PDA

View Full Version : Good options for a clerical party-booster



kamikasei
2009-07-27, 06:32 PM
If you're starting out as a Cloistered Cleric, and you want to focus on support casting and party buffing rather than self-buffing and melee, what are the best options available to you? I'm thinking in terms of PrCs, spells, feats etc. Divine Metamagic and nightsticks are both allowed as written, though nightsticks are not necessarily easy to come by.

This is for a game starting at level 1, most 3.5 books available on request. Cheese level is not high. Anything that can be done along the way to keep from losing too many of the Cloistered Cleric's skill points would be a welcome bonus.

Any takers?

erikun
2009-07-27, 10:27 PM
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/clericSpells.htm

Load up on 1st level spells that buff your party (or penalize your opponent). The nice thing about a Cleric is that you can always replace your spells the next day. Bless, Magic Weapon, Shield of Faith, and Protection from Evil can all buff others, while Divine Favor and Entropic Shield are personal buffs. Bane, Doom, and Obscuring Mist will all work as debuffs.

Master_Rahl22
2009-07-28, 10:21 AM
I have no idea what book it's from, but I've seen the War Weaver mentioned as the gold standard in party buffing. Basically you can cast your buffs ahead of time and then choose when they actually take effect. You could be casting while you're walking around, and then when a random encounter pops up you release the 12 buff spells you already cast, and the duration starts on them. Other than that, just pick your spells with an eye toward your goal of buffing/debuffing.

I would also mention though that there is a time to buff and a time to contribute damage. I once had a cleric that was focused around buffing himself and then smashing things in the face, and he spent one too many rounds buffing and the wizard dropped. So yeah, sometimes it really is better to jump into the fight.

Douglas
2009-07-28, 10:34 AM
War Weaver is from Heroes of Battle. It is indeed an incredible party buffing class, but it's for arcane casters only.

The standard cleric buff machine approach is Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell) plus a whole lot of Turn Undead uses through Extra Turning and Nightsticks.

Aside from that, it's as simple as picking cleric spells that buff everyone at once. Bless, Elation (Book of Exalted Deeds), Prayer, Recitation (Spell Compendium), and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful (SC) are good choices from spell levels 1-5. If you get that far, Heroes' Feast at level 11 makes fear effects suddenly not matter any more, and you don't even need to apply any metamagic.

Get a Ring of Enduring Arcana from Complete Mage if you can unless your DM never tries to dispel your buffs.

JeenLeen
2009-07-28, 10:40 AM
War Weaver is from Heroes of Battle. It is indeed an incredible party buffing class, but it's for arcane casters only.

If the person ends up becoming a dual cleric/arcane, though, I do believe by RAW you can weave cleric spells through the weave.

Most of this advice is for later levels, but you can start planning during character creation:
But since cleric buffs are pretty, IMHO, as party buffs DMM persisted at high levels, that seems an ineffective route.

Try to pick a diety whose domains give you extra turning pools. Bahamut or Obai-Hai are the only two I've heard of which have two domains you can use. Bahamut has Air and Cold, and Obai-Hai has all the elements as well as Plant.
There's a PrC in Complete Champion that gives you a rebuking pool against Plants. You could also be a cleric who turns undead, but take levels in Dread Necromancer or PrC Death Delver (both Heroes of Horror) to get a rebuking pool. These will hurt your caster level, though, so it might not be worth it.

PurinaDragonCho
2009-07-28, 11:02 AM
This probably isn't really responsive to the question, since you're looking for cleric options, but you shoudl take a look at the Archivist. Even if you don't get any spells off of any other list (which is the main cheese factor associated with the class), you can still cast all of the clerical buffing spells. Plus, the dark knowledge class feature can give some additional benefits to the party - bonuses to AC, saves, damage, etc.

It can be found here.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20051007a&page=3

bigbaddragon
2009-07-28, 12:22 PM
Feats:
- Divine Spellpower: Use TU attempt with a special +3 bonus on your turning check to try to boost your CL for one spell.
- Protection Devotion (CC): Activate 30ft aura that grants sacred bonus to AC to you and allies for 10 rounds (bonus scales from 2 on level1 to 7 on level20). If you pick a deity with this domain you can sacrifice the domain for this feat.
- Able Learner (RoD): Ranks in all skills cost 1 skill point to buy, even if the skill is cross class to you. You can put some ranks this way in skills like Autohypnosis (which has some very interesting uses and depends on wisdom) or Spot&Listen or whatever you find useful.
- Divine Vigor: A little self buffing before the combat can always be useful. With 2 extra HP per HD and untyped 10ft bonus to your speed you can withstand another blow or reach your ally just in time to heal. The good thing here (and with taking any divine feat you like) is that it sinergyses well with Reliquary Holy Symbol from MiC.

Metamagic (most likely followed by DMM) feats are off course almost a must.

PrC wise I cannot offer much advice except to take a level of Contemplative from CD. This class gives bonus domain and Divine Health at its first level.

Spells:
1) Blade of Blood, Lesser Vigor, Eyes of the Avoral, Conviction, Resurgence (give an ally a second attempt to save against an ongoing spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability), Impede ....
2) Close Wounds (immediate action life saver; although it prevents only d4+1-5 damage it is quite usable in real play), Divine Protection (morale bonus to AC and saves for you and allies), Elation (morale bonus to str & dex and speed in 80ft around you), Healing Lorecall (while in effect lets you remove certain conditions from the recipients of healing spells, based on rank in Heal), Lastai's Caress (melee touch makes an evil target Cowering, Frightened, Nauseated or Shaken; no save), Soul Ward, Body Ward, Substitute Domain, Luminous Armor ....
3) Mass Conviction & Resurgence, Downdraft, Girallon's Blessing, Mass Resist Energy, Mass Lesser Vigor (this can be persisted) ...

I skipped the obvious spells like stat boosters, magic vestment and the like. If you need the source for some spell and/or some higher level spells I can look it up when I come home. Hope any of this helps :)

Curmudgeon
2009-07-28, 02:06 PM
There are a bunch of quick action spells you can load up on to help your party when needed. If it looks like an enemy will be dealing out overwhelming damage, Delay Death will make that damage temporarily ignorable by one character, and you can use Heal afterward. Revivify will let you bring a recently deceased character back to life, with no level or CON loss -- but you need to touch them within 1 round. If you miss that, you can get a second chance with Revenance, which works within a number of rounds equal to your caster level. Or if they're just below 0 HP, Close Wounds will provide a temporary boost from close range. And if you're suddenly whisked to another plane, Avoid Planar Effects will provide temporary protection.

kamikasei
2009-07-28, 02:26 PM
Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I'm getting the impression then that Divine Metamagic is pretty much it, then, as far as general build strategies for benefiting the party go? The great thing about playing a cleric is that spell selection is infinitely mutable, so I'm not too concerned about that for now.

Croverus
2009-07-28, 02:51 PM
I jsut go witht he Healer class from the Miniatures Handbook. Becomes a very, very powerful healing and party buffer very fast. Also the feat Reach Spell allows you to cast touch spells as rays, turning them into ranged touch spells. So I could cast revivify or any healing spell from 30ft away.

kamikasei
2009-07-28, 03:01 PM
Is there any real reason why the Healer would be better than a Cleric with Reach Spell? Bear in mind, I'm not looking just to heal, but to buff. Everything I've heard about the Healer has been negative, and I've never even heard them described as buffers, just band-aids on legs.

AstralFire
2009-07-28, 05:39 PM
Is there any real reason why the Healer would be better than a Cleric with Reach Spell? Bear in mind, I'm not looking just to heal, but to buff. Everything I've heard about the Healer has been negative, and I've never even heard them described as buffers, just band-aids on legs.

Healers choose their spells from the following list.
0 Level: create water, cure minor wounds, deathwatch, detect magic, detect poison, light, mending, purify food and drink, read magic.
1st Level: bless water, cure light wounds, goodberry, protection from evil, remove fear, remove paralysis, sanctuary, speak with animals.
2nd Level: calm emotions, cure moderate wounds, delay poison, gentle repose, remove blindness/deafness, remove disease, lesser restoration.
3rd Level: close wounds, create food and water, cure serious wounds, neutralize poison, remove curse, restoration, status.
4th Level: cure critical wounds, death ward, freedom of movement, mass cure light wounds, panacea.
5th Level: atonement, break enchantment, mass cure moderate wounds, raise dead, revivify, stone to flesh, true seeing.
6th Level: greater restoration, heal, heroes’ feast, mass cure serious wounds, regenerate.
7th Level: mass cure critical wounds, repulsion, resurrection.
8th Level: discern location, holy aura, mass heal.
9th Level: foresight, gate, true resurrection.

At a glance, all they have over a cleric is goodberry and a unicorn, which can uh, also heal people.