Need help building a cleric

[Lougandy]

So !

Trying a new build. This time I want to build a pure cleric focusing on CC / heavy single target damage while being able to hold its own on "trash encounter" without using to much spells (cause we all know that resting is bad).

I picked animal domain : it's suppose to treat lore(nature) as a class skill ... I don't think it's working ... another bug ? This would have been my "hunter".

I also picked community domain but "Guarded Hearth" don't do anything ... am I missing something ? It sounds amazing on paper.

Should I pick other domains ?

For race I picked half-elf because why not (or maybe because I want to use an amazing elf priest portrait ...) + free feat to have a high perception char (max wisdom + keen senses + skill focus + the spell find trap).

Regarding stats, I went :

str 16 (to be able to melee attack low level encounter, maybe with one cast of "Divine power")
dex 12 (+1ac while wearing heaving armor)
con 10 (not a tank, decent enough)
int 10
wis 20 (need high DC on spells)
cha 7 (I'm not planning on channeling that much)
Seems good ?

Regarding feats :

boon companion / Augmented Summoning / Superior Summoning for meat shield / insane pet
heighten spell / spell focus / greater spell focus conjuration for those sweet vinetrap / chain of light (good luck saving against a heighten vinetrap : then you just cast Blade barrier and wait for stuff to die)
Should I pick a 2nd school to focus on ? If so, which one ? Evocation for more damage / vinetrap + blade barrier combo ? Enchantement to have cc targeting will instead of reflex ?

PS : also, am I missing something or is vinetrap better than chain of light while being a lower level spell ?

[juanrdp]

I create a cleric Adventurer to replace the companions, tips:

Race: Aasimar Lawbringer (Con and WIS, nice hold person) or Uncertain Heritage (WIS and CHA for more channels) if you are going to be a summoner could think about the Idyllkin CON and CHA and an extra Summon Nature's Ally III)
Deity: Erastil with Animal (Animal companion) and Community (Calming Touch to recover from fatigued and Guarded Hearth for a sacred bonus to OB and Saves depending your will, also several fundamental buff spells)
Armour: Stick to medium, you will be in the second line.
Weapon: Long Bow from the deity, yep, it's a ranged cleric

The animal companion: Two choices Smilodon for 5 attacks per round or Leopard for 3 attacks and trip.

Feats: Basics boon companion and Selective Channel (i heal in combat by channeling not by spells) also several extra channeling to keep a constant group healing.
Usefull: Oportunist, low BO (because you dont stack DEX) and normal bow damage, but count as flanking and on a critical makes that the damage dealer makes another attack (i have them on all the characters).

[juanrdp]

Originally posted by Lougandy:

PS : also, am I missing something or is vinetrap better than chain of light while being a lower level spell ?

Thing that you have missed in my oppinion:
- Clerics only get up to medium armour by default, need use a feat to get heavy armour prof.
- If want to stick with Heavy armour +1 dex limit could go down DEX to 8 and use a +4 physical perfection belt to up str, dex and con by +4, with 12 you would end with 16 and loose a lot of bonus.
- I dont like heighten spell, if want to use a higer level spell just stick to it.. i would use the feat in other things.
- If you are going to cast in melee lack any concentration bonuses.
- If you are going to be in melee with a shield, the feat shield wall and shielded caster are lovely just be sure other chars like the tank also have them.

Of the spells, Vinetrap it's a root while chains of light it's a paralyze

[Lougandy]

Originally posted by juanrdp:

- Clerics only get up to medium armour by default, need use a feat to get heavy armour prof.

Oh you're right ... that sucks :/ Used to D&D cleric in heavy armor. I don't think it's such a good idea to waste a feat on this though.

Originally posted by juanrdp:

- If want to stick with Heavy armour +1 dex limit could go down DEX to 8 and use a +4 physical perfection belt to up str, dex and con by +4, with 12 you would end with 16 and loose a lot of bonus.

I did not knew about this belt. However, if I'm sticking with medium armor the best would be 6 armor / 3 dex bonus (instead of 9 armor / 1 dex bonus with heavy armor ... so loosing only 1 ac) ? Which means I'll need 12 (+4 with belt) dex for the 3 dex bonus to AC right ?

Originally posted by juanrdp:

I dont like heighten spell, if want to use a higer level spell just stick to it.. i would use the feat in other things.

The thing is : vinetrap (and chain of light) is a really good spell : it target Reflex instead of Will, which means if the enemy fails the initial save, they are now paralyzed (effective Dexterity scores of 0) and take a penalty on all subsequent saves, so they are basically doomed to stay paralyzed. With heighten spell you get an increase DC (mainly for the initiale save) and more cast :)

Originally posted by juanrdp:

- If you are going to cast in melee lack any concentration bonuses.

Not planning too :) On "random / trash" encounters : cast divine power then go smash faces !

Originally posted by juanrdp:

If you are going to be in melee with a shield, the feat shield wall and shielded caster are lovely just be sure other chars like the tank also have them.

Great tip ! Will have to decide between those feats and a 2nd "focused" school

[CHAO$$$]

animal domain is top tier for the companion (Erastil is a great pick for Longbow and story)
fire domain has a great spell selection as well.

Check out the guide by "Schutzengel" in the guide section so you can see all the domain spells and choose the best domain. He also made a guide for animal companion stats btw.

Also i would highly recommend 14 charisma at least for the channels + the feat "selective channeling" (requires 13 charisma). Channeling is INSANELY good. I would never run a party without 1 character with lots of selective channels, it helps so much.
And channeling doesnt trigger Attacks of opportunity so you can safely cast it in melee. Did i mention its really good?

[juanrdp]

Originally posted by CHAO$$$:

a at least for the channels + the feat "selective channeling" (requires 13 charisma). Channeling is INSANELY good. I would never run a party without 1 character with lots of selective channels, it helps so much.
And channeling doesnt trigger Attacks of opportunity so you can safely cast it in melee. Did i mention its really good?

Yep, for me it's basic. Until Heal and mass Heal levels 80-90% of my combat healing comes in the form of Channels from the cleric and Selective channels.

The spell slots are in high demmand and with selective channel a lv3 Cleric for example could heal 6(heal the full group)x(2d6) 3 times + charisma buff (at least 5 times for selective channel) per day, thats roughtly all your spell slots (2d8+3).

At level 13 you will be casting 9-13 times per day (3 base, 2 base char, 2 char bonus from the mind perfection helmet, and 2 for each extra channel feat) 7d6 healing to the whole group, you could stay healing the whole combat 7d6 each round to everybody.

I make the same with the Erastil cleric, buff the group (50% of spells), summon elementals (25% of spells) and in combat autoattack ranged with bow and Opportunist feat to create flank conditions and aditional damage dealers attacks on crits, and lauch healing channels when 2+ characters are damaged enought,

The rest of the spells are a mix of some attack spells for emergencies (low-mid levels, specially ones that dont target or ignore armour class, holds...), uber heal spells (high level Heal and Mass Heal) and "restore spells" (Restoration, remove curse, etc.)