Clerics?

[Kristivas]

I'd never been a real fan of playing a cleric, and in most groups, we pretty much hired an NPC cleric as a healbot. Reading over the boards, however, I've read that the cleric is pretty uber. plate armor, decent weaponry, d8 hd, good fort+will saves.. yeah, that all looks nice. What 'really' makes them uber, though? I was thinking of trying one in my next game and really want to shock the other guys. Any tips/hints/suggestions?

 

[interwyrm]

For melee goodness, righteous might + divine power. For extreme cheesiness, persistent spell and divine metamagic to make either of those last all day long. You need either a high charisma or extra turning to do this.

 

[Nim]

For melee goodness, righteous might + divine power. For extreme cheesiness, persistent spell and divine metamagic to make either of those last all day long. You need either a high charisma or extra turning to do this.

Don't forget Divine Favor (+3 to attack and damage at CL 9, and it's only a 1st level spell), Magic Vestment (no need to get magical armor above +1; just focus on the special abilities. And it's got a 1 hr/level duration), Greater Magic Weapon (ditto for weapons)....

 

[melkorspawn]

Melee + being able to pump one's own stats + healing + summoning + some blast spells + being able to blow up undead = scary.

Fighting against a party of NPC clerics is the stuff of nightmares. Especially if they have Death Touch *shiver*.

 

[melkorspawn]

And... oh yeah... inflict wounds.

 

[Joker]

Or cannons.

 

[Zandel]

Dwarven fighter clerics are nasty as well.......scratch that dwarven clerics are nasty in general...

Extra turning and divine feats work really well.

 

[Magesmiley]

I'd go the divine feats and extra turning route myself. Check out Divine Metamagic (from Complete Divine). Being able to suddenly Quicken a spell without having to prep it as such is very powerful.

Consider your domain selection very carefully. The two domain selections gives a direction to the cleric. Pick ones which fit the style of play you like. A couple of choices in particular: The death domain is rather fun with its death touch ability (Die!). Another good combo (especially if you take extra turning) is to take two of the elemental domains (one each from the opposed pairs). Doing this you can own all elemental types, plus undead.

Don't push yourself into the healer role unless you want to. Your "healbot" comment makes me think that that is all your group views the clerics as. This isn't necessarily true. A few wands can make up for your lack of healing spells if need be. Don't think "I'm a healer". Plan a different theme. Don't concentrate on being an uber-healer. You'll find the cleric stacks up quite nicely against most of the other classes when you get into this mentality.

Consider the choice of channeling positive or negative energy a bit too. Channeling negative energy doesn't necessarily mean evil. A lawful neutral cleric of Wee Jas who runs around with skeletons and other undead under control can be very nasty, without being devoted to the cause of evil. Skeletons can be very handy for doing things lots of very hazardous things (such as disarming traps - who needs a rogue ). They also can lend a bit of muscle to any fight you get into. If you have access to animate dead make sure to salvage the skeletons of any nasty creatures you run into for later use.


What level of cleric are you looking at playing? That might help determine some specific suggestions.

 

[Alloran]

The main problem with saving skeletons is that most DMs will aduticate (and I think it's written in a few of the undead guides) that creating undead is in itself an evil act. Some DMs have a problem with even a LN cleric making undead, and if there's a paladin in the party that follows that, well, it could certainly lead to some interesting roleplay.

 

[IronWolf]

Don't push yourself into the healer role unless you want to. Your "healbot" comment makes me think that that is all your group views the clerics as. This isn't necessarily true. A few wands can make up for your lack of healing spells if need be. Don't think "I'm a healer". Plan a different theme. Don't concentrate on being an uber-healer. You'll find the cleric stacks up quite nicely against most of the other classes when you get into this mentality.

Thinking a cleric is only a "healbot" is a mistake as Magesmiley says. I have two dwarven clerics right now - one in the RPGA's Legacy of the Green Regent and the other in a regular campaign. Neither are played like a "healbot". Do they heal folks? Yep. But a wand of cure light wounds really helps a cleric be a little more liberal with their spells and have some fun with them. My clerics tend to be built for the frontline for two purposes. One, so they can contribute to the combat and two, I figure if someone needs healing they are apt to be up there in melee so my clerics need to be able to stand up there too without becoming a hindrance to the party.