd or added to errata? If not then it's not a rule. If so then clerics can pick spells from any domain to prepare normally. You wouldn't need Glory to Prepare Holy Sword.
Was it FAQ'd or added to errata? If not then it's not a rule. If so then clerics can pick spells from any domain to prepare normally. You wouldn't need Glory to Prepare Holy Sword.
I dont know... all I know is that the man in question was I believe James Jacobs......!
And no.... only a clerics domain spells are classed as being part of his list.
I don't trust any rules thing he says anyway. He's the reason SLA's got changed back to near uselessness after a YEAR of being perfectly fine because he didn't want early entry into a prestige class he made.
If I'm confusing him with someone else, please feel free to correct me.
You could find most any useful spell on some cleric domain. I'm sure the most that could be intended here is domains that are already taken (fire and healing/restoration for the OP)
I think the logic here is "No learning spells earlier then you already were going to." I can't see the GM saying "Invisibility is on some random domain, so you can't use that," partly because the connection sucks at the club where we play, and he doesn't have all the domain spell lists memorized.
And by the way, did I mention there's a player playing as an Improved Familiar? The GM also made an awakened hawk for a character once. Things are preeeetty informal here. :P
I wouldn't underestimate the diversity of the Shaman list - Entangle, Barkskin, Fly, Ball Lightning, Wandering Star Motes, Dominate Person, Overland Flight, Stoneskin... it's like a sampler platter of assorted Druid and Wizard picks.
I was looking at some of those, yeah.... Dominate Person seems a little bit not-Lawful Good to me, Fly and Overland Flight were an interesting draw for a while, but I'll be getting Wind Walk eventually and Air Walk will serve me well enough for when I ABSOLUTELY NEED to fly. Entangle could be very useful, in a heavily overgrown area. So far we've been in town for two weeks, and that spell would be dead. Ball Lightning, I've already got a bunch of fire spells. I know there's lots of things that are immune to fire, so theoretically, I should be preparing multiple kinds of energy attacks, except, the fire spells are basically just a little bonus stuff on the side. First and foremost, I am a CLERIC, mind you. Buffs, debuffs, battlefield control, healing. Damaging spells are not the focus here. As for Barkskin, I mean, I've got Shield of Faith as a 1st level spell, Barkskin does the same thing at 2nd level. Wandering Star Motes.... okay, THAT one looks interesting, I'll give you that.
Meanwhile, the Inquisitor list has Expeditious Retreat, Invisibility, Greater Invisibility, Hold Monster, Stoneskin.... all of these are essentially things I cannot do, very useful utility. I'm still deciding whether Heroism is worth it, it's a good buff but I already get lots of other buffs. Might take Witness or something else, still looking at the things.
Oh damn, that's a good point..... hmm, if the idea is to pick spells that are fundamentally unlike anything I'm already getting, I probably shouldn't pick Hold Monster. :?
Heroism is great for the bonus to saves, if nothing else. It and Barkskin both have the advantage of a long duration that can last a good while with Extend spell. There are also few other ways to get natural armor bonus, though I can't remember if barkskin is an enhancement to natural armor or not, if it might stack with amulets.
Stacks with shield of faith, regardless.
It's all moot anyway. I looked through every 1st-5th spell on the Druid and Shaman list and found them unsatisfying, but a quick glance at the Inquisitor list turns up gold. I'm not taking Barkskin.
I would go Druid or Inquisitor everytime... baseline Shaman list is fairly poor. Leaning towards Druid...
But then it all depends on your interpretation of Mystic Past Life.... if youre allowing picks from different lists, simply cherry pick the cleric domains and become officially amazing!!
What about Hunter? There list is made up of Druid and Ranger but it's should count as it's own list. Gravity Bow and Named Bullet (as a 3rd level spell no less) are great things to have if you want to pick up a bow.
Inquisitor gets a lot of goodies, you won't have trouble finding spells you like.
Hmmm... come to think about it, swiping domain spells could well be the best option.... after all the spells are still being taken from the same class!
I mean, maybe? I didn't get a chance to ask my GM anything today cause he wasn't here - we played with a different GM, Pathfinder Society game which means back to the Half-Elf Wizard for today - but I feel like I know him well enough to guess what he'll say:
"Mystic Past Life is basically you remembering your most recent life and learning some of the spells you cast a lot, so, yeah, you can use domain spells, but you can only pick two domains." He might even say "and you have to prepare those spells in the domain slots." If he says THAT, it'll be completely, totally worthless. Fire domain gives me 9 spells that all at least kind of useable, most of which are very very good. I doubt I could find domain stuff that would beat the Inquisitor list stuff.
No I meant picking spells from ANY of the domains! eg) 1 from fire, 1 from void... etc
Domain spells are on the cleric list only if that cleric picks those domains
Domain spells are on the cleric list only if that cleric picks those domains
But Mystic Past Life allows you pick divine spells that are not on your list and add them to yours..... hence my comment on interpretation
I'm not certain if that's how the rules as written work, but I'm reasonably confident that the GM will say what I think he'll say. In any case, I remember browsing the domains when I first decided to be a cleric; most of them had stuff I already had on the standard Cleric list anyway, and the ones that didn't mostly had stuff that looked boring. I COULD mine all the subdomains and look for a pair that theoretically have spells worth replacing my fire spells, or I can do much less work and grab some Inquisitor spells. :P