Need help designing Epic Cleric

[Chris Parker]

Long story short, friend of mine runs an ongoing campaign thats lasted over 2 years so far. During this time, one of the players moved away. Seeing as how he played the (only) Cleric, we kept her (character is female) in the party as 'NPC' (who particapates fully in battle and gets full xp).

But, of course, we lost her character sheet. And the DM charged me with remaking her.

She is a Human, HalfCelestial who is focused on Healing the party above all else. Wisdom, Charisma, and Constitution are her main stats, in that order of importance. While not a defensive powerhouse, she is designed to survive a beating long enough to heal herself and everyone else.

The average party level is 27-28, while her ECL is 25 (21 character levels, +4 ECL from template). She has, thanks to the lucrative party, 3 Million gold to create with. But the problem, of course, is that I dont know much about casters - Im fairly new to DnD and have never played a caster before, and thus dont know even all of the basics of casting.

I was thinking about having her take a few levels in Hierophant (ranged heals, extra epic metamagic feats - yes, DM allows you to take Epic feats if your Epic and in a nonEpic class that grants extra feats), but the lack of extra spells / day hurts her alot, specially sense she is already at +4 ECL from her template, which doesnt help too much right now.

Its a custom universe, so, to simplify things the diety doesnt matter (shes NG, though (revision: she might be CG or LG, I dont fully remember)). The Healing domain seems obligatory, and I was thinking about giving her the Trickery domain, merely so that, if absolutely necessary, she can Time Stop and throw down alot of heals.

She neednt worry about offensive capabilities, the rest of the party has that covered (and then some) and as a result are very fast levelers, but between the Monk, Fighter, and Barbarian (all slasher tanks) alot of heals can be needed. I was thinking about the epic Automatic Quicken feat, Multispell, and how many Heals she could slap / rnd (note - DM uses 3.5 heal, with one exception - no maximum cap on how much it can heal. This is due to the fact that the party will be going post epic).

Turning would be nice, but I get the feeling that Id need alot of feats to really become great at turning - and the rest of the party can dish it out well enough.

So what Feats, Prestige Classes, Equipment, Spells, and Tactics should she get/use?

Id greatly appreciate any help you guys can give me.

- thanks, Chris.

 

[d12]

Equipment:

Buy a very powerful wisdom boosting item (at least +6). The same goes for constitution. Don't worry about boosting charisma, there aren't many undead you can turn anymore.

Buy the best magical armor you can.

Pearls of Power of higher level spells (7th - 9th)


Feats:

Scribe Scroll is a must have - it will expand the selection of spells you have available at any given moment.

 

[d12]

Also take inmproved initiative and get a dexterity boosting item. This could improve you initiative by up to +7. Going first is important in epic level play

 

[Serpenteye]

I suggest that you don't bother with "epic" equipment, it's not cost-effective.
Buy plenty of metamagic rods (a couple of Greater Quicken, a couple of Greater Extend, a medium Maximize or Empower for when she feels like casting a Flame strike or two, and a few more Quicken and Extend). Buy several pearls of power for every spell-level, they can double her fire-power and give her limited (but very useful) spontaneous casting. Get her a good armour, shield, saves, etc (all the basics). Try to get permanent items of Death Ward and Mind Blank and give her enough HPs to suck up dex-based damage.
Give her Epic Spell casting, and develop a few long-duration buffing spells, using the other casters in the party to bring down the cost. Don't bother trying to use the epic spell system for anything other than buffs, it's useless for nearly everything else.
Dont focus only on healing, give her a wide selection of offensive and defensive spells.

 

[Krafen]

Start taking Hierophant levels at 21. You want full spell progression. Divine Reach is great for healers and, depending on the alignments in the party, Faith Healing.

If you *really* want to focus on healing, go for Spontaneous Domain Access to the Healing Domain. Then you can spontaneously cast Heal, Regenerate, and Mass Heal. Going up the Automatic Quicken Spell chain and stacking Multispell would optimize this.

Until you can complete that combination, look at a staff or two of Mass Heal. A staff of Heal and Master Staff could work too.

With Ignore Material Components, you can cast True Resurrection for free.

See if the DM will allow Initiate of Ilmater. It allows your cure spells to give temporary HP up to 3x the target's HD.

The Time domain gives you Haste, Contingency, Foresight, and Time Stop. You get Improved Intitiative as a bonus feat.

You're right to not bother focusing on your turning ability.

Fortunate fate is basically a contingent heal spell. Cast it on all your fighter-types.

Items:
A couple of rods of absorption (that you charge beforehand) are a great way to extend your spell capacity.
Most epic items are not worth the cost, but bite the bullet and pick up an item of +12 Wis. Your Wis cannot be too high.
Carry multiple Beads of Karma so you can activate one for each battle.
Pearls of Power are cheap when you have epic-level resources.
You can afford +5 Inherent bonuses to all your important stats.
At caster level 21, you are immune to dispel magic. Get a weapon with the Spellblade enchantment vs. greater dispel magic to avoid losing all your buffs.
With Use Magic Device, you could use a staff of time stop.

 

[Chris Parker]

Start taking Hierophant levels at 21. You want full spell progression. Divine Reach is great for healers and, depending on the alignments in the party, Faith Healing.

If you *really* want to focus on healing, go for Spontaneous Domain Access to the Healing Domain. Then you can spontaneously cast Heal, Regenerate, and Mass Heal. Going up the Automatic Quicken Spell chain and stacking Multispell would optimize this.

Until you can complete that combination, look at a staff or two of Mass Heal. A staff of Heal and Master Staff could work too.

With Ignore Material Components, you can cast True Resurrection for free.

See if the DM will allow Initiate of Ilmater. It allows your cure spells to give temporary HP up to 3x the target's HD.

The Time domain gives you Haste, Contingency, Foresight, and Time Stop. You get Improved Intitiative as a bonus feat.

You're right to not bother focusing on your turning ability.

Fortunate fate is basically a contingent heal spell. Cast it on all your fighter-types.

Items:
A couple of rods of absorption (that you charge beforehand) are a great way to extend your spell capacity.
Most epic items are not worth the cost, but bite the bullet and pick up an item of +12 Wis. Your Wis cannot be too high.
Carry multiple Beads of Karma so you can activate one for each battle.
Pearls of Power are cheap when you have epic-level resources.
You can afford +5 Inherent bonuses to all your important stats.
At caster level 21, you are immune to dispel magic. Get a weapon with the Spellblade enchantment vs. greater dispel magic to avoid losing all your buffs.
With Use Magic Device, you could use a staff of time stop.

Thank you I appreciate it alot.

Questions - Where is Initiate of Ilmater, and where is Fortune Fate?

 

[dead_radish]

And oddly, there's also the Healer PrC from, of all places, the Miniatures Handbook - I don't have it in front of me, but I know they get significant bonuses to healing spells, and several spell like abilities.

I'd agree with taking Heirophant after epic - it's really irrelevant the path you took to get there, so be sure you get all your spells in!

And yeah, rods of metamagic are key. Quickened reach heal, while taking up an obscene spell level, is amazingly useful.

 

[Chris Parker]

And oddly, there's also the Healer PrC from, of all places, the Miniatures Handbook - I don't have it in front of me, but I know they get significant bonuses to healing spells, and several spell like abilities.

I'd agree with taking Heirophant after epic - it's really irrelevant the path you took to get there, so be sure you get all your spells in!

And yeah, rods of metamagic are key. Quickened reach heal, while taking up an obscene spell level, is amazingly useful.

Again, I dont have any of the books in front of me. Past what I can get my hands on when friends get back in town I have no books. Where are rods of metamagic?

And I dont spose theres a legal version of that healer on the web?

 

[Krafen]

Initiate of Illmater is a feat from Players Guide to Faerun.

Fortunate Fate is from Magic of Faerun.

Rods of Metamagic are from the DMG.

And, you're welcome.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Stick to straight cleric up to level 20. Going hierophant as of level 21 is an excellent idea, particularly if your DM allows you to gain epic meta feats from the class.

If you're going with that idea, you'll end up with a lot of very useful meta-magic feats, so if I were you I'd be taking Improved Metamagic at least twice.

Equipment-wise there's been a lot of excellent suggestions already. Personally I'd consider the following must-have items:

+12 WIS, +5 inherit WIS (tome/manual thingie...) for the spells,
+6 CON (for HP),
+6 DEX (for AC and initiative),
Luckstone AND that Iounstone that's slightly better than Luckstone; it grants a competence bonus (for initiative and saves),
+5 resistance, +5 armor of heavy fortification, +5 shield, ring of protection +5, amulet of natural armor +5 (can't let the healer go down! ;-) )

Also there's a couple of other really useful Iounstones every epic caster should have: One that grants an insight bonus to AC and one that increases effective caster level by +1.

A metamagic rod that grants the "Reach Spell" feat could be an affordable alternative to selecting "Reach" as a Hierophant ability. If the DM allows, milk those Hierophant levels for all the Epic metafeats you can!