Thoughts on STR cleric

[nimisgod]

I'm playing a Str cleric of Kord as well, except my cha is 12 and I have enough con to get plate. I do pretty well for myself and my party of three (chaladin and artful rogue). I don't really run out of healing for the most part (we're level 6 and I could've taken bastion of healing) and I do decent damage... at least, more damage than the paladin does.

I intend to go for Kensai at paragon, bec. my wis sucks although Combat Veteran looks nice as well. I'd just rather be selfish at that point though.

 

[Obryn]

I statted up a quick 2nd-level Dragonborn Cleric of Kord, and he seems pretty solid. I spent feats on Bastard Sword (that bonus to-hit is great) and on Fighter multiclassing, for down the road when Str-Based clerics don't have too many awesome choices. (3rd level, I'm looking at you!) I could just as easily have gone with Shield Proficiency (and almost did), or perhaps Kord's Favor, or maybe Enlarge Breath.

Regardless, he looks like he'd be extremely capable. The 18 STR + bastard sword gives him a +8 to-hit at 2nd level, allowing him to land his attacks very often. He isn't as good a healer as a WIS-Focused cleric, but then again, he can hold his ground and do some solid offense.

-O

 

[inati]

Their weakness is their low to hit and lack of healing.

Low to hit...with Strength based powers? Are you sure you know what you are talking about or was this miswording on your part? Because, I don't think any of us see a mechanical problem in the rules that makes their to hit worse off than anyone.

Let's address the "lack of healing" bit though. It seems you are stating that STR clerics are not able to heal their party. How are you quantifying this?

Is it because his wisdom isn't high enough to benefit from the Healer's Word class feature? Well, the OP's WIS is 16, which is still a +3. The last I checked, having a 16 in any stat is perfectly fine. It is possible to have a high STR and high WIS as well.

Maybe it's because STR builds lack healing powers? Well for encounter powers, STR builds can enjoy Healing Strike (pg63), Stengthen the Faithful (pg66), Inspiring Strike (pg67), and Sacrificial Healing (pg71) making for a total of 4 powers. WIS based encounter powers with healing come out to a total of 3, 4 if you count the Warpriest paragon path. So it's not encounter powers.

For dailies, we see STR has Divine Power regen type power (pg 67), Holy Wrath (pg69) and Indomitable Spirit pg 69, making for 3 powers. WIS has 2 powers. So it isn't Daily powers.

Utility Spells don't have an attack component, and aren't based on either STR or WIS but CHA, so they are just as readily available to either STR or WIS based clerics.

It doesn't seem to be that the powers are to blame for this notion of "lack of healing". If anything, it seems that STR based clerics have just as many healing powers, if not more!

Are you basing it on the fact that the character isn't optimized so that they are able to eek out an additional 3 points of healing per spell? If that's the case, I don't think those few points are going to be the difference between an effective and an ineffective healer. It most certainly does NOT mean that there is a "lack of healing."

Kzach, this is the third thread on the first page where you have come in and dictated to us that there is a single way to play this game, and that those of us who do not want to play it in the manner that you have envisioned are somehow playing it wrong. The last I checked, WotC has given us options to make characters as we see fit, and NOT some cookie cutter optimized character that you seem to want us all to play. If that was WotC's intention, why have they even bothered including options for making a Great Weapon Fighter, a Charisma based Paladin, or a Strength based Cleric in the first place? According to you, these are all somehow wrong or inferior, and thus, no one should play them.

I ask you, politely, to stop trying to tell us how to play our game. Believe it or not, many of us do know how to optimize our characters for ourselves, we simply choose to play OUR characters differently than your vision of an optimized utopia.

--

To ogre, the OP: I think that an 8 CHA is making your ability to heal worse off than it really has to be. Surely, you can spring for a 10 at least? Most of the healing spells are located in the Utility category, and receive bonuses from CHA. As long as you are aware of that, and still want to play with this stat for the character, then enjoy! The difference in healing power is certainly not game breaking by any means.

 

[Wepwawet]

Well I made a STR-based Dragonborn Cleric with these stats:
Str 18, Con 14, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 13 Cha 13

For feats he's got Scale prof, and I'll give him Raging Storm and Astral Fire

 

[ogre]

To ogre, the OP: I think that an 8 CHA is making your ability to heal worse off than it really has to be. Surely, you can spring for a 10 at least? Most of the healing spells are located in the Utility category, and receive bonuses from CHA. As long as you are aware of that, and still want to play with this stat for the character, then enjoy! The difference in healing power is certainly not game breaking by any means.

inati
Thanks for the rundown of the powers and healing, that is what I was most concerned with. I guess I hadn't looked at the utilities close enough. Anyway, up to lv10, the only CHA utility I see is adding your CHA mod to the cure spells. Heh, I guess I'd take a penalty to that, so healing surge -1, plus the Healing Word class feature?
Honestly, it doesn't seem worth it to increase his Cha. I'd have to lower Con or Dex to 10 to make it a 10 or worse, lower Wis to 14 or 15.

I hesitate to MC with Warlord, as it's the same role. I like to mix more opposites, is it really much better than Ranger, or do any of you think my TW approach is silly?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

inati
I hesitate to MC with Warlord, as it's the same role. I like to mix more opposites, is it really much better than Ranger, or do any of you think my TW approach is silly?

Warlord has some nice fun Str-based powers, and it's an extra heal/day.

My minotaur battle cleric has Str 18, and Con, Cha, and Wis 14. He throws out a boatload of healing and also does quite a bit of damage with his Large morningstar; since the group's strikers are, ahem, unreliable, I'm trying to make sure he can do some tail-kicking, and he's actually dropped quite a few of the "boss" types. Later on, I'll be taking Angelic Avenger and going sword-and-board.

Brad

 

[inati]

ogre,

My pleasure! With the healing word class feature bonus healing of +3 (WIS), and a CHA negative modifier of -1, your healing would be +2 for those healing utility spells. Compare this to an optimized healer who would have a +7, with a WIS bonus of +4, and a CHA of +3 (scores 18 and 16 respectively). Then again, powers like healing word are not effected by CHA, but they are effected by WIS, so your +3 bonus would be compared to a +4, for a difference of +1 only!

If you are cool with you healing utility spells having a +2, then enjoy!

Now, I find that I can have a lot of fun coming up with in game character quirks to explain the stats of a character. It also has the added bonus of fleshing out your roleplaying of that character.

For example, in your case, you could write how your character was once a charming/handsome individual, as most clerics are, but when he was still a novice he had some unfortunate accident where your he was so severely disfigured, that people find it hard to look at him, let alone be inspired by him.

With the right attitude, your character can be a lot of fun to play, and most importantly, an effective member of any party.