Hello!
For the Fangwood Keep module, I have in mind building a cleric who has taken an oath of non-violence but who nevertheless wants to serve faithfully on behalf of his nation's military. The inspiration comes from Hacksaw Ridge (which is a great movie that I'd recommend). But I'm not exactly sure how to build it. I want to have a character that is interesting but not a horrible liability to my party. 4th level.
I've looked at other threads on this topic, and the first question that always comes up is, "what do you mean by non-violent or pacifist"? The reality is that I won't be able to define it precisely until I play it out. But again, taking my cue from the movie, it's someone who is patriotic, has accepted marching into battle with others who are violent, but who isn't holding a weapon, and isn't targeting an enemy with an attack or spell. No grappling, no Hold Person so someone else can CDG them. For me, that would also extend to not buffing an ally's attacks. I'm not going cast Sun Metal on someone's sword to help them burn the enemy. But I am fine, say, casting Shield of Faith to protect an ally from harm. I agree that sounds like a lot of restrictions, and that's why I really could use some advice!
The first ideas I came up with for the overall character build, but that I'm not at all wedded to, are as follows:
Deity: Dalenydra. Lord of battlefield healing.
Archetype: Merciful Healer
I'm also not 100% tied to the cleric class, if someone has ideas for another class that's appropriate.
Given this set of proposed restrictions, how can I make a character that's reasonably effective?
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@OP: You might also look into Oracle of Life. You can still worship Dalenydra in the same way. A pacifist Life Oracle brings more to a team than a Merciful Healer cleric, especially after you rule out offensive buff spells. A Life Oracle works like a 'hit point battery' for the entire party. Life Shaman can do the same thing.
One highly effective life oracle approach combines Life Link with Channeling. Ally wounds are transferred to the Life Oracle, at ~5 hp per linked ally per turn. Life Oracle then self-heals as needed with high efficiency. The 'high efficiency' part can be done several ways but often involve the Fey Foundling feat and the Paladin Lay on Hands power.
One can accomplish much the same thing as a Cleric via the 2nd level Shield Other spell, but Shield Other is much more dangerous. Life link is relatively safe.
One big advantage of the Life Link approach is that it doesn't consume your Standard Action. Only heal when needed.
I've seen one Life Oracle save a party from getting wrecked via high action efficiency. The party got ambushed, took serious damage, and was in a bad way. The life Oracle's turn looked like this:
* Passively heal every ally. Dying allies automatically stabilize.
* Move Action: channel healing via Quick Channel
* Swift Action: Enhanced self-heal almost back to full HP
* Standard Action: Cast a useful spell
This turned things around.
This PC was also relatively non-violent, but contributed so much defensive power to the party that no one minded.
You could play a blossoming light cleric this way. I assume you have an exception for attacking undead? But even if you don’t you’d still be a pretty great healer. And you have all of those spells for buffs.
invest heavily in calm emotion and sanctuary spells (per day and dc). there might be higher level forms of them, im not familiar with all the spells out there.
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Building on Magda's suggestion, give a look to the Pei Zin Practitioner archetype. It's essentially a full-class Oradin. I am playing one right now and it's extremely effective. If you choose to play one, I suggest you keep a log with all the party's HPs so that it's easier for you to track wounds and heals.
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I’m playing a Pei Zin Practitioner in PFS who worships Dalenydra for the Scarred by War trait (increases healing from class abilities by 1 when you heal others).
What level are you starting at? The issue I ran into was even with a 15 CON, I don’t feel like I’ll have enough hit points to make use of Life Link until 5th level, so I focused on channeling at 3rd and will use extra revelation at 5 for Life Link after I’ve bought a belt of con and bumped it to 18 with my 4th level increase. At 3rd, I have 27 hit points, and lay on hands is only 1d6+2 (fey foundling)so 1 round of Life link on 4 or 5 other party members is all I’d be able to do before risking going unconscious (if all are hit by an AoO or something).
Because of that, I went with Channel Energy and Selective Channel at 3.
For spells, I mostly use Command if language or mind affecting isn’t an issue, and then get terribly upset when someone attacks the person I’ve commanded to halt. I also took barbed chains for the trip ability. And then shield of faith, bless from a wand, prof from evil from a wand, remove fear, liberating Command, and things like that. I keep some more offensive stuff around on scrolls just in case. Dalenydra worshippers will attack of attacked first, and I interpret that to mean if the party is in enough danger. I keep a scroll of burst of radiance, for example, as an emergency option when dealing damage is necessary for survival.
In addition to what Magda said about the Life Oracle, if you choose to be an Aasimar, you can take the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait to qualify for human feats. THEN you can take Racial Heritage (Kitsune) to qualify to be a Kitsune (I love the flavor of this; such a mongrel of a character) which will allow you to take the Wrecking Mysticism curse. This lets you trade out your Mystery spells for the Magical Tail feats but you get those back via the Spirit Guide archetype and choosing the Life Spirit from the Shaman list. Also, this gives, iirc, double the amount of Channel Energies? I don't quite recall how those interact.
I did this build and it is a very effective healer. I even did the whole pacifist thing as well. Was quite fun. Also, if someone ever asks "What race are you?" you can respond with "I'm a Human-Aasimar-Kitsune." which is a fun concept to me.
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Honestly, I'd ask your fellow players how they feel about this.
I was okay with everything you said...up to not buffing your players attacks. Aside from being heal bot I'm not sure that there's much your character as planned would do in a fight. Personally I don't want a characters that's there just to be a heal bot.
If you were willing to buff ally's attack playing an Evangelist cleric and basically being a bard buffer/cleric character would be perfectly acceptable to me.
I agree with Claxon, something as extreme as where you want to go, is something to talk to the party about. Only healing tends to hurt the party. Then if you go total diplomat, that can short out encounters which might irritate people.
Someone posted awhile back going with a serendipity shaman..basically you would be able to heal and tweak the party's or opponent's luck
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For any character, I think it is useful to consider why the other PCs would want him as part of the team.
Basically imagine your characters resume and job interview and think about why he would be the candidate chosen. If you can't, perhaps alter him to he would be.
I'm certainly not saying that you can only play 'perfect' characters but thinking about why the rest of the team would choose your character as a companion generally makes for a better team and a better game.
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I had a concept for a Varisian Pilgrim that did something similar to what you want. The archetype lets you use your domain powers on party members you have a morning group-prayer with as if they were you (at a range of 30'). The following deities seem like they would work the best:
Shelyn (Love and Luck)
Calistria (Trickery and Luck)
Arshea (Love and Liberation/Freedom)
Love lets you intervene when a party member is about to get hit, casting Sanctuary as an immediate action.
Luck (std action from you) lets the target roll d20 twice and take the most favorable result for the next round (but range improved to 30').
Liberation is Freedom of Movement against magical effects as an automatic action.
Freedom gives target another save against an ongoing effect as a standard action (but range improved to 30')
Trickery lets you give a target a single Mirror Image as a Move Action.
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The feat, War Blessing allows you to get two Warpriest Blessings (Charm and Luck, we'll say) and Channeled Blessing allows you to cast your Bessings at a distance at the cost of a Channel Energy usage. The Charm Blessing is like Santuary, but only breaks on the subject of the target's attack (not to anyone she doesn't attack).
*****
I only played this character once or twice. It seemed like it would get annoying for the DM (so I rebuilt) and had some range/LOS issues, but otherwise seemed to work okay. I picked Liberation, which trivialized one encounter (but didn't come up other than that). I probably would have gotten more mileage out of Luck.
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Maybe this is a good starting point for what you have in mind, to participate in combat (without fighting) and give a vibe of "peace"?
Thank you for all the incredible responses so far! These are great ideas, and they're opening me up to options I hadn't been thinking about. I took a look at Blossoming Light Cleric and the number of channels per day is incredible, but the lack of armor is terrifying. It sounds like Life Oracle is a strong choice. And a couple people mentioned Pei Zin Practicioner, which I think with a bit of reflavoring seems really good for healing.
Starting level is 4th. Let's see how this plays out for a 4th Level Human, 15 pt buy.
Human Oracle (Pei-Zin Practicioner) 4
Str 8, Dex 10, Con 16, Wis 10, Int 10, Cha 18
Favored Class Bonus - +3HP, +1 first level spell known
HP 38 (4d8+15)
Feats: Fey Foundling, Extra Revelation, Selective Channel
Traits: Irrepressible, Scarred by War
Skills: Diplomacy, Heal, Profession (herbalist), Sense Motive
Curse: ?
Revelations: Channel, Healer's Way, Life Link
Spells Known
2nd: Cure Medium Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Resist Energy
1st: Cure Light Wounds, Detect Undead, Liberating Command, Obscuring Mist, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear
0th: Create Water, Enhanced Diplomacy, Guidance, Light, Read Magic, Stabilize
Gear: Breastplate, Heavy Shield, Wand of Shield of Faith
Hm . . . crazy amounts of healing. All I do every turn, though, is use a Wand of Shield of Faith until someone takes damage. I do see how that might be irritating for my companions and a bit dull for me.
Now that I'm seeing this in action . . . maybe I need to compromise my principles a little bit. One option I've been considering is that it might be okay to debuff an enemy's attacks. For example, I was looking at a Dual-Cursed Oracle--maybe using the Misfortune revelation to make enemies reroll their attacks against my allies. It's still pretty defensive in nature if I don't use it to make enemies fail saving throws.
Alternatively, anyone have ideas on a defensive buff that's repeatable use that could be mixed in? Maybe I should look at a Shaman and see if there's a useful repeatable hex? *Edit* - I need to look at that Serendipity Shaman. Also need to think about the post right above this one, interesting ideas there.
TL;DR - A pure healer looks powerful, but maybe a bit passive. What can I do every turn that's active and useful?
I think perhaps you should consider why your character wants to go out with the other (presumably anyway) people that are expecting, if not actively looking, to get in a fight. What makes your character want to be with them.
Additionally, you might consider that keeping them in full fighting strength is just as much not 'pacifist' as giving them magical bonuses, if they are going to be using their continued health to keep attacking them.
It seems to me, with those things in mind, going for a full support build, not just healing would be perfectly legitimate. Your principles won't let you harm another, or target them an anyway (basically you won't personally do anything that would break invisibility) but you are willing to strengthen your allies, either with health or other means.
That would give you a whole lot more options of how to be useful. It would also mean that your group wouldn't have to have another character who provides support actions (besides healing) or do without, which will make the whole party a lot more balanced.
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I think perhaps you should consider why your character wants to go out with the other (presumably anyway) people that are expecting, if not actively looking, to get in a fight. What makes your character want to be with them.
Additionally, you might consider that keeping them in full fighting strength is just as much not 'pacifist' as giving them magical bonuses, if they are going to be using their continued health to keep attacking them.
It seems to me, with those things in mind, going for a full support build, not just healing would be perfectly legitimate. Your principles won't let you harm another, or target them an anyway (basically you won't personally do anything that would break invisibility) but you are willing to strengthen your allies, either with health or other means.
That would give you a whole lot more options of how to be useful. It would also mean that your group wouldn't have to have another character who provides support actions (besides healing) or do without, which will make the whole party a lot more balanced.
I think there are two questions here.
The first question is, why is my character going out to fight with others when he's forsaken violence? I tried to answer that in my original post. My character is patriotic, loves his countrymen, and wants to serve in defense of his nation and the preservation of his countrymen's lives. He doesn't hate the enemy soldier, but he does hate the enemy leadership that sends soldiers into his country. He would prefer a world where there was no violence, and he himself forsakes violence to demonstrate his commitment. But he's not Ghandi, he understands there is a war going on and he's not going to somehow stop it by telling everyone to chill out.
The second question is, where exactly should I draw the line between pacifism and non-pacifism? I think your suggestion is full support. My answer is it should be somewhere less--I want to draw the line to be as "pacifistic" as possible while still having a character that is active, and not just a reactive healer. So that's probably less than full support / I buff everyone to become killing machines, but maybe more than pure healer / I sit here and heal your butt when you get hurt. I think as I try to build some more characters, I'll be able to figure out where I'm comfortable drawing at least a hazy line.
I don't want to derail my own thread, but I hope that is helpful.
So I'm very tired and I stopped working on the shaman when I found out it wasnt pfs legal but some ideas. Go Serendipity and witch doctor follow pharasma. Choose life and maybe lore at level 4. Sadly one feat needs to go with defiant luck, maybe fey foundling followed by selective channeling. At level 4 you sadly havent hit your stride yet but assuming a 14 cha, you would have 3 2d6 channels and 5 1d6 channels. For your familiar take the bodyguard. Level 5 is where it starts moving you can take the feat fateful channel (creatures healed by you can roll twice on attack, saves or skills) So now all those channels can also affect luck. Your familiar now can take half of your damage (along with its fast healing 1) Level 6 you get a wandering hex and could pick up arcane enlightenment every day to get new arcane spells. Level 7 is where you can start picking up extra hex
Thanks! I'm going to try and stat this out soon and see how it looks. Having a familiar being an HP sponge is clever.
It is pretty intensive and takes awhile to get moving but I thought it could be a fun way to play. You can also buff the party with barkskin (rod of lesser extend would be a must)
I would pick up misfortune and chant when you can. I would go sleep but the first time someone kills the sleeping target I think he would have a issue. Evil eye is great but it might be too aggressive.
I would talk to the party first about going that route. While you are going a different route, your friends are there to kill things. I was in a party with a guy that had a ridiculous diplomacy. We finally got to a fight.. and he talked them out of it. The only fight of the night, man I was peeved. So make sure you don't step on your friend's toes :)