New Player Help: DEX-WIS Cleric

[browlet]

Hey folks, I'm a new PF2E player joining a fresh Abomination Vaults campaign. So far in the party, we have a Fighter (I think STR), Paladin-Champion, and flexibly an Alchemist/Ranger. We are playing with free archetypes.

I believe we need a source of healing and someone to cover thievery and locks and all, and I'm happy playing a character that can put on a few hats.

I'm thinking of playing a DEX-WIS-focused Cleric with a Rogue dedication to cover all kinds of trap searching and Thievery/Stealth, as well as Medicine to deal with out-of-combat healing. Reckon this would be able to cover these bases, or is it a concept that's spread too thin? I figured I'd use the DEX I'm getting as a Warpriest with some sort of ranged weapon, probably a longbow for the odd rounds I can/need to shoot.

[NorrKnekten]

Sounds like you absolutely have a good idea even if the Ranger should be able to cover the thievery and stealth unless they are a strength ranger.

I would probably say that you may get more milage out of a shortbow in the early levels as the longbow has a penalty for close range shots as described in its Volley trait. Battle Medicine also requires you to be adjacent to your target typically resulting in being closer to hostiles.

Having a 4 Wisdom / 3 Dexterity setup also gets you plenty of defenses where you can choose between your bow or spells. Or if you don't need to do anything in particular during a round. Void Warp/Vitality Lash + Shoot without penalties.

Rogue dedication also gets you access to alot of extra skill proficiencies which are really valuable as a warpriest as they typically cannot afford the intelligence between their Wis,Str,Dex. You should have atleast 1 str just so you can wear a suitable piece of armor without penalties.

Overall, Great concept for the adventure, Welcome to Pathfinder.

[Tridus]

DEX is good on a Cleric because it gives you AC and Cleric can definitely use that. You can put skill boosts into Thievery and be pretty good at it with that setup, while your Cleric casting will give you a LOT of healing. Take Medicine as your other big skill for downtime healing/treating poison and you're good to go.

I'd suggest Medic instead of Rogue for your free archetype. That gives you Medicine to expert at level 2 (letting you get Thievery to expert at level 3) and Battle Medicine will give you more healing. Doctors Visitation at 4 is a great feat to save you actions, which is extremely strong as it lets you "Move, Battle Medicine, cast a 2 action spell" all in a single turn.

You can get Rogue Dedication at level 6 with that setup. You don't actually need it for finding/disarming traps at all, but it has some nice stuff (Skill Mastery at 8 is especially helpful).

I definitely do not recommend a Longbow in Abomination Vaults. The volley trait gives you a -2 penalty within 30'... and speaking as a GM while avoiding spoilers... you will take that penalty a LOT. Get a Shortbow. The smaller damage die will be more than made up for by not taking the -2 penalty. Bows also leave you a free hand when not actively shooting, so you can use Battle Medicine really easily.

You can also do this as a Cloistered Cleric instead of a Warpriest, in which case you'd use a cantrip like Divine Lance instead of a bow for most of your attacks (but you can still use a Crossbow if you need to). That gives a domain spell instead of the better armor/weapons, which may or may not be worth it to you. The general setup works either way. :)

[Castilliano]

Yeah, with such a robust frontline a Cloistered Cleric would be well protected, and the greater proficiency matters IMO in a party lacking much spellpower. Warpriest suits more if you're going to armor up & Shield Block or get a beefier weapon. Since a bow wouldn't get the extra damage that martials get, it won't do that much past the early levels (where yes, it'll be a nice third action). But since you'll likely be busy with other third actions like Medicine, Recall Knowledge, moving, casting Shield, etc., I wouldn't put too many resources into the bow, and as noted, there's always a crossbow for those few times you do get to shoot. And some of those one-action Focus Spells you'd have to choose from make a worthwhile substitute too (like for Earth or Fire).
So with a crossbow (maybe even heavy) plus a Focus Spell, you'd have two rounds/battle (more w/ more Focus Points) to cast + attack, which is half of many battles, and you'll often want to do other stuff anyway (but always casting when possible, even if only a Cantrip).

I say this having GMed for a guy who invested a LOT of feats into archery as a caster, and the guy simply lacked the opportunity to use it much since in tougher moments he'd always have to resort to his best spells + an action to keep himself alive.

And yeah, Rogue MCD doesn't actually help you much with Thievery directly, though yes, it does plump up those meager Cleric skills and that light armor would be nice if Cloistered. I'd be torn, but Medic is quite strong as noted (and you can stick near the Champion to provide your PC damage mitigation & emergency healing).

[browlet]

Thanks for all of the advice thus far! It's really helpful to consider these things. When it comes to "a party lacking much spellpower", how does this issue crop up in practice?

My assumption is being able to provide an array of buffs and debuffs (that I presume wouldn't stack so much with too many casters?), as well as smack baddies that are very physically resistant?

Maybe just going Cloistered with high DEX (as well as WIS ofc) anyway is the play.

[Ascalaphus]

I've played a cloistered cleric with rogue dedication in Age of Ashes from 1-20. Even without free archetype, I felt the rogue feats were well worth paying for. In particular, learning the Mobility feat can be pure gold.

Rogue dedication ships with light armor proficiency. It doesn't scale up at level 13, but in Abomination Vaults you don't care since it only goes up to level 10. So for a cloistered cleric, it solves a big problem for you: how to get your AC to an okay number.

You can start with a Wis +4 / Dex +3 and studded leather. You might not have enough strength, so take a -1 penalty to Dex skills from the armor. But IMO that's the lesser evil compared to missing out a point of AC for taking only basic leather armor which needs less strength.