Hey all, I'm working on building a replacement character for an ongoing CotCT campaign, their divine character dropped out do to RL issues and I've decided to step up and fill in, but I'm at a loss.
I'm leaning towards a vanilla Cleric of Abadar with the Defense and Nobility domains. Since Lamm is already dead I've been given the go ahead by the GM to replace the campaign trait with another trait. Since my concept is someone who works with the Korvosan guard on occasion I've taken the Eyes and Ears of the City and Child of the Temple traits (with the Deft Dodger trait for the Pride drawback).
The plan is a support type character with buffs and ranged combatant .
I'd appreciate a hand in building the character and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Damien Cross
Male human (Varisian) cleric of Abadar 1
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +8
Aura deflection aura (2 ft.)
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +2 shield)
hp 12 (1d8+4)
Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +6
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)
Melee dagger +0 (1d4/19-20) or
. . dagger +0 (1d4/19-20) or
. . light mace +0 (1d6)
Ranged light crossbow +2 (1d8/19-20)
Special Attacks channel positive energy 4/day (DC 11, 1d6)
Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st—bless[D], divine favor, magic weapon
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, guidance, light
. . D Domain spell; Domains Protection (Defense[APG] subdomain), Nobility (Leadership[APG] subdomain)
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 13
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 12
Feats Point-Blank Shot, Toughness
Traits child of the temple, deft dodger, eyes and ears of the city
Skills Acrobatics -2 (-6 to jump), Diplomacy +1 (-1 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Heal +7, Knowledge (nobility) +5, Knowledge (religion) +5, Linguistics +4, Perception +8, Sense Motive +3 (+1 vs. Creatures that threaten, accuse, or challenge you and haven't apologized), Spellcraft +4
Languages Common, Shoanti, Varisian
SQ inspiring command, pride
Other Gear armored coat[APG], heavy steel shield, crossbow bolts (10), dagger, dagger, light crossbow, light mace, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, candle (10), flint and steel, holy text (The Order of Numbers)[UE], mess kit[UE], spell component pouch, trail rations (5), waterskin, wooden holy symbol of Abadar, 21 gp
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Special Abilities
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Cleric Channel Positive Energy 1d6 (4/day, DC 11) (Su) Positive energy heals the living and harms the undead; negative has the reverse effect.
Cleric Domain (Defense) Granted Powers: Your faith is your greatest source of protection, and you can use that faith to defend others. In addition, you receive a +1 resistance bonus on saving throws. This bonus increases by 1 for every 5 levels you possess.
Cleric Domain (Leadership)
Deflection Aura (1 rounds, 1/day) (Su) 20'r aura grants +2 AC and +2 CMD
Inspiring Command (1 allies) (Su) Allies gain +2 Attack AC, CMD, skill checks
Point-Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Pride -2 to diplomacy and sense motive vs. those who threaten, accuse, or challenge you, until they apologize
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What’s the rest of the party like?
The crossbow itself is unlikely to become useful (you need a lot of feats to make that work and vanilla clerics don't get bonus feats), but point blank shot and precise shot could still be useful for spells like admonishing ray. Maybe plan to get reach spell if you want to get into ranged magical attacks.
Remember that the higher level you get the more spells matter for a cleric and plan accordingly. If you're likely to reach 15th level then planning for the spell perfection feat might be an idea. Even well short of that a feat on beating SR (spell penetration or piercing spell) is a decent investment, and a mage's crossbow may suit you later on if you can get one. There are several metamagic feats which may be of use even to a buffer, and more for an offensive spellcaster.
I agree with the others that archery will not be very effective. It's workable on a cleric, but with 15 point buy that would mean going with only a minimum of wis and probably dumping cha. I do not think even point blank / precise shot are worth picking up. You already got Inspiring Command that is likely to offer more benefit.
I would consider the trade domain (probably instead of defense?). Everyone else in the party got a negative charisma modifiers. It also have great spells. Ignoring diplomacy and social skills would close a lot of possible avenues to us. Similarly I would look to swap out the pride drawback. Some social encounter might involve those things and getting a -2 penalty to two of the most important skills will be about the equivalent of a negative feat at those times.
I would look into a way to get charisma up to 14 to start. Either trading away a dex or dumping strength(then pick up dex at 4th). Your armor penalty will roughly be the same as medium load penalty anyway, so you don't really need strength for anything.
Scribe scroll is an excellent feat for a support cleric. It'll allow you to have all your situational spells available without having to prepare them. A lot of cleric spells also don't depend on casting stat to be at full effect, stuff like bless etc.
The evangelist cleric archtype could work great. It gives some better options for spontanous spells and more buffs.
