Maxing out healing/speed on a cleric build (help please)

[Ogrehatescomputers]

Looking for a way to Maximize a few things with a cleric build I've been toying with.

I'd like to max out his speed, ac, and healing as much as possible. Damage is not a concern If I bring him into the game I will usually be following the “tanks” around healing them as much as possible and only engaging in direct combat when I have no choice.

I’m really curious to see if there is anything that’s just better or can be tweaked that I’m not seeing.

The game I would bring him into is a game I'm already (just recently) started playing in. And places a few restrictions/requirements on the character.

He/she MUST:

Be Elf or Half-Elf
7th Level
Cleric
Cannot take any other class until level 10

I have:

20k starting gold with no restrictions on spending limits per item
Access to all PF books and the Magic Item Comp from 3.5
(I only own the Core, advanced and Beast. So I can't see the Ult books info)
A house rule stating that all characters begin the game with the feat: Weapon Finesse. So I'm thinking High Dex character w/ light armor

The rest of the party consists of:

Dwarven Paladin (sword and board)
Elvish Bard (all around filler)
Human Druid (Summon/buffer)
Human Sorcerer (FIREBALL!!!!)
Elf Ranger (Two weapon)

For the moment I'm considering the following:

Half-Elf, Cleric 7 of Sarenrae
Domains: Healing/ ????
Feats: selective Channel Energy. Maximize. ???? Considering taking Minor and Major Spell expertise (eventually)
Equipment: Boots of S.Striding, really anything for speed. Anklet of translocation or boots of the acrobat. One of the above. Chain shirt. Things like that.
Weapon:????
Skills: going to max heal and a few other staples of the class

Are there any obvious things I'm just being blind too?

Thanks for any help

 

[Ebony Dragon]

For Pathfinder, all you really need for in combat healing (at least for the levels before Heal and Mass Heal are available) is your divine channel energy ability. Then things like Wand of CLW, and more charges of your Divine Channeling work great for out of combat healing between encounters.

This leaves you a lot of room to do more than just be a heal bot, which can be kind of a boring (and not very efficient) role for any character to have to take. Buffs, debuffs and battlefield control spells are fantastic ways to keep your front line companions alive and safe without having to wade into the thick of things to hand deliver cure moderate wounds spells or the like.

Keep in mind (quoted from this guide)

First off, healing often does not outpace damage. Moreover, removing an enemy threat can often be much more effective at saving your allies' necks than going up and poking them with Cure X Wounds. If an enemy were to deal 50 damage to an ally, and you can take that enemy out by either disabling or killing them, then you've "healed" that ally of the 50 damage he would have taken. Additionally, as healing often does not keep up the pace with damage, even if you can't disable the enemy, healing the ally might not be good enough to save them. Instead, you might want to use an ability to help the ally escape, or block the enemy from attacking them (this can be something as simple as Benign Transposition, really). In fact, healing in combat is only situationally a good choice, and is often a subpar tactical option.

As far as increasing move speed, Boots of Striding and Springing runs 5,500 gold and will boost your acrobatics by 5 (for tumbling) and your land speed by +10 feet. Wearing either light armor or mithril medium armor will let you avoid having a movement speed penalty that heavier armors would give.

 

[milo]

I would advise against using Maximize on healing spells. You are better off using the higher level spell for that level of cure spell. By the time you can maximize CLW(D8+5,13 points) you have CCW(4D8+7,minimum 11 pts, avg 25). With Empower applied to all healing spells this difference is even higher. When you have 6th level spells heal is better than anything else you can cast.

That being said it might be more advantageous to get Extra Channeling instead of Maximize. If you are going to go with elf you might want to think about using a longbow, stay out of melee so that you can get to where the healing is needed, if you go that route your other feats should probably be point blank shot/precise shot.

If anyone has Ultimate Combat in your group check out the Merciful Healer. You don't get your second domain, but you don't provoke AoO when healing with spells or heal skill and get Paladin Mercies to add to your channel energy. If this is not an option I would go with the Sun domain if the campaign is going to be undead heavy, if not the Fire domain isn't too bad.

 

[VanceMadrox]

Are you set on Sarenrae as your deity?

If nto consider someone with Travel Domain.

Travel Domain gives an increase of 10 ft to movement and it NOT treated as an enhancement bonus so it can stack with Boots of Striding and Springing.

 

[milo]

Travel domain is nice, but no deity has that and Healing domain. You might be able to work with your DM on that.
From pg 39 of the Pathfinder Rulebook

While the vast majority
of clerics revere a specif ic deity, a small number
dedicate themselves to a divine concept worthy of
devotion—such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge—
free of a deif ic abstraction. (Work with your GM if you
prefer this path to selecting a specif ic deity.)

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

When I played my dwarf cleric, I was allowed to do what @milo suggested. I worshiped Cayden Cailean for the most part, and grabbed both the healing and travel domains. The way I role-played it was that I was the healing arm of the church and followed most of Cayden's teachings, but not all of them. Kind of a subset of his religion.

I don't know how your DM would feel about something like that, but I always go for a good reason to role-play things and usually get what I want from that standpoint instead of the min/maxing aspect.

The other thing you can do as milo said and this is quoted directly from the Paizo site:
"Clerics may select any two of the domains granted by their deity. Clerics without a deity may select any two domains (choice are subject to GM approval)."

 

[milo]

The travel domain is great, I have played 3 clerics since I started playing Pathfinder. All three have had the Travel domain. That was my first thought when you wanted to go fast, but Saranrae doesn't offer it.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Yeah, that's why I suggested he talk to his DM about it and see if he/she will allow a different domain (travel) outside of Saranrae like mine did in allowing me healing for Cayden.

 

[VanceMadrox]

There's also the Separatist Cleric Archetype from Ultimage Magic

Separatist - Pathfinder_OGC


You could worship Sarenrae and still having Healing and (slightly reduced) Travel domains.

 

[Ogrehatescomputers]

Awesome Info guys. Thanks for all the help.

I will most likely being going the route of Merciful healing since he most likely wont allow me to have a domain outside of my chosen Deity. Though it is a pretty amazing domain. (and most likely he wont let me be a non deity cleric...which is okay with me) And If for some reason he wont let me do either of those things then I'll do Sun since we are going to be up against some undead.

Feat wise my list was: selective channel and extra channel and prob drop Maximize for a craft or something since we do have down time in his games.

As for my comment about not being worried about doing damage, the reason I'm not worried about it is because I have so many buff/debuff spells and a few "offensive" power spells. I should have specified that I was not worried about doing damage in general with myself as an attacker with a mace or what have you.

Thanks again everyone for the help and ideas.
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