Combat Cleric help please.

[Minsc]

Hey guys.

I'm not too familiar with 3.5. I'm playing in a game with a level 4 Cleric. I wanted to make a Cleric who would be good in combat, and heal as an afterthought, but I want to be mono-classed.

I chose a dwarf (I love dwarves) Cleric of Haela Brightaxe. The war domain gave me the weapon focus: greatsword feat, and I also chose luck, because it sounds cool and fun.

She has a 11 intelligence, and I don't want to mess up the few skill points I will have to play with.

I'm 4th level, and since I wanted a warrior cleric, I decided to go with Fighter-type feats. She has power attack and cleave. Are these good choices?

I plan on wearing the best armor I can get my hands on, and using a greatsword.

Any tips y'all can give me on skill selection, if my feats are good choices, and any spells I should keep an eye out for, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Well, the best part is that straight cleric can do just what you want it to do. You're going to be looking at spells like Divine Favor, Righteous Might, and Magic Weapon/Vestment.

For skills, really what you want is concentration to cast spells in combat. Then pick either spellcraft or a knowledge. Probably religion. If you want to be a little cheesy, go cross class for tumble. Dwarves always move at 20' which means you could, as a dwarf, tumble in full plate. Not that well but you could.

Power Attack is limited on your BAB and as a cleric you're not going to get the mileage out of it that a fighter would. It's not perfect but not horrible for your situation. So as a fighting cleric, it's still a great pick. Cleave is ... situational. Does your DM like to throw lots of little guys at you? Then it's a good feat. But, even then, you'll find that as the campaign advances and as monsters get more and more HP that you're going to be using it less and less. I'd really only pick it up if your DM allows you to trade it out later or if there is something weird that you want down the road that requires it as a prerequisite.

What source books are you allowed to use? Things like Divine Metamagic (Reach) or (Persist) can be very handy and very powerful.