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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mike Sullivan" data-source="post: 962371" data-attributes="member: 9824">Okay, as promised, the Cleric-build analysis.The spells that Celtavian proposed were Divine Favor, Righteous Might, Prayer, and Bless.  As he later noted, Prayer doesn't stack with Divine Favor.First thing to note:  These are all short-term buffs.  Righteous Might has a 1 round per level duration, Divine Favor has a 1 minute duration, and Bless has a 1 minute per level duration.Righteous Might is a level 5 Cleric spell, so minimum Cleric levels for this combo are 9.  Minimum Wisdom of 15.Let's assume a character who started out with a 14 Wisdom and a 16 Strength, and then buffed Wisdom by 1 at level 4 or 8, and did Strength for the other, and ended up with some guantlets or whatever giving him a 19 Str.Character uses a Greatsword +2.Attack bonus after full buffing:  +6 (BAB) +6 (Str w/ Righteous Might) +1 (Bless) +3 (Divine Favor) +2 (magic) +1 (Weapon focus) = +20/+15Damage:  2d8 (size Huge greatsword) +8 (str) +2 (magic) +3 (Divine Favor) = 22 before crits, 24.2 after.Against an AC 15 opponent:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For a partial attack, if the cleric PA's for the maximum he can (+/- 6), then he still hits on a 2+, so he just goes ahead and gets +12 to damage.  That ends up being 37.4 damage, about 150% what he'd do without PA, and about 120% what he'd do with 3.0 PA (that is, 30.8 damage). For a full attack, the optimal PA is still max (6), for 63.58 expected damage.  That's, again, about 150% of his un-PA'd damage (45.98), and about 120% of his 3.0 PA'd damage (52.36).</li> </ul>Against an AC 20 opponent:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For a partial attack, the optimal PA is 5 points, giving an average damage of 28.16.  This compares to an un-PA'd average damage of 22.99, or a 3.0 PA (for 2) of 24.89. For a full attack, the optimal PA is 4 points, giving an average damage of 47.85.  That's in comparison to no PA for 42.35.</li> </ul>Against an AC 25 opponent:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For a partial attack, the optimal PA is 2 or 3 (they're actually exactly the same average damage) for 20.02 expected.  That's in comparison to 19.36 damage with no PA. For a full attack, the optimal PA is 1, for 33 damage, as compared to not PAing for 32.67.</li> </ul>In closing, I'd say that this is a pretty decent combo against lower-AC opponents, but hardly out-of-line with the kind of damage you'd expect to do with a three-temporary-buff combo.</blockquote>

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