New to D&D, playing Favored Soul, suggestions welcome

[Empirate]

Blade of Blood. This Blade of Blood? I sincerely hope you're not being serious. That is an incredibly weak spell. Lose 5 HP to deal an extra 10.5 HP on a successful hit only? Horrible waste of a 'spell known' slot.

The only point in your career when a single attack getting +3d6 damage is at all powerful is when you're first level. However, when you use the spell at first level, it takes away half your HP total! Later on, +3d6 damage on a single attack simply isn't big enough of a deal to warrant a spell slot. And getting hit with those -5 HP yourself is still bad. Seriously, I wouldn't even consider the spell if it didn't deal damage to the caster - but it does!

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Wave of Grief is an Evil spell sadly.

http://dndtools.eu/classes/cleric/spells-level-2/ might be a good place to look for other spells for 2nd level, or any level of course by changing the url to 3, 6, etc.

 

[AesirsChampion]

Blade of Blood. This Blade of Blood? I sincerely hope you're not being serious. That is an incredibly weak spell. Lose 5 HP to deal an extra 10.5 HP on a successful hit only? Horrible waste of a 'spell known' slot.

The only point in your career when a single attack getting +3d6 damage is at all powerful is when you're first level. However, when you use the spell at first level, it takes away half your HP total! Later on, +3d6 damage on a single attack simply isn't big enough of a deal to warrant a spell slot. And getting hit with those -5 HP yourself is still bad. Seriously, I wouldn't even consider the spell if it didn't deal damage to the caster - but it does!

My friend, while I thank you for your efforts to assist me in your previous post, please remember that I am brand spanking new to Dungeons and Dragons. While it is not explicitly stated in the above quote, the way I read it was that you inferred that I was a moron. That is like you meeting me in person, and calling me a "soldier" (I am a Marine), and me jumping down your throat, which many Marines are liable to do. Now, assuming you are a civilian (Truth be told, I have no idea, this is the internet after all), you wouldn't know any better and it would not be fair for me to get in your face to try to make you feel inept or idiotic. The same logic applies here. A simple, "Bud, I would advise against it. In my experience, the trade-offs for that spell is not worth it. Now THIS is the spell you might want to consider," would have been a better approach. Like I said earlier in this post, I do thank you with your earlier efforts to assist me in creating my FvS. If you would remember in the near future to be patient with me and understand that, unlike you, this is my first rodeo, I would appreciate further help if you are willing to give it. If patience and understanding are not things you can offer at this moment, then perhaps you may need to refrain from replying in this thread for the time being. I, however, hope that you do indeed reply back with your earlier consideration that you displayed in your first post, as you seem like a very knowledgeable player who can show this youngblood how it is done.

 

[Empirate]

My friend, while I thank you for your efforts to assist me in your previous post, please remember that I am brand spanking new to Dungeons and Dragons. While it is not explicitly stated in the above quote, the way I read it was that you inferred that I was a moron. That is like you meeting me in person, and calling me a "soldier" (I am a Marine), and me jumping down your throat, which many Marines are liable to do. Now, assuming you are a civilian (Truth be told, I have no idea, this is the internet after all), you wouldn't know any better and it would not be fair for me to get in your face to try to make you feel inept or idiotic. The same logic applies here. A simple, "Bud, I would advise against it. In my experience, the trade-offs for that spell is not worth it. Now THIS is the spell you might want to consider," would have been a better approach. Like I said earlier in this post, I do thank you with your earlier efforts to assist me in creating my FvS. If you would remember in the near future to be patient with me and understand that, unlike you, this is my first rodeo, I would appreciate further help if you are willing to give it. If patience and understanding are not things you can offer at this moment, then perhaps you may need to refrain from replying in this thread for the time being. I, however, hope that you do indeed reply back with your earlier consideration that you displayed in your first post, as you seem like a very knowledgeable player who can show this youngblood how it is done.

No worries man, text really doesn't carry intent all too well. I never meant to be snarky, just wanted to bring my point across - a little too forcefully maybe. But I wasn't in any way implying (or thinking) that you are a moron for considering BoB. I've read posts by many people who think it's a good spell, and IMO it simply isn't.

I had indeed gotten the vibe that you were rather new to D&D - which is great, welcome to one of the best gaming experiences out there! Always good to see new players come into the fold! So I undertook to make sure you didn't choose what I consider to be a very weak spell indeed, a spell which nevertheless still manages to have a good press. People new to the game can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer mass of options, so I'm trying to be ultra-clear when I review a feat, spell, class etc. Maybe this sometimes reads as if I was dissing the person asking. I apologize for not being clearer in that regard, too.

So, to get to the point: Bud, I'd rather you not take Blade of Blood, it's a weak spell. Consider Obscuring Mist instead, it comes in handy in many more situations than I can even think of right now. In my experience, casters I've played have never regretted knowing or memorizing this spell.

 

[AesirsChampion]

No worries man, text really doesn't carry intent all too well. I never meant to be snarky, just wanted to bring my point across - a little too forcefully maybe. But I wasn't in any way implying (or thinking) that you are a moron for considering BoB. I've read posts by many people who think it's a good spell, and IMO it simply isn't.

I had indeed gotten the vibe that you were rather new to D&D - which is great, welcome to one of the best gaming experiences out there! Always good to see new players come into the fold! So I undertook to make sure you didn't choose what I consider to be a very weak spell indeed, a spell which nevertheless still manages to have a good press. People new to the game can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer mass of options, so I'm trying to be ultra-clear when I review a feat, spell, class etc. Maybe this sometimes reads as if I was dissing the person asking. I apologize for not being clearer in that regard, too.

So, to get to the point: Bud, I'd rather you not take Blade of Blood, it's a weak spell. Consider Obscuring Mist instead, it comes in handy in many more situations than I can even think of right now. In my experience, casters I've played have never regretted knowing or memorizing this spell.

After reviewing the Blade of Blood Spell, I guess I can see what you mean, though. I mean, yeah I can cast the spell with no damage to HP, but for only 1d6 extra damage, which, from what I've gathered, is a waste of a day's spell. Being level 3 with 19 HP, the 5 damage isn't all that bad, but unless I was buffing myself with Lesser Vigor, it would be a spell I'd cast once, MAYBE twice in an encounter, as any more would lower my HP to dangerously low levels, which I'm guessing is bad for one who is supposed to be doing a decent amount of melee. So, using my common sense as a computer RPG gamer (Which I hope translates at least somewhat to tabletop games), and your advice, I think you are right in that the Blade of Blood spell is an example of a waste of space. There are some questions on other spells that I was looking at, some of which are one level away, a few two to three levels away, one of which is awhile away, but it couldn't hurt to plan ahead I guess.

Vigor, Lesser: How does the Augment Healing feat interact with this spell? Only on the first round, all fifteen rounds, or not at all?

Sun Bolt: I ran across this level 2 spell on the dnd tools website provided earlier in the thread, and thought, "Wow, really similar to the Searing Light Spell at Level three that I hear many people talking about." While it seems useful right now, I do feel it will be outclassed by the Level 3 spell, and once I get Searing Light, I would never use Sun Bolt ever again. What are your thoughts on this?

Spiritual Weapon: From what I could tell from reading this spell, it seems like a damage over time spell in the form of a weapon dealing 1d8 force damage (Which I do not understand. What is the difference between force damage and normal damage?) for one round for every caster level. Also deals +1 for every additional three caster levels. While not much at first, I do see this improving as I gain levels, as this weapon uses your BAB for attacks, which means at later levels, it can attack more than once per round. It also seems more or less independent of the caster, meaning I can cast this on a target, and let the weapon go at it for the duration of the spell, while I'm swinging my sword or casting other spells and not worrying about the Spiritual Weapon unless I need it to change targets. Are my assumptions correct, and is this a good damage spell to take at 2nd Level?

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful: Okay I know that this one's a long way off, but I have to ask now: How useful is this spell since I am more or less the ONLY one worshiping the Asgardian Pantheon? In fact, most of the other PCs (including our Cleric), are either not religious at all or don't have a patron deity, at least from what I could tell. Is it a waste of space for a 7th level spell with only the base benefits?

Resurgence, Ray of Resurgence: I've heard Resurgence is good, what about the Ray version of this spell? I know that the ray means I can't cast this buff on myself, but it also means that I can be further away from my intended target and still use it. Should I just stick with Resurgence?

Magic Weapon: What in the Holy Hell name of God does the +1 enhancement bonus do? I know it does not stack with the masterwork bonus, does this mean that this spell is useless to me since I'm using a masterwork Cold Iron Longsword? Is this spell useless period? If so, why do I find it fairly common among most casters?

Align Weapon: Long question short: should I take it or just invest my gold in a Holy weapon?

Body Blades: Grapple bonus, grapple defense, +4 to Escape Artist in certain situations, and can be used in the offhand as a Light Martial Weapon. Seems legit but is the damage it deals (1d6 or two points of damage to grappling attacker) leave something to be desired?

Visage of the Deity (Lesser, normal, Greater)- Looks flashy and really cool, but is that all these spells really are?

Two Weapon Fighting: Okay I know it's a feat, not a spell, but does it interfere with my casting abilities? I think it does with the Sorcerer and Wizard, but I can use Shields in my offhand, so does that mean I don't have to worry about spell failure on spells requiring a somatic component? And if I were to, say, wield two longswords together, would my Weapon Focus and Specialization apply to only one or both of the swords?

There are definitely more, but these are the ones at the top of my head. I probably will take Obscuring Mist immediately, but I need to find one damage spell as I was woefully unprepared in my first encounter. We were fighting Shadows, which I guess are incorporeal and immune to weapon damages, and the only way I could hurt them is with Cure Light Wounds spell. So after the session I was looking for one spell that dealt damage at first level so I could still help in the killing if we faced a similar situation, but, sadly, the highest damage spells from first level are the ones that you informed me that although they would be somewhat helpful now, they would end up taking up valuable space in my spell slots. So I guess I may have to go with no damage spells until at least when I have access to 2nd Level Cleric Spells. I guess I'd better pray that I don't have a similar encounter like the last.

 

[Dandu]

Sun Bolt: I ran across this level 2 spell on the dnd tools website provided earlier in the thread, and thought, "Wow, really similar to the Searing Light Spell at Level three that I hear many people talking about." While it seems useful right now, I do feel it will be outclassed by the Level 3 spell, and once I get Searing Light, I would never use Sun Bolt ever again. What are your thoughts on this?

Avoid both. Their damage against most creatures is too low to justify the spell slot they occupy. Scorching Ray, for example, is a Sorc/Wiz spell that does 4d6 damage, compared to Sun Bolt's 2d6 normally. Unless you are fighting undead a lot, it's not worth it.

The Cleric Handbook has a list of cleric spells which a favored soul can learn from. Second level spells it recommends are:
Bull's Strength (PHB)
Eagle's Splendor (PHB)
Hold Person (PHB)
Owl's Wisdom (PHB)
Shield Other (PHB)
Spiritual Weapon (PHB)
Avoid Planar Effects (SC)
Close Wounds (SC)
Divine Insight (SC)
Ghost Touch Armor (SC)
Living Undeath (SC)
Bewildering Substitution (CC)
Body Ward (CC)
Lore of the Gods (CC)
Soul Ward (CC)
Darkbolt (LoM)
Tyche's Touch (LEoF)

 

[Jackinthegreen]

I won't quote that to reply, but here should be most of your answers:

Augment Healing only applies once to any healing spell. The way it interacts with Vigor is it applies only on the first round. As I recall, it does work on everyone on the first round of a Mass version though.

Sun Bolt vs Searing Light is a bit of a tough call. Blinding the opponent for a round can be quite effective. The save to negate that blinding is almost universally the weakest monster save (reflex) so chances are you'll get it off. To give you an idea of the damage differences though:

Sun Bolt will do anywhere between 2d6 and 6d6 damage. It does an average of 7 damage to normal creatures, 14 to the double damage stuff, and 21 to stuff like vampires. Searing Light from a 10th level caster does 5d8 to 10d8. Against normal stuff it averages at 22.5, 35 average to undead, and 45 to vampires and the like. So for an extra spell level, Searing Light is of course the way to go for damage.

If you're looking to do debilitation stuff though, chances are Sun Bolt will do better thanks to the blinding. Which one works better for you is up to you.

I have used Spiritual Weapon extensively before as a cleric, and in the campaign I was in it worked pretty decently because the encounters lasted a while due to the way the DM did things. One of the more interesting tricks with it is using Fell Drain on it, which can really screw stuff up. To give you an idea of what SW will do, it maxes out at 1d8+5 damage per hit, meaning 4d8+20 per round if you have Divine Power up for the BAB. 4d8+20= 38 average damage, which tends to be fairly crappy for a round at 16th level and higher. Compared to other damaging spells of its level though, it can kick a lot of butt if the battle lasts for several rounds.

Force damage is essentially a different kind of elemental damage. It entirely ignores DR because DR only works against physical weapon damage, or on spells that specifically say DR applies to them. Also of note: Incorporeal opponents are fully susceptible to force damage.

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful is not worth the spell slot if the full effect only benefits you.

Ray of Resurgence is not a different version of Resurgence. They are totally different spells.

Magic Weapon essentially makes your weapon, well, magical. It is exactly the same as the weapon having a standard enhancement bonus. The normal Magic Weapon spell maxes out at +1. Greater Magic Weapon is the one everyone loves. It allows characters to have their +5 enhancement bonus on weapons that have up to +9 invested in abilities that aren't actual enhancement bonuses (such as Flaming). The spell lasts all day depending on caster level, so it's all around an excellent buff spell for weapon-users.

While we're here, Cold Iron weapons are quite costly to enhance. If you're worried about DR, I'd suggest the Transmuting weapon enhancement from MiC page 45.

Align Weapon only helps overcome damage reduction, and for a 2nd level spell is pretty crappy. Get a Holy weapon instead for facing off against Evil stuff. The Blessed enhancement from Magic Item Compendium page 29 will also work for overcoming DR.

Body Blades should be avoided. Grappling takes a fair bit of work to get going and that spell barely adds anything to it.

Lesser Visage of the Deity adds some resistances to Eagle's Splendor at the cost of less uptime and an extra spell level. Unless you regularly find yourself up against acid, cold, or electricity damage, it's probably better to just stick with a Cloak of Charisma.

The regular and greater versions have promise though.

Unless you have a specific feat (Somatic Weaponry) you won't be able to cast a spell with a somatic component because your hands are full. If you use a two-handed weapon though, it is a free action to let go with one hand, thus holding it with the other, so that you can cast with the free hand. You can grip with both hands as a free action too.

Any feat you have for a specific weapon applies to all weapons of that type you wield. Yes, Weapon Focus would work if you wielded two of them.

I can't stress this enough, DO NOT TWF with a build like this. TWF in general is a trap anyway. You don't have enough feats to make it work, you don't have extra damage like sneak attack going for you, and you're better off using a longsword in two hands anyway thanks to awesome cleric buffs like Divine Power and Righteous Might.

 

[AesirsChampion]

UPDATE: Thanks to all who have helped me so far, we had our gaming session last night, and I think I did alright. I didn't finish the encounter (had to leave early because it's drill weekend and I needed my sleep.) Didn't get to do any damage, but I had to choose between that or healing an ally, who went down to negative health (I couldn't see the enemy, but if I had moved up, he would have been in my line of sight. Immediately before an ally behind me dropped and didn't stabilize, and as I was the closest with healing power to him, I had to make a choice.)

The spells I kept for first level were shield of faith, cure light wounds which ill drop at 6th level, divine favor and lesser vigor. I leveled up shortly before the encounter, and for second level spells I chose close wounds, spiritual weapon, and Animalistic power. Added a skill point to dex to bring to 14 as well. Obviously I decided to apply bonus spells to spells per day rather than spells known.

As a side note I could have used close wounds to stabilize my ally as an immediate action and then advanced, but as he was only at -5 and I could only use 4 level 2 spells and had already burned 1 to buff myself with AP, so I decided to save that spell power for someone who would have literally died had I not stepped in, and so I waited till my turn to heal with CLW.

For 5th level, I will be taking obscuring mist as my next level 1 spell. I wish I would have taken it earlier as it probably would have kept my ally from getting hit and dropping, but hey you live you learn, right? Also, this character is still very much a work in progress, so suggestions are still open, because I still have less of an idea of what to do. A little more than before but still less than I'd like.

 

[Empirate]

Obviously I decided to apply bonus spells to spells per day rather than spells known.

Good to hear you were having fun and being effective!

Just wanted to let you know about the rules concerning the above quote: there is no decision on the player's part; bonus spells are always added to spells/day, never to spells known. If your group uses a houserule that lets you decide, though, I'd probably recommend going for more spells known. More spells known = greater versatility = more situations you have a good answer for.

 

[AesirsChampion]

Good to hear you were having fun and being effective!

Just wanted to let you know about the rules concerning the above quote: there is no decision on the player's part; bonus spells are always added to spells/day, never to spells known. If your group uses a houserule that lets you decide, though, I'd probably recommend going for more spells known. More spells known = greater versatility = more situations you have a good answer for.

It wasnt so much of a house rule as a DM oversight. He had misread the text in the book, and the character sheet wasn't helpful either, as it had you enter your bonus spells in the same box as spells known. Me, in a move of sheer brilliance, corrected him with the actual text from the book, but since he told me otherwise already, he decided to give me the option. Same thing with using charisma instead of wisdom for dc. So I was fortunate in that he did give me the choice, but in the future I might want to keep my mouth shut.