Cleric of Erastil

[Atalius]

Anyone else have challenges putting together a Cleric of Erastil? He seems so MAD having to put points in STR (for hurtling stone damage), DEX (to land with hurtling stone and your longbow), Charisma (channel energy), Wisdom (Cleric spell DCs and Spell points). Localized Quake seems good targeting the weaker reflex save compared to Fort.

Anyone have any tips for a stat allocation?

[Raylyeh]

I played a Cleric of Erastil in DD3 it wasn't super optimal but it worked well enough though that was a 7th level character, playing it from 1st could be a lot rougher. I went primary wisdom, 2nd dexterity and 3rd strength though this was before the channel nerf so I'd switch the strength for charisma. I did take fighter dedication and then point blank shot for the longbow. I don't know why you'd take earth domain, it's not good in my opinion. I'd say Erastil's best domain is family. his extra spells are solid, true strike especially.
Looking back strength isn't super necessary because the amount of damage it adds to the build is pretty minimal, propulsive doesn't really add much and for your back up melee weapon use a short sword or something else with finesse.

[Atalius]

Cool! I don't know how useful Family is with a Monk, Paladin and Barbarian in the group. I certainly think Earth is a bit better than Family though but I could be mistaken. Everything else I agree with you.

[Raylyeh]

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I think it's because to me, earth domain doesn't add anything attack-wise that the build needs and of the other domains family looked the most useful. Though honestly I think a lot of the domains are pretty lackluster at the moment.

[Atalius]

Raylyeh wrote:

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I think it's because to me, earth domain doesn't add anything attack-wise that the build needs and of the other domains family looked the most useful. Though honestly I think a lot of the domains are pretty lackluster at the moment.

Yes they are lackluster for sure. We have a Rogue in our group and if I can prone a target with Localized Quake it will help the Rogue get a Sneak attack off. Ya I value Localized Quake slightly more than Unity with this composition.

Which skills did you focus more on?

[Edge93]

I played one for Part 2 and it was pretty good. Wis and Dex were maxed with a bit in Con and Cha. Honestly I had bad luck hitting but that was because I couldn't seem to roll over an 8. Except the times when I use True Strike to land Hurtling Stone, that often got me a crit but always a hit. Character was excellent at support though damage wasn't great but if I could have had a +1 bow it would have been much better.

Now I did make a mistake in that I thought Hurtling Stone gained 1d10 with every extra spell level, not every other. So I had 2d10 on Hurtling Stone instead of 1d10. Big difference.

Had the family and earth domains (Backstory was growing up in a forest gaining Earth powers but then the rest of the party took her in and she switched focus to Family). Unity came up once or twice, certainly would more in a longer campaign, My Fort and Ref were higher than at least one other person each, and my Will was higher than anyone except maybe the Druid, so it would be useful. Actually a pretty awesome domain power.

[Atalius]

Nice! What race did you play Edge? Which one would you recommend?

[Raylyeh]

Mine was a human which is both thematically appropriate with him being mostly a human god and the ancestory feat for the extra class feat helped since you’ve got to do the fighter dip. Though now that emblazon symbol doesn’t exist that might not be as necessary. As far as skills i focused on wisdom and dexterity skills. Survival and stealth are handy as are the wisdom knowledge skills. Clerics of Erastil are in an interesting situation where thievery can be useful though mostly just for traps, you don’t want to break any anathema. I could see acrobatics coming up too. Oh and medicine obviously.

[Edge93]

Ah heck, I forget. I think it was Human or Half-Elf so I could get racial Dex and Wis. I think those are good options. Dwarf isn't bad, putting your free racial boost into Dex, you'll have lower Cha but higher Con. Halfling has perfect racial modifiers for this, you might want to use your free boost to negate the Str penalty (I think Str penalty hurts propulsive weapons IIRC) or use it to get some extra Con or Cha.

Lol not Goblin tho. XD

[Dasrak]

Well, the entire point of Erastil (mechanically) is to use that longbow, so maxing out Dex and multiclassing Fighter for Point Blank Shot should go without saying. Other than that you have a lot of freedom.

I wouldn't bother with much strength investment; clerics are very MAD, and since longbows don't strictly need strength you should drop that one without question. Going with Dex/Con/Wis/Cha will work great for you. In that respect, Halfling stands out as the best option since it can get Dex/Wis/Cha. With that said, every race should be viable, with Goblin and Dwarf being a little behind the pack since you'll be investing both Wisdom and Charisma.

The tricky part will be your exact ability score distribution, since the optimal spread actually depends on what level you are. The two possible spreads (presuming halfling) you'd want either 16/16/16 in Dex/Wis/Cha or 16/18/14, with 10's in everything else (cancel out your Str penalty). From 1st-9th the 16/16/16 spread will be better (progressing to 18/18/18 with 12 con at 5th) due to the extra channel use outweighing the extra SP and higher DC's. However once you hit 10th level the 16/18/14 spread will become 19/20/18 and be strictly superior. Then at 15th the 16/16/16 spread becomes 20/20/20 and it's the one that strictly superior. Then at 20th the 16/18/14 spread leapfrogs ahead again to 20/22/20. So which is spread is better? Overall I think 16/16/16 will be better for most of your career, but ultimately it depends on which level range you're optimizing for.

Edge93 wrote:

Lol not Goblin tho. XD

Goblin will work just fine. It's still better than the dwarf; given that you have lackluster SP powers and generally won't need that much wisdom, so charisma for channels is the more important of the two ability scores. Given that you can dump strength on this build, however, I think going for both Wisdom and Charisma is the right answer, so I'd prefer to go for an ancestry that isn't penalized in either category. Overall I'd say Halfling > Human > Gnome > Elf > Goblin > Dwarf for this character build, but dwarf should still be perfectly viable if you want to do it (the Cha penalty really hurts, though).

[Nettah]

Well overall I think the build will always be among the weaker cleric builds because you are so MAD. I would consider not focusing as much on the charisma (which is bad for healing and might be a weak option) because it does seem to fit the character more focusing primarily on strength, dex and wisdom.

So human with stats like this: 14, 16, 10, 16, 10, 12 might be reasonable to start with (but that is pretty weak mechanically). It does get better at level 5 once you get some extra stats. (If you are not focusing so much on hurtling stones, I would go for switching str and cha, because str doesn't do much for your longbow, so 14 is likely the goal and you might not get a composite bows before level 2-3.)

Overall this is a pretty offensive build cleric so if you are more about healing and support then going for family domain instead and dumping strength might fit you better.
The longbow is pretty bad because it requires two fighter dedication feats to be useful in shorter range situations, but that might change in the final version (hoping for volley to disappear and shortbow to be agile or something instead).

[Previloc]

Clerics are the exception to the "all characters have the same stat values, rearranged" rule. A Human lets you take the Cleric Class feat at 1st level, so you're ready for MC Fighter/Ranger at 2nd, and has better multi-role ancestry feats. Earth's power is silly for a longbow deity. Magic Weapon will be your friend initially, along with a True Strike - and don't forget to use Shield if you didn't need to move.

The challenge to building a good cleric for the different deities is one of the things I've liked about PFPT. I'd love it if Paizo (or your DM) would transform an invested staff into the deity's favored weapon, allowing you to use the necessary staff functions with thier weapon in hand (for spontaneous conversion of spells to heals) - I think the deities just might demand it.