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Are their suggested Cleric builds and any Players who run them who do not focus on Healing (though they still can heal a bit) and, further, do not provide buffing spells for the other PCs?
A half-way front-liner who has some spells and can Channel to Harm. Maybe occasionally spontaneously Cure someone a little.
I've seen a couple try it at pfs tables, generally without success, and they get frustrated... They're built to run in and negative channel. But typically don't have enough ac to run in, safely. Don't have enough dex/init to do it before the party's melees are interspersed, and don't have enough investment in selective channel.
Plus they can't spontaneous cast cures....
What strength of the cleric chassis do you like? It sounds like something like the war priest or paladin might fit your desires instead.
This kind of Cleric can work; you've just turned all of your healing in to damage abilities though, so you have to take healing spells in order to heal people still. That's fine, but it is what it is. You now have a low-level AoE that's relatively effective (negative channel) but you're using spells to heal.
If you want to negative channel you should get the Selective Channel feat/ability so you can ignore your friendlies when you do it.
*NOTE: you can't have someone who negative channels but spontaneously cures.*
Similarly, a regular cleric can load up on damage spells and turn them into cures instead. The main benefit to a regular cleric is that you have lots of damage dealing potential but you also can heal quite well. Additionally, Positive Energy is very useful against a mass of Undead (which are somewhat common) and pretty useful against Undead Incorporeal creatures, which can be a huge pain for a regular party.
The main problem with a NEnergy cleric is that you've reduced your number of battlefield roles unless you take specific Cure spells, which are *way* worse than the PEnergy Channel. So you've effectively made yourself a bit better at damaging, but *way* worse at healing.
Given that Healing is a valuable thing to a party; it's much better to just figure out how to make a PEnergy cleric work offensively than hamstring your parties' ability to continue without rest.
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Thanks guys!
This is mostly theoretical, just curiosity.
But I'm intrigued enough that I can find all kinds of uses for NPC Clerics that don't heal my monsters & try to control the battlemat, but rather go toe-to-toe (adjacent with the monsters) against the PCs. The good side of that is that, as NPCs, they're suppose to get killed so they don't have to be playable as PCs.
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Nana is a non-healing cleric that mainly summons, or buffs her animal companion, so she plays a bit like a druid. She's a negative channeller but rarely uses channelling given that she's a pfs character. It's not what she's built for anyway, the channelling is incidental - it has been useful occasionally.
You can click on her avatar to see how she's statted at level 9. She's currently in a pbp.
Thanks guys!
This is mostly theoretical, just curiosity.
But I'm intrigued enough that I can find all kinds of uses for NPC Clerics that don't heal my monsters & try to control the battlemat, but rather go toe-to-toe (adjacent with the monsters) against the PCs. The good side of that is that, as NPCs, they're suppose to get killed so they don't have to be playable as PCs.
A NEnergy Cleric as an NPC is definitely much better than a PC (as an opponent anyway) simply because NPCs don't typically endure several encounters a day, so him wham-blasting the party is a good way to get the party to split up or sit away from some zone.
Note: NEnergy Channel with Obscuring Mist (or similar spells) is a pretty good Lose-Lose for the PCs to deal with, as they have to close for melee. Given some Armor and a reasonable weapon, that's a potentially difficult NPC. The concealment makes him difficult to hit, he forces you to close in, he hits everyone in the party at once. Not too shabby. [I have a monster like this]
You can be a Neutral cleric of a Neutral deity and take Selective Channeling at 1st and Versatile Channeling at 3rd. If you choose positive energy at 1st, you can spontaneously heal, and do reduced damage negative channels. If you choose negative energy at 1st level, you can do "bad touch" cleric with spontaneous inflict spells, channel negative energy at "full" power, and channel positive energy to do mass Band-Aids.
Or you can go negative energy and just use a wand of CLW.
Clerics are best at healing and buffing removing negative conditions, but they can do other stuff, like de-buffing, summoning, divining, and blasting. Self-buffing is a little different than buffing everyone else, but other classes are better at it, like the warpriest and paladin and magus and inquisitor.
One great thing about Pathfinder is that you CAN play against type and still be very successful.
Reach cleric - use self-buffs / Sacred Summons. Get AoOs on your enemies.
You can be a Neutral cleric of a Neutral deity and take Selective Channeling at 1st and Versatile Channeling at 3rd. If you choose positive energy at 1st, you can spontaneously heal, and do reduced damage negative channels. If you choose negative energy at 1st level, you can do "bad touch" cleric with spontaneous inflict spells, channel negative energy at "full" power, and channel positive energy to do mass Band-Aids.
Or you can go negative energy and just use a wand of CLW.
Clerics are best at healing and buffing removing negative conditions, but they can do other stuff, like de-buffing, summoning, divining, and blasting. Self-buffing is a little different than buffing everyone else, but other classes are better at it, like the warpriest and paladin and magus and inquisitor.
One great thing about Pathfinder is that you CAN play against type and still be very successful.
If you want to go whole hog on this, get Versatile Channeler and then go into the Envoy of Balance prestige class and get the Spiritual Equilibrium Endowment as soon as you can. Then you can spontaneously cast Cure-series and Inflict-series spells, and channel Positive Energy and Negative Energy equally (and if you get the Twinned Channeling Endowment, then you can do both simultaneously).
I suggest a Barb 2/Oracle X/Rage Prophet X(at least 4).
I've got one at level 16 (2/10/4) and he is the front-liner, damage dealer, damage soaker, and can cast all cure spells and the heal spell.
Not a nuker, but has an assortment of offensive spells.
You won't be a full BAB or caster, but it's seriously the best of both worlds. Self-buffs, self-heals, party heals, wrecks face.
I went human, power attack, two-handed weapons, battle mystery.
Buffs up to the mid 300's easily, 4 attacks/round, I've done 279 damage in one round.
This is the build you are looking for.
^Actually, thanks to the recent introduction of Prestigious Spellcaster (requires Favored Prestige Class), you actually could be a 9/9 caster (delayed 2 levels) as aeven Rage Prophet 10. Unfortunately, you also need to spend feats on Extra Rage, Extra Rage Power, and Extra Revelation, because Rage Prophet doesn't give you any of these things.
(We need a Rage Prophet hybrid base class.)
Wouldn't rage prophet hybrid just be an archetype of bloodrager? Granting a curse and limited revelations over a bloodline.
^You could do it that way (and maybe should), but I was also thinking of a 6/9 caster (and maybe even both).
- Raging Prophet for the d8, 3/4 BAB, 6/9 spellcaster
- Prophetic Rager for the d10, 1/1 BAB, 4/9 spellcaster (possibly a Bloodrager archetype)