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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3226326" data-attributes="member: 3146">4 Clerics I've played and one that I've seen played for referenceMost are 28 point buy (the Shadowbane Inquisitor was built on 36 points)The melee cleric:Half-orc Bbn1 /Cleric (Kord) 13 Domains: Strength and CompetitionStr 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 6, Wis 14 (+all level based increases), Cha 6Feats: Power Attack, Extra Rage, Quicken Spell, Craft Wondrous Item, CleaveSkills: ConcentrationBuild notes: I think the character would be better served with a 10 dex and a 16 wisdom.Tactical notes: Buff and kill stuff. Quicken spell is essential to this build as it allows the character to be ready to go with only one round of prep for either righteous might or divine favor. Raging and Power Attacking with his falchion, the character dishes out a lot of damage.The classic clericHuman Clr 8 (Pelor)/Radiant Servant of Pelor 6Domains: Strength, Sun, Glory (bonus)Str 14, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 12Feats: Power Attack, Extra Turning, Divine Spellpower, Quicken Spell, Craft Wondrous Item, LeadershipSkills: Concentration maxed; the rest spread out between Diplomacy, Knowledge Religion, Knowledge: the planes and the pre-reqs for Radiant ServantBuild Notes: If you're going for optimization, you should have the Healing domain (either as your bonus domain from RSoP or your standard domain). I didn't choose it because, first, I didn't really want to cheese out my RSoP.Leadership is not necessarily an optimal choice, but it can be useful in the RPGA depending upon your location (if you play at a lot of tables that are short a person or two, it's a great feat; otherwise don't bother) or if your party in a home game is short in any particular area and isn't too large for another member to be added comfortably.Tactical notes: The character has the capability to cast Divine Power, Righteous Might, quickened divine favor, etc and wade into melee as a tank. And, at lower levels, the character spends a lot of time fighting in melee without all those buffs (which he may not be able to cast). At higher levels, you will spend a lot of spells improving yourself and your allies beforehand (magic vestment, greater magic weapon, hero's feast, etc), and will probably be casting spells like flame strike, blade barrier, and Pelor's Grasping Hand as your main contributions to combat unless the party is short on fighters.A spellcasting focused cleric:Human Cleric 4 (Pholtus)/Church Inquisitor 4Domains: Glory, Purification, Inquisition (bonus)Str 10, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 14Feats: Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, Augment Healing, Divine SpellpowerSkills: Concentration maxed, others spread between Spellcraft, Spot, Sense Motive, Knowledge: Religion, Knowledge: Arcana, etc.Build Notes: Extra Turning and Domain Substitution (glory) might be better choices than Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. Also, it is possible to qualify for Church Inquistor at Cleric 3 and not bother with Cleric 4; I only managed to meet the special prereq at level 4 though.Tactical Notes: This character can take a hit or two, but his primary contribution in combat is through spells. At low levels, this is a bit of a chore since he can cast cause fear or command, protection from evil, and a cure light wounds, and then he's doing aid other with a longspear (and only succeeding 50% of the time). Still, a divine spellpowered Deific Vengeance is much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. When he can cast recitation and summon monster III, it starts getting better and when he picks up Holy Smite, things start to take off. Eventually, I found that his melee contribution was so weak that he was better off eschewing heavy armor completely in favor of a chain shirt that lets him be where he needs to be more quickly. Still, he's not an anchor for a party in the same way that the two prior clerics are. If combat gets back to him, something is going wrong.Another spellcasting focused cleric:val'holryn Cleric 9 (Beltine)Domains: Afterlife, SpiritStr 8, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 13Feats: Legionaire, Spell Penetration, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous ItemSkills: Max concentration, others split between Diplomacy and Knowledge: ReligionBuild Notes: This character uses a lot of Arcanis material (which is not surprising since she's a Living Arcanis cohort). Legionaire is a feat that does not make sense outside of that cohort role (since she had a feat I wasn't sure how to use and Legionaire makes my character's leadership score get a bonus because of certain favors he has done the legions). Her val abilities give her the ability to re-roll a d20 once per day and to cast augury once per day as spell like abilities. With more non-core WotC material, the character could be improved (Divine spellpower would be a shoe-in instead of Spell Penetration). However, the rules of the Living Arcanis campaign have allowed her to make very effective use of her craft feats to aid other characters she regularly adventures with (and to enrich herself at the same time).Tactical notes: For most of the character's career, I didn't bother with any armor heavier than leather. Now, she wears a suit of banded mail because it was her share of loot from an adventure and with spectral hand as a domain spell she doesn't need mobility as much as the cleric I described above. In combat, she generally does one of two things: heals PCs or casts disabling spells (bestow curse, phantasmal killer (a domain spell), hold person, etc) at the enemy. I'm looking forward to toying around with flame strike.The mutliclass cleric/rogueHuman Rog 1/Clr 3 (a slightly re-worked version of Athena)/Church Inquisitor 4/Shadowbane Stalker 8Domains: Planning, War, Inquisition (bonus)Str 14, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 14Feats: Power Attack, Extend Spell (bonus), Weapon Focus (bonus), Divine Spellpower, Extra Turning, Quicken Spell, Practiced Spellcaster, Divine Might, Staggering StrikeSkills: Max: Search, Disable Device, Spot, Sense Motive; the rest spread between hide, move silently, Open locks, listen, Intimidate, gather info, and the prereqs for shadowbane stalker and church inquisitorBuild notes: The essential feats here are Power Attack, Quicken Spell, and Staggering Strike. The rest are window dressing. This character build is also somewhat independent of its deity (as long as the deity is Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral it all works) and domains. The essential abilities are Quicken Spell (to get buffs up quickly), Power Attack (to dish out damage), Practiced Spellcaster (because Shadowbane Stalkers sacrifice more than a few caster levels) and Staggering Strike (because it's just that good). The rest are gravy and could easily be effectively substituted by things like Augment Healing, etc. You'll also note that the character is a 36 point buy rather than 28 points. He could be dropped to a 28 point buy character pretty easily by reducing his charisma to 8 and his dexterity to 10. At that point, turning feats would be pointless, and Divine Might as well, but he could still do the essential things the character does.Tactical notes: The character plays like the first melee cleric but with a couple of twists created by the rogue skills and sneak attack. First, he augments his damage with sneak attack.as much as and perhaps more than with Power Attack. Second, because multiclassing wears down his BAB, he finds Divine Power a much more essential buff. Third, the character is a top of the line trapfinder and disabler and a pretty darn good sneak too (even in fullplate--with the benefit of Iron Silence). Finally, the character is not really a cleric. He's good enough and has served the party I play with as a their only cleric, but you definitely notice that he's not casting Holy Aura or other 8th level spells, and that he's fighting rather than healing most of the time. He can fill the role of a divine caster adequately, but you'll never mistake him for a full caster level cleric.</blockquote>

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