Favorite Domains

[Shadow]

More a matter of curiosity than anything, I'm just wondering what people think are their favorite domains or domain combinations and why.

Doesn't have to be the best or most unfair optimized. Just what you think is fun or interesting.

[LArc7thHeaven]

Animal and community 'nuff said

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Shadow:

More a matter of curiosity than anything, I'm just wondering what people think are their favorite domains or domain combinations and why.

Doesn't have to be the best or most unfair optimized. Just what you think is fun or interesting.

Death is my go to. It's that 8th level death's embrace that's just way too potent. Total immunity to negative energy (or positive energy if you are undead). Not a whole lot of other things offer that protection, either.

I like the protection domain because it frees up the slot that a cloak of resistance normally occupies (basically allows you to take a cloak who's effect is something other than bonus to saves)

Travel is notable for the speed increase. I don't tend to take travel, but in pen & paper, having a party member with travel is always nice because they don't slow the party down much while wearing heavy armor.

I really like the idea of the Darkness or Law domains, but I rarely get any use out of them. For darkness, blinding people is very useful. And that law thing where you don't roll a d20 and just count as 11...that is interesting just as means to avoid RNG problems.

[Chronocide]

Oh, If going anti-undead, Sun and Glory domains stack very nicely. Glory adds to channel DC and Sun adds to damage vs undead with channel.

I always find knowledge disappointing as a domain, mainly because the cleric has too few skill points to take advantage of getting more class skills, while the inquisitor already has them all as class skills.

Oh, the plant domain has cheesy uses at low levels. You take your druid with a two handed weapon and swift action to enlarge, which in turn enlarges their weapon (increases the weapon base damage). Can be impressive for low level encounters. If there was a full BAB cleric, could be really impressive.

[atm]

Depends a bit on the purpose of the character, but my main go-to's are:

Community - its bonus is untyped so stacks with everything, and with high stats can be a truly insane boost to both attack and saves for that one really hard fight where you just need to bring everything.

Madness - Is probably the best domain overall, even better than community (controversial take, I know). Up to +10 to either attack, skill checks, or saves, with a -10 to the other two lets you blow past your normal limits for the situations that require it. When you can't hit, use the +10 attack visions of madness; when you're entering a conversation that requires a whole bunch of skill checks, use the +10 skill checks, and so on. It lasts for 3 rounds, so effectively a whole fight, and stacks with everything. You can also technically buff your enemy's skill checks to debuff their attack and saves by -10, so there's that, too.

Luck - its bonus is kind of hard to get through other means. There's the fortune hex, but only once per day and needs constant refreshing during (or before) the fight via chant or cackle. Luck's more 'on demand', and you can use it to help you unleash heck on your alpha strike, or the longer version for that rough fight where you need to bring everything.

Good - is OK to pair with other things. I tend to think of it as single target guarded hearth, except you can take it in 1-round increments when you need it throughout the day. It's worth noting it does also buff your skill checks, so combine it with visions of madness for +20 to skill checks for a round, meaning no skill check should be insurmountable if you have these domains and enough warning. The ability to make your weapon holy is meh, though, because by the time you have it the damage is low and you can probably find a holy weapon anyway.

Nobility - (assuming I remember the right one, lol) lets you give the whole party a +2 insight bonus to attack, AC, etc for up to 10 rounds. I sometimes take this because you can't get insight bonuses to AC very easily at all, so it's a nice extra boost for tough pulls.

Travel - I take this situationally on certain melee builds. With domain zealot, it gives you a swift action teleport that you can use to zap yourself to your chosen location on the battlefield and then still have your turn left to do a full attack. Alternatively of course you can use it the opposite way, doing a full attack against a dangerous enemy and then teleporting away with a swift action so they have to move to you, letting you kite as a melee.

Animal - gets an honorable mention because it will let you have a pet on a non-pet class. I'm not the biggest fan of pets, in the sense that I want exactly one pet in my party because while they are the best tanks for most of the game, they are very buff dependent, and trying to buff up multiple pets is a time-consuming task. This means if I'm taking any other class that has a pet, I definitely don't want another pet on other random characters just getting in the way and soaking up more buff spell casts than I have the time or resources for.

So anyway there's my main favorites. If I was limited to picking from only a few, it would be those above and I could forever go without all the rest quite happily. I'm wondering if there are good ones that I don't normally take, so will be interested to see if anyone has other suggestions.

[Triple G]

Originally posted by Shadow:

Doesn't have to be the best or most unfair optimized. Just what you think is fun or interesting.

The problem there is probably, that most people would say it´s unfun, and not very interesting, to shoot Yourself in the foot, when some domains are clearly superior to others. Like animal gives You the pet. One can basically stop there, but community gives You guarded hearth, which affects all friendlies in the area for one hour per class level, instead of being round based as most other abilities - plus it has nice domain buffs, like all of the ones which everybody probably uses, and not a single useless spell in them...

And then there might be some domains, which make certain skill checks easier - if You save the game before the check, which probably 98% of the players do. Same as probably 98% of the player save before any encounter, when it´s about everybody can one hit everybody else, and the combat system is about either hit or miss - so a fight which ended in a complete wipe for You, with no damage dealt on the enemy, could turn into a complete wipe for them, with no damage dealt on You after a reload, if You haven´t min maxed the party that way, that nobody can touch You except they roll a 20, but You would only miss on a 1 on anybody - while You set this up for the difficult encounters, so the normal ones are even more trivial.

[Belegc]

there are 2 "main" domains that I think are mandatory if you are looking for a domain build.

Madness - gives either a giant buff or a debuff for mobs (you need spell penetration to use it on mobs and its a touch attack).

Community - a giant buff for the group based on WIS.


other than that, I think these are nice too:
Law - knowing the roll and building around it can be very helpful in certain situations.

Trickery - gives you class skills, some sort of mirror image and group concealment, Mind fog and Weird.

Luck - always good to roll twice

Animal - Pets are very good at the beginning of the game but starts to fall off around mid-game. still you might want a mount or a pet with you. needs boon companion to have a fully-leveled pet.

[jutschi78]

Here my favorits (at lvl 20)

Madness: great debuff: -10 to saves and attack roll +10 to skills, yes please! Compare that with:

Lawful: the emeny don't roll and take 10. So if you put both Domain powers on an emeny they have a 0 on saverolls. Hello save or suck spells like Phantasie killer or wreid.

Good: +10 Bonus on most rolls, oh yes.

Luck" roll twice, take the better.

Community: not Bad, but i my option overrated. The small healing of lvl 1 Power is nice, but mostly for the remove fatigue effect. Lvl 8 power is real strong, sure, but one time per rest is quite limited. For me" take Seelah as pure Paladin. Lay on hands is quite better and Mark of Justice works similar to the lvl 8 power with more uses.

Animal: take it only, if you really need an animal companion. Bismuth can be you mount, if you are a caster and want to have more movespeed. I think all other Domain powers above are more unique, while animal companions can be get by many (sub) classes. Go Seelah again.

[DragonNoz]

I'mma be honest: Sun and Luck, at the very least, seem neat to me.

[revan1229]

-Community: Guarded Hearth, duh
-Animal: Tripping dog is fantastic
-Luck: Bit of Luck and Divine Fortune are very strong
-Good: Touch of Good is very...good
-Liberation: Freedom's Call is underrated
-Madness: Vision of Madness is an incredible debuff
-Chaos: Touch of Chaos is another great debuff
-Nobility: Inspiring Command is great, and it gives your Cleric Heroism, Greater Heroism, and Brilliant Inspiration

[CHAO$$$]

Madness is untyped and has a 3 round duration so you can give it to multiple characters.
Its the best by far ever since the community nerf/change.