Assistance with my Cleric

RBolyar2

First Post
I had posted this yesterday :http://http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/311266-paladin-cleric-help.html

I was still confused, so when I got to the encounters group last night, they used DDI character builder to set me up with a Cleric. I had several questions however:

1.) As a Warpriest, I have the ability to use a large shield, but the character builder wouldn't let me use one. Any ideas as to why? Also, why would I use a shield rather than just keep an implement in my off hand?

2.) I have read of the awesomeness that is Battle Cleric's Lore, but couldn't find it on the character builder... it would be located under feats, correct?

My Character (for reference):

Level 1
Cleric (Warpriest)
  • STR: 14
  • CON: 14
  • DEX: 11
  • INT: 10
  • WIS: 18
  • CHA: 10
Skills:
  • Arcana
  • Heal
  • History
  • Insight
  • Religion
I took a Mace as a weapon

My feats were:
  • Defensive Healing Word
  • Shielding Word
Any thoughts or suggestions? Would love to increase my REF (11). Also, my AC is a little lower than I'd like (16).

Thanks for all your help.
 

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Can't run the CB right now, because I'm posting this from a Linux box (and WOTC isn't enlightened enough to support Linux) so all I can tell you is that going from the top, when you're looking at the CB with your character loaded, its the first couple of options (its not a feat). You can either pick Healer's Lore (which I believe it defauts to), or BattleCleric's Lore...btw, I'm not sure you can get BC's Lore unless you are a BattlCleric, not a Warpriest...

HTHs.
 

Battle Cleric's Lore is an option for the original cleric (templar) which you can take instead of Healers Lore. Warpriest doesn't get this option. If you want to play a melee style cleric you can go for a WIS based Warpriest typically using a one handed weapon and shield or a STR based Templar which is great with a two handed weapon since they get a +2 shield bonus from battle clerics lore built in.

There is an error with shields in the character builder where they appear in red text. They should still add to AC when equiped in the off hand slot.
 



It lets my Warpriest use one? Note it is highlighted in red for some unknown reason (the AC and reflex bonuses are still applied properly). If I unequipped the one handed weapon then the red highlighting goes away?

FYI: Warpriests don't use holy symbols as far as I can tell.
 

Any idea why the character builder wouldn't let me use the shield?

It's a bug. You should still be able to purchase it and equip it.

After reading through your other post and this one, there's a lot of issues that need to be addressed so bear with me as this will be long and require a second post.
 

I had posted this yesterday :http://http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/311266-paladin-cleric-help.html

.....Any thoughts or suggestions? Would love to increase my REF (11). Also, my AC is a little lower than I'd like (16).

Thanks for all your help.

Looks like the main queries have been answered well above. Just thought I would mention that you could increase your reflex if you wanted to by increasing your Int or Dex scores. At the moment you have a high strength which I can't really think of a use for. You can get a feat to use wisdom for your melee basic attack and your normal strikes are based on wisdom anyway.

It would be typical to have a 20 in wisdom for a warriorpriest and forgo the strength. Some people would suggest putting a 12 into dex/int for the extra defence. Personally I would resign myself to having a terrible reflex score and move on.

Other than getting armour and a shield you are not spoilt for option for increasing your AC in the short term. Warriorpriests get great daily powers for increasing the whole groups AC. Earth domain guys buff defences particularly well though I find them less impressive than Sun guys overall (I love saving throws).
 

I find the saving throws to be very helpful (my warpriest is SUN domain). I expect this will come into play more the higher in level we get (more monsters start throwing around save ends stuff at higher levels).

Making ongoing damage go away before it gets a chance to do any damage or getting rid of some of the more unpleasant statuses go away before the affected PC even goes is rather nice :-)
 

Ok, so the first thing you need to do when making a character in the character builder, is make sure you choose the "Neverwinter Campaign" as the first option. This will restrict you to Essentials choices that are legal for your Encounters game. It will also save you a lot of confusion.

Secondly, when choosing powers as you level up, try to balance between healing, debuffing, and buffing. Look at how many heal powers you already have. Is it enough? Is the party dropping dead a lot or are you often left with healing powers you never use? If you don't need healing powers, next look at enemy debuffing powers (penalties to enemies) or ally buffing powers. Temporary hit points are always excellent because they mitigate incoming damage, making your job of keeping the party alive much easier. Bonuses to attacks for allies and penalties to attacks for enemies are likewise very good options, with a preference going towards bonuses to hit because everyone in the party gains a benefit from everyone else hitting more often.

The other thing you need to consider is choosing melee powers with the 'weapon' keyword in them. This shouldn't be a problem as long as you select the right campaign model, but in case you don't or you accidentally click, "Show more options", keep this in mind. As for implements, you can completely ignore them if you want.

The other thing you want to consider is Constitution-based powers. This is what is known as a 'rider'. It's your secondary ability score (the second highest) and so it affects things in some of your powers. If you can, try to choose powers that give a benefit based on your Constitution score, as long as the above considerations are taking into account first.

Now, I went with a sun priest for you because they're one of the best choices. You get lots of save granting options, healing boost, bonuses to useful things like death saves (remembering that the +2 to death saves means that if you roll an 18 or higher, you can spend a healing surge and pop back up), and good all-round party support without being a totally focused healer-monkey.

Personally I would've gone 20 Wisdom and I would've dumped Charisma, but that's not what you wanted. So the 12 in Intelligence gives you a Reflex bonus and increases your Intelligence-based skill checks. The reason I didn't go Dexterity was because I went with Battlewise which uses your Wisdom for your Initiative. Going first matters a lot in these games and as a leader, you want to try and debuff/buff as soon and as often as possible.

Now, you got Perception as a trained skill like you wished, and I gave you a 'special' weapon (a triple-headed flail) like you wanted; the reason for choosing this was that it's a +3 to hit proficiency weapon and does nice damage. Technically the weapon choice isn't that great because of a lack of feat support, but that won't matter for you until around 10th level and beyond and by then, there should be options for you (hopefully).

I also gave him Netherese as a language choice. This was a flavour thing since he's a Sun Domain cleric and Netheril has returned from the plane of shadow, I figure you could roleplay some connection there. The Aglarond background was to gain Perception as a trained skill (with a +1 no less!) and also gives Elven as a language. Don't know how that fits in with Neverwinter but hey, I'm sure you can think of something :)

So, hopefully this has helped and you enjoy the character:

level 1
Human, Warpriest
Human Power Selection: Heroic Effort
Background: Aglarond (Aglarond Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 10.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 10.


AC: 18 Fort: 15 Reflex: 14 Will: 16
HP: 28 Surges: 10 Surge Value: 7

TRAINED SKILLS
Perception +10, Religion +6, Insight +9, Heal +9, Arcana +6

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -3, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering +4, Endurance, History +1, Intimidate, Nature +4, Stealth -3, Streetwise, Thievery -3, Athletics -3

FEATS
Human: Battlewise
Level 1: Weapon Proficiency (Triple-headed flail)

POWERS
Ordained Priest Starting Feature: Smiting Symbol
Warpriest daily 1: Nimbus of Holy Shielding

ITEMS
Triple-headed flail, Heavy Shield, Chainmail
 

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