Clerical Feat (12th lvl)

[cloaker]

Im playing now City of the Spider Queen and I have a Dwarven Cleric of Dumathoin. His a combat Cleric (Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 20 (periapt+4) and Cha 10).
My feats are:
Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Expertise, Craft Arms & Armor
+ I have Weapon Focus(Warhammer) and Greater Fortitude from granted powers from Domains (my Domians are Dwarf, Metal and Protection).
I use a Dwarven Thrower and walk around in a Mithril Full Plate.
I just reached 12th level and I have no clue of what feat to choose, I would really like some ideas from you more experienced players (Im not used to high level characters). Any feat from WotC books and Forgotten are allowed, if u recomend a feat from another source please tell me what it does and Ill talk to my DM if I like it and see if he allows it.
My group is really taking a beating on the first part of the adventure, Im thinking about Spell Penetration (drows SR), but my cleric doesnt cast too many offensive spells.

All ideas are welcome, thank you
cloaker

 

[green slime]

Power Attack? Always good.

Create Wonderous Item?

Or you could choose Magical Artisan, which will reduce the cost for you boosting your arms and armour, which is quite handy to let the cash go further, if you do a lot of that sort of thing.

Personally I'd swap that armour for Adamantine Full Plate.

Too bad your Charisma is low, or I'd have suggested Divine Might.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Well, as long as you can change it out when 3.5 makes it dramatically less useful for you, consider empower spell.

Empowered Bull's strengths and Endurances are quite useful for a combat cleric. Empowered Flame Strikes are nice too (but probably not worth taking the feat for). And the ability to swap out a 5th level spell for an empowered Cure Serious Wounds or a 6th level spell for an empowered Cure Critical wounds instead of just a cure critical wounds (as a full round action) is pretty nice too. (Or at least I think it is, I've never played a cleric at that level). If your DM rules that Drow get the increased damage from it, an empowered Searing light might even be useful.

Spell penetration would be nice if you used many spells that were affected by SR. If you don't though, it's not worth it.

Other than that, power attack is quite useful at high levels.

Endurance would set you up for a level of Templar (but that's probably not a really good move for you as it would mean giving up a level of spellcasting).

Improved Critical: Warhammer would also be a solid choice.

If you don't always pack Daylight and Invisibility Purge spells, blindfight might be useful--not just because of Drow's Darkness ability but also because at you're level, you're quite likely to be dealing with Improved Invisible rogues and advanced invisible stalkers.

Heighten spell would be an interesting choice too (although probably adventure specific and not as useful as others). A heightened Daylight would over-ride even Deeper Darkness spells without being dispelled.

Spell Girding (FRCS IIRC) would make your buffs harder to dispel and might also be a good choice. At your level, dispel magics ought to be flying.

My estimate:
Top tier choices:
Empower Spell, Improved Critical, Spell Girding
Other good choices:
Power Attack, Blindfight
Choices that might be good for particular tactics:
Endurance, Heighten Spell

 

[Darklone]

Sure, Empower. If you want something else, try Enlarge

A three or four times enlarged Deathwatch will tell you where any (living) ally or enemy is

 

[cloaker]

Keep them coming...

Im thinking about getting the Hierophant PrC, but I didnt quite understand him, do I lose spell level with him ? It seems like I continue gaining caster level but not spell level, so if I get Hierophant I cant cast higher level spells, but I am considered a higher level cleric for Dispel checks and caster level checks, but no more spells. Can someone confirm this for me ? It really messes up the value of this great PrC, its high powered, but you need to be able to cast 7th-lvl spells to get him.

Thanks for the help, more ideas please, this feat has to be a good one, after this one I only get one at 15th and 18th lvl, so THIS HAS to be a REALLY good feat for my character.

Thanks again,
cloaker

 

[Trickstergod]

Personally, I've always been a fan of Quicken Spell, which I don't see being mentioned at the moment. Depending on just which lower and higher level spells you cast, that free spell when you need it could come in quite handy, letting you get a low level casting out of the way to concentrate on churning out the big stuff and mowing into your opponents.

As for the Heirophant, your initial assessment was essentially right: A Cleric 15/Heirophant 5, for example, who casts a Cure Critical Wounds adds +20 to the healing roll, who then follows it up by dropping a Hold Person on a drow adds +20 to the Spell Resistance check, yet, conversely, is limited to 8th level spells as a 15th level cleric. It's a good prestige class, in my opinion, but only particularly shines once you've reached Epic levels, and no longer gain more spells due to levelling up.

 

[ruleslawyer]

There are some important questions to consider:

First, what is the composition of your party? Do you already have a wizard specializing in item creation, or is the onus going to be on you to create items? If this is the case, I'd highly recommend an item creation feat. Specifically, Craft Wondrous Item or possibly Craft Wand (if you have a bard or rogue in the party, for healing and buffing wands) are well worth it.

Second, how combat-effective do you find yourself? I'm actually surprised you took Expertise; I wouldn't find it that useful as a cleric. However, given that you took it, I'd actually go for Improved Trip rather than Improved Critical. In 3.5, you'll receive a bonus to avoid being tripped, and you're probably going to be pretty good at tripping folks yourself, what with the high Strength. Might want to consider it.

Blind-Fight is a pretty good option, given the surroundings. You'd also then qualify for the Blindsight 5' radius feat in S&F, which is pretty powerful; of course, you'll have to wait until 15th level to take it!

My recommendation, though, is item creation, or Spell Penetration in order to land those nasty inflict wounds and harm spells. I actually don't think that Empower Spell is that useful; your higher-level slots will need to be expended on Extended buffs, Persistent buffs, and healing. Quicken, IMHO, is out of the question unless your DM uses the 3.0 harm spell, in which case the harm + quickened inflict combo is pretty good; still, you're going to be a one-trick pony using these. Much, much better options exist.

As for hierophant: It's perfectly useful, but only after 17th level, when you've got your 9th-level spells fully in hand. After that, two levels of hierophant (for Arcane Reach and Faith Healing) are quite worth it. More levels (for spell power) are great once you're in epic levels.

 

[cloaker]

My party composition is as follows:
Sorcerer/Element Savant (11th lvl - lots of evocation, no item creation)
Drow Rogue (7th lvl) - skills all around and mostly scout
Druid (10th lvl) - new character
Half-Dragon Paladin of Baramut (7th lvl) - died last session, dont know if he wants to be raised

Im really dont want to take a Craft item feat because my DM is one of those that never let the players stop and make items.
My cleric is quite effective as a fighter, I normally cast most of my spells before combat, and use my hammer alot because of haste (throw hammer and then cast spell, or vice-versa).
Blind-fight too weak as a feat, there is the spell in FR called Blindsight which is 3rd lvl i think, which is a better substitute.
Im really thinking about getting Spell Penetration since we are going into the Underdark and alot of creepy stuff down there, and Drows, so SR is always a problem.
Quicken seems nice, but I already have Persistant spell and I would be wasting all my high level spells with Quicken AND Persistant.
I really wanted a cool feat, something diferent or maybe a chain feat, get something more powerful later.

What are opinions on Hierophant ? You guys like this PrC ? I wanted to get a PrC, but I really dont want to lose spell-level, I dont like losing spell level even thou Hierophant has some kick-ass abilities. Any ideas for other good PrCs ?

keep sending ideas,
cloaker

 

[ruleslawyer]

Cloaker: Thanks for the added info.

All I have to say is that your party is slightly underpowered for CotSQ, as is your character concept. You need either a turning cleric or an item creator/runecaster type to compete effectively in CotSQ.

So your DM allows the blindsight spell? OK, then ignore Blind-Fight; it's worthless. Inscribe Rune, Spell Penetration, Power Attack, or Improved Trip are the way I'd go. I put Inscribe Rune or Spell Penetration at the top of that list; the former because it's perfect flavor-wise for a cleric of Dumathoin AND allows the creation of semi-permanent magical effects without requiring long down time (which seems to bother your DM), and the latter since lots of things in CotSQ have SR, and that SR is often low relative to their CR, meaning that it's often worth it to target them with spells. Spell Penetration just makes this a surer thing.

Imp Crit isn't worth it, IMHO, because an improved threat range isn't really all that valuable to you; the warhammer isn't a high-threat range weapon, and you can't really develop this concept into something really useful (using elemental burst or vorpal weapons) as it stands. Quicken Spell REALLY isn't worth it, because you need those high-level slots either for Persisted spells or for... well, high-level spells, as you pointed out.

As for PrCs: Divine Disciple is a no-brainer, since one level gives you an extra domain, which is always useful. One level of contemplative (DotF) is also useful, provided you meet the prereqs. Hierophant is OK, but you shouldn't take any levels of this until you get 9th-level spells. Once you do, a level or two are totally worth it for divine reach and either faith healing or spell power. Runecaster is a really good choice both for dwarven flavor and powers, but you need to take the Inscribe Rune feat to pick it up.

If your DM isn't allowing you to use your item creation feats, you should ask him if you can swap out your Craft Arms and Armor feat. If he allows this, consider taking either Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration or SP and Inscribe Rune, since you'll have two spare feats rather than one.

 

[cloaker]

Thank you very much for the ideas, very helpful.
I am going to talk to my DM about Runecaster PrC seems nice and will fill up the hole I need in Item Creation.

Anymore ideas are always welcome,
thanks
cloaker