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I am a relative newbie to Pathfinder and PFS. I am playing in a couple of PBP games on the forum, but am going to my local gameshop this weekend to play in a PFS game. I have read the PFS roleplay guide and am looking to build a core character since I am not sure if the game will be core or standard. I have been playing around with a couple of character options and am leaning toward cleric. Wanting to be a truly useful party member I went and read a couple of the advice guides (Treantmonk’s and Axe’s) for clerics and also the Pathfinder Strategy guide and am feeling kind of confused.
How does this look? comments and criticism welcome. I am looking to be useful to my party and not dead weight.
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Are you going for a casting cleric or a battle cleric?
I don't recommend fighting with a weapon and shield. You can not cast with both hands holding a item. You need a free hand to cast spells. I recommend two handing the warhammer if your going battle cleric. You can take quick draw and get a weapon cord if you want to stay with weapon and shield. That however dose require spending a feat on a class that dose not get many.
With casting spell DC are king. Almost every thing you do will require a save vs. your spells. The higher the DC the better chance you have of being effective. Spell focus is a good idea the problem is with divine casters their are not enough spells of one type across all levels to make any one better then another. I will recommend you look in to taking persistent spell metamagic, and reach metamagic feat. The reach is so you can cast cure spells at range. Having played a dwarf cleric it makes it so you don't have to try and cover distance with your slower base speed.
Race Dwarf
God Torag
Recommendations for Battle Cleric
Str 17
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 8
Feat: Heavy Armor Proficiency, or Improved Initiative
Domains: Good, Protection
Recommendations for Casting Cleric.
Str 8
Dex 10
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 20
Cha 8
Feat: Improved Initiative
Domains: Earth, Protection
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War cleric should get destruction and glory or war domains. That casting cleric has too low of a str to move around in armor. As a cleric, you have to be able to do 3 things, cast, fight, and channel. Never start with a charisma less than 13. Avoid dwarf like the plague.
A human with str 14, dex 12, con 13, int 10, wis 17, cha 13 works well. Start with selective channel. For battle, go gorum with destruction and glory or war domains. I'd look at fire and some other good utility domain for more of a caster.
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War cleric should get destruction and glory or war domains. That casting cleric has too low of a str to move around in armor. As a cleric, you have to be able to do 3 things, cast, fight, and channel. Never start with a charisma less than 13. Avoid dwarf like the plague.
A human with str 14, dex 12, con 13, int 10, wis 17, cha 13 works well. Start with selective channel. For battle, go gorum with destruction and glory or war domains. I'd look at fire and some other good utility domain for more of a caster.
From personal experience with playing Clerics, I disagree nearly 100% with this advice.
"Nearly" in that I agree Gorum is a fine Deity for a battle Cleric.Any of the Core deities can be used to make an interesting and fun Cleric. I'll stick to Gorum to provide counter-advice against Cory:
1. Vanilla Destruction domain is not amazing. While the Destructive Smite power is just ok (even though it's only for the single attack action), the Destructive Aura will cause as much trouble for you and your allies as it does for the enemy. Considering that by the time that you gain that aura, most enemies will have more attacks per round than you, it's not a good choice. Catastrophe subdomain replaces it with a halfway decent control power that's worth looking at, but it's not Core.
2. Vanilla Glory domain is garbage for a battle Cleric. Sanctuary is not a battle Cleric spell. Gorum would not approve; are you really going to stand there and hope they fail Will saves instead of killing them?
Glory with Heroism subdomain is incredible, but not Core.
3. A casting Cleric can buy 16 Str (or get a belt) and have plenty of Strength to run around in full plate and 25lbs of gear. Or, just be a Dwarf (who make excellent Clerics) and never worry about encumbrance.
4. No Cleric has to cast, fight AND channel. Pick "cast" or "fight" and focus on it. Channel is just extra gravy unless you focus your build on it, which is a highly niche type of Cleric build and not recommended with only Core resources.
5. Start with 10 Charisma (or less) if you want to "fight" and don't care about channeling. Cha is not worth the investment unless it's all part of your plan. Buying 13 Cha to qualify for Selective Channel is not a good idea; taking a standard action to channel is not a wise use of your actions as a battle Cleric, except in emergencies. Maybe a casting Cleric who wants a hobby would start off like that...
5. Dwarf is a fantastic race for a battle or casting Cleric! A penalty to Charisma is only a big deal if you're focusing on Channeling, which most Clerics should not do.
Bonus to Wisdom (important!) and Constitution (what's not to like?) is a great way to begin.
They also get Darkvision, decent Weapon Familiarity, and are unaffected by encumbrance. Just as good as Human, if not better.
6. calagnar has presented good suggested stat arrays above. That's close to what I'd use.
7. If you're interested in a Core battle Cleric of Gorum, War and Strength are the strongest domains.
War: domain spells are decent self-buffs for early levels and the Weapon Master ability is incredible at 8th.
Strength: you can safely ignore domain abilities while focusing on the domain spells granted => Enlarge Person 1/day. That spell alone is worth taking an otherwise useless domain for a battle Cleric
The guides that you read earlier have plenty of good advice on feat selection for battle vs. caster Clerics.
Avoid Extend Spell metamagic though. In my experience, it's totally useless in actual gameplay.
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Protection domain has a very nice bonus of removing the need for a cloak of protection. Freeing up gold and a item slot.
Channel is worthless past level 5. At levels 1-3 it's the best thing ever. 4-5 it's still ok. After 5 it only ever used when healing out of combat.
Dwarf
Slow and Steady: Dwarves have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
Their are ways to do almost any thing. You don't need any one feat or ability. You just need to understand how things work with each other.
My PFSP Dwarf Divine Strategist Cleric 6 / Sensei Monk 2.
1: Can not channel. Never missed it ever.
2: Is a casting cleric. With a Wis 25
3: Has a AC of 34 Buffed, HP 67, and Fort 13 Ref 9 Will 17 (+3 save vs. spells, spell like ability's, and poison). Standing AC 20 Due to not spending money on any gear for it.
4: Moves at a speed 20
5: Has a +11 Initiative, and grants a +1 initiative to allies in 30ft.
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Have you guys played clerics in pfs? Cause i have a 10 th level battle cleric of Gorum. Ignoring channeling is moronic. It's in combat healing is too useful, especially coupled with quick channel. Glory domain gives you a killer diplomacy, which is incredibly useful in pfs. Social skills are about 30% of the game. Having bless weapon has also saved my butt several times. Pfs is not all about combat. Versatility is the most important thing in pfs.
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Thanks. I was looking at the Support Cleric from Axe's guide, but really want to be a battle cleric. I didn't want to come off as trying to be a fighter. Casting in Pathfinder is still a bit daunting to me. (To date in my PbP games I have been playing Monks). I will massage the alias a bit more in line with the advice given and give it a run on the weekend.
I was looking at the Support Cleric from Axe's guide, but really want to be a battle cleric.
In this case, may I suggest the archer cleric? It's a well-balanced build which offers good offense and support options.
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Thanks. I was looking at the Support Cleric from Axe's guide, but really want to be a battle cleric. I didn't want to come off as trying to be a fighter. Casting in Pathfinder is still a bit daunting to me. (To date in my PbP games I have been playing Monks). I will massage the alias a bit more in line with the advice given and give it a run on the weekend.
This is Super Easy.
Use a Longspear or (Reach weapon) and Combat Reflexes.
This way you can buff or heal with your standard and if an Enemy moves through your Area you can poke it with a spear as an AoO. This also keeps a hand free for Casting.
If you have access to the source book the Evangelist Archetype is one of the best support clerics out there. But being a newer player you might not like Light armor and Giving up Spontaneous Cures for Bardic Performance. But Mid Game levels the Action Economy becomes amazing.
Another Archetype that might interest you is the Crusader which will give you more feats for combat feats. Puts more focus on the Martial than support but sometimes it is good to be able to jump into combat with PFS groups being random week to week.