My cleric, the tank - help maximize him

[thorimar]

I'm looking to build a cleric for an upcoming campaign, and I was looking for some suggestions on the build. He will be in a party of 4 PCs. Other character distribution is Arcane caster (exact class undetermined), archer, and fighter-rogue. This leaves me with a cleric, which is my prefered class anyway. The last cleric I played was an artificer, built for the sole purpose of guaranteeing that the party could get magic items it wanted. Lots of fun and in the end he was a martial beast due to a number of prestige classes bilt around crafting and hammer usage. But I'm looking for something different (but not too different). Starting level will be 1st, so only core races work. Probably will be a 28 pt buy based on past games with this DM, and as long as a PrC isn't too far out it usually gets approved. I had been toying with the idea of a reach weapon as as oft used part of my arsenal with hammer, flail or axe as the backup. Ready set go! If this build is out there in great form already, feel free to post the link in here. Most other builds I find are directed to caster maximized or use LA races so they are not too good for me. Thanks for any ideas. Feel free to build him as far as you want since we will likely play these characters through a 1-20 story arc.

Thorimar

 

[Rhun]

If you are going to be the primary tank, I'd suggest building toward the (admittedly, broken/rules abusive) Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell build so you can have Divine Power up all day long.

 

[werk]

If you are going to be the primary tank, I'd suggest building toward the (admittedly, broken/rules abusive) Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell build so you can have Divine Power up all day long.

And get your teammates a lot of potions...you'll be busy when they need you.

 

[nittanytbone]

If you are going to be the primary tank, I'd suggest building toward the (admittedly, broken/rules abusive) Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell build so you can have Divine Power up all day long.

I would NOT suggest DMM Persistent.

1) The character must be played at 1st level. DMM Persistent doesn't come into its own until level 7. That sucks.

2) 28 point buy = hard to deal with MAD. Nightsticks can mitigate this, but still, for a tanking cleric, INT and CHA are the only dumpable stats.

I'd suggest DMM Quicken instead, or a Divine Feat such as Divine Ward (PHB2) or Sacred Boost (boring but efficient) or Divine Vigor (Temp HP = good).

 

[Legildur]

If you are going to be the primary tank, I'd suggest building toward the (admittedly, broken/rules abusive) Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell build so you can have Divine Power up all day long.

Are you saying that this solution would be appropriate for Kurt in your AlphaToEE campaign?

 

[mvincent]

Having the magic domain is typically optimal. At low levels, the ability to use (cheap) 1st level wands is a big boon. Being a spiked chain wielder that can enlarge himself is pretty powerful.

Clerics with the magic domain can also cast identify without paying 100gp (nice).

 

[Rhun]

Are you saying that this solution would be appropriate for Kurt in your AlphaToEE campaign?

We can talk about that when you get to 7th level!

And if we were down to 4 PCs and no fighters in the group, I'd probably allow it.

 

[Jack Simth]

I would NOT suggest DMM Persistent.

1) The character must be played at 1st level. DMM Persistent doesn't come into its own until level 7. That sucks.

Weeell.....

You CAN make it work at 1st, if you've got enough sources and can con the DM into a cleric of a Cause such that you can get both the Undeath (for Extra Turning as a domain power) and Planning (for Extend Spell as a domain power) domains (alternately, you can take two flaws to similar effect, and take whatever domains you want). Then take Persistent Spell and Divine Metamagic(Persistent spell) as your 1st level and Human Bonus feats. With a Charisma of 10, you've got 7 turning attempts, which is enough to power Divine Metamagic(Persistent Spell) once.

Sure, it's not all THAT grand with just 1st level spells, but Divine Favor will give you +1 Attack/Damage in melee, all day long. If you can con your DM into agreeing that spells with a range of Touch are fixed range, you can get Lesser Vigor running all day (fast healing 1 all day long at 1st level? WooHoo! - won't fly with all DMs, though, even those that permit the feats - the Vigor line has a built-in cap on the duration, which may or may not be overridden by Persistent Spell).

All later geats go into Extra Turning (for more DMM(Persistent Spell)) for when more good spells come into play.

2) 28 point buy = hard to deal with MAD. Nightsticks can mitigate this, but still, for a tanking cleric, INT and CHA are the only dumpable stats.

I'd suggest DMM Quicken instead, or a Divine Feat such as Divine Ward (PHB2) or Sacred Boost (boring but efficient) or Divine Vigor (Temp HP = good).

Yeah, those do make it a little easier on the stats/feats, true.

 

[bigbaddragon]

You could look into domain devotion feats in Complete Champion. For example Animal Devotion and Protection Devotion. Animal Devotion can get you sacred bonus to strength (2 + 2 for every six character levels) or speed or byte attack that deals constitution damage. Protection Devotion gives you and your allies within 30 feet sacred bonus to AC (2 + 1 for every four character levels you have).

Note that you do not have to take domains in order to take the corresponding domain feat, it just has to be on the domain list of your deity. For example if your deity offers War, Strength, Sun, Law and Magic domains you can take War and Strength domains (and cast spells from them and get their granted powers) and take Sun Devotion, Law Devotion and Magic Devotion.

Important about this feats is that they are reusable if you spend Turn Undead attempts so it would be nice to have a lot of those. Reliquary Holy Symbol from MIC helps with this.

 

[JoelF]

If you're talking about a tank as in "go ahead and attack me, I don't care or notice", then use a tower shield. For a cleric this would require a level of fighter (or a feat in the proficiency), but it's worth it. With a Tower shield and full plate (and the 2 armor optimization feats from races of stone) you can pump your AC up significantly.