Will the Domain-oriented Cleric in Essentials...

[nookiemonster]

Edit: silly comment deleted.

 

[Zaphling]

It's the 'new direction going forward.'


The Storm Warpriest on Red Box Game Day worshipped Kord.

Yah. But Kord also has Strength and War as his other domains.

 

[Nikosandros]

Classic strength clerics on the other hand are fighting with Warlords, Runepriests, and Essentials Clerics and fighting a losing battle.

Quite frankly, I hope that Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell drops them altogether.

 

[DracoSuave]

Classic strength clerics on the other hand are fighting with Warlords, Runepriests, and Essentials Clerics and fighting a losing battle.

Oh did those three classes get Righteous Brand and Healing Lore in the past two years?

No?

Strength Clerics have their niche of boosting offence while still being the third best healer in the entire game. They're one of the most well rounded Leaders. They're no more obsoleted by Runepriests (the worst healer) or an essentials cleric (an average healer) than the Valor bard was obsoleted by the Ardent.

The Strength Cleric is fine. And as for the 'MAD', the only thing that Charisma boosts for them is healing power... Wisdom handles everything else AND healing. So... everything.

 

[Oulak]

Recovery Strike is one of the 4 Strength at-wills and allows the next ally to hit the target to regain hit points equal your Charisma modifier. This is a really useful power if you pump up your Charisma, but by doing that you're likely going to have to take a hit on Wisdom.

 

[DracoSuave]

Recovery Strike is one of the 4 Strength at-wills and allows the next ally to hit the target to regain hit points equal your Charisma modifier. This is a really useful power if you pump up your Charisma, but by doing that you're likely going to have to take a hit on Wisdom.

And here I forgot that Healing Word doesn't affect that anymore.

Still... Strength Clerics are hardly bad. They're not Runepriests. The only things the same is that they have Divine powers, are in the Leader role... and... that's it. Runepriests are more like a hybrid fighter/strength cleric than they are a full leader. They focus on buffing and hitting hard, and their healing is terrible as a result. Strength-Clerics, on the other hand, are well rounded, capable of some buffing, some healing, and some combat. The closest thing to a Strength Cleric in the game is an Inspiring Warlord, and even then there are major differences between the two in playstyle. If PHB didn't make the PHB cleric obsolete, I hardly see Sun or Storm Clerics, which have their upside, but are not as well rounded as the Strength Cleric, replacing them any time soon.

'BUT THEY USE WISDOM' is not good enough.

 

[Kerranin]

I certainly hope not. When you choose a domain for an Essentials-based domain cleric, your character gets locked into a rather specific set of domain-based powers. It's almost laughable as to the lack of customization a domain cleric has regarding their bread-n-butter powers: "Oh, you're a sun domain cleric too? Look, we have exactly the same powers." I'm not sure why anyone (or even, anyone else within the same gaming group) would ever want to play the same domain cleric again. But, that's just my opinion.

Power customization is one of the hallmarks of 4e, in that it allows for some interesting & unique character builds, and I would hate to see that go the way of the dodo.

I thought that the whole purpose of 'essentials' was to reduce the number of choices available, making the classes easier to build and play.
If you really want customization, stick with the Vanilla 4e character building; huge numbers of options, in some cases too many.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I have not seen any essentials invalidating standard 4E stuff yet. Some things they do better, but that is the same from role to role in standard 4E.

As long as the game needs insane healing, the wis cleric will shine, and the str cleric is still strong, IMHO, as healing is so effortless in 4E.

 

[Kerranin]

As long as the game needs insane healing, the wis cleric will shine, and the str cleric is still strong, IMHO, as healing is so effortless in 4E.

I've been playing 3.5e fairly recently, and it is so much harder to heal in 3e/3.5e than in either 4e or 2e(or earlier) - the addition of the tactical map, and opportunity attacks, makes it hard for healers to get to the range touch of their healing abilities.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

And here I forgot that Healing Word doesn't affect that anymore.

Still... Strength Clerics are hardly bad. They're not Runepriests. The only things the same is that they have Divine powers, are in the Leader role... and... that's it. Runepriests are more like a hybrid fighter/strength cleric than they are a full leader. They focus on buffing and hitting hard, and their healing is terrible as a result. Strength-Clerics, on the other hand, are well rounded, capable of some buffing, some healing, and some combat. The closest thing to a Strength Cleric in the game is an Inspiring Warlord, and even then there are major differences between the two in playstyle. If PHB didn't make the PHB cleric obsolete, I hardly see Sun or Storm Clerics, which have their upside, but are not as well rounded as the Strength Cleric, replacing them any time soon.

'BUT THEY USE WISDOM' is not good enough.

Yeah, I totally agree. The STR cleric is an AWESOME build. One of the players in my online game has been running one for ages. The character has excellent healing, great buffing, really substantial melee damage output for a non-striker, and has some daily powers which are just plain NASTY. Spiritual Weapon might not seem super sexy for instance but it grants the entire party CA against the target, makes a minor action attack every round, and can be moved around to the best target all encounter. That's only one low level daily, there are plenty of other ones that are at least as good. With a strong WIS secondary things like Consecrated Ground are practically guaranteed to make an encounter MUCH easier. Obviously other builds can take advantage of some of the same stuff, but I'd suggest anyone that thinks the STR cleric is obsolete go fire up their CB and make one. There is certainly NO respect in which it loses out to the Essentials clerics. IMHO it is quite reasonable to consider it the strongest leader build in the game. The whole MAD thing is a total non-issue, CHA simply isn't all that big a deal for one, kind of handy but you're probably better off with a strong tertiary CON instead, and with the dwarf now having a STR/WIS option they have gotten just that much better.