Dispel Magic is useful, Prayer is awesome, and my domain slot has Fly in it, which is pretty great. Those are three of my four 3rd level slots.
...That aside, I'm an 8th level CG cleric of Desna with one extra 3rd level spell slot, and I can't figure out what it should be filled with on any given day. It's been Magic Vestment until now, but we've all got at least +2 armor as of our last big encounter. Even our wizard does. So that's out.
I'm trying to avoid anything which--while it may not be outright evil--could be seen as unsavoury. Party wouldn't take well to someone bestowing curses, or striking enemies permanently blind, no matter how powerful those spells might be.
We're mostly facing animals and magical beasts as we roam across the world. Very few dungeons. Our stops are more-often in small towns and villages.
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Prepare a second prayer if all else fails, due to its short duration prayer is generally one-per-fight.
Agree that there's nothing at all wrong with a second prayer.
Archon's aura is a nice defensive spell (basically, 20' radius of "will save or take a -2 on everything" for hostiles); most animals and magical beasts have to get inside that radius to attack you.
Summon monster III would give you some nice choices for fighting enemies.
Daylight might help if you have foes attacking you at night.
Communal resist energy, locate object, and stuff other folks have said.
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Leave the slot open! That way you can prepare any one of scores of powerful but corner-case spells when you have time to pray and meditate for a while.
2 things:
1) thou shall leave spell slots open: you never know what niche spell might come up needed in play. If all else fails, the slot can be converted spontaneously into a CSW.
2) You can never have enough Dispel Magic's prepared. Especially if you're in one of those fights where the exact 'correct' or optimal action eludes you, preparing to counterspell is rarely a wasted turn in my experience.
The only downside to an unprepared spell slot is that the cleric is presuming they will have 15 minutes of quiet time somewhere to meditate in a presumably hostile environment. The upside is that if the group winds up needing a remove disease, you won't have to wait until the next day. :)
Didn't know clerics could leave slots open. Group said that was a wizard-only thing. Good to know. I might have rearrange my whole standard-loadout to open up spaces that are currently taken up by frequently-useful, but rarely-urgent things.
Communal Resist Energy and Protection from Energy are great when you need them, though I agree with Tarik that your current enemy composition doesn't necessarily require them. Similar comments apply to things like Magic Circle vs Evil (as a counter to evil enemies, especially summons or those with anything like a dominate person spell), or and Daylight (as a counter to darkness magic).
Communal Delay Poison isn't very exciting, but could be a nice option if you're encountering poisonous enemies in your wilderness travels (perhaps if you're in that sort of climate).
An extra Prayer is probably a decent call, and Archon's Aura is good if you've got good AC, but the lawful aspect is probably an issue for you as a Desna worshiper. Speaking of which, I think the spell I'd recommend most for you is actually Beacon of Luck. Apart from being very 'on theme', it gives a nice boost to you and your allies' saves (of a type unlikely to create any stacking conflicts), and an immediate action reroll in an emergency.
Lastly, one move my Shaman often does -- which applies equally well to your Cleric -- is to leave a slot open, and then decide whether to fill it (and with what) when you have a better idea of what you might be up against. You'll only need fifteen minutes, and while that obviously won't work if you're ambushed or attacked suddenly, it can be really great if you're about to go into a cave or something, or need to breathe underwater, or if you need to fix up a blinded, cursed or diseased teammate or deal with a specific problem, etc etc etc. The Cleric's true spellcasting power is having access to the whole spell list on short notice, and keeping a slot open at each level (where possible/sensible) is a great way to leverage that.
EDIT: Darn, got kinda ninja'd on a bunch of that while typing this up.
Leave the slot open! That way you can prepare any one of scores of powerful but corner-case spells when you have time to pray and meditate for a while.
Clerics must prepare their spells at a specific point of time during the day. I believe this prevents them from utilizing this strategy. Do you have some way in mind around this limitation?
You must pray for spells at a certain time of the day, meaning your hour prep should be the same time. But you're able to leave slots open and spend time filling them in later.
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Spell Selection and Preparation: A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day. The time required to prepare spells is the same as it is for a wizard (1 hour), as is the requirement for a relatively peaceful environment. When preparing spells for the day, a divine spellcaster can leave some of her spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes. During these extra sessions of preparation, she can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if she prepares more than one-quarter of her spells.
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From the core rule book on divine spells
Spell Selection and Preparation: A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day. The time required to prepare spells is the same as it is for a wizard (1 hour), as is the requirement for a relatively peaceful environment. When preparing spells for the day, a cleric can leave some of her spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes. During these extra sessions of preparation, she can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if she prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.
Leave a Slot Open as you can "Write in" a Magic Vestment and Use an extend rod before you Meditate/pray for the day to gain your spells back. Doing so will allow you to get the benefit of the buff for the adventure day and still have a slot you can "Write in" an answer if need be (like remove X).
Prayer x2 (or Communal Resist Energy)
Fly- Domain
Open Slot (For Write in Strategy)
Leave a Slot Open as you can "Write in" a Magic Vestment and Use an extend rod before you Meditate/pray for the day to gain your spells back. Doing so will allow you to get the benefit of the buff for the adventure day and still have a slot you can "Write in" an answer if need be (like remove X).
Not quite. This only works if you cast the spell at least 8 hours before you regain spells. You'd need CL 12 plus an extend rod to cast a Magic Vestment that would last through the night and the entire next day.
As with arcane spells, at the time of preparation any spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against the number of spells that can be prepared.
Also Mass Conviction from 3.5.
Leave a Slot Open as you can "Write in" a Magic Vestment and Use an extend rod before you Meditate/pray for the day to gain your spells back. Doing so will allow you to get the benefit of the buff for the adventure day and still have a slot you can "Write in" an answer if need be (like remove X).Not quite. This only works if you cast the spell at least 8 hours before you regain spells. You'd need CL 12 plus an extend rod to cast a Magic Vestment that would last through the night and the entire next day.
As with arcane spells, at the time of preparation any spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against the number of spells that can be prepared.
8 hours + Extend rod= 16 hours. 8 hours is more than enough to cover any adventuring day. If your adventuring day is longer look to the group to try and get s@#$ done faster.
There will be times when you will absolutely need invisibility purge and daylight.
I find I prepare Invisibility Purge all the time, but rarely end up using it now that we are at higher levels, where our party has more options to deal with invisibility. But if your party doesn't have other options for dealing with invisibility, I think it still merits preparation, for sure.
Daylight is another one that way not get used often, but when you need it, it is clutch. I might suggest getting a scroll or two, though, rather than preparing it every day.
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Spells that you don't use very often are great to put on a scroll (which is why most of my cleric builds have Scribe Scroll somewhere by level 5 or thereabouts).
Spells that you don't use very often are great to put on a scroll (which is why most of my cleric builds have Scribe Scroll somewhere by level 5 or thereabouts).
Scribe Scroll is deffinatly a good one.
But I tend to prefer Craft Wondrous Item on my casters, since the DC to make things is super easy and you do not need to know the spell in the creation requirements. I usually buy scrolls myself and save money on my wondrous items.
SM3 is solid..... the ability to summon D3 hell hounds aint to be sniffed at... gotta be N or E though.
SM3 is solid..... the ability to summon D3 hell hounds aint to be sniffed at... gotta be N or E though.
Works well for Levels 5-7 but I love SM4 for multiple Lantern Archons for the Aura of Menace, 2 Light rays (touch attacks), and Aid SLA.
Bypassing all DR is pretty sweet and rays are considered weapons. Everyone in the group should love receiving Aid before they disappear. Aura of menace is a low DC but I have seen DMs roll terribly before and the aura make a difference.
Another SM3 MVP is the Crocodile. Deathroll on a caster is straight brutal and a complete shutdown for a caster. Also pretty decent at just holding someone down.