Tanky Cleric Options

[PinstripedBarbarian]

Hey all,
I'm pretty new to Pathfinder. My gaming group is starting up a campaign at level 7. We have a skillmonkey/buff Bard, a Warforged Juggernaut, a blast/summony Necromancer, and a ranged damage Ranger. So, we lack heals, and we could use a tanky melee guy as well.

I've settled on playing a Dwarf Cleric, possibly with the Merciful Healer or Crusader archetypes. My GM is letting me take the Half-Celestial template for +1 LA, but it won't progress beyond what 6HD would grant.

Beyond that, I could use some advice. I don't know how much I should focus on healing and how much I should invest in tanking. I really like the idea of playing a trip-tank, but I don't know if that's spreading a healer thin, especially with only medium BAB.

Is tripping (or another maneuver) worth investing a couple feats into? Is there another archetype that would be better? I'm very familiar with 3.5 material, but is there anything new and shiny in Pathfinder that I should look at in particular?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Varthol]

If not necessarily a cleric, you can also try an Oracle with the Life mystery, it is the best healer in the game.

There is revelation that allows you to spend 2 spell slots to cast a Cure spell of that level as a swift action. Pick that up and Hvy armor prof and you'll be dead seat at what you wanted.

Now, even if you invest in melee your lack of BAB will be a problem with tripping because you cannot easily gain a bonus to it (damn you divine power nerf). You' re probably better off casting summoning spells to bring a large-STR monster to trip for you

 

[PinstripedBarbarian]

I did consider Oracle. I actually began building the character as a Human Oracle of Life. I decided to go to Cleric because I want to take Scribe Scroll/Craft Wand, and having all of the cleric's spell list to scribe from is a lot more appealing. Plus Merciful Healer still gets the no AoO thing.

So even getting +4 from Improved/Greater Trip and giving myself +8 str from Mighty Strength, it's still not worth trying to be a tripper?

 

[Varthol]

re

It isn't necessarily a bad idea it's just that it's probably not worth investing feats into it.

You can try it but are probably much better off casting hold person or some similar save-or-(almost)suck or casting summon monster ii/iv to bring a wolf/dire wolf and cast mighty strength on to that P).

Well it all comes down wether you think tripping seems "cool" for your character. But when you get Greater Command it's might seem a little null.

 

[Squire James]

There's nothing wrong with versatility, but as a healer you will probably be doing 1 of 2 things: healing or something else. That "something else" can be a deity's favored weapon to the face, non-healing spells, tripping, or whatever. Don't underestimate Overrun, though! It's a nice ability for someone who's going to be running to heal people in traffic!

 

[PinstripedBarbarian]

I was considering being summon focused, but 1. I'd rather just play a Summoner at that point, and 2. I'm pretty sure someone else in the party is already doing that (plus, Mighty Strength is self only. Not to say I couldn't just Bull's Strength).

And honestly, I just want my "something else" to be worth while. Since we lack a tank, I wanted something that fit that role too. I just don't know if I can play a trip-tank-cleric without 3.5's version of Divine Power for the BAB.
+8 Strength from Might Strength, +4 from the feat tree, and +2 (or more) from Greater Magic Weapon is a nice boost, but I don't know if it's enough unfortunately. I might just pick up Antagonize and try to be an Intimitank instead.

 

[blargney the second]

The free ability bonuses from your template make Int 13 trivial for Combat Expertise. Go for it. Tripping is vicious.

 

[PinstripedBarbarian]

The more I look at the archetypes of Cleric, the less appealing I find them. Not getting attacks of opportunity for healing spells is appealing from Merciful Healer, but that wouldn't extend to any other spells. The Mercy effect on channels doesn't do too much since I have the Restoration subdomain to do that.

I'm trying to find a good second domain to pick. I like Glory (Heroism) for combat stuff, Luck for all the power behind it, and Liberation for amazing support options.
I'm considering just keeping trip weapons on hand, maybe grabbing the feat to avoid AoOs, and keeping a source of True Strike handy (another point for Luck domain, especially with Scribe Scroll / Craft Staff). I might grab Antagonize and keep full ranks in Intimidate so I can keep agro on me and demoralize (with Fearsome armor) for debuffing.

 

[Varthol]

re

Sorry if I've been too discouraging until now. Just consider if you want tripping iteself to be an essential part of your character or not.

Besides tripping is kind of bad even for full-BABers, cause monsters can fly or are oozes or are large+ or snake-like or four legs ETC...

For domains i would also suggest Heroism and if you are not a deity-specific cleric try to also pick up Exploration (DAT travel domain)

As for tanking you will have heavy armor and you could get some temporary hp or cast a healing spell on yourself.

The offense is up to you. Just say "how do I imagine my character winning the day?" . Hope I've helped you.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Healing isn't terribly important. You need some emergency healing and a CLW wand for out of combat. That is all the healing any group needs. The faster the enemies die, the less healing you'll need as they weren't around to hurt you longer. (If the DM sees a high-offense party killing foes off quickly and intentionally makes combats tougher because he thinks they're not being "challenged," this no longer applies, of course)

And I see melee classes in there. The warforged juggernaut and the necro summoner (his summons). That's a fair amount of melee. If the party is more ranged focused, that's about all you need to hold the front line as the others deal death from afar.

What do you WANT to play? Plenty of options could work here. I suppose Cleric, Oracle, Druid, Witch, or Paladin would be the most helpful choices, as they get the most healing abilities.