What would be a good weapon for typical cleric?

[Ohnooze]

I plan on making a straight typical cleric type buff/heal character.
What weapon would you recommend.
Might be a stupid question but your god choice ties in to this question as well. Can you melee decently as this kind of character?

[jsaving]

Typically a cleric would enter melee range primarily to cast spells like archon's aura that require her to be physically close to foes. In that case you'd want to equip a reach weapon like longspear. Your melee DPS will be pitiful compared to top-of-the-line tank and off-tank builds but melee DPS isn't the point with that kind of cleric.

The main thing I would suggest when initially playing a cleric is to not get mentally bogged down in the idea that clerics are only good at buffing/healing. You'll also be able to cast spells like animate dead and even soundburst that can help the party a fair amount. Good luck!

[Ohnooze]

Hmmm.... Is it possible to make a cleric that's decent at melee? Not a take but just decent dmg?

[jsaving]

On normal difficulty, you can make a cleric into a tolerable tank by splashing 1-2 levels of fighter and/or 1 level of monk. Melee DPS won't be very good but at least you'll have decent AC and a few feats.

[Mork]

Originally posted by cokersgamingemail:

Hmmm.... Is it possible to make a cleric that's decent at melee? Not a take but just decent dmg?

Yes but it take time, around level 7+ they have the potential of being very decent melee character.

I generally go for one of these with my cleric for difficulty hard or lower.

- heavy mace or flail and heavy shield offtank
- Erastil cleric with a scimitar, a shield and a bear companion(cleric 19 / fighter 1)
- Greataxe or a reach weapon with a enlarge type spell always ON and more focus on being a physical damage dealer.
- comp. longbow cleric of erastil
- a crossbow or a longspear user more focus on spellcasting and healing
- quarterstaff user lawful good cleric 19 / traditional monk 1 (damage dealer, offtank and more...)

[Aria Athena]

I go with the flail mostly because there is a flail I like later on.

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by cokersgamingemail:

Hmmm.... Is it possible to make a cleric that's decent at melee? Not a take but just decent dmg?

Ohhhhhhh ho ho ho ho the answer to this question is a resounding yes - and that fact is at the heart of so many game balance issues in the tabletop game as it's played in practice.

And it's been that way for more than thirty years (PF inherited the majority of the 3.5 ruleset along a legacy of balance problems).

Clerics in PF get only Medium Armor by default (in 2nd and 3.x they get Heavy) but that isn't really much of a problem since Dex belts are so easy to come by in this game. They also sometimes need to use a "steroid" or two in order to maximize their performance (Divine Favor is SL1 and you get plenty others as you gain levels). But make no mistake, Clerics get 3/4 BAB and two good Saves. And some of the best weapons in the game are Simple weapons (maces and morningstars mostly). If you want to play with the Fighter's toys, splash one level of Fighter and boom you have martial weapons, heavy armor and tower shield proficiency. This fact is one of the few arguments against the existence of the Paladin class.

Other than that, literally just build your cleric like you would a Fighter and use your spell slots for buffs / steroids and curative magic (like remove blind and delay poison). You might start out with a Wisdom of "only" about 16 or so, but you'll easily be able to pump that over 20 with the huge number of crowns that give +6 or even +8 to your mental stats.

The first mistake newbie players make with PF / D&D is thinking their cleric is healbot. You are not a healbot. You are a "gish". A hybrid between warrior and spellcaster. And you can do both things at least as well as a specialist until your buffs wear off.

This is a guide that was written for the tabletop, but most of the advice is straightforward translatable into this game's implementation of the rules: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6-_4HvPvV-Tt7I67Gi_oPhgHmeDVA5SBl-WrJSgf5s/edit?hl=en

[MortVent]

Clerics are powerhouses.

A lot of good weapons (recommend 1-handed + shield for that little extra tanking)

Decent to good armor (best you can put on them and a heavy shield)

With combat casting and concentration they can easily cast spells in combat