Melee Cleric Build

[Rel]

Here's one that I had fun with:

Fighter 1/Cleric X (of Obad-Hai with the Plant Domain)

Feats are (at 6th level): Power Attack, Improved Shield Bash, Shield Charge, Divine Shield

Between a decent Strength to start with, Bulls Strength, Spikes and Divine Shield you will do a LOT of damage on a hit. When you Charge, you double it.

The Plant Domain gives you Entangle at 1st level and Barkskin at 2nd. If you wear good armor, add in Barkskin and Shield of Faith
and you will be very tough to hit. If you can pick up Shield Expert, it will be even better.

Alternately, take a level of Ranger instead of Fighter and use 2 shields. Doing 2 Improved Shield Bashes every round lets you push people all over the battlemat. If you push them out of your allies' threatened area, they take AoO's.

No doubt there are more technically effective builds out there, but I had tremendous fun with this one in combat.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Cleric is not required to use his spells on others. If I went to a group that insisted on getting a dip on my buffing spells, I'd say "F that. I'll play barbarian then. Good luck getting my rage.".

Clerics abilities are his abilities. If I want to use my spells to help myself in combat, I'll do just that. Others better buy some cure wands - I'll gladly use them, between combats. Just like barbarian doesn't lend his class ability (rage) to others, I won't cast a GMW on the groups fighters if I want to use that slot for example Airwalk. He's free to buy me a 4th level pearl of power, and then I'll cast any 4th level spell on him once a day.

I'm not a wanker though, and realize that sometimes it's for the better if I buff others. However, getting the use of my abilities is a privilige for the rest of the group, not a right. I usually, for example, offer one 2nd slot for the groups rogue. He can choose endurance or delay poison or whatever. But if I really needed that slot, good luck, rogue.

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but you gotta be kidding me. Sure the cleric shouldn't have to devote all their spells to the group and should be able to self buff, but i might give the rogue 1 2nd level spell.

It's a freakin team game, the barbarian helps you by using his rage and killing things faster, or by leaping foward while you're still buffing up, or countless other tasks. How about the barbarian with his listen skill hears something coming, but he doesn't tell you because his listen skill is for him not the group.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Cleric is not required to use his spells on others. If I went to a group that insisted on getting a dip on my buffing spells, I'd say "F that. I'll play barbarian then. Good luck getting my rage.".

Clerics abilities are his abilities. If I want to use my spells to help myself in combat, I'll do just that. Others better buy some cure wands - I'll gladly use them, between combats. Just like barbarian doesn't lend his class ability (rage) to others, I won't cast a GMW on the groups fighters if I want to use that slot for example Airwalk. He's free to buy me a 4th level pearl of power, and then I'll cast any 4th level spell on him once a day.

wow. When I play a cleric, I'm generally happy to buff the others. I keep a mental tally of how much it helps, too -- it the bull's strength'd barbarian deals 3 extra points of damage a round and hits 4 times, one of which would have missed without the attack bonus from bull's strength, I count it as (base damage + 12) damage I've effectively dealt.

As far as I'm concerned, we have a tacit agreement: I buff you as best I see fit, and you go to the front lines and get hit for me.

 

[phillipjp]

Scrolls are the fighter/cleric's best friend. I spend all my mem'd/metamagic'd spells on buffing myself, and keep around scrolls to cast Remove This, Cure That, etc.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Man... what happens if the cleric takes some item creation feats? You don't make stuff for the rest of the party?

Maybe I'm just a giving person in my campaigns, I've made more for the party than for my character in most campaigns.

 

[Larcen]

Cleric is not required to use his spells on others. If I went to a group that insisted on getting a dip on my buffing spells, I'd say "F that. I'll play barbarian then. Good luck getting my rage.".

Clerics abilities are his abilities. If I want to use my spells to help myself in combat, I'll do just that. Others better buy some cure wands - I'll gladly use them, between combats. Just like barbarian doesn't lend his class ability (rage) to others, I won't cast a GMW on the groups fighters if I want to use that slot for example Airwalk. He's free to buy me a 4th level pearl of power, and then I'll cast any 4th level spell on him once a day.

I'm not a wanker though, and realize that sometimes it's for the better if I buff others. However, getting the use of my abilities is a privilige for the rest of the group, not a right. I usually, for example, offer one 2nd slot for the groups rogue. He can choose endurance or delay poison or whatever. But if I really needed that slot, good luck, rogue.

That's all fine and good, Numion. But please don't tell me your cleric is of a good alignment. Or a lawful one too, for that matter.

My cleric is NG and he feels personally honored to help out the party in a support capacity. And as CRGreathouse pointed out, he also feels more than a little grateful when the fighters rush forward to go toe to toe with those bodaks and trolls.

But you wanna know where my biggest satisfaction comes from? Whenever the party needs a solution to a problem, such as detect this, or remove that, or cure this, or find that, and they all invariably turn to me and ask "What have you got?" They ask my PC that more than they ask even the arcane casters. And I usually have the solution they need too.

 

[RigaMortus]

Cleric is not required to use his spells on others. If I went to a group that insisted on getting a dip on my buffing spells, I'd say "F that. I'll play barbarian then. Good luck getting my rage.".

Clerics abilities are his abilities. If I want to use my spells to help myself in combat, I'll do just that. Others better buy some cure wands - I'll gladly use them, between combats. Just like barbarian doesn't lend his class ability (rage) to others, I won't cast a GMW on the groups fighters if I want to use that slot for example Airwalk. He's free to buy me a 4th level pearl of power, and then I'll cast any 4th level spell on him once a day.

I'm not a wanker though, and realize that sometimes it's for the better if I buff others. However, getting the use of my abilities is a privilige for the rest of the group, not a right. I usually, for example, offer one 2nd slot for the groups rogue. He can choose endurance or delay poison or whatever. But if I really needed that slot, good luck, rogue.

I've never played an evil character before, how's that working out for you?

 

[Rel]

Hey guys, I think this whole "Does the Cleric owe it to the party to use his spells for buffing others" topic is worthy of discussion (I'm not being at all sarcastic when I say that.). But Hardhead might appreciate it if you started another thread since he is trying to collect ideas for his character here.

Assuming that he is subscribed to the thread, it is probably a little disappointing to keep checking in when he sees a response only to find that it is part of a debate that has little to do with his character concept.

I say this with the full acknowledgement that I'm not a mod (nor do I wish to be) and you have every right to ignore this post. I just think it would be the courteous thing to do.

Peace.

 

[Numion]

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but you gotta be kidding me. Sure the cleric shouldn't have to devote all their spells to the group and should be able to self buff, but i might give the rogue 1 2nd level spell.

It's a freakin team game, the barbarian helps you by using his rage and killing things faster, or by leaping foward while you're still buffing up, or countless other tasks. How about the barbarian with his listen skill hears something coming, but he doesn't tell you because his listen skill is for him not the group.

It's my character concept. I like to play a strong holy-warrior type of character. It's not the traditional cleric archetype, but thats what I've chosen.

I deal more damage than the said barbarian, and am more efficient thus. Then, if he played a cleric similar to mine, the team would be more efficient, yes?

You suggest I should buff the barb, instead of me? You see where this is going... because then I'd just be compensating his sub-par character choice by diverting power from me to him. Only cleric is asked to do that, since he's the only one who can do it.

 

[Numion]

I've never played an evil character before, how's that working out for you?

As I said I'm not a wanker. Neither am I evil PC. Of course I provide spells to others in the group when it's viable. We go against a white dragon and I'll provide Prot elements for all I can.

I won't, however, compromise my characters wellbeing (=buffs) by burning slots for cures. Thats what the wands are for.