Cleric Variant: One with bonus feats

[Nifft]

That would be fine Nifft. I don't generally use those spells when I play a cleric anyway and they're fine without them.

Ah, now I can see why you think they're underpowered -- imagine playing a Druid who refused to use Wild Shape!

-- N

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Sorry, didn't mean to sound snarky in my above post.

I guess your experiance with clerics has been different than mine. The bottom line is that you should talk to your DM the other players in your group and if it would be overpowered in your game. I know your suggested changes would never fly in my game. I'm playing an 11th CE Cleric in one game and everyone in my group agrees he's already the most powerful in the party (group includes a druid, a true necromancer, a fighter/disiple of dispator, and an assassin, all 11th). And I'm not even using Divine Metamagic, (which IMO totally breaks the cleric). Giving that character 2 free metamagic feats (that's what I'd take if I were using your houserule) would never fly.

But if it works in your game, more power to you. I'd just be carful is all.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Ah, now I can see why you think they're underpowered -- imagine playing a Druid who refused to use Wild Shape!

-- N

Agreed

 

[kirinke]

Lol. No big. When I do design a cleric, I design them from a character concept rather than a power-gaming stance. IE: fit the feat to match the personality/background/in game progression of the character itself and any feat chosen would probably be up to a final say from the DM. And in any case, you are right, the house rule would be up to the group and DM.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Lol. No big. When I do design a cleric, I design them from a character concept rather than a power-gaming stance. IE: fit the feat to match the personality/background/in game progression of the character itself and any feat chosen would probably be up to a final say from the DM. And in any case, you are right, the house rule would be up to the group and DM.

I see what your saying, but that's the beuty of the cleric class. Useing my 11th level cleric as an example. The main concept for this character is a death priest. He specializes in Undead. My feat choices were: Scribe Scroll, Corpsecrafter, Tomb-tainted Soul, SF (Evil), and Spell Penetration. Not the most optimized choices, but they fit his concept well. He likes to stay out of melee combat and send in Undead minions while slinging spells at range. I've played this charater from 1st level and last week was only the second time in his career I've had to go into meelee. We were fighting a bunch of Bone Devils, and they managed to separate the party pretty well with their fear ability and Wall of Ice. I was rolling really crappy on my spell resistance checks, and had exhused quite a few spells. Luckily I had prepared scrolls of Diving Favor, Divine Power, and Righteous Might. It took a few founds of tactial movement to get off all three buffs, but once I did, I waded into combat with a 33 AC, and three attacks (the first one was around +23 IIRC) and made short work of them. Thats the power of a cleric, their flexability.

 

[kirinke]

*Nods*
I see your point. I know alot of people hate playing clerics, but to me, they open up alot of roleplaying opportunities and they are great spell-casters in their own right. What they lack in boom-magicks, they more than make up for in support-based spells. The feat-option was to make a simple change to put them more in line with the wizard/druid casters, at least in my mind. Heh.

Removing those spells (aid etc) in exchange for the feats seems pretty fair to me. Hmm. Here is a modified house rule to reflect on that:

Bonus Feats.
At first level, the cleric gains the ability to turn or rebuke undead as well as brew potion.
At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, a wizard gains a bonus feat. At each such opportunity, she can choose a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, or Spell Mastery. The Cleric must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums. These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels.
The Cleric is not limited to the categories of item creation feats, metamagic feats, or Spell Mastery when choosing these feats.

However. The cleric must give up two of the following spells each time they gain a bonus feat. Once they give up this spell, they will no longer be able to request it from their deity.

- Divine Favor
- Magic Weapon
- Aid
- Greater Magic Weapon
- Divine Power
- Righteous Might
- Prayer
- Doom

 

[Pielorinho]

Moderator's Notes
Moved to House Rules per OP's request.

Daniel

 

[kirinke]

note to mods:
Thanks.

 

[Nifft]

However. The cleric must give up two of the following spells each time they gain a bonus feat. Once they give up this spell, they will no longer be able to request it from their deity.

I'd instead say that they lose the spells from their list -- they can't use scrolls either.

Also, I'd put the spells in a specific order, with Divine Power and Righteous Might as the first two that they MUST lose.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Shadowbane]

I've noticed that nearly every class has either special abilities or bonus feats. Why not the cleric.

They don't really need any more. Their saves, attack bonus, and spells more than make up for it. Besides, Sorceres don't get anything besides a familiar, so Clerics arn't really alone in this.