|
Just curious about what advice people would offer for a my character I'm planning on for Rise of the Runelords. I'm not very experienced playing clerics, but think that this should work pretty well. We use rolled stats and everyone is starting off with pretty good numbers... way better than I would allow if I was GMing, but there is no flexibility other than where I put the racial bonus.
Str 16
Dex 10
COn 16
Int 10
Wis 16(+2racial)=18
Cha 15
Variant channel ability (rulership) for the daze effect on failed saves against my channel negative energy to harm living creatures.
Traits: Dangerously curious, Student of Faith(RotRL campaign trait +1DC for channel ability and +1 caster level for cure spells)
Feats: Selective Channeling, Command Undead
My plan is to take Sacred Summons at third level, and continue to take feats that improve my channel ability or improve my summoning ability all the way through. Not sure if I have the feats to spare though to do both effectively, and want to know if anyone sees glaring problems with this.
|
Asmodeus doesn't allow dazing channel (he doesn't have rulership portfolio). You want Dispater, Horus or Ra for that. If you're content with dazing undead only, Iomedae will work. Also if you worship an evil deity, you can only cast inflict spontaneously.
Before you fiddle around with undead (no hard feelings), have you ever thought of what you'd do with them after you get them under your control? Undead aren't very socially acceptable anywhere, except in Geb.
I will admit LE/CE characters get some of the best use of scared summons.
|
|
I didn't realize that Rulership was an actual domain. I asked the GM and he OKed it, but I will let him know that it wouldn't be standard.
It's OK though as it isn't really crucial to the character (worship of Asmodeus is) so he would just be a regular negative channeling cleric.
He wouldn't really keep his undead that he takes control of, just use them as fodder until they are destroyed... My train of thought being that it's probably a good idea with limited healing to use whatever HP sponges you can find along the way to prevent damage to the party.
I think that with the variant channel off the table I would likely take spell focus conjuration at 5th level and Augment summoning at 7th. this will increase the HP and effectivness of blockers and fodder we have to prevent damage to the party. Improved Channel is less important if I'm not going to be dazing guys with it.
Rulership is thematically appropriate for Big A, aka the Prince of Lies, the Dark Prince, Lord of Hell, King of Devils, etc.
|
|
Rulership is thematically appropriate for Big A, aka the Prince of Lies, the Dark Prince, Lord of Hell, King of Devils, etc.
That's what I had thought, and the GM agreed. I didn't even know there was an actual domain of rulership.
But if there has been a precedent set, then I'll just leave it in my GMs hands as far as if he wants to allow a humble(lie) servant of Asmodeus to take it.
Honest advice....
Scrap your current idea - be a standard cleric of Asmodeus with the Fire(Ash) and Trickery domains.... still get Sacred Summons if you want.
Alongside your usual stuff you can now be a reasonable blaster and a good summoner.
Forget channeling completely.... can you re-arrange you stats at all?
Now....Get yourself tanked up with armour, sheield and mirror images, then proceed to stand in the middle of the battle summoning devils and laying down fireballs and walls of ash, cackling madly as your enemies try in vain to hit you!!!
|
|
Looks like I'm going to be a regular channel cleric of Asmodeus. The GM said he was unsure about the variant channel ability and since it isn't RAW anyways (I still think it fits thematically) I just told him I would stick with normal negative energy channel.
No flexibility on stats at all other than where I put my discresionary +2 from being human, so I'm not going to scrap channeling completely. I can put my level 4 stat bump to charisma and from then on exclude my allies, then go everything into Wisdom after that. I love the trickery domain, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the fire domain. I do like the spells, but I'm completely underwhelmed by the fire bolt ability.
Ash sub-domain gets you:
1st—burning hands, 2nd—produce flame, 3rd—fireball, 4th—wall of fire, 5th—fire shield, 6th—fire seeds, 7th—disintegrate, 8th—incendiary cloud, 9th—fiery body
Nice spell selection but the big one for me is Wall of Ash at 8th..... amazing de-buff for a domain power that can be used in 1 min increments... so you'll basically have all you need AND its no SR.
I literally have ended encounters with it!
Fire dart isn't great but it could be worse and TBH I would focus on getting some Pearls of Power and concentrating on burning hands.
If you want to find a use for CHA, you could get Scribe Scroll and start building a scroll bank.
I really dont like channeling but if you must then Channel Ray can be a better bet.
Being a normal cleric of Asmodeus is pure crap. I can say this as I've tried it and it doesn't work. What you need to make it worthwhile is either an ecclisitheurge based deception and fire or theologian on fire. If you don't then you can't blast beyond a domain slots use and the arcane spells granted by deception are in the same boat.
I disagree - it can be done you just have to think outside the box and be creative.
2 x cheap Lv 1 POP means that you have 3 x Burning Hands per day. A nice starter to see you through lower levels
Scribe scroll feat - always good for ANY cleric and especially so for scrolls of mirror image.... 75gp per scroll is nothing. Mirror image is a min/lvl spell so you dont need it scribed at high level.
Fireball is only 1xday... not brilliant but OK. Bear in mind you now have Lv3 spells so options start to increase anyway. Scribe Scroll can be used for the odd top up.
Lv 8 - you now have access to Wall of Fire AND the most excellent Wall of Ash as a SNA.
Bearing in mind you will be doing a lot of Sacred Summoning of devils, you have a reasonably good amount of blasting stuff to add to the mix. And as well remember you have all your other cleric spells going on too.
Might I suggest the Herald Caller archetype?
It restricts your summons list to fiendish/resolute animals, fire elementals, and Lawful or Evil creatures, as well as granting Augment Summoning at 4th and Superior Summoning at 8th.
You gain 4+Int skill points per level (huge bonus, not really sure why it was added, although it's awesome), and the ability to spontaneously cast Summons, without losing the ability to spontaneous Inflicts.
You only choose one domain, though, which I suggest be Trickery for the defensive spells (Invisibility? Yes!).
This will let you keep the Rulership channel (if your GM allows), and also pick up the needed feats for channeling (selective, improved, extra, etc.).
Silver surfer: if your pulling out scrolls that won't even do damage enough to compete with real blasters I won't judge but it IS subpar. And it's a serious number of feats to blast, so much so it becomes your character. But without being able to change the damage type, the free metamagic, or other goodies you have a crap blaster. There is some good to be had I admit but it's just not living up to what two or more archetypes can do with the same deity. Ecclisitheurge and theologian do great and as bigrig107 said "herald caller might fit better for summons". That's three strong options that inherently are stronger.
You clearly havent read the previous posts.....
1) I never said that you'd be a great blaster did I with a standard cleric? I said you could be reasonable... which if you follow my suggestions you would be. If you really wanted to take the argument on further you could easily buy some 3rd lvl POP as you levelled up (especially since someone in the party always get Craft Wonderous)... thus giving you some extra Fireball ability. And scrolls are an excellent use for Mirror Image spells.
I stand by my original comment.... tank armour + shield + mirror imaging + sacred summons + bit of blasting = a good solid Cleric of A
Thats my opinion....
2) Read the OP posts.... he is stuck with the stats and the order they are in..... yes you could play an Ecclesitheurge absolutely...I never said you couldnt did I?.... (AGAIN with the reading) but then again 16 STR is completely wasted on it.... an Ecclesitheurge is dead the moment it enters melee.
3) Other archetypes are possible.... I never said they werent did I? (are we seeing a pattern with the reading?).... my comments were purely based on what the OP had laid out and what I thought might be a simple alternative..... nothing more, nothing less.
Just curious about what advice people would offer for a my character I'm planning on for Rise of the Runelords. I'm not very experienced playing clerics, but think that this should work pretty well. We use rolled stats and everyone is starting off with pretty good numbers... way better than I would allow if I was GMing, but there is no flexibility other than where I put the racial bonus.
Str 16
Dex 10
COn 16
Int 10
Wis 16(+2racial)=18
Cha 15Variant channel ability (rulership) for the daze effect on failed saves against my channel negative energy to harm living creatures.
Traits: Dangerously curious, Student of Faith(RotRL campaign trait +1DC for channel ability and +1 caster level for cure spells)
Feats: Selective Channeling, Command UndeadMy plan is to take Sacred Summons at third level, and continue to take feats that improve my channel ability or improve my summoning ability all the way through. Not sure if I have the feats to spare though to do both effectively, and want to know if anyone sees glaring problems with this.
Just my two cents:
There is a cleric archetype called the Asmodean Advocate.
Bascially you pull all your skill ranks into Profession(barrister). Then whenever you make a bluff or diplomacy check you can use profession barrister instead.
Not to mention you also get a familiar.
A viper familiar.
Who can share one of your languages (common)
And can use also use the barrister profession to bluff and diplomacy.
The down side? You only get to get 1 domain which is trickery.
However, trickery is good in the sense that you can create a mirror image double.
Effectively, you could pull everything into wisdom and still kick butt, and be a face of the party.
Just my two cents:There is a cleric archetype called the Asmodean Advocate.
Bascially you pull all your skill ranks into Profession(barrister). Then whenever you make a bluff or diplomacy check you can use profession barrister instead.Not to mention you also get a familiar.
A viper familiar.
Who can share one of your languages (common)
And can use also use the barrister profession to bluff and diplomacy.
The down side? You only get to get 1 domain which is trickery.
However, trickery is good in the sense that you can create a mirror image double.Effectively, you could pull everything into wisdom and still kick butt, and be a face of the party.
Great if you have a specific Asmodeus RP theme...but in terms of general effectiveness definitely a step down IMO
Great if you have a specific Asmodeus RP theme...but in terms of general effectiveness definitely a step down IMO
Just my two cents:There is a cleric archetype called the Asmodean Advocate.
Bascially you pull all your skill ranks into Profession(barrister). Then whenever you make a bluff or diplomacy check you can use profession barrister instead.Not to mention you also get a familiar.
A viper familiar.
Who can share one of your languages (common)
And can use also use the barrister profession to bluff and diplomacy.
The down side? You only get to get 1 domain which is trickery.
However, trickery is good in the sense that you can create a mirror image double.Effectively, you could pull everything into wisdom and still kick butt, and be a face of the party.
Last time I checked I thought Rise of the Runelords gave the players the option of picking their human heritage to originate from Varisians....Shoanti...or I dont know... CHELEXIAN.
What God do they worship in Cheliax? Asmodeus.
Are you telling me that Roleplaying an Asmodeus worshipping Cleric in Rise of the Runelord would not work because its not a Asmodeus RP theme?
If the OP is just interested in blasting, and being battle orientate, then by all means.
I just suggested a way to worship and evil god, and be thematic about it.
To the opening post, I played a cleric of Asmodeus through the Way of the Wicked AP and it was a lot of fun. It was a surprisingly versatile character that was also thematically interesting.
Clerics are very powerful, you don't need to heavily optimise them to be effective. I deliberately toned down the power by picking mostly channel feats, no summoning feats (so no sacred summons) and no high stats, I started play with only 14 wisdom! Despite all that he was easily powerful enough to play the face of the party, handle all the status removal, act as a back up blaster and generally just hold his own in combat throughout the AP (actually he was the only character who didn't die at least once during the campaign).
I can confirm that both Trickery and Fire (and therefore Ash) are highly effective domain choices. Regarding the Fire domain the Firebolt ability is actually good at low levels despite the low damage because it is a ranged touch attack and very likely to hit. At medium levels I sometimes used it to check whether creatures were vulnerable to fire damage, then follow up with a fireball. At high levels it was totally useless in combat so I used it only for roleplaying reasons, like intimidation checks when interrogating prisoners. Fire resistance is also handy. With Trickery domain the ability to create an image as a move action was a literal life saver all the way up to high levels (at least until truesight became common).
In short I highly recommend, have fun and good luck!
|
|
Thanks for all the advice!
The Asmodean Advocate sounds awesome and would fit this character perfectly. Herald Caller is also really sweet, and I will likely make one for PFS in the near future. Unfortunately our only source books allowed are CRB, APG, UM, UC, and UE. Basically the books our GM has so neither one of those is doable for this campaign.
I'm confident that this character will be fun enough that I'm cool with not having the optimal build for my cleric, especially with these scores I've got to work with. I hadn't realized that the firebolt was a ranged touch attack, making it better than I had thought so I'm probably going to go Ash and Trickery for domains.
Cheers everyone!