3.5 -Best 4th level Cleric Spells-time sensitive

[AzazelSephiroth]

Hey all fellow Playgrounders! I have a quick question that I hope I can get some responses to before tomorrow night!

I have a big bad coming up who is a frost giant cleric 7 and since he has hit 7th level he can now cast 4th level spells... But I am not sure which spells to use? He is mostly cold focused with some Frostburn spells chosen and he does not have DMM or Persist.
So from people with more experience than I- What are the best 4th level spells he can use to do some harm to a party? He will be backed by some extra frost giants, winter wolves and a large squad of 1hd skeletons... mostly for fodder. Any and all help would be appreciated thanks!:smallsmile:

Summary:
Frost Giant Cleric-level 7
STR34/DEX14/CON24/INT16/WIS22(28 with periapt)/CHA14
Best 4th level spells to prepare??
Domains: War, Winter, Trickery
(Edited for domains)

[Particle_Man]

Divine Power comes to mind. :smallsmile:

If you wanna play defense, Freedom of Movement and perhaps Spell Immunity (but that could be cheesy unless there is a way of knowing the party's favourite spells, like, say, Divination, another 4th level spell). :smallsmile:

What are the cleric domains, by the way?

[eggs]

Dampen Magic from Complete Champion is a short-term delayed trigger Antimagic Sphere that can do all sorts of crazy things (let your inner tactician go wild).

Recitation is a pretty fun buff that's often even worth an in-combat action (provided his allies are going to be making a bunch of attack rolls).

At high levels with big grapplers, Dimension Anchor can be very worthwhile.

[AzazelSephiroth]

Sorry I completely forgot about his domains-
War
Winter
Trickery (a gift from our super end villian)

Divine Power seems good, but he its hard already. Freedom of Movement could be very useful.

Thank you very much for the quick response!

[AzazelSephiroth]

Dampen Magic from Complete Champion is a short-term delayed trigger Antimagic Sphere that can do all sorts of crazy things (let your inner tactician go wild).

Recitation is a pretty fun buff that's often even worth an in-combat action (provided his allies are going to be making a bunch of attack rolls).

At high levels with big grapplers, Dimension Anchor can be very worthwhile.

I have not heard of Dampen Magic... but I will check it out right away!
What is Recitation? Is it in Complete Champion as well?
Thanks for the response!

[Swiftest]

What domains does he have? What strategy (if any) does he hope to use? If he intends to just walk up and beat the PC's down, I would highly recommend Divine Power. It's the best spell of that level for a beater cleric. He may then want to consider spells the counter the party's best attacks (if he knows about them). Examples of this would be Death Ward to counter enervation, Freedom of Movement to counter crowd control spells (I might just cast this anyway to be safe), or Air Walk if they fly and/or he wants to rain rocks from above.

Recitation is GREAT for big battles with lots of minions and enemies as it gives your side + 2 to attacks/damage/skills/saves and their side -2 to the same. Pretty great.

If I only had 2 spells I'd probably cast Divine Power right before walking into battle and Recitation as soon as I got into range to hit the majority of the enemy force and my allies.

If I had 1-3 more (doubt it), prob Freedom of Movement and maybe Spell Immunity if I knew what they'd cast. Perhaps also Summon Monster 4 to get something cool like a Howler? Could be useful for that extra punch.

edit: Ninja'd times 4/5. I actually looked up Crystal Keep for this!

P.S. Hitting hard isn't as good as hitting harder! Make it REALLY count as the party will undoubtedly seek to shut him down fast!

edit x 2: Recitation is in Complete Divine.

[Dairuga]

So, Frostburn is mentioned, and no one have mentioned Shivering touch? The spell that singlehandedly can take down any one character? Hell, touch the caster, and if you have applied some Metamagic reducers, you can fit a shivering touch into the fourth level slot with empower spell.

And voila, one touch attack later, 3d6x1x5 (4-27) Dex damage, and near anything have fallen and become helpless. even without empower, you would really only have to touch anything once for it to become useless.

Granted, the entirety of actually "Using" the spell might be frowned upon, but if you are the DM, you can fully throw anything in their faces. Just make sure that, if you let them learn the same spell themselves (given that I am sure they want to survive the encounter), that they do not fully abuse it.

(That is, I -assume- you are the DM, given that you control such a character. I am not sure whether you meant the character being the villain, or you playing the character -and- a villain was turning up. If you are a player, do ask your DM if it is okay to take this spell. Some people frown very thoroughly at it.)

[Gavinfoxx]

From the Cleric Handbook:

Air Walk PHB
Death Ward PHB
Dismissal PHB
Divine Power PHB
Freedom of Movement PHB
Greater Magic Weapon PHB
Spell Immunity PHB
Tongues PHB
Mystic Aegis PH2
Delay Death SC
Lesser Holy/Infernal Transformation SC
Recitation SC
Mass Shield of Faith SC
Spiritual Advisor CC

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Divine Power of course, that puts his BAB from +15 to +21 and his Strength up to 40, and hopefully he still has Power Attack. Freedom of Movement should be an obvious choice, especially if the PCs have a lot of crowd control. Ice Storm is also quite good, and I'd even give him a Metamagic Rod of Extend for all of those.

Give him a Circlet of Rapid Casting (MIC) and/or Lesser Rods of Quicken, to use with Divine Favor, Ice Slick, Obscuring Snow*, Blood Snow, Silence, etc.
*He can cast Snowsight via the Winter domain, and with a pile of 1st level Pearls of Power or a Wand of it, he can put that on all of his stronger minions as well.

[nedz]

Most DMs do the opposite of using Shivering Touch BTW. Its known as the Dragon Killer - so only allow it if you like the idea of your Great Wyms being one-shotted.

[eggs]

I have not heard of Dampen Magic... but I will check it out right away!
What is Recitation? Is it in Complete Champion as well?
Thanks for the response!
Be sure to notice that Dampen Magic's target isn't personal. So it's an Antimagic Sphere that can be cast on someone else, and triggered as a non-action.

Recitation is in Complete Divine, Spell Compendium and here (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20021103a).

EDIT:
Seems typing "here" doesn't make links happen automatically. :smalltongue: