Help me Min/Max a FR Cleric

[green slime]

How did you get persistent spell when you haven't taken extend spell?

Enchantment or Evocation are both good choices for Spell focus, however Enchantment is better against single high level opponents, whereas Evocation is better against hordes. You'll still be worse off than the Mage, when it comes to dealing mass damage.

Instead of Combat Casting, I'd recommend Discipline from FRCS... +1 to Will Saves, and +2 on Concentration checks...

Otherwise Luck of Heroes is an old favourite of mine.

Coming from Aglarond grants access to both FR feats.

 

[RogueJK]

How did you get persistent spell when you haven't taken extend spell?

Enchantment or Evocation are both good choices for Spell focus, however Enchantment is better against single high level opponents, whereas Evocation is better against hordes. You'll still be worse off than the Mage, when it comes to dealing mass damage.

I have Extend Spell from the Planning Domain.

Are a majority of the cleric's offensive spells Evocation or Enchantment? Would it be better to take Spell Focus in both Enchantment and Evocation rather than Focus and Greater Focus in just one? Or should I ignore Greater Spell Focus in favor of Greater Spell Penetration?

 

[JLXC]

Listen of you are gonna be Melee Cleric forget spell focus and such, too many to make a Cleric powerful.

How about Gird Spell? Makes all your spells harder to Dispel by 2 so that all your Persistant Spells and such Really are hard to get Rid of... (That would be 11 + 15 + 2 = 28 vs. Dispel)

 

[Victim]

I'd place 8th level spells over the benefits from one templar level. Also, having a caster level of 15 gives you upgrades on Magic Vestment, GMW, and Divine Favor. For the truly sick, Persistent Divine Power becomes availible.

Spell Penetration is very good. The school for Spell Focus is a matter of personal taste. Quite a few of the lower level attack spells like Command and Hold Person are enchantment based. However, high end stuff like Flamestrike and Blade Barrier are Evocation.

I'd agree that Combat Casting is a bit of overkill.

Empower spell could come in handy. If you need to swap high end spells for cure wounds, you'd normally cap at 4d8 + level. However, if you have Empower Spell and can use a full round action, then you can Empower the healing spell if you use a high enough level slot. For example, if you were burning a level 6 slot for healing because you didn't prepare Heal, you could empower the CCW essentially for free.

If like the idea of Spell Girding. A dispel could waste about half your spells if you go heavy on buffs.

 

[RogueJK]

Coming soon to a theater near you...
"Bump 2: Bump's Revenge"

 

[RogueJK]

Here's my final draft (I hope...) This is before spells and magic items are figured in.

Male human Cleric14/Contemplative1; CR 15; Medium-size Humanoid (Human); HD 14d8+1d6+45 Init +4 (Dex+Celerity Domain); Spd 20 ft (40 ft in light or no armor); AC 21 (+1 Dex, +8 Full Plate Armor, +2 Large Steel Shield); Atks +14/+9 melee (1d8+3 17-20/x2, longsword); SA spells, turn undead, Divine Health; AL N; SV Fort +11, Ref +6, Will +16; Str 16, Dex 14 (12+2), Con 16, Int 12, Wis 21, Cha 10.

Skills and Feats: Concentration +21, Knowledge (arcana) +3, Knowledge (religion) +14, Listen +7, Scry +16, Sense Motive +7, Spellcraft +19, Spot +7; Spellcasting Prodigy, Persistent Spell, Extend Spell (Granted Domain Power), Spell Focus (Evocation), Martial Weapon Proficiency (Longsword, Granted Domain Power), Weapon Focus (Longsword, Granted Domain Power), Improved Critical (Longsword), Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Girding.

Domains: Planning (Free Extend Spell feat) and War (Free Martial Weapon Proficiency: Longsword and Weapon Focus: Longsword)
Prestige Domain: Celerity (+2 to Dex, +10 feet to base speed while in light armor, +2 to Initiative)
Deity: The Red Knight


Any thoughts? Suggestions? Mocking laughter?

 

[Ziggy]

Pretty good draft, you should probably fine-tune it a bit after choosing items, but it'll do for now.

The next task is to select items and spells that give different bonuses. With all those meta-magic feets you can count on spells for weapon, armor and stats enhancements so you don't have to use items for that (but you should buy a +1 sword as backup in case of heavy use of dispel magic/disjunction). Thus focus on items that have different effects, e.g. natual armor, ioun stones, pearls of power, boots of haste etc.

I don't have time to really give specific advice, but if you make a suggestion I'll try to comment on it.

.Ziggy

 

[HeavyG]

This thread interests me as well since I, too, am creating a new high-level cleric of the Red Knight.

So instead of cluttering the board with threads about Red Knight clerics, I'll ask for comments right here.



We'll be playing the Rod of Seven Parts campaign, converted to 3rd edition and starting at 12th level.

The DM let split that the campaign was a kind of law vs chaos conflict, so I decided to create a very lawful character.

I want to be able to hold my own in battle, but I don't need to be 100% minmaxed. This character needs to be interesting to play and effective. For example, I voluntarily refused to make my long sword wooden to be able to cast spikes on it and I won't take persistent spell.

Here's what I have so far.

(Name pending)
Female Human cleric 7/Divine disciple 5
Lawful neutral; Red Knight

(32 point buy)
Strength : 15
Dexterity : 12
Constitution : 14
Intelligence : 12
Wisdom : 15 (+3 with level upgrades = 18)
Charisma : 10

Domains : War, Planning, Law.

Feats : Weapon prof and focus (long sword) (free from domain), extend spell (free from domain), Craft weapons and armor, scribe scroll, craft wondrous items, spellcasting prodigy, 2 left (hesitating between spell girding, spell penetration, maximize spell, power attack and cleave or anything along those lines).

Skills :
Concentration 15 ranks
Heal 2 ranks
Ride 2 ranks
Spellcraft 10 ranks
Scry 3 ranks
Diplomacy 5 ranks
Knowledge (religion) 8 ranks
Profession (strategist) 15 ranks (I'm leery about that one. I feel I should have some skills in military strategy, but no current skill fits the bill)


Equipment :
Everbright +1 full plate
+1 Large wooden shield
Mithral Lawful +1 Longsword
Periapt of Wisdom +2
Shaundakul's Boots
Mooncloak +1
Travel Cloak
2 Gloves of storing (for quick storing/drawing of weapon and shield when spellcasting)
Heward's Haversack (although I'm thinking of ditching this one because everyone has one)
Ioun Stone (the one that stores spells)
Ring of Counterspell (that will hold a greater dispelling spell)
Wand of cure light wounds
Wand of Faith healing

That costs me 70530 gp, leaving me with 17470 gp left.

Here are things that I think would be cool :
- Item of natural armor +1 (2000) or +2 (8000) or item that can cast barkskin once a day or so (4320)
- Mithral Shirt (for social occasions)
- wand of Bull's Strength
- a second spell storing ioun stone (12000)
- Some scrolls (although as soon as I get XPs, I can get many scrolls easily so it's not urgent)
- Upgrading the Mooncloak's resistance bonus to saves to +2
- An item with polymorph self once per day at 12th caster level (17280) - This would enable me to turn into an astral archon, the ultimate buff spell


Any suggestions ? I'm searching for cool things as well as useful ones.




My Character philosophy :
- Acts as the arm of Red Knight, going on lots of divine-inspired quests for the side of Law (my campaign hook)
- Tries to always be prepared. This means lots of buffing spells and means not to get them dispelled. Also, divination spells when appropriate.

 

[HeavyG]

My character's strategy against dispelling

When you rely of buff spells so much, dispels can cause you mucho grief. Which is why I devised this strategy :

- I put a Greater dispelling spell in a counterspell. That way, the first targetted greater dispelling is countered automatically. It doesn't protect against area dispels, though, but such dispels can only dispel one spell from you, which is not a disaster.

- There's a spell in Magic of Faerun, 6th level, than can protect you from a couple of spells (1/4 levels maybe ?). Anytime you are in the area of such a spell, the spell is absorbed and transformed into a beneficial spell of the caster's choice. It lasts 10 minutes per level. So, I'll choose dispel magic as one of those spells if I see a large battle looming ahead. That way, if someone tries to dispel my buffs, I get healed or something. And if they try to greater dispel them, it's countered.

- Spell girding (feat) would give -2 to all opponent's rolls to dispel my spells, making them very hard, and when I level up, nearly impossible, to dispel with a good ol' dispel magic spell.

Here you go.

(You could also go with two rings of counterspelling and put both dispel spells in there)

 

[RogueJK]

As far as items go, our campaign is fairly low-powered. We're 15th (almost 16th) level, and still mostly +1 or +2 weapons and armor and Minor Wonderous Items. To make matters worse, all of our treasure is rolled randomly, so there's no guarantee that the stuff we find will help us out at all. This won't be an huge problem with this character, for the most part, since I have spells that can lessen that burden.

I'm hoping to get:
+1 Keen Longsword (15-20 threat range )
+1 Called Full Plate
+1 or +2 shield, possibly with Light Fortification

I'd also like to get:
Boots of Striding and Springing or other speed-booster (to help out my low speed)
Heward's Handy Haversack or Gloves of Storing
Something to boost my AC (It'll probably have to be a natural armor bonus to stack with the various spells)

It's funny (and kinda sad) when the front-line melee fighter has, err... had, the lowest AC of the group. Sadly, he's dead now, so he won't have to worry about that any more, but I hope to avoid that problem with this character. Darn you mages, with your Shields, Hastes, Invisibilities, Mirror Images, Blinks, Blurs, and Rings of Protection!

And, if I'm lucky, I might be able to get my hands on a Periphet of Wisdom or other Wisdom-boosting item. No hope for a Tome, though.