[PF] Cleric feats help

[Vemynal]

Hey guys, my friend has asked me to help him build his Pathfinder cleric but my knowledge is pretty much strictly 3.5 so I'm sorta useless to him here =/

His gm is pretty strict about things being solely pathfinder, I already know tons of **** for Cleric advise if he can get the GM to allow it (but I doubt it)

The story for the guy is he is a Missionary (hence cleric) for a Lawful Evil god that travels around pretending to be the cleric of another god. In reality he is a spy for the Church that goes out and sets up "eyes and ears" contacts in other kingdoms and churches.


Here's what I've helped him make so far, feel free to tell me "you're an idiot, change _______"

Pathfinder
Adramelech
12 Lawful Evil Half-Elf Cleric
Favored class Cleric, Rogue
God: Zon-Kuthon (http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Zon-Kuthon)
Domains: Darkness, Evil (Devil)
~Melee combatant with lots of self support/buff spells and negative damage spells.
Str- 11 +1 | 12 (+1)
Dex- 9 | 9 (0)
Con- 12 +2 (racial) | 14 (+2)
Int- 11 | 11 (0)
Wis- 17 +1+1 | 19 (+4)
Cha- 14 | 14 (+2)
Hp- 59 + con +racial | 95 hp

Feats:
Racial feat- Skill focus:__?__
1)
3)
6)
9)
12)

[Vemynal]

ok how about just the feats then, can anyone tell me good pathfinder cleric feats?

[Retech]

Selective channeling is a nice one. While channeling negative energy is not that useful for most situations, if you're surrounded by a lot of mooks, it can really decimate, which is a good situation to be prepared for.

Power attack in Pathfinder is WAY better than in 3.5 for non-shock troopers (giving 3:1 return for damage:attack using a two handed weapon), so he should probably take that too.

[subject42]

If your DM allows you to create items at cost as part of your backstory, item creation feats are always handy.

Since you're evil, Command Undead is a nice ace in the hole to have for when you fight the inevitable zombie horde.

Glorious Heat (http://www.pathfindersrd.com/feats/general-feats/glorious-heat) lets you lay on healing and a small buff whenever you cast a fire spell.

If you have the Charisma for it, the Eldritch Heritage line of feats is cool, too.

[gomanfox]

I'm not really familiar with many Pathfinder feats, despite playing in a Pathfinder game, but I do want to point out that in Pathfinder, characters get feats at every odd level rather than at 1, 3, 6 and so on like in 3.5.

[Othniel Edden]

He's a missionary setting up eyes and ears? His half-elven skill focus should be in Diplomacy or Bluff for helping him blend in as another god's cleric then. Alignment Channel and Elemental Channel can both be good if he is facing outsiders. Extra Channel and Channel Smite are incredibly good together.

Channel Smite (Combat)
You can channel your divine energy through a melee weapon you wield.

Prerequisite: Channel energy class feature.

Benefit: Before you make a melee attack roll, you can choose to spend one use of your channel energy ability as a swift action. If you channel positive energy and you hit an undead creature, that creature takes an amount of additional damage equal to the damage dealt by your channel positive energy ability. If you channel negative energy and you hit a living creature, that creature takes an amount of additional damage equal to the damage dealt by your channel negative energy ability. Your target can make a Will save, as normal, to halve this additional damage. If your attack misses, the channel energy ability is still expended with no effect.

[Engine]

As a melee combatant, I think you could use the racial feature Ancestral Arms instead of Adaptability, so the character could use a better weapon. Sociable could be a nice racial feature too for a missionary-type.

[Styles]

Depends a little on the role he wants to fill.

If he wants to buff himself and swing a weapon in combat, Power attack, an possibly Furious Focus (removed -hit on first attack) is always an option.

If he wants to focus on armor class heavy armor proficiency. Improved initiative is always going to be a "good" feat.

You may want to consider Extend Spell (Metamagic), to make some of your combat buffs last that bit longer.

Depending on your campaign setting Alignment Channel can be a good option. Once again depending on setting Turn Undead and Extra Channel are solid options.

[Vemynal]

ok so after nailing things down with him about what he wanted to do it sounds like he wants to be a sort of evil aligned caster; focusing on save or die & save or suck spells as well as a few buffs for the group.

So instead of combat he's focusing on spells as offensive abilities and a lot of debuffing opponents.

He's also sorta acting as the party face I guess (or gonna try to)

So I gave him persistent, extend and thanatopic metamagic

We managed to get the DM to let him have Tomb Tainted Soul, so hurray on self heals

Definitely took your advice on the skill focus bluff and channel smite spells

Once I found out about a nifty little class called the Inquisitor I had him take a level in that class as his first level to grab a bunch of skills so he could actually hide what he is (especially form the party which is mostly good aligned...)

And fitting with the concept that he has a bunch of eyes and ears all over the place he convinced his GM to let him take the leadership feat in exchange for not having a cohort, but instead having 5 times as many followers. And the specific requirement that if he tried to become a god, all the followers would die (he looked at me while saying that lol)

Pathfinder
Adramelech
12 Lawful Evil Half-Elf 1 Inquisitor / 11 Cleric
Favored class Cleric, Inquisitor
God: Zon-Kuthon (http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Zon-Kuthon)
Domains: Darkness, Evil (Devil)
~Melee combatant with lots of self support/buff spells and negative damage spells.
Str- 11 | 11 (0)
Dex- 9 | 9 (-1)
Con- 11 +2racial +1lvl | 14 (+2)
Int- 12 | 12 (+1)
Wis- 17 +1 +1 | 19 (+4)
Cha- 14 | 14 (+2)
Hp- 59 +racial +con | 95 hp

Feats:
Racial feat: Skill focus: Bluff
1) Tomb Tainted Soul
3) Channel Smite
5) Extend Spell
7) Leadership
9) Persistent Spell
11) Thanatopic Spell


Skills:
Bluff (Cha) | 15+2+6 | 23
Diplomacy (Cha) | 15+2 | 17
Disguise (Cha) | 5+2 | 7
Knowledge (Planes) (Int) | 5+1 | 6
Knowledge (Religion) (Int) | 10+1 | 11
Linguistics (Int) | 3+1 | 4
Perception (Wis) | 3+4 | 7
Sense Motive (Wis) | 5+4 | 9

Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Infernal, Orc

Weapons: Spiked Chain (god’s weapon, hidden under robes), Daggers (hidden in robes), and the weapon of whatever god he claims to be a worshipper of, wands, poison
Shield: best available
Armor: best medium armor