Best Domains for Blasting?

[NeoSeraphi]

Okay, so if you're playing a cleric, and you're expecting the majority of your combat to be against evil outsiders (devils, demons, and daemons), which domains would you choose to deliver the hurt? I want to drop d6s like a rogue and punish those guys with my holy power! I'm already planning to grab hammer of righteousness, flame strike and blade barrier, but what domains have the best damage-dealing spells, taking into account the widespread energy resistances of evil outsiders?

[Gavinfoxx]

Why, exactly, do you wish to blast as your main way of dealing damage as a cleric? While you Could do this, it's not really the cleric's best way of throwing d6's at a problem...

[NeoSeraphi]

Why, exactly, do you wish to blast as your main way of dealing damage as a cleric? While you Could do this, it's not really the cleric's best way of throwing d6's at a problem...

Because of flavor. I prefer direct damage approaches to problems. Plus, outsiders have all good saving throws. SoS's won't really help me. Better to deal half damage on a successful save than to waste my turn.

Edit: Oh, I see what you mean. You're asking why I don't just melee as a cleric. Well, partly it's because of the paragraph below, and partly because fighting evil outsiders makes me want to yell awesome catchphrases about sending them to Hell with holy fire and stuff.

Also my friend KaelesFree is going to play a warmage and we're having an ego contest over who can be the better blaster. He's going to play a Warmage/Elemental Savant (Fire) with Searing Spell, and I'm going to use non-elemental blasting and negative energy.

[Urpriest]

The Cold Domain isn't bad. Winter is mostly BFC, but cool stuff. And Winterhaunt of Iborighu can make cold-based cleric blasting quite effective.

[Mystify]

Balance domain gives you dimmissal and banishment, and word of balance to affect non-neutral creatures.

Force domain gives some useful spells that will work against demons

Glory domain is good at anti-undead, and to aslightly lesser extent anti-evil outsiders

Destruction has alot of direct, in your face damage

Good domain, predicatably, is good against evil

I'm not sure what clerics get, but sonic spells are good against demons.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'm going to copy and paste something I wrote for someone with a similar predicament

"Clerics can make okay blasters, with the right domain choices (several of the elemental domains are okay), but they will never be great at it. Druids are far better blasters, and Archivists make great Holy Blasters

If Clerics want to reach out and touch someone, they tend to do it with a bow. They make GREAT archers -- Clerics are perhaps the best archers in the game, if built right.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10961.0

If clerics want to be offensive in general, they tend to do it with buffs -- especially self buffs -- and they end up as perhaps the most powerful melee monsters in the game, if they use their spells right. The main Cleric Handbook talks about this.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=420.0

ANOTHER way clerics can be great at reaching out and touching enemies is being some of the best summoners in the game. Several domain and prestige classes options do this.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=289.msg5183#msg5183

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19864066/Summoning_Handbook

Eighth, if he REALLY wants to blast a little, as a cleric, after all that... clerics, even without special domains, do have access to some blasting spells.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080416122056/forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=605481
"

Anyway... domains with blasting... um..
Air has Chain Lightning
Celestial has Heavenly Lightning
Cold has Cone of Cold
Earth has Earthquake
Fire has Fire Seeds
Force has Blast of Force
Glory has Searing Light, Bolt of Glory, Sunbeam
Metal has Blade Barrier
Ocean has Otiluke's Freezing Sphere
Shadow has Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration
Slime has Black Tentacles
Spell has Anyspell
Storm has Call Lightning, Sleet Storm, Ice Storm, Call Lightning Storm, Whirlwind
Sun has Sunbeam, Flame Strike, Sunbeam, Fire Seeds, Sunburst
War has Flame Strike and Blade Barrier
Water has Ice Storm, Cone of Cold, Acid Fog
Weather has Call Lightning, Whirlwind, Sleet Storm, depending on which version of Weather you are using....

[sonofzeal]

My favorite blasting spell is "Fire Seeds", which is available from the Fire or Sun domain. It's got the highest base damage I know of, and that's before you start adding metamagics. It takes a bit of finesse to use properly, but that makes it more fun to me.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Hammer of Righteousness (BoED), 3rd level single-target force effect, Fort half, Sanctified spell. It deals CLd8 to evil outsiders, with no level cap. Get a pile of Lesser Rods of Maximize, and some way to fix the Str damage that you must take as a sacrifice every time you cast it (be immune to physical ability damage, Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest, a Binder dip for Naberius, Rods of Bodily Restoration, etc.). Edit: I just realized, in your other thread this spell is what made you decide to go Cleric... Just don't forget you can spontaneously cast Sanctified spells like Cures.

I'll warn you, the Warmage is most likely going to be using Empowered Fire Seeds (berry bombs). With a vat of Unguent of Timelessness he can make enough pouches of berries to one-shot every encounter.

I'll cast my vote for the Cold domain, especially if you're in a cold environment or can make the area cold and get the Frostburn feats to boost cold spells when it's cold out.

[Curmudgeon]

For domains, it helps to know your environment. Blackwater (Stormwrack, page 109) and Blightbringer (Unapproachable East, page 34) are both good, but tend to apply better to some situations than others.

For overall Cleric blasting, though, the best damage comes not from a domain (though Abjuration helps) but from a feat. That's Initiate of Mystra (Player's Guide to Faerûn, page 81). That feat adds some Initiate-only spells to your Cleric spell list. The particular spell you want is the Initiate of Mystra 7 spell Holy Star (Player's Guide to Faerûn, page 104). You'll also need to get Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, and Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell). Once you get to level 13 and can keep that spell going all day, you're blastastic.

With Holy Star, as a free action you can select

Protection: a +10 circumstance bonus to AC (without affecting your actions).
Fire Bolt: a ranged touch attack against a creature up to 90' away. This attack uses your attack bonus (and thus allows iterative attacks) and deals 1d6/2 caster levels (maximum 10d6) fire damage.
At the start of your turn you select Fire Bolt and make a full attack. At the end of the turn you always select Protection. Excepting immediate and readied actions you're always going to have that +10 boost to your AC. With caster level boosters you can crank up the damage faster than you attain actual levels. Abjuration domain grants +1 caster level for all Abjuration spells, including Holy Star.

The standpoint for comparison when it comes to all-day blasting is the Warlock and their Eldritch Blast:

standard action each use
60' ranged touch attack
maximum 9d6 at class level 20

Compared to Warlock's Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt is greatly superior. And did I mention that the spells for Initiate of Mystra are just gravy? The main ability of that feat is to let you cast spells in an Antimagic Field. :smallbiggrin:

Note: There's also a new Holy Star spell in Spell Compendium, for the general Cleric spell list; it's just not as good (+6 bonus to AC only). Despite the same name, that's not a replacement because the older spell is a specific benefit of a non-updated feat, and Spell Compendium doesn't list its version for the Initiate of Mystra spell list.

[NeoSeraphi]

I'll warn you, the Warmage is most likely going to be using Empowered Fire Seeds (berry bombs). With a vat of Unguent of Timelessness he can make enough pouches of berries to one-shot every encounter.


No way he's using those. We're starting at 9th and going to 12th, and he's losing a CL from Elemental Savant 5. He's not going to have the spell slots necessary to Empower fire seeds. (He's already said he refuses to be dragonblooded for Practical Metamagic because it goes against his fluff)

So it seems Sun, Glory and Storm are the best domains for Blasting...hmm...

[NeoSeraphi]

Alright, I've decided to go with Purification and Glory.