Starter Cleric Build?

[Darkmoon250]

After a long, looooong time, I've finally figured out the class I want to play: akin to the class I started with in 5e, my first character in Pathfinder shall be a Cleric.

The race is planned to be Werewolf-kin, deity is Ashava, domains would be Revelry and Darkness/Moon, a trait that could add Perception to my class skills, maybe variant channeling for Moonlight, and... not sure about the rest. The group I'm in consists of two PC's focused on blasting, and 1 focused on summoning and battlefield control. We need a supporter/healer, and maybe a martial battler, and I was wondering which is more important (or optimal) for a Cleric to focus on. Ideally, I'd like to do some of both, especially since werewolf-kin gets a free magic fang, but I've heard it's better for a Cleric to focus on one or the other.

If anyone could advise me on which role to specialize in, or what archetypes to look at, I'd really appreciate it.

[Ryze Kuja]

I would go with a Reach Crit-fishing weapon, like a Fauchard, and stand just behind your summons and try to get as many AoO provokes as possible. You could get Armor Spikes with Spell Storing enchant for enemies that close the distance on you. Put Hold Person in your Spell Storing ftw.

You can get away with fighting like this with really minimal feat investment, you could even invest no feats at all and still do okay, but Combat Reflexes and Lunge are nice. This still leaves you with a majority of your feats to be used on spellcasting.

[Melkiador]

The cleric has a strange life cycle. In the early levels, you won't have enough spells to feel like a caster, so you'll want to attack. But in the mid to later levels, your spells will be so much better than your attacks and you'll have enough of them so that you'll hardly ever need to do anything else.

As a middle ground, you might want to consider being a heal-tank. Take selective channel and a decent charisma (14+). Wear the best armor you can with a shield. "Draw aggro" by healing and buffing your allies in combat.

It's hard to be sure if you actually need a melee battler. A summoning build can often help fill that role. Never played with 2 blasters at the same time though. So, interested in how that will go

[Mark Hoover 330]

Here's an older reach cleric guide. This might be handy. There's also guides on these boards for general cleric build advice, I'm sure.

Herald Caller is a good one if you want to go the summoning route, everyone and their brother on these boards screams that Ecclesitheurge is one of the best cleric archetypes ever. Frankly, I don't think you NEED an archetype.

You could play a reach cleric, that's cool, but you're a werewolfkin. You're starting out with +2 Perception, decent Con and Wis, and 3 natural weapon attacks. You get Magic Fang 1/day. All of this leads me to believe you want to be able to hold the frontline. Perhaps take a deity that grants Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, pick up Feral Combat Training at L1 and then perhaps look at some of the Unarmed Attack style feat chains out there. Maybe even dip a couple levels into U-Monk?

[Darkmoon250]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

You could play a reach cleric, that's cool, but you're a werewolfkin. You're starting out with +2 Perception, decent Con and Wis, and 3 natural weapon attacks. You get Magic Fang 1/day. All of this leads me to believe you want to be able to hold the frontline. Perhaps take a deity that grants Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, pick up Feral Combat Training at L1 and then perhaps look at some of the Unarmed Attack style feat chains out there. Maybe even dip a couple levels into U-Monk?

I have to admit, I'm really wanting this character's deity to be Ashava. I just love her dark and spooky themes, while still being a good aligned deity. Plus, I love the spells the Moon subdomain offers.

And while I also want the character to be a Witchwolf, I'm willing to go for another breed of Skinwalker if natural attacks aren't going to work all that well for a Cleric (unless I can use magic fang on our Summoner's monsters and eidolon).

Even though I'm 95% set on Cleric, I am willing to take a class that's better at melee if I really ought to for this group... as long as it has some clerical abilities. Warpriest, maybe?

[Ryze Kuja]

Oracle of Battle would suit you well too. Your Oracle Curse could be Lycanthropy O.o

[Melkiador]

Darkmoon250 wrote:

Even though I'm 95% set on Cleric, I am willing to take a class that's better at melee if I really ought to for this group... as long as it has some clerical abilities. Warpriest, maybe?

The warpriest can work well with a natural attack build. Take your claws as your first favored weapon and bite as your second. Warpriest isn’t a combat healer but it’s often good enough for covering status removal.

[Darkmoon250]

It might also be worth mentioning that my stat rolls are pretty meh: 15, 14, 13, 13, 12, 10. Can't afford to get too MAD.

[Mark Hoover 330]

How often do you think Undead are going to come up in this here campaign? Ashavic Dancer is a PrC based on the god you want and would pair decently with Evangelist. L1 through 6 your role is to manage the melee combat line while also using Perform: Oratory to deliver sermons and give summoned creatures Inspire Courage, though you'd lose one of those 2 domains you want. Still, by the time you hit 6 ranks in Perform (Dance) which you could be taking simultaneously with Perform (Oratory), you qualify for the PrC that gives you all kinds of anti-undead performances. You get 2 rounds/level of Ashavic Performance in the PrC and can use rounds of other Bardic Performance for more rounds... which you've picked up through levels of Evangelist.

Then again, this really only works well if you're planning on going up against a lot of undead over time.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Darkmoon250 wrote:

It might also be worth mentioning that my stat rolls are pretty meh: 15, 14, 13, 13, 12, 10. Can't afford to get too MAD.

Are these before adding +2 Con, -2 Int (+2 Wis when shapechanged), and do you have to take these stats in the order they've come in here?

[Darkmoon250]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

How often do you think Undead are going to come up in this here campaign? Ashavic Dancer is a PrC based on the god you want and would pair decently with Evangelist. L1 through 6 your role is to manage the melee combat line while also using Perform: Oratory to deliver sermons and give summoned creatures Inspire Courage, though you'd lose one of those 2 domains you want. Still, by the time you hit 6 ranks in Perform (Dance) which you could be taking simultaneously with Perform (Oratory), you qualify for the PrC that gives you all kinds of anti-undead performances. You get 2 rounds/level of Ashavic Performance in the PrC and can use rounds of other Bardic Performance for more rounds... which you've picked up through levels of Evangelist.

Then again, this really only works well if you're planning on going up against a lot of undead over time.

This is a fey and wilderness oriented campaign, so I don't think undead will be showing up too much.

And as for the stats, those are my base rolls. Haven't added racial boosts, yet.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Ok... a fey wilderness... Fey creatures typically have modest ACs, some interesting spells and defenses, and low HP. So long as you keep your attack accuracy up, you likely won't have much trouble doing enough damage to contribute well in melee combat.

The bigger problem with the fey is FINDING them. Many are Small or Tiny sized; a simple CR 1/3 Sprite has Stealth +13. If the sprite is hiding on a tree branch 30' away, are you going to even notice? Its a pity being a witchwolf doesn't give you Scent.

Well anyway, so long as you either have a backup ranged weapon or spells/abilities to cross Difficult Terrain in order to deal with flying fey, animals/magical beasts/vermin that might have a Climb or Fly speed and so forth, you actually should be fine. I'd suggest Str 15, Dex 13, Con 15 (13 +2 Racial), Int 10 (12 -2 Racial), Wis 14 (16 when shapechanged), Cha 10.

This PC is starting the game at +2 attack and damage and can assume a form that, in a full attack, gets 3 decently damaging attacks. Take a longspear and focus on reach tactics in melee, grab a sling for ranged attacks and have cold-iron bullets at level 1. If you can, make or buy scrolls of Magic Stone; 30 minute duration, x3 sling bullets at +1 to hit, 1d6+1 damage, plus Str bonus to that damage.

As you level, as melkiador said, your spells will start piling up. Unlike a lot of arcane casters, your L1 spells will be valuable for a while. With just 1 round to pre-buff you've got a Luck bonus to all weapon attacks, and your claws and fangs count. With the Fate's Favored trait you could add +1 to that luck bonus. Obviously this would work better with 2 levels of Warpriest because you'd be casting Divine Favor on yourself as a Swift action using Fervor, but as a reach-focused cleric you should still get decent use out of this tactic.

Touch of Chaos is a decent domain attack. Provoking a key NPC or BBEG to have to roll twice and take the worse one is a powerful debuff. Honestly, it's another reason to consider Unarmed Strikes.

With the feats Improved Unarmed Strike, Feral Combat Training and Domain Strike you could deliver Touch of Chaos as a swift action every time you hit with one of your natural attacks. Might be something worth thinking about.

Last but not least, check in with the player running the summoning focused caster, see if they're thinking of taking that feat that hands out Teamwork feats to all their summons. If so, consider getting ready to both take the Outflank feat when you both qualify. If the summoner can position you with a flanker so you've both got +4 to attack, that's a good place to be.