Offensive cleric caster possible?

[Arandur87]

Hi folks!

Short question to all the pathfinder veterans out there:

Is it possible to have a viable offensive, melee-caster cleric-hybrid?
So choosing a "dark" deity, specialice in Necromancy spells and deal damage with Spells like Inflict wounds, summon some Skeletons/undead, wearing heavy armor and a shiled?

I like the idea of a "dark chaos priest" and would love to have such a character in my party. Our friendly dwarf could fit that role quiet good without the need to create a custom companion.

Are the cleric spells to limited for mid-/lategame or is it doable?

[Weaver]

It is doable, though hard to say if it will be efficient!

Good thing, the game is not packed with undead at the start so your harm spells + channel negative energy (take selective channel to not hurt your team will help) will be efficient at the beginning.

For melee, a good strength will help with the touch spell of harm.

You have to chose of either going more melee (check crusader archetype), just take enough wisdom to be able to cast lvl9 spells, and then focus on strength (leftover points, 12 in Dex and then some consitution/charisma as possible)

If more caster, Wisdom starting 19, strength 14, Dex 12, then constitution/charisma

(Charisma is for your channel negative energy)

I'd recommend Aasimar for race, both stats bonus, the customisation of character model can be quite undead like, and RP you can be fallen angel type

[Zerathule]

It's more than doable, but you won't be a heavy hitter if you want to be a good caster.
With a reach weapon, you'll avoid most melee attacks, and you'll still be able to deal good melee damage, then you have all the cleric spell list at your disposal. Note that inflict spells are quite limited, until you get access to high level stuff (spell level 5+) but you still get nasty spells like hold person, that's good if you have high wis.

[Memnarch]

If you're interested in an NPC that does this Harrim fits the job perfectly

[Azunai]

not sure about the exact spell list of this game, but the higher level cleric spell lists in other games derived from D&D 3rd or 3.5 edition contained plenty of strong damage spells.

there's essentially a negative energy "inflict" equivalent for every positive energy "heal" spell at the very least. some of the higher level heals stuff like the "heal" or "mass heal" spells are extremely powerful, and their negative equvalent "harm" / "mass harm" are likewise very very dangerous.

also, IIRC the mid-high level cleric spell ranks should also have a bunch of evocations / damage spells similar to what you'd expect from arcane casters (stuff like pillars of flame, earthquakes, implsion etc.).

armor and shield are basically free bonus class features of divine casters (ie. ability to cast in armor without spell fail chance).

i think the dwarf priest NPC could be used as a damage dealer if you want. i mean, you can basically just prepare damage spells for the day and (since he's not evil) you can always use the spontaneous spellcasting feature of the cleric class to cast an equivalent heal instead of the prepared spell.

don't think it's really worth using the inflict/harm spells on early levels. you're probably better off using those slots for stuff like bless, prayer and to heal up your team during/after fights. but on higher ranks you can probably use the higher level spell ranks for damage spells after casting a bless and prayer for the fight. you can always use the spontaneous casting to turn that "harm" into a "heal" anyway.

an evil cleric is probably a worse choice overall since their spontaneous casting turns prepared spells into inflict/harm spells of the same rank (rather than cure/heal spells). which i guess is nice if you want to keep undead minions around, but not so great if your party consists of living heroes.

[Arandur87]

Thank you all! I will try it out, Harrim will do just fine for my "project" :)

[Bastion]

to get a lot of offensive power as a cleric, choose the domain of fire, and play an eccliesiarch, It will let you load up of fire balls and other offensive fire spells,

[raubrey]

My suggestion based on the party I'm running is to have two clerics. One dedicated to heals/buffs/debuffs/undead so that you can play how you want, within reason.

Variable damage types are always a good thing to have and a cleric can swap such as well as use decent weapons plus in a pinch still serve in a support role. Throw in some of the teamwork-slated feats and average characters become better.

You won't be dishing out the most DPS -- which comes with its own price -- but you can be fairly consistent and useful while having good Will saves and Wisdom and Charisma skills based on such. I can also serve as an off-tank which is not a bad thing.

Edit: As Bastion mentioned while I was typing, the domains matter. I too have fire domain and enjoy it, there are others to choose from. Though if you're low DEX and don't buff or support ranged touch attacks, it can be a bit frustrating early on.

[Weaver]

Originally posted by Bastion:

to get a lot of offensive power as a cleric, choose the domain of fire, and play an eccliesiarch, It will let you load up of fire balls and other offensive fire spells,

Actually I'd rather choose air (chain lightning later) as main domain, with the nature god (Gozreh I believe), as it gives you access to all elements domain for your domain slots.

Then second domain , you can pick Animal for an animal companion at level 4 (but will need a feat to catch up), or something else for abilities (good mention to weather which as a nice attack at level 1, and great power at lvl 8)

Wether you go fire or air (or water/earth), consider a 1 level dip in Dragon Bloodline sorcerer of the right color (though I'd say at level 4 or 6 when the bonus donate will be interesting and so it won't slow your spell progress at low level when your struggling for better spells.

[Nydelin]

Harrim works decent as a bit of DPS for me, though he's very bursty. When I run into a big fight I just unload his offensive spells (disintegrate, destruction, harm) though on average he's probably lower DPS than everyone other than my bard.