Buying the Best Cleric

[Spenser]

What Thanee said. Persistent Spell for Divine Favor would be awesome.

Don't knock the lion riding 'till you've tried it! Well, ok, that particular tactic isn't for everyone. But it is fun. Note that it's good for druids too -- they have the same combination of good combat abilities and strong summoning spells.

As for relying on buffs too much:
- Dispel Magic Area Effect removes at most one buff. Annoying, but not a big worry.
- Dispel Magic targetted on you is more painful, but you should still retain over half your buffs (unless it's a Greater Dispel). And if you're targetted, that means that everyone else has their Hastes, Shields, etc. still up. So consider this scenario to be "taking one for the team".
- Anti-magic fields: Whether you're a buffed melee-cleric or a stand-back-and-cast cleric... either way you're temporarily screwed. You have to move out of that anti-magic field pronto if you want to do anything.

I'd say forget about defender weapons. In full plate and a shield, with either Shield of Faith or Protection from Evil going, your AC is going to be just fine. Probably the best in the group. So either:
- Get a +1 Holy Frost battleaxe and enchant it up to +4 with GMW. (The melee option)
- Get a masterwork battleaxe and spend the 31,700gp you'll save on magical protection items: a better cloak of resistance, ring of minor fire resistance, brooch of shielding, etc. (The stand-back-and-cast option)

Good luck!

 

[Xarlen]

I will note a Persistant Divine Power is beyond my casting abilities. A Presistant Divine Power would be an 8th level spell.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

18 Wisdom is a waste for a one-shot character. 16 Wisdom will give you your 6th level spells. Put the extra points into Str or Con.

 

[Xarlen]

DCs my friend. DCs.

A Blade Barrier going for 12 rounds, 12d6 points of damage, with a 23 Ref save DC. Fighters and Wizards bane.

 

[Spenser]

Persistent Divine Power is of course out of your reach, but Persistent Divine Favor is not.

I completely agree with you that the higher WIS is better. An extra high-level spell, +1 DC, +1 Will Save, and +1 to Spot and Listen is better than +1 to hit and damage or +12 HP and +1 Fort Save.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

DCs my friend. DCs.

A Blade Barrier going for 12 rounds, 12d6 points of damage, with a 23 Ref save DC. Fighters and Wizards bane.

Which only matters is he is counting on spells for offense. If he wants to brawl the points are better spent else.

DCs don't matter for buff and healing and summoning spells. He has so few good offensive spells it is not worth worrying over it. That Blade Barrier will probably work well enough with a one lower DC.

 

[The Furious Puffin]

Some ideas:

Bead of Karma + 4 caster level!

Use it at the start of each day with extend and persistant spell to get massive durations on spells.

Also, as your effective caster level is greater than before, you have a handy dandy resistance agaist dispel magic.

Then load up on the buffs. A 4x extended Bull's Str and Endurance will last 16 x 5 or 40 hours. Pre-cast them well in advance, and you will get your spell slots back. If you have the other stat buffs from the FRCS get the Wisdom one as well.

Extended GMW and Greater magic armour with Pesistant divine favour gives you are hefty bonus on your fight capabilites, cast at the start of each day. Make sure your spell refresh time is dawn, and the extended spells wll be layered for most of the day, giving you and extra protection agaist the dispels.

Get +1 Battleaxe with every special ability you can afford layered on, same for armour, and get stuck in.

Doon't buy stat items, the grossly extended buffs will cover for it no problem.

With your impressive Hitpoints and damage, you should be able to match the parties front line fighters not a problem.

I woudn't worry about the Ref save issue, just get more hitpoints! Of the top of my head, none of the Reflex save spells kill you outright, and full health is only a cure spell away.

With your 6-th spell slots, fill 'em all with harm! (Alright, maybe 1 heal then

The problem with the offensive cleric spells is that they are pathatic compared to the equivlent level wizard spells. Generally you are better doing it yourself, and hitting something!

 

[Metalsmith]

Divine Favor is a 1st level spell amped with Persistant makes a 5th level spell. Cast as 12t level caster = +4 Luck Bonus to Hit and Damage. Consider a feat from the Forgotten Realms Spell Girding: adds 2 to your effective caster level for the target number to dispel. Now you're casting as a 14th level caster.

Considering Casting silence onyourself and sticking it (you) in front of the party (to avoid silencing friendly spell casters).

Silent spell is a good feat. May want to memorise silent dispel magick to take care of pesky silence spells.

Take the destruction domain and power attack and extra smiting and quickened cause wounds and a potion of true strike for extra Punching power. Of course thats a one trick pony, but it will absolutely paste anyone whos not prepared for it.

QUickened scrolls of cause wounds?

Metalsmith

 

[Xarlen]

The one problem is, I do't have much of a time to cast them, before hand. I know it sounds weird, but basicly we're dropped right into the thick of it.

 

[Hammerhead]

Get a ring of counterspelling or two, and load dispel magic and or greater dispel into them.

The bead of karma from the necklace of prayer beads is a good idea. +4 caster level means you'd have +5 divine favors and greater magic weapons.

Persistent spell is an amazing feat. You could have that +5 to attack and damage from divine favor running all the time. Even if you start in medias ras, you'd still probably have the spell up assuming you had a chance to prepare spells at the beginning of the day. If you extend some buff spells that last an hour per level, you could have those going 24/7 too.

For a one shot, one use items are more efficient than permanent ones. Lots of scrolls should be the way to go.

Blade Barrier is overrated. It has a full round casting time, making it a dicey spell early in combat. In the first round, you'd probably activate your boots of speed then do something else. If you try to open with Blade Barrier, you'll be a sitting duck for a whole round. And later on, your teammates will be in melee with the enemies, so you'll probably hit them too. Besides, even with a maxed concentration, someone will smack you hard enough to end your spell, since it requires concentration. Flamestrike is pretty nice though. If you want massive evocations, take some flamestrikes, or buy a staff of flamestrike and searing light at level 15. Flamestrike is the equal to similar wizard spells in everything put area - and you still have the advantage that 1/2 the damage is divine so it gets through resistances.

Deathward, Freedom of Movement, and Spell Immunity are all really nice. Have several scrolls. Also, have enough scrolls to delay poison everyone. I think a good spell Immunity is Magic Missile (no save, no resist damage), Enervation (no save, negative levels that screw both your fighting and spell casting), and a open slot. Either of the 3rd level evocations could go in here. At the climax of an adventure, I lucked out and picked Lightning bolt, of which the main villain had a wand.

Don't bother with Charisma. Smack those undead around with two things: your battle axe, or searing light spells.

Even with a low charisma, it might be interesting to take Leadership. Have a spellcasting cohort and equip them with a wand of dispel magic or greater dispeling. Every round that spellcasting enemies seem possible, have them ready action to counterspell. If someone tries to cast a dispel, it will be blocked automatically, and the dispel can work against any spell.