Havelock
2011-05-10, 01:47 AM
I have read through the two handbooks I could find, searched through the forums and googled on top of it. I've never done Cleric before and need to put one together on relatively short notice, because that's what the party has been needing for the last ten levels, heh.
The fundamentals is 32 point buy, starting at LvL 16 and the build needs to be planned up to 20. Baseline idea is Cleric6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 10 and then who knows, though not sure about grabbing healing domain, which would potentially make me want to deviate from that path. What I can use the most are suggestions for spells, feats and equipment. Pelor as Patron deity is sort of given, although the only real prerequisite I am setting for myself is Good domain.
Allowed source material is all 3.5 books, sans UA, this also includes Eberron and FR, though if it can't fit into Greyhawk, it doesn't exist. Certain things like the Polymorph line is banned, avoiding stuff of similar brokeness level is preferred. Although in my subjective opinion, the party overall isn't really up to the challenge when facing nasty enemies, so tolerance level of lactose when boosting allies is much higher than the kind that makes Codzilla bigger and meaner.
What the party does not need more of is melee capabilities (though anything that boosts the melee capabilities of allies will be very effective). It's also fairly well stocked with blasting, courtesy of the warmage. There's not much buffing capacity around, debuffs/debilitation/battle control is also so-so. Utility, everything from rope trick to teleport is pretty much something they don't have since my psion took care of such things. And now he's dead, so here comes mr cleric to save their bacon.
From a metagame perspective, it would be a good thing if more PC's bites the dust in the meantime, so that I don't have to cover all those bases, but since the rest of the group is tier 3-4, I guess cover all those bases becomes the job the tier 1 dude must do.
Some more specifics of what is needed to take into account:
1. The plot revolves around Demons, it is quite reasonable to assume that most adversaries will be from the Abyss. Anything that is effective against Demons is probably something I want to check out.
2. Most nasty demons has G. Dispel at will. Or rather, the demons a caster considers to be nasty generally does. Relying on dispellable buffs is something I'd rather avoid. Unless there is a way to say "No" to that. Divine Defiance is the best remedy I know of as of yet, though it eats 6th level slots that must be prepared for G. Dispel. Things that can be relied upon under these conditions are required.
3. Immunity to negative levels, and preferably ability damage/drain as well is required. While Death Ward does all that, G. Dispel undo it. 36k is the price MIC gives for negative level immunity, or 22k if you head so deep into Eberron that GM probably pulls the "deathless doesn't exist in my campaign", that'd give me all the immunities I'd ever want, though some drawbacks as well. Immunities in general are nice.
4. Need ability to see invisible enemies, preferably not subject to dispelling.
5. Need ability to fly, also preferably not subject to dispelling.
What I'm thinking for general strategies are Turn Anathema+the feat that allows you to turn undeads as free/swift/move action (or quickened turn anathema) to soften up fights. Holy Word (in conjunction with bead of karma, good domain and maybe ioun stone too) to great effect against things that have HD=CR. Requires a quickened silence or remove Paralysis for the neutral-aligned party members. DMM quicken seems like a better choice than persisting to me. A metamagic rod or two is probably a given.
The fundamentals is 32 point buy, starting at LvL 16 and the build needs to be planned up to 20. Baseline idea is Cleric6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 10 and then who knows, though not sure about grabbing healing domain, which would potentially make me want to deviate from that path. What I can use the most are suggestions for spells, feats and equipment. Pelor as Patron deity is sort of given, although the only real prerequisite I am setting for myself is Good domain.
Allowed source material is all 3.5 books, sans UA, this also includes Eberron and FR, though if it can't fit into Greyhawk, it doesn't exist. Certain things like the Polymorph line is banned, avoiding stuff of similar brokeness level is preferred. Although in my subjective opinion, the party overall isn't really up to the challenge when facing nasty enemies, so tolerance level of lactose when boosting allies is much higher than the kind that makes Codzilla bigger and meaner.
What the party does not need more of is melee capabilities (though anything that boosts the melee capabilities of allies will be very effective). It's also fairly well stocked with blasting, courtesy of the warmage. There's not much buffing capacity around, debuffs/debilitation/battle control is also so-so. Utility, everything from rope trick to teleport is pretty much something they don't have since my psion took care of such things. And now he's dead, so here comes mr cleric to save their bacon.
From a metagame perspective, it would be a good thing if more PC's bites the dust in the meantime, so that I don't have to cover all those bases, but since the rest of the group is tier 3-4, I guess cover all those bases becomes the job the tier 1 dude must do.
Some more specifics of what is needed to take into account:
1. The plot revolves around Demons, it is quite reasonable to assume that most adversaries will be from the Abyss. Anything that is effective against Demons is probably something I want to check out.
2. Most nasty demons has G. Dispel at will. Or rather, the demons a caster considers to be nasty generally does. Relying on dispellable buffs is something I'd rather avoid. Unless there is a way to say "No" to that. Divine Defiance is the best remedy I know of as of yet, though it eats 6th level slots that must be prepared for G. Dispel. Things that can be relied upon under these conditions are required.
3. Immunity to negative levels, and preferably ability damage/drain as well is required. While Death Ward does all that, G. Dispel undo it. 36k is the price MIC gives for negative level immunity, or 22k if you head so deep into Eberron that GM probably pulls the "deathless doesn't exist in my campaign", that'd give me all the immunities I'd ever want, though some drawbacks as well. Immunities in general are nice.
4. Need ability to see invisible enemies, preferably not subject to dispelling.
5. Need ability to fly, also preferably not subject to dispelling.
What I'm thinking for general strategies are Turn Anathema+the feat that allows you to turn undeads as free/swift/move action (or quickened turn anathema) to soften up fights. Holy Word (in conjunction with bead of karma, good domain and maybe ioun stone too) to great effect against things that have HD=CR. Requires a quickened silence or remove Paralysis for the neutral-aligned party members. DMM quicken seems like a better choice than persisting to me. A metamagic rod or two is probably a given.