Thoughts on STR cleric

[ogre]

The recent post about paladins got me thinking. How viable is a STR focused cleric. I made a 1st level Human of Kord, with an 8 CHA. He appears viable, as CHA only seems important to a WIS cleric. Any holes in this concept?

On a side note, this whole fact that each class has a couple major variances really quelches any complaints that 4e characters have less creation options than previous editions, imho of course.

 

[James McMurray]

Strength clerics are very viable. The existence of Righteous Brand gaurantees that, but they've got a lot of other juicy stuff to back it up.

I'd definitely look at multiclassing Warlord. They've got similar, but different abilities that compliment each other well.

 

[Victim]

Righteous Brand is amazing. At first level, Healing Strike is especially good, since people don't have other utility effects that allow spending additional healing surges.

The thing with a STR cleric is that you still probably want a decent WIS. Melee clerics paragon paths still have WIS attacks; there's the useful Healer's Lore, and sometimes (like level 29 ) the WIS attack blows away the STR one. But you can safely dump CHA, so it's not too much mad even if you want scale.

The real problem I think is that melee clerics tend to be very feat intensive at low levels. Clerics start with Chain, no military weapons (without a racial), and no shields. So you need to make a signifcant early investment to improve melee surviveability. OTOH, I'm not particularly fond of the magic chain abilities; the extra AC seems like it'd come in handy more often and scale properties aren't too bad either.

 

[inati]

I went with a Human (an often maligned cleric race) cleric that was split between STR and WIS as the two prime stats with a score of 16. This was so I could choose between either STR or WIS for attack powers for flexibility. CHA I didn't worry about so much, but I still maintained a positive bonus with a score of 12. So instead of pumping up CHA, I went ahead and made CON my tertiary, as I wanted to qualify for heavier armor feats. The added benefit of having a better HP base and healing surges was also a bonus.

Since my human cleric is so versatile stats wise, I can use Scared Flame and Laser of Faith at range, and use Righteous Brand for melee. Having a mediocre Charisma will hurt some power bonuses down the road, but I feel that the flexibility of having both high STR and WIS make up for that.

For feats, I am going for survivability, since clerics, both devoted and battle variants, are always within one movement action of the front line. So I took Scale Mail as the first feat, and then for the second feat (human, remember?) I opted for a reach weapon. With a reach weapon, I could still engage the enemy with my melee powers, but I could do so from the relative safety of hiding behind the defender by attacking through his square to get to the enemies.

As it looks right now, this character will have Action surge for the level 2 feat, and when stats are able to go up, one point will go to Con in order to qualify for plate mail at level 4.

Try a hybrid character! Having a good CHA score is helpful, but it's by no means a deal breaker

 

[nittanytbone]

Here's a handbook on the matter I wrote recently. Still fleshing out some sections, but its good through Heroic Tier.

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1082033

 

[Kzach]

If you're the main healer for the group, I'd probably consider going a CHA/WIS cleric instead. But if you're paired with say a paladin or there's another healer, then a STR cleric can be pretty badass.

Their weakness is their low to hit and lack of healing.

 

[ogre]

Good advice all, thx.
I made this guy human, 18 STR, 16 Wis, 8 Cha, 12 Con and Dex. Took the Ranger MC feat and bastard sword. My thinking is the ranger stuff would be good since I don't have a shield, and could play up the TWF thing or strike two-handed as needed. For at-wills, righteous brand of course, but I took the laser and sacred flame too, as the other STR one seems lame. Plus this guy needs a ranged attack, at only 24 HP, he can only melee so long. Plus the ranger stuff will help in getting out of melee. I didn't see anywhere where a -1 due to an 8 would effect much, as the ones I looked at had effects that were 3+ cha mod, so even a 2 ain't bad.

 

[Gort]

Their weakness is their low to hit

Huh? Do you mean because of their weapon selection, or something else? Cause you can just take bastard sword proficiency at level 1 and be in the same boat as every other one-handed weapon wielder. And if you're a human, you can pick up shield proficiency too!

 

[amnuxoll]

I actually went with Str and Con as primary attributes (Wis 10, Cha 10) for my Orc cleric not because it's optimal but because it can be done. So, he'll probably play more like a defender than a cleric. Yes, that means that paragon path will be not-ideal but not so bad as you might think. But the character concept should be fun.

:AMN:

 

[Kintara]

I actually went with Str and Con as primary attributes (Wis 10, Cha 10) for my Orc cleric not because it's optimal but because it can be done. So, he'll probably play more like a defender than a cleric. Yes, that means that paragon path will be not-ideal but not so bad as you might think. But the character concept should be fun.

:AMN:

Just multiclass. I'd say Warlord for Combat Veteran would work.