How to play a Varisian pilgrim

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Good day everyone.

I've just started to play a priest in a RotRL campaign, but I am dubious about his effectiveness both in- and out-of-combat. I've decided to play a cleric of Desna with the Varisian pilgrim archetype, which makes him lose his proficiencies with medium armor and shields, but lets him buff allies at a distance with his domain powers.

Here is the stat block of my cleric:

ZACARIAS
Male Human Cleric (Varisian pilgrim) 1
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Senses Perception +4 (-2 on sight-based checks)
DEFENSE
AC 13, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor)
hp 12 (1d8+4)
Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +6
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee spear +0 (1d8) or dagger +0 (1d4)
Ranged light crossbow +0 (1d8) or dagger +0 (1d4)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 5/day (DC 12, 1d6)
Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st, concentration +5)
7/day—bit of luck
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 1st, concentration +5)
1st—bless, longstrider D, protection from evil
0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, light
D domain spell; Domains Luck, Travel
STATISTICS
Str 10, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 10
Feats Improved Initiative, Toughness
Skills Diplomacy +7, Heal +8, Knowledge (religion) +5, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +5; Armor Check Penalty -1
Traits Ease of Faith, Harrow Born, Oblivious, Sandpoint Faithful
Languages Celestial, Common, Varisian
SQ aura, agile feet (7/day), caravan bond
Combat Gear holy water (2); Other Gear spear, dagger, light crossbow with 13 bolts, studded leather, backpack, bedroll, flint and steel, harrow deck, silver holy symbol, spell component pouch, sunrod, trail rations (4 days), waterskin; 10 gp

So, given you this informations, how would you play this kind of character? I'm not talking about roleplay, rather how to be effective in both combat and non-combat situations.

[Jeff Morse]

Played one once and fustrated the GM. Took fate domain and cant think of other. Would give allies a new save and than roll twice if still under effect. All from range in the back.

[Gulthor]

We'll have a Varisian Pilgrim in our upcoming Jade Regent campaign, so here are some suggestions based off of the build my player is going for.

Our cleric is going to be a worshipper of Cayden Cailean rather than Desna, but they're pretty similar deities.

For domains, she'll have Liberation and Charm (Love). Liberation's domain ability is very strong - and being able to use it on your party members only makes it better. Love is simply incredible, and being able to "share the love" is solid gold.

That all said, Travel is quite good - and situationally better than Liberation. Luck, though - while an excellent domain with wonderful domain spells - isn't especially benefited by the Varisian Pilgrim. Well, the level 6 does, but that's very limited-use. Maybe consider doubling up with Liberation and Travel? You'd be able to get your party out of just about any sort of sticky situation they might find themselves in.

For combat, given the drop to light armor, she's just going to go ranged. A high dex fits with the Varisian Pilgrim style, keeping things mobile and nimble, while helping to keep her AC up. She's alternatively considering picking up a rapier (Cayden's favored weapon) with Weapon Finesse and Fencing Grace. As a follower of Desna, you could actually consider doing something similar with the starknife.

Since you're 20 point buy, maybe a stat array like:

S10, D16, C11, I12, W16, Ch 12?

Sacrifices your Con a little bit, but you have a decent hit die, and if you're staying at range, you should be getting hit a little bit less, not to mention adding +3 to your AC, Reflex, and initiative (which all help you take less damage.)

If having a 14 Cha is important to you, you could consider dropping your Str (less viable if you decide to go with a thrown starknife) or going down to 10 Con & Int.

Hope that helps!

[Diaz Ex Machina]

I can't change stats and/or domain, we are already playing the campaign (though we played just one session). I just wanted to know how would you play a character with that exact stat block.

Maybe I haven't made myself really clear about it...

[Gulthor]

Diaz Ex Machina wrote:

I can't change stats and/or domain, we are already playing the campaign (though we played just one session). I just wanted to know how would you play a character with that exact stat block.

Maybe I haven't made myself really clear about it...

Ooph. Ummm... summoning? I dunno, from my perspective, you've backed yourself into a corner. If you've realized your build isn't quite working, maybe ask your DM if you can do a light rebuild?

[Gulthor]

Ooh! The Guided Hand feat! Allows you to use your Wisdom modifier on attack rolls with your deity's favored weapon. Should help out quite a bit.

Other than that, summoning spells and feats should be pretty good for you. Consider Sacred Summons once a solid CG outsider hits your list. Until then, Augment Summoning and expanded summoning list feats (for Sacred Summons) should work wonders.

I realize that's a lot of feats I just suggested, and you won't be able to pick all of them, but at least gives you a couple paths to consider.

EDIT: I'd consider retraining Improved Initiative and Toughness, personally, and that's something you should be able to do with the retraining rules and a little gold. They're both absolutely fantastic feats, but they don't help you much. You're a little unlikely to get too much benefit (at the moment) from going first, and you're probably going to prefer to keep to the back lines, so Toughness is a little less useful than it would be for your typical frontline cleric.

The beauty of Guided Hand is that it works for both ranged *and* melee attack rolls with the starknife. I'd give heavy consideration to just immediately retrain right into Channel Smite and Guided Hand. After that, the starknife actually has quite a bit of feat support.

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Gulthor wrote:

Ooph. Ummm... summoning?

I thought about summoning too, but there is already a conjurer in my party who focuses on summons, and I don't want to become redundant.

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Gulthor wrote:

Ooh! The Guided Hand feat! Allows you to use your Wisdom modifier on attack rolls with your deity's favored weapon. Should help out quite a bit.

Gulthor wrote:

After that, the starknife actually has quite a bit of feat support.

What do you mean with "a bit of feat support"?

[Artoo]

I'm failing to see how this is backed into a corner. You won't personally be killing much, but you should be more than capable of contributing in combat.

Bit of Luck is amazing. Granted, it's more useful once you get to higher levels and you're rolling more d20s every round, but dropping that on the heavy hitters in your party once they're in position will be quite useful.

Agile Feet can help them get into position.

You may want to consider getting a longspear so you can threaten from reach to possibly make it easier for you to provide flanking or possibly aid attack rolls in situations where it's not too dangerous for you to do so.

Like with most characters focused on spell casting your effectiveness at low levels might seem limited because you'll run out of resources quickly but as you level up and get more spells that will change.

[Diaz Ex Machina]

So my master gave me permission to modify my character, and now I don't really know what to do. I still want to play a human cleric of Desna with the Varisian pilgrim archetype, but still I don't know how to build him to be an efficient character. Any help?

PS: the stat point spread will still be 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, 10, I'll have to work with this stats arrange.

[Artoo]

Like said before, I think you'll be able to contribute just fine with the set up you already have. I played through all of Rise of the Runelords with a fairly similar character and never felt like I couldn't contribute.

What exactly make you feel like you can't contribute right now?

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Artoo wrote:

What exactly make you feel like you can't contribute right now?

I can't do any damage, my rolls aren't high enough to hit even a miserable goblin, be it in melee or at ranged. I don't have enough spells to be a good buffer at low levels, but I know that this will change at higher levels. My greatest concern with my actual build is that I don't know how to build my character in the future, which feats should I take to be a good cleric.

[Artoo]

Diaz Ex Machina wrote:

I can't do any damage, my rolls aren't high enough to hit even a miserable goblin, be it in melee or at ranged.

Is this important? Do you want to be dealing damage? Or do you just feel like you should be?

Diaz Ex Machina wrote:

I don't have enough spells to be a good buffer at low levels, but I know that this will change at higher levels.

This is an unfortunate reality of the way spellcasters work in Pathfinder. You can try getting Pearls of Power, Wands or Scrolls to help mitigate this.

Also remember to use Bit of Luck or Agile Feet, they only last a round, but used at the right time they can be very useful.

You can also just try to provide flanking. Pull out a weapon and stand beside an enemy and you've potentially just given an ally +2 to hit.

Along similar lines you can make aid another attempts to provide a bonus to hit or to AC for allies.

Diaz Ex Machina wrote:

My greatest concern with my actual build is that I don't know how to build my character in the future, which feats should I take to be a good cleric.

You don't need any particular feats. Most of what will matter is what spells you have prepared and how you use them. But here's a few possibilities:

Channeling feats: Selective Channel, Extra Channels, maybe some others. These aren't amazing but in the right circumstances can save your party.

Crafting feats: Craft Wondrous Items, Craft Wand, Scribe Scroll, etc. Getting items cheaper is always useful.

Metamagic: Extend, Reach, Quicken, etc. Exactly what metamagic would be most useful will depend on what spells you prepare. For a buffer Extend is probabably the best one you can get. Although keep in mind you can also get metamagic rods.

[Diaz Ex Machina]

So, these are the feats I've chosen for my cleric:

Lv01 Improved Initiative, Toughness
Lv03 Lightning Reflexes
Lv05 Divine Protection
Lv07 Lunging Spell Touch
Lv09 Reach Spell
Lv11 Extend Spell
Lv13 Heighten Spell
Lv15 Preferred Spell
Lv17 Improved Lightning Reflexes

Lv19 is not shown since we won't go beyond Lv18.

Do you think those are ok? Are there better feats for a support cleric I possibly don't know of?

[Artoo]

Those all seem reasonable although I personally don't like Divine Protection. You might be interested in Divine Interference. Although it require Caster Level 10 so you would need to rearrange your feats.

If you find there's certain spells you end up using all the time Minor/Major Spell Expertise are useful.

[Diaz Ex Machina]

Thank you for your advices, they have been very helpful :)

[ChesterCopperpot]

Another way to go for a buffing-focused cleric is the Bless Equipment chain of feats from the Undead Slayers handbook. Very effective and gives you something to do every combat.