Cleric help.

[Colmarr]

My battle cleric does just fine as the party face so far (notwithstanding that he's starting to fall behind the Hard DCs at level 13).

He's not "CharOp" at healing, dishing out damage, or diplomancying people, but he carries his weight in all three areas.

[sblock]====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Pieter Grimm, level 13
Human, Cleric, Battle Chaplain
Build: Battle Cleric
Background: Cormyr (General) (Cormyr (General) Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 21, Con 13, Dex 15, Int 9, Wis 15, Cha 15.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 12, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 13.

AC: 31 Fort: 25 Reflex: 24 Will: 25
HP: 95 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 23

TRAINED SKILLS
Insight +15, Religion +10, History +10, Diplomacy +16, Heal +16, Athletics +16

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +8, Arcana +5, Bluff +8, Dungeoneering +8, Endurance +5, Intimidate +8, Nature +8, Perception +8, Stealth +6, Streetwise +8, Thievery +6

FEATS
Cleric: Ritual Caster
Human: Weapon Proficiency (Bastard sword)
Level 1: Shield Proficiency (Light) (retrained to Armor Proficiency (Scale) at Level 11)
Level 2: Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Level 4: Toughness
Level 6: Battle Awareness
Level 8: Battle Healer
Level 10: Greater Divine Fortune
Level 11: Heavy Blade Opportunity
Level 12: Armor Specialization (Scale)

POWERS
Bonus At-Will Power: Sacred Flame
Channel Divinity: Turn Undead
Cleric at-will 1: Priest's Shield
Cleric at-will 1: Righteous Brand
Cleric encounter 1: Healing Strike
Cleric daily 1: Beacon of Hope (retrained to Curse of Misfortune at Level 9)
Cleric utility 2: Shield of Faith
Cleric encounter 3: Split the Sky
Cleric daily 5: Consecrated Ground
Cleric utility 6: Bastion of Health
Cleric encounter 7: Strike of Judgment
Cleric daily 9: Divine Power
Cleric utility 10: Mass Cure Light Wounds
Cleric encounter 13: Inspiring Strike (replaces Healing Strike)

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Symbol of the Holy Nimbus +2, Potion of Healing (heroic tier), Jade Macetail (heroic tier), Agile Finemail +2, Phylactery of Action (heroic tier), Potion of Resistance (heroic tier), Javelin (3), Adventurer's Kit, Everburning Torch, Alchemical Reagents (Arcana) (10), Cloak of the Chirurgeon +3, Stormbringer, Forgemaster's Gloves (heroic tier), Black Iron Wyvernscale Armor +3, Circlet of Mental Onslaught (paragon tier), Potion of Vitality (paragon tier), Heavy Shield, Sanctified Incense (Religion) (760), Residuum (Any) (168), Choker of Eloquence +3, Dynamic Belt (heroic tier)

RITUALS
Gentle Repose, Magic Mouth, Brew Potion, Battlefield Elocution, Hand of Fate, Enchant Magic Item, Magic Circle
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======[/sblock]

 

[Lostdwarf]

Alternatively, you could create a dwarven cleric, and take Dwarven Weapon training.

A maul? Not big enough. That hammer is a puny croquet mallet compared to the mordenkrad, which is like if you took the head off two mauls, and put them onto another maul to make some voltron mega maul that crushes things beneath your will. Then you put them in the hands of Hammer McHammerbeard, who is genetically altered to make hammers better simply by his holding onto them.

You don't need to major in Charisma either to be charismatic. A 14 should suffice for your efforts.

Dwarves make excellent clerics, stat bonus to con and then your choice of Strength or Wisdom. The dwarven racial powers lets you use second wind as a minor actions, which lets you self heal once per encounter without needing to burn one of your healing worlds on yourself. The dwarven weapon training feat gives proficiency with a number of weapons, including several hammers, and a damage bonus to boot. Its really only the ale the prevents the dwarven race from taking over the world.

 

[DarkLord Of DForce]

My battle cleric does just fine as the party face so far (notwithstanding that he's starting to fall behind the Hard DCs at level 13).

He's not "CharOp" at healing, dishing out damage, or diplomancying people, but he carries his weight in all three areas.

[sblock]====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Pieter Grimm, level 13
Human, Cleric, Battle Chaplain
Build: Battle Cleric
Background: Cormyr (General) (Cormyr (General) Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 21, Con 13, Dex 15, Int 9, Wis 15, Cha 15.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 12, Dex 13, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 13.

AC: 31 Fort: 25 Reflex: 24 Will: 25
HP: 95 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 23

TRAINED SKILLS
Insight +15, Religion +10, History +10, Diplomacy +16, Heal +16, Athletics +16

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +8, Arcana +5, Bluff +8, Dungeoneering +8, Endurance +5, Intimidate +8, Nature +8, Perception +8, Stealth +6, Streetwise +8, Thievery +6

FEATS
Cleric: Ritual Caster
Human: Weapon Proficiency (Bastard sword)
Level 1: Shield Proficiency (Light) (retrained to Armor Proficiency (Scale) at Level 11)
Level 2: Skill Focus (Diplomacy)
Level 4: Toughness
Level 6: Battle Awareness
Level 8: Battle Healer
Level 10: Greater Divine Fortune
Level 11: Heavy Blade Opportunity
Level 12: Armor Specialization (Scale)

POWERS
Bonus At-Will Power: Sacred Flame
Channel Divinity: Turn Undead
Cleric at-will 1: Priest's Shield
Cleric at-will 1: Righteous Brand
Cleric encounter 1: Healing Strike
Cleric daily 1: Beacon of Hope (retrained to Curse of Misfortune at Level 9)
Cleric utility 2: Shield of Faith
Cleric encounter 3: Split the Sky
Cleric daily 5: Consecrated Ground
Cleric utility 6: Bastion of Health
Cleric encounter 7: Strike of Judgment
Cleric daily 9: Divine Power
Cleric utility 10: Mass Cure Light Wounds
Cleric encounter 13: Inspiring Strike (replaces Healing Strike)

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Symbol of the Holy Nimbus +2, Potion of Healing (heroic tier), Jade Macetail (heroic tier), Agile Finemail +2, Phylactery of Action (heroic tier), Potion of Resistance (heroic tier), Javelin (3), Adventurer's Kit, Everburning Torch, Alchemical Reagents (Arcana) (10), Cloak of the Chirurgeon +3, Stormbringer, Forgemaster's Gloves (heroic tier), Black Iron Wyvernscale Armor +3, Circlet of Mental Onslaught (paragon tier), Potion of Vitality (paragon tier), Heavy Shield, Sanctified Incense (Religion) (760), Residuum (Any) (168), Choker of Eloquence +3, Dynamic Belt (heroic tier)

RITUALS
Gentle Repose, Magic Mouth, Brew Potion, Battlefield Elocution, Hand of Fate, Enchant Magic Item, Magic Circle
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======[/sblock]

Just out of curiosity, whats the extra point in Intelligence for? Thanks.

 

[Lostdwarf]

Just out of curiosity, whats the extra point in Intelligence for? Thanks.

He would have got +1 to all stats as he leveled up. (Don't remember if that happens at 10 or 11 without consulting my books, but I think it is one of the two).

 

[Gapenator]

Thanks to everyone. In a wierd turn, I decided to go Half-Elven.

Wound up with starting stats...

Str: 14
Con: 14
Dex: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 16

I'll put points into Str & Wis as I level. Check this out though...let me know what you think. As a backstory kinda thing, as a youth he tracked down his Elven father, an adventurer and Ranger, and learned some "tricks" before he was called to the priesthood by Pelor. So I'm going to multiclass the first feat and take Warrior of the Wild for Perception and Hunter's Quarry. At level 2 I'll take Battle Cleric Armaments, warhammer, and I'll be rockin'....I think.....

Any thoughts?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I'm rejoining the D&D fold after a 20 year hiatus. I didn't see a newb area so I'm going to post this here. If it needs to be moved, that's cool.

I'm getting to know the 4e system and want to roll a cleric, always a favorite of mine. I like the idea of a charismatic battle leader that can still get some healing done and dish out some 2-handed justice.

Is this just too much to get done?

How would you tackle that character idea?

All thoughts are very much appreciated.

Yeah, I don't know really why people are down on clerics these days. There ARE other very nice options, warlord and bard are both very cool. OTOH you have 3 totally viable cleric options. If you have Essentials (or DDI) build a Warpriest. Sun domain is more CHA oriented, and Storm domain is your 'beat it to death with a 2 hander' type guy. They both heal well. It isn't too easy to mix the two because Essentials picks many of your powers for you, but you can to some extent.

The other 2 options are the PHB1 STR and 'Laser' (CHA/WIS based) builds. A bunch of people are going to try to tell you the STR cleric is worthless/gimpy, ignore them. As a pure melee build the Storm Warpriest is probably a tad better, but you can build a very nice STR/CHA based cleric that rolls in there and beats things with a beat stick and then tosses off some heals. He won't win a contest for best healer, nor for best melee guy around, but he'll do both pretty well and supply a lot of valuable buffs to his allies in the process.

The laser cleric is good too, he's just not going to do much with a weapon. OTOH his buffs are nasty as heck and he can heal better than almost anyone else without putting a huge amount extra into it.

You can build a STR/WIS cleric too. He's not going to be the 'charismatic' type, but probably more effective overall than the STR/CHA version. He'll have first class healing and quite good melee capability.

I won't disagree though with the people who would say that paladin might be an equally good choice for melee healing divine character.

 

[OnlineDM]

I just wanted to mention what a double-take it is for me to see rolled stats in 4e! I look at your numbers and think, wait, how did you get such strong stats across the board? And then I remembered your earlier post - rolling. Got it. That's a rarity in 4e, but I know that when I first read the 4e Player's Handbook I was shocked to see that rolling stats was frowned upon (but still legal, as long as it's not for organized play).

Well, nice rolling! Those are some good stats. Your character will be well-balanced and not lousy at anything.

 

[drothgery]

Yeah, I don't know really why people are down on clerics these days. There ARE other very nice options, warlord and bard are both very cool. OTOH you have 3 totally viable cleric options. If you have Essentials (or DDI) build a Warpriest. Sun domain is more CHA oriented, and Storm domain is your 'beat it to death with a 2 hander' type guy. They both heal well. It isn't too easy to mix the two because Essentials picks many of your powers for you, but you can to some extent.

FWIW, I'm not at all down on clerics. They're almost certainly the strongest leader class in the game, and definitely the best supported. I was just suggesting they might not be the best leader class for a charismatic, two-handed-weapon weilding, melee guy. Though I was thinking in terms of a standard 4e point buy, not rolled stats.

 

[cavalier973]

Well, this is moot, since you already built your cleric, but an essentials Warpriest (Sun Domain) sounds like what you wanted. Warpriest powers use WIS instead of STR, so you could have a Warpriest with a strength of 8, and still have +4 or higher to hit in melee fighting (except for a melee basic attack). If you used a Dwarf, he would automatically have proficiency in hammers of all types, but getting Weapon Prof: maul as a first level feat would also work. You can use the Maul without proficiency, but you wouldn't get the +2 bonus to hit.

The Sun Domain priests get a bonus to death saving throws that extends to allies within range, plus they add 2 points to healing when they use Healing Word. One at-will power gives damage resist to the warpriest or an ally within range, while the other at-will power grants a saving throw. As the Warpriest levels, his powers increase their effectiveness, granting savings throw bonuses and temporary hit points when used.

Combined with the "Combat Medic" feat, the Warpriest gets really, really good at healing.

 

[Gapenator]

I didn't read enough about rolling, I guess. I saw it in the PH and I'm old school, so I wanted to roll.

I didn't think my rolls were that great....

16,14,14,12,12,10

With HE racial +2 con, cha I got

Str: 14
Con: 14
Dex: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 16