[Epic] I know it's silly, but help me make a 36th-level cleric

[RangerWickett]

As a lark, one of my GMs is putting on a one-shot where he'll be using his new colossal red dragon mini to represent some epic bad-ass dragon in the Forgotten Realms, CR 40, and we're supposed to make five 36th level PCs to fight it. I've signed up to play the cleric.

I want to be good with divinations so we can learn the weaknesses of the dragon, and I want to worship Labelas Enoreth, since that deity gets the Time domain, which provides Improved Initiative, which I think would be useful for counterspelling, since I plan to take Reactive Counterspell. I don't really want to be an offensive character, but rather more of a buffer, healer, and battlefield influencer. I just have a sense that at this level the warriors should be able to do more damage than me.

Elf, 32 pt. buy. No 'epic spellcasting' spell creation, but otherwise most things from the 3.0 ELH are okay with DM approval. I have until after October to finish this.

 

[RangerWickett]

Also, I'm using the epic SRD for this. I don't actually own the ELH.

 

[moritheil]

Good thing you have a lot of time, as I suspect this will take weeks to tweak.

Ask your DM how he interprets the weapon enhancement that grants 3/4 BAB, as well as how he interprets Divine Spell Power and multiple nightsticks.

If the interpretation is favorable, you can win the whole thing with teleport and quickened DSP-adjusted Holy Word.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, we do want to actually have fun, with an actual fight. I want a solid character build, not a one-trick pony that wins in a round.

Before I got a look at the epic prestige classes, I was considering cleric 13/seeker of the misty isle 10/divine oracle 10/heirophant 3, but that was after spending just a half hour looking at Complete Divine prestige classes. I'm sure there are a ton more options.

 

[moritheil]

Well, when one asks for optimization, I generally tend to give the most optimized response. I'm not being snarky - I fully expect that your DM will give a CR 40 dragon immunities, astronomical SR, and such to prevent those kinds of cheap shots. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try - trying is part of the fun!

On another note, be sure to pick up either the 8th or 9th level spell that grants immunity to one form of energy, or one of those nifty rings that makes one immune to fire. I fully expect your DM will come right back with something like, "Oh, this is a hellwyrm, so half of its damage is unholy and isn't blocked by immunity." That doesn't mean you shouldn't try your hardest to be immune!

 

[Fieari]

Question: The ELH (and the SRD) both have some wonky rules for BAB and Saving Throws past 20th level. Monsters are not subject to these rules. In my epic games, we've noted that simply allowing PC BABs and saving throws to progress as normal not only is perfectly balanced, It makes it 800 times easier to calculate and throw stats together.

What say your DM on this subject? Wonky progression that screws PCs over, or continued progression that actually works?

If he's going with the wonky progression, you might want to consider grabbing some racial HD... if you're going to lose out on BAB and such anyway, might as well get some better bonuses for it.

 

[moritheil]

If he's going with the wonky progression, you might want to consider grabbing some racial HD... if you're going to lose out on BAB and such anyway, might as well get some better bonuses for it.

If your DM allows you to grab racial HD, and you want to do so, consider Otherworldly so you have access to outsider HD rather than humanoid HD.

(I personally wouldn't consider racial HD until I'd exhausted all other options.)

 

[Jack Simth]

Lets see....

If you take a lot of Improved Spell Capacity, you can get that nifty feat that burns a spell slot of something like +6/+8 spell levels above the spell to make the spell into a spell-like ability, useable at will. At-will Miracle for any Sor/Wiz spell 7th level or lower, any Cleric spell 8th level or lower (well, unless they have expensive material or XP components)? Nifty, no?

If you can arrage Celerity, Time Stop, and Foresight on your class list, you can arrange to always go whenever you feel like it by that method (Foresight to not be flat-footed, ever; Celerity to get a standard action as an immediate action; Time Stop to get 1d4+1 rounds to do stuff; the +1 goes away while you're dazed and your swift action regenerates so you can do this again as soon as it wears off, and you get d4 rounds to do whatever). This goes particularly well if you can get Celerity, Time Stop, Foresight, and Miracle as at-will spell-likes.

 

[moritheil]

Innate Spell for at-will Miracles, and it requires the permanent sacrifice of a slot 8 levels above (so, you'd need 17th level spell slots.)

 

[Jack Simth]

Innate Spell for at-will Miracles, and it requires the permanent sacrifice of a slot 8 levels above (so, you'd need 17th level spell slots.)

So 9 Epic feat slots for your first at-will spell-like Miracle, 2 additional Epic feat slots for each at-will spell-like. So, how many Epic spell slots useable for Imrpoved Spell capacity or Innate Spell can you arrange at 36th?

Oh, and don't forget - Simulacrum is a 7th level Sor/Wiz spell, duplicatable by Miracle. If you have Ignore Material Components, and you pick up a Rod of Excellent Magic, you can make a free simulacrum of any critter up to 40 HD (Simulacrum itself will have 20 when all is said and done). For free, once per day, with 12 hours spellcasting. So you can have an arbitrary number of, oh, 11 HD Solars (or 20 HD Solars, if you make a simulacrum of an advanced Solar - 40 HD is in their advancement range); 20 HD classed people (based on a 40th level character....); 18 HD copies of party members; 18-20 HD Brass Dragons (advancement potential); 19-20 HD Bronze, Copper, or Gold Dragons; or 20 HD Silver Dragons. Oh yeah, or Simulacrums of BRACHYURUS, Force Dragons, Prismatic Dragons, Mithral Golems... or just about anything else (as above, your free limit is a 40 HD base critter, 20 HD for the Simulacrum, 72 HD base critter maximum, 36 HD for the critter.... assuming there's a correlation between your Caster Level and your Class level, which is NOT a given).