Best cleric domains?

[PlusSixPelican]

So, my DM was like MAKE UP YOUR OWN GOD for my Pathfinder Cleric, and I'm like ^.^ because I can pick some boss domains. I'm not that familiar with Pathfinder, so if someone could list the good domains...kthanks? :3

[Half-orc Bard]

I really know nothing about pathfinder, so this is a 3.5 domain I'm not sure if it's in pathfinder, but there is one undeath I think that gives you 3 more turns/day which is great for DMM

[Wyntonian]

Well, I generally prefer optimizing my characters with a theme in mind. Like, badass half-orc melee druid, not Druidzilla.


So, what's your god like? We can probably give you the best associated domains from there.

[PlusSixPelican]

Pathfinder has turning, but it's called 'channel energy'. Anyways, the domains are beefed up in Pathfinder, which is like O.O. So, I'm picking the domains, then constructing the goddess out of those.

So, I'm thinking of a nature goddess of sorts, and she's Neutral Good, accepting any clerics within a step. I probably want Earth and Plant Domains, but there should be a few others, like Travel, Trickery, and probably good/healing. Favored weapon also hasn't been decided. For reference, this *is* mah first Pathfinder game.

[Leon]

What do you See your Character doing / being like.
Choose what you then like the look of rather than worrying to much about extracting the absolute amount from it

[Giegue]

You get to make your own deity? Thats awesome, and in fact thats what I ALWAYS do when I play a cleric, if I am allowed to. My default cleric deity is Malkior, who is a greater deity of death, undeath, dracoliches, greed, perverted/corrupt capitalism, and pollution/filth. His domains in 3,5e are deathbound, evil, death, undeath, avarice, corruption, commerce, and slime and his favored weapon is the scythe.

Thus, when choosing your domains, the best advice I have is this: Pick what domains best fit your deity, not which are the most mechanically powerful. The best thing about making your own deity is the amount of fluff and flavor you get to add to a game. You essentially get to add to the cosmology of the world, AND create an entire faith. It gives you a massive hand in world-building and you can do a great service to your entire table and gaming experience by really fleshing out your deity and his/her faith.

So, the questions should not be what domains are the most powerful, but what domains work best for my deity's fluff...So the first thing you need to do is flesh out your deity as a person; a "character" so to speak, and from that decide what domains would work best. You said she is a nature goddess, but thats a pretty broad label. Is she a caring, earth-mother type deity who cares for and rules over all of nature? Or is she a savage, feral goddess of wild beasts and predators who would have a much fiercer, wilder personality? Maybe she rules one specific area of nature such as cold/winter or agriculture? Or perhaps she is the supreme goddess of the natural world, a giver of life who presides impartially over both the good and bad in the natural world? All these questions can help you flesh her out and decide what domains best fit her...

[Randomguy]

Your google-fu has failed you. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/rogue-eidolon-s-lab/rogue-eidolon-s-guide-to-clerics)

[gallagher]

You want the planning domain to get extend spell, so you can take persist spell and DMM Persist to keep your buffs out all day. All you need is divine strength persisted and you fill your party's melee role. mix it up with some summoning and you control pretty much all the melee in the encounter. Take this with the War domain.

You can be rogue-like with the trickery and magic domains. UMD lets you use all the fun toys you pick up, trickery lets you sneak around pretty well. If you can BS it well enough, grab the Kobold domain for trapfinding, else you will have to summon creatures that can open doors... or be evil and raise a few undead

Knowledge domain and Travel domain are good for their devotion feats

[deuxhero]

Ask the GM if the Wolf Domain's 8th level ability "wisdom to attack if flanking" is all day or limited, the wording is fairly ambiguous. If it is, it goes from merely good to fantastic for a battle cleric.

[Cor1]

Travel gives a supernatural Freedom of Movement effect for a number of rounds per day, it's a good one, and the spells are great, a collection of Teleport effects and some divinations. Not quite the Wizard's Spontaneous Divination, but if you take the Spontaneous Domain Casting ACF (it replaces spontaneous Cure spells) it's not that far.

Spells domain : Untyped +2 bonus on Concentration and Spellcraft checks. Gives Anyspell and Greater Anyspell (lets you prepare a lower-level arcane spell from a spellbook), Mage's Memonic Enhancer, Break Enchantment, Limited Wish, Antimagic Field and Disjunction, also Silence and Mage Armor.
See, if you take that one and Spontaneous Domain Casting, you're better than the Mystic Theurge at what he does for most of your careers.

Healing Domain : Just to troll the DM, so that you'd still be able to spontaneously cast Cure spells even if you exchange it for Spontaneous Domain Casting. Hilarious.

A combo I love is taking both Creation and Artifice domains, to get +3 CL on all Conjuration [Creation] spells, and Minor/Major/True Creation, GENESIS, Fabricate, Prismatic Sphere, and some situationally useful ones like Stone/Wood Shape and Create Food/Water/Hero's Feast. One such cleric can, given time, basically create a town and keep it alive By His God's Power.

There's always also the Knowledge Domain, that gives all Knowledge skills as class skills, is free if you take Cloistered Cleric (what's that, giving up one/fourth BAB for a free Domain? Sign me up every time please), gives Detect doors, Detect Thoughts, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Divination, True Seeing, Find the Path, Legend Lore, Discern Location and FORESIGHT.

Planning gives Extend Spell for free, but also no spell you can't simply prepare as a Cleric except Time Stop. That one also can be found in the Trickery domain (gives Bluff, Disguise and Hide as class skills), Polymorph Any Object (oh gods), and some protection from divination and stealth: Invisibility stays useful a long time especially combined with Nondetection for those annoying Outsiders with permanent True Vision. Yeah, Trickery's flatly better. If you like playing stealthy, instead of charging on a Gated Celestial Gold Dragon, Greater Visage of the Deity, Persisted ClericZilla.

Spontaneously create solutions to problems with Knowledge (Engineering) and Craft (Machinery) on Fabricate'd Major Creations (and, know what? They count as no-price objects, because they're temporary, so you can VoP your dorf cloistered cleric of Moradin covered in engineered stuff :smallcool: You won't be able to enchant them because of their limited duration and the weeks-long crafting times though, but if it's for weapons and/or armor there are spells for that.)