Feats for a Radiant Servant of Pelor

[The Souljourner]

I'm about to start a radiant servant of pelor, and wondering what feats to take. I'm actually starting at 6th, so not quite into radiant servant, but looking to be the most effective I can be.

The party is a druid, a two bladed sword fighter, a dwarf rogue, and a cleric 3/fighter 2 cohort (also pelor). I'm taking Glory and Sun as domains (probably take healing as the bonus one at 5th).

I'm going to be human, so that's 4 feats at 6th. Here's what I'm thinking:

Divine Spell Power, Extra Turning, Augment Healing, ???

It's that last feat that I'm unsure about.

Thoughts - Sacred Boost (use a turn attempt, all cure spells on people within 60' until the end of your next turn are maximized) is great for downtime healing, but not terribly useful in battle. There's a feat that lets you burn a turn attempt and everyone nearby gets fast healing 3 for 1+cha mod rounds.... with my 16 cha that's 4 rounds... but 12 hitpoints just isn't that much. Empower Turning - 1.5 times as many hitdice turned? Cool, but I already rock at turning undead... another feat would be overkill, I think.

Not really sure what to take... ideas welcome. Official WoTC feats only, please.

-The Souljourner

 

[Jarrod]

Divine Metamagic isn't a bad idea, but that's two feats. You need to have something when the undead aren't around, you know.

The feat-for-maximized healing... I'd skip it unless you have several healers in the party. Where that feat rocks is an organized hospital setting, not an individual cleric. Imagine... one guy Turns, fifty acolytes Heal. Wow.

If I remember correctly, there used to be a feat called Heighten Turning or somesuch. It was a 1 for 1 trade -- added to your first turn roll, subtracted from number of hit dice turned. Very nice for poofing individual powerful undead. I don't know if it's still out there, might have been from Defenders.

Leadership for a healbot is also a possibility. The RSoP in my campaign took Leadership and asked for a healer. He got a stripped-down Lantern Archon Favored Soul. Heal, Remove Curse, Lesser Restoration... nice guy to have along.

 

[The Souljourner]

There was a heighten turning feat in Defenders of the Faith, but now there's Empower turning, which takes nothing away from the first roll, and just multiplies the second roll by 1.5. Since I have glory, I'm already doing 3d6 instead of 2d6, and I have a high charisma, so turning really isn't a problem.

Divine metamagic would be a lot better if it didn't take two feats. I don't really want to give up any of the 3 I've taken.

I thought about leadership, but we already have a guy with leadership and a healer (unfortunately it was an already made NPC, and started as fighter 2 cleric 3).

I guess something martial would be a good idea. I don't have anything just for being better in combat. Power attack wouldn't be bad... it would let me get divine might at 9th, which with my 16 charisma wouldn't be too bad.

-The Souljourner

 

[shilsen]

Divine Vigor

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

First things first, as a Radiant Servant your bonus domains are limited to glory and purification. Healing isn't an option. So your initial domains need to be Healing and Sun if you want to get any use out of the healing domain related abilities (free empower, maximize, etc).

Second, you need to understand your role in the party. As a radiant servant of Pelor, that role is Healer and Undead Turner. You can do other things but those are what you're good at. Those are what your abilities are good for. Those are what at least one of your feats is good for. And a normal cleric who could have the strength domain or the war domain will be better at the other roles you could take. So, understand that and live with it. It fits with the makeup of the party too. Your party has:

Spellcaster (druid), tank (fighter), backup tank (fighter/cleric cohort), a rogue (who probably functions as light infantry) and you. The role left over is healer and support character.

So, as a human cleric you've got 4 feats. One of those has to be Extra Turning. I would suggest that you make another Quicken Turning. That way you won't ever have to decide "Do I turn the undead or heal my friends or cast a spell?" You can turn the undead AND do something else.

That leaves two more feats. Augment Healing would be a good choice. It will make your healing spells more effective. This both makes you better at your role as healer and means you will most likely have more spells for stuff other than healing.

Now, you've got a lot of turn attempts per day (with a 16 charisma, that's eight greater turnings and three normal turn attempts). When you're not fighting undead, you'll want something to do with them. Divine Vigor would work very well with Shield Other. It would both let you move in quickly to heal and give you a temporary hit point shield so that you don't have to heal yourself as quickly. The fast healing feat would be very helpful as well. If you use it before you kick in the door (where you're sure there will be combat), it serves as combat stabilization and makes healing less necessary (if you use Shield Other, you effectively get double use out of it too). You can also use it after combat as a substitute for healing spells. Healing everyone for 18 points is better than you're likely to get with Mass CLW of one cure moderate wounds each. Sure, it takes six rounds to finish healing but it's still a good way to heal after combat. It would take longer than that to cure everyone an equal amount with wands of CLW--even if both you and the cohort used wands.

So that's my recommendation:
Sun and Healing domains. (Take Glory as your bonus domain)
Extra Turning, Augment Healing, Quicken Turning, and either Divine Vigor or the Fast Healing feat.

Divine Spellpower is a better choice for a 9th or 12th level feat where you get spells that can really take advantage of it. Then you have Flame Strike and Blade Barrier and you're only one level away from Holy Word which is the money spell for Divine Spellpower. (And it's even better if you've got the Good domain as well). At 6th level all you'd have to do with it would be Searing Light and Magic Vestment.