Looking at a niche but awesome 20 pt Cleric build. I don’t usually use reach tactics with a Cleric but this particular mix makes a great match IMO. I had a couple of similar ideas. Thematically but also mechanically, I have stayed within CE as a deity alignment.
Tell me your thoughts one and all!
Drow – Reach Herald Caller of Baphomet (Animal/Fur subdomain)
Style: Summoner with secondary melee role
Alignment – CN
Deity favoured weapon – Glaive (Reach weapon)
FCB: +1 hp
STATS: STR 14, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 10
Light armour and buckler
Starting traits: Reactionary, Genie Caller
Starting feat: Sacred Summons
Alternate racial traits: Blasphemous Covenant, Surface Infiltrator, Champion of Dark Powers
The idea is as they level up they will get Combat reflexes, Boon Companion (big cat probably) and SEM as soon as possible. But they will be very decent Summoners straight from Lv 1, especially with the use of a Summoner’s Idol.
But by Level 5 they will really start cooking…..
- Fully levelled big cat AC
- Abilities (Augment Summons, Blasphemous Covenant, Summoner’s Idol) can SS a 30 hp Dretch if they wanted
- The secondary melee role comes with Combat reflexes (can make 3 AOO per round with a decent reach weapon) and the ability to cast Monstrous Physique as a Cleric of Baphomet. You can now wade into combat fairly decently yourself with your summons and AC alongside you for all kinds of flanking goodness.
Then at Lv 7 with SEM they will take it up another notch with their summoning.
The alternative would be to worship Lamashtu which would have some pros and cons..
Mother’s rage trait = a consistent +1 CL on summoning spells (and +1 on survival) vs +2 CL 1/day from Genie Caller
Nightmare and Baleful Polymorph as bonus spells vs Monstrous Physique (have to wait till Lv 5 to get access) and Maze
Favoured weapon = falchion (lower base damage but better Crit potential?)
No access to an AC but by using Strength/Ferocity subdomain, you would have access to Enlarge Person + Ferocious strike combo straight from Lv1. Reach tactics could still be viable. Since no need for Boon Companion feat, possibly Power Attack instead?
An animal companion is ok, especially with a small party size. But it comes with taxes. You’ll have to pay a feat for boon companion and you’ll need to drop ranks in handle animal, which a herald caller doesn’t usually need.
I prefer the trickery domain for herald caller. Copycat is great defense and only a move action to use. Also getting invisibility as a domain spell is handy for a summoner.
I don’t think sacred summons will do you any good for a while. If you really want combat reflexes, you could pick it up at first level. Your casting/summoning doesn’t really get going till level 3 or 4 anyway.
Sadly there aren’t many monster options for sacred summons with chaotic neutral. You may want to skip this feat. If you want the few options there are, you’ll have to take the summon neutral monster feat to access them.
I did this myself. You can probably get some ideas from the replies in the thread.
Thread
Melkiador wrote:
Sadly there aren’t many monster options for sacred summons with chaotic neutral. You may want to skip this feat. If you want the few options there are, you’ll have to take the summon neutral monster feat to access them.
But my aura is CE is it not, since that is the alignment of my deity?
Yep, CE drity, so CE aura.
Wait... you specifically call out that your CHARACTER has CN alignment while your DEITY is CE, right? You also say "SEM" all over the place... I assume that's Summon Evil Monster right? Well, Summon Evil Monster says Summon Evil Monster wrote: Prerequisites: Evil alignment. So... how do you get this feat, or do I have something wrong?
Mark Hoover 330 wrote: Wait... you specifically call out that your CHARACTER has CN alignment while your DEITY is CE, right? You also say "SEM" all over the place... I assume that's Summon Evil Monster right? Well, Summon Evil Monster says Summon Evil Monster wrote: Prerequisites: Evil alignment. So... how do you get this feat, or do I have something wrong? Ah yes OK.... no biggie...my Drow is CE then!!
It’s not a deal breaker, but I prefer partly neutral deities for the herald caller. Quote: Divine Heralds (Su): A herald caller can use summon monster spells only to summon creatures particularly appropriate to her deity. This includes all creatures listed as summon monster options for priests of her deity (see Expanded Summoning for Priests on page 30), creatures whose alignment matches at least one aspect of her deity’s alignment, and creatures of an elemental subtype that matches a domain granted by the deity (if any). Being chaotic evil means you will miss out on most of the elementals, which are frequently your best summon options. You can get by without them. But they will be missed.
Ok, first of all, why have I never looked at Herald Callers before? You are a standard, vanilla Cleric except you give up access to one of your Domains. In return you gain a cool power to expand your Summons and sacrifice known spells for Summons, you gain 2 bonus feats at levels 4 and 8, and more skill ranks/level.
Also secondly, isn't the Elemental summons tied more to the Domains offered under your deity, and has less to do with the deity's alignment? So if your deity were CE but offered the Air Domain, such as Ghlaunder, you could still summon Air Elementals right?
Lastly... is Weather considered an element from which to pull Elementals for summoning?
Mark Hoover 330 wrote: Ok, first of all, why have I never looked at Herald Callers before? You are a standard, vanilla Cleric except you give up access to one of your Domains. In return you gain a cool power to expand your Summons and sacrifice known spells for Summons, you gain 2 bonus feats at levels 4 and 8, and more skill ranks/level. It's my favorite cleric archetype, but I haven't gotten to ecclesitheurge yet.
Quote: Also secondly, isn't the Elemental summons tied more to the Domains offered under your deity, and has less to do with the deity's alignment? So if your deity were CE but offered the Air Domain, such as Ghlaunder, you could still summon Air Elementals right? Yes and no. If you have the element domain, then the alignment is ignored. But if your alignment has a neutral component it matches all base elementals by default, since their alignment is neutral/neutral.
Quote: Lastly... is Weather considered an element from which to pull Elementals for summoning? I'd guess no by RAW, but it'd be worth asking your GM about if he's cool like that.
Mark Hoover 330 wrote: Ok, first of all, why have I never looked at Herald Callers before? You are a standard, vanilla Cleric except you give up access to one of your Domains. In return you gain a cool power to expand your Summons and sacrifice known spells for Summons, you gain 2 bonus feats at levels 4 and 8, and more skill ranks/level.
Its more than that even..... you can spont summon and spont heal, Channelling all of a sudden can become a worthwhile investment due to the nifty ability, you auto communicate with any of your summons irrespective of what they are.
A very rare win for Paizo and Cleric archetypes!
I want to make and play one RIGHT NOW! Also, thanks for putting up with my inane questions. Melkiador, if you get to Ecclesitheurge, you be sure and post something so I can fanboy over that too.
Here is another good reason why if you're playing a Cleric to play very close attention to the deity options out here....
Really good Herald Caller build:
Herald Caller of Shizuru
Alignment: LG (some great summoning options), especially with SGM
But here's the juicy bits...
Color Spray can be spontaneously cast as a 1st-level spell
Scorching ray can be prepared as a 2nd-level spell
Tail Strike can be prepared as a 4th-level spell
Unbearable Brightness can be prepared as a 4th-level spell
Prismatic Spray can be prepared as a 7th-level spell
So straight from 1st level you can spont heal, summon and Color Spray!
Your GM will hate you :))
And to top it off Shizuru has some good domain options:
Glory/Heroism is possibly better for pure summoning but you won't get the real benefits till 8th Lvl
Sun/Day is better for general casting - it has some very useful abilities (including the amazing Blinding Flash) and solid domain spells
Enjoy.... I'm tempted to play one myself ;)
If you are focusing on summoning I'd go with summoning feats. Spider Summoner is a Drow feat. Then another allows you to add different templates to monsters. Picture that a flying spider. Creepiness factor is ramped up. Spiders are in some cases better then the normal list of monsters.
Drow are a great race playing one now having a blast with him. His bonus to Chr is useful for channeling. Choose a neutral diety so you can get versatile channeling. A level or two of Holy vindicator offers some perks worth looking into.
I'd avoid melee unless with a reach or ranged weapon. The minus two to Con will hurt. Another factor is Cleric BAB is not as good as a straight martial class. Throw out a summon then buff like Bless. Later if GM allows it create lots and lots of undead friends. A friend played a undead summoning cleric. Had tons of skeletons. One hit die but a monster can't move if they surrounded by skeletons.
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