Is turning Important?

[Shadowbane]

How important is turning undead? Is it important enough to spend feats on?

 

[sukael]

Depends on the campaign.

One thing to look at are the Divine feats, which let you spend turning attempts on non-turning-undead abilities.

 

[Thanee]

At 40th level, I doubt, that turning is a big deal anymore.

At low to mid levels, it's really nice.

But I don't think you need feats to improve it, it's good enough as is.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Aloïsius]

How important is turning undead? Is it important enough to spend feats on?

IMHO : yes and yes. Undead ofen drain level, abilities, have touch attack, paralysis and many other nasty things. If you can keep them at bay, especialy at low level when you don't have any other protection, it's great. Disciple of the Sun and/or the Sun domain power are very usefull as are the heighten turning and extra turning feat.
Of course, if you never encounter undeads, it's useless. So, know your DM.

 

[boolean]

It also depends on your DM's approach to encounter design.

When facing several lower HD undead, turning can make an encounter much easier.

When facing a single, more powerful undead, it's much less likely to work.

Example: A bugbear zombie is CR 2, so four of them is an EL 6 encounter, appropriate for a sixth level party. They each have six hit dice, so a sixth level cleric is likely to turn two with a single attempt, maybe three with a good roll.

A single minotaur zombie is CR 4, so two are also an EL 6 encounter. They each have twelve hit dice, so a sixth level cleric has zero chance of even turning one.

 

[Crothian]

Not important at all. In fact, the cleric in my game gave up that ability so he could smite giants.

 

[CronoDekar]

I've personally never considered turning a big deal, and for one of my cleric character concepts I've even used Cha as a dump stat. The turning mechanic to me has always felt a little... oddly designed to me anyway. But of course, it depends on your DM.

 

[drothgery]

If you're in a campaign where you face lots of undead peons, the cleric's ability to turn undead is very, very nice. If most undead you face are too powerful to turn, then it's not helpful (unless you use a Divine Feat to turn the ability into something else).

 

[gabrion]

As some have said, it is only useful if...

1) Lotsa undead running around or
2) Divine metamagic.

If you use the second, then it is super-duper useful.

 

[TheGogmagog]

How important is turning undead? Is it important enough to spend feats on?

I've never played up the turning abilities and have played about five clerics. For somethng different I played a sun domain cleric and took two or three feats to bolster my abilities. It came in usefull about twice. If there is a mass of undead where you can turn a significant amount of them, the fighter (and even you) can probably cleave on through those.

If they are a chalenge, then you will likely turn one or two, not as impressive. Even then, most DMs and modules won't want thier undead encounter to be a cake walk because of turn undead, not realizing how limited it alread is. They usually have the undead bolstered and/or the area unhalowed. So in the example given above where you would turn two or three on a good roll, you are lucky to turn one. You should have spent your turn casting shatter.

The two encounters where it came in handy, were both against wraith. Turning two or thee of them each round allowed the group to focus on killing the remaining ones without being drained into joining them.

Bottom line, you won't miss it if you consider it a dump stat and ability. If you can take the divine metamagic instead I would go for it.