Help me get this cleric rolling

[DDwarf]

Hi everyone
I'm new on ENW so that's my first post hope I'll get any feedback.

I'm starting a new campaign with a few friends, good old D&D medieval fantastic style. We play the god guys. We're using 3.0 and 3.5 stuff pretty much all books except for some funky new rules systems that our DM won't allow.

So what do you guys think about this cleric build I'm working on? We are running a Druid in the party as well so healing is not really the focus. This character is more about buffing, and melee action. We're starting Lvl 3 and I'm looking at a 10-12 lvl build for now. Any optimization suggestions?

FireBlood Dwarf - Neutral Good - Diety Tharmekhul (RoS) - Stats to come
Shield + warhammer style

Cleric 4 / Ordained Champion 5 / ? continuing cleric or going with other PrCs ?
Domains - Destruction + War + Obtain Fire from PrC at lvl5

Feat Lvl1 -
Feat Lvl1 (flaw) -
Feat Lvl 3 -
Feat Lvl 5 - (Bonus fighter from fire domain power retrain) - Shield Specialisation
Feat Lvl 6 -
Feat Lvl 9 -
Feat Lvl 12 -

Featwise I'm looking at Extra turning Hi everyone
I'm new on ENW so that's my first post hope I'll get any feedback.

I'm starting a new campaign with a few friends, good old D&D medieval fantastic style. We play the god guys. We're using 3.0 and 3.5 stuff pretty much all books except for some funky new rules systems that our DM won't allow.

So what do you guys think about this cleric build I'm working on? We are running a Druid in the party as well so healing is not really the focus. This character is more about buffing, and melee action. We're starting Lvl 3 and I'm looking at a 10-12 lvl build for now. Any optimization suggestions?

FireBlood Dwarf - Neutral Good - Diety Tharmekhul (RoS) - Stats to come
Shield + warhammer style

Cleric 4 / Ordained Champion 5 / ? continuing cleric or going with other PrCs ?
Domains - Destruction + War + Obtain Fire from PrC at lvl5

Feat Lvl1 -
Feat Lvl1 (flaw) -
Feat Lvl 3 -
Feat Lvl 5 - (Bonus fighter from fire domain power retrain) - Shield Specialisation
Feat Lvl 6 -
Feat Lvl 9 -
Feat Lvl 12 -

Featwise I'm looking into a Extra turning and Dragonfire Channeling (Dragon Magic) combo, and/or Extra Smiting (Complete Warrior), Spontaneous Wounder (Complete Divine)

Let's start with this. What say you?Dragonfire Channeling), Extra Smiting (Complete Warrior), Spontaneous Wounder (Complete Divine)

Let's start with this. What say you?

 

[xigbar]

Heal/ Inflict Wound Spells are generally a little underpowered. Extra Turning can indeed be used to fuel a lot of useful feats, but I don't know if a breath feat is the most effective use for it. I don't remember Cleric even getting smite. Ordained Champion is a good PrC.
Have you read this? The 3.5 Cleric Handbook

 

[Jacob Marley]

If you are going the battle cleric route, do consider taking the Extend Spell -> Persistent Spell -> Divine Metamagic (persistent spell) feat tree. It will help you with both the buffing and melee aspects of your character.

I don't remember Cleric even getting smite.

It is the domain power from the Destruction domain.

 

[DDwarf]

Heal/
Have you read this? The 3.5 Cleric Handbook

Yes I had a look at it.

Thx for both hints. I agree with the breath weapon being underpowered. The only thing is I'm not quite sure about the DMM on persistent spell either since the number of feats invested looks high to me. I'd spend pretty much all of my turn attempts to get let's say a divine power + righteous might for the day instead of casting them normally and being buffed a few rounds. It's just that statistically with the DM I'm playing fights don't often last forever.

I was looking at maybe going Quicken + Divine Metamagic (Quicken) and using the Ordained Champion Channelling ability to spontaneously cast touch spells trough my Warhammer. Or Fell Drain (Libris Mortis) + Divine Metamagic (Fell Drain)

Does it seem to you guys focusing this way on improving the efficiency of the melee attacks is the right way to go?

 

[cjosephs1s]

Well for melee action you either want touch spells or if your using your weapon, fighter feats since the cleric doens't get the BAB progression a fighter does and its going to take you too long to buff yourself up enough to charge in melee(our cleric/barbarian found this out the hard way as my character and another paladin would trounce monsters in just a couple rounds)

I did notice something about your character that's a little "off". You're DM probably approved it, but just in case I'm going to point it out. For the Ordained Champion you must either worship Heironious or Hextor.

Also something a little "off" is it seems like you want to focus on inflict spells with your choice of Spontaneous Wounder feat (and fell drain). This just doesn't bring to mind the concept of a "good" cleric to me. I'm not saying its wrong or not good, just doesn't fit my ideals of a good cleric so your DM may have alignment issues with it (usually this is something evil clerics do in my mind) But that's a side note.

And why shield specialization? Just curious. For a secondary melee or buffer this seems like this feat could be spent to enchance some ability such as spellcasting or fighting. Odds are you're not going to be "tanking" for your group correct? If not maybe even go with a 2h weapon for more damage.

My best advice is focus on what you want to be really good at and try to maximize that and odds are you will be good at...maybe not good at much else but that's usually someone elses job.

 

[Dandu]

Choose a deity with the Law and Knowledge domains. Trade out Law for Law Devotion, take the Knowledge Devotion feat, and the Ancestral Knowledge feat. Throw on Lore of the Gods and you'll have a good to-hit and damage during your career as a cleric.

 

[DDwarf]

Thx guys !

As for precision the party is made of a Dragon Shaman, a rogue, a druid and a wizard so I' won't be tanking really but the front line will be split between me and the shaman.

On the Diety/alignment issue, I'm afraid diety is MD fixed and I won't be able to switch domains. My DM will allow Ordained Champion with other dieties as long as War is part of the domains.

Weapon specialisation... well I just quickly looked a the fighter bonus feat (from witch I need to select a least one of my feats) and it seemed like a god choice since I'm usually not into power attack but now you that you mention it, Two Handed + Power Atck + Spell Channeling + Quicken touch spell would work great also. Thanks for the Tip !!

 

[Jacob Marley]

The only thing is I'm not quite sure about the DMM on persistent spell either since the number of feats invested looks high to me. I'd spend pretty much all of my turn attempts to get let's say a divine power + righteous might for the day instead of casting them normally and being buffed a few rounds. It's just that statistically with the DM I'm playing fights don't often last forever.

Optimization is a dynamic process, however you choose to build this character needs to reflect the realities of your specific campaign and your goals as a player. That said, while the Divine Metamagic feat tree does take up a large number of feats, it also provides the character with a tremendous number of options. Perhaps moreso than those feat slots would otherwise provide? That's the big question, what else are you going to do with those feat slots?

Regarding the lose of Turn Undead attempts... eh, it really depends on how much undead - and of what sort - you expect to face over the course of the campaign. For the most part, attacking is just as good (if not better) than turning.

Here's a link to the list of persistable spells (up to 6th level).

 

[cjosephs1s]

I just thought of something after Jacob posted about the undead thing. Are you using the alternative turn undead rules or house rules? If your using the standard turn rules then he's got a good point. Your turn undead attempts could be used to maximize spell damage against undead vs just making them run away and having to fight them later on (if you're in closed quarters)

Even if you use the alternative rules (do 1d6 damage per cleric level) it still is very useful. Our cleric did this in our party and our DM loves undead critters. At the upper levels a maximized empowered flame strike is very useful against anything and does considerable damage (135 point flame strike is a very nice 5th level spell to cast a couple times in combat against really tough foes).

 

[DDwarf]

I'm not familiar with the alternative turn undead rules. I assumed we used the PHB 3.5 rules. Can you enlight me on these ''alternate'' rules? Are thez WotC published ?