Melee cleric help!

[Raendyn]

Hi playground, I'm gona play a cleric focused on melee and I'm looking for advice.

Well I was gona play an old fashion fighter or barbarian but the rest of th party are all heavily optimized wizards and a druid, So I'll keep the melee fluf but with cleric awesomeness.

28 point buy, PH + EberronCS races
Books: Core, all Eberron but dragons and dragonmarked, all completes, MiC, SpC, DMG2,PH2, City, Frost, SandSt, Incarnum, EPH, Dragon Magic, Draconomicon, DungeonScape, LM, HH, LoM.

Bans: Persist, Berserker, Item sets, UA(Flaws),Leadership,Touchstone, Craft contigent spell...

HouseRules: Craft feats reduce items price when bought, provided you can craft them yourself ->2/3 price. I am allowed to take Power attack even with 8 str but can only use it if I buff myself to 13+ with Divine power or so. If you take a PrC you must take at least 3 lvls in it.

Build: STR8-Dex14-Con14-Wis16-Int8-Cha14 Human
Cleric 4 - Ordained Champion 5 - X 2 total lvl 11
Deity: Dol Arrah, Domains: Law, War (OC->Glory)
Feats: extra turning(H), Holy warrior(9), Practiced Spellcaster(6), Power attack(1), (I'm between Divine Might and Craft wondrous)(3), Law domain=>Law Devotion, Glory Domain power=>Improve initiative.

Shivering touch in my weapon, rod of extend for magic vestments and magic weapon, animated shield, monks belt and a greater mage armor from party as well as 2 tatoos for +2 attack roll and +2 saves.

I dont Wanna take Bone Knight unless someone can show me something greater than the immunities you can get with a veil of undeath and a death ward, I dont wanna focus on Summoning or DMM Quicken as I have tons of swift actions already. Aside from that I am open to suggestions and fixes.

What do you think? Should I add more PrC's?

Thanks in Advance for your help guys.

[Snowbluff]

I would suggest Paladin for one of the X, if your DM will let you get the Paladin spell to your list, as the sidebar.

[CreganTur]

You're playing a militant cleric and you're dumping STR :smallconfused:

I get that Divine Power buffs your STR, but if you can't get it off you're boned, especially since you're taking a negative mod. If you had taken weapon finesse, then I wouldn't be pointing this out... but you're not.

[Dictum Mortuum]

Hi playground, I'm gona play a cleric focused on melee and I'm looking for advice.

Well I was gona play an old fashion fighter or barbarian but the rest of th party are all heavily optimized wizards and a druid, So I'll keep the melee fluf but with cleric awesomeness.

28 point buy, PH + EberronCS races
Books: Core, all Eberron but dragons and dragonmarked, all completes, MiC, SpC, DMG2,PH2, City, Frost, SandSt, Incarnum, EPH, Dragon Magic, Draconomicon, DungeonScape, LM, HH, LoM.

Bans: Persist, Berserker, Item sets, UA(Flaws),Leadership,Touchstone, Craft contigent spell...

HouseRules: Craft feats reduce items price when bought, provided you can craft them yourself ->2/3 price. I am allowed to take Power attack even with 8 str but can only use it if I buff myself to 13+ with Divine power or so. If you take a PrC you must take at least 3 lvls in it.

Build: STR8-Dex14-Con14-Wis16-Int8-Cha14 Human
Cleric 4 - Ordained Champion 5 - X 2 total lvl 11
Deity: Dol Arrah, Domains: Law, War (OC->Glory)
Feats: extra turning(H), Holy warrior(9), Practiced Spellcaster(6), Power attack(1), (I'm between Divine Might and Craft wondrous)(3), Law domain=>Law Devotion, Glory Domain power=>Improve initiative.

Shivering touch in my weapon, rod of extend for magic vestments and magic weapon, animated shield, monks belt and a greater mage armor from party as well as 2 tatoos for +2 attack roll and +2 saves.

I dont Wanna take Bone Knight unless someone can show me something greater than the immunities you can get with a veil of undeath and a death ward, I dont wanna focus on Summoning or DMM Quicken as I have tons of swift actions already. Aside from that I am open to suggestions and fixes.

What do you think? Should I add more PrC's?

Thanks in Advance for your help guys.

My suggestion:

1) Dip contemplative/church inquisitor for domains and goodies without losing any more casting.
2) Divine-rethemed Abjurant Champion
3) I only played a bone knight once and it was awesome, but I got into it ASAP. The class is simple and effective. If you don't mind persisting effects, etc, then, yes, it can be summed down to veil of undeath + death ward + some damage reduction + minor skill/damage bonuses + mount + undead creation/control abilities.

[Dictum Mortuum]

You're playing a militant cleric and you're dumping STR :smallconfused:

I get that Divine Power buffs your STR, but if you can't get it off you're boned, especially since you're taking a negative mod. If you had taken weapon finesse, then I wouldn't be pointing this out... but you're not.

It's obvious that he doesn't need strength, since he's planning on getting ordained champion 5.

[only1doug]

1) Dip contemplative/church inquisitor for domains and goodies without losing any more casting.
2) Divine-rethemed Abjurant Champion


Dips have to be quite deep, minimum 3 levels.



HouseRules: ...
If you take a PrC you must take at least 3 lvls in it.





3) I only played a bone knight once and it was awesome, but I got into it ASAP. The class is simple and effective. If you don't mind persisting effects, etc, then, yes, it can be summed down to veil of undeath + death ward + some damage reduction + minor skill/damage bonuses + mount + undead creation/control abilities.

Banned by his GM



Bans: Persist

[Dictum Mortuum]

Dips have to be quite deep, minimum 3 levels.

Banned by his GM

1) Did I say that he needed to dip 2 or less :p? Because I'm re-reading my post and I can't find anything about that.
2) That was not a suggestion. He said he doesn't want to take the prestige class unless someone can prove otherwise. I summarized the class (it's only fair if the spells lasted 24 hours) and I don't think I managed to convince him otherwise.

[Endelehia]

Knight of the Raven from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft full bab,9/10 cl,an utility "familiar",sun domain and turn undead.Only requirement is to be good.It is not on your allowed books,but you can give it a try.

[CreganTur]

I've never seen the Ordained Chamption PrC before. It's a really tempting option, since I'm building a cleric right now, but my DM doesn't want me to completely overshadow the existing melee characters in the party. That and I'm the only source of healing, so losing spontaneous cure is a hit I can't afford.

[eggs]

Beside the usual Cleric+ PrCs, the two things I could imagine being worth pointing out are the Escalation Mage from Faiths of Eberron (charisma-keyed free metamagic, but its deity association could be a problem) and Sanctified Mind from Lords of Madness (full BA, 5/6 casting and fairly useful abilities; the draw is that its class features may take some of the self-buffing burden off your first few rounds' swift actions).

[Raendyn]

first of all thanks for your replies, now ...



I would suggest Paladin for one of the X, if your DM will let you get the Paladin spell to your list, as the sidebar.
How can this be done? I thought only prestige pala from UA dooes this and UA is not available(nor that I like this book anyways :smalltongue:)

You're playing a militant cleric and you're dumping STR :smallconfused:

I get that Divine Power buffs your STR, but if you can't get it off you're boned, especially since you're taking a negative mod. If you had taken weapon finesse, then I wouldn't be pointing this out... but you're not.
with a swift action OC-5 gives you substitution of STR for WIS, that applies to x1.5 str to 2hand weapons, Grapple, bull rushes, attack roll etc.



I've never seen the Ordained Chamption PrC before. It's a really tempting option, since I'm building a cleric right now, but my DM doesn't want me to completely overshadow the existing melee characters in the party. That and I'm the only source of healing, so losing spontaneous cure is a hit I can't afford.

OC doesn't do either of those things wrong. You can play without overshadowing them, just Dont take ALL the feets/devotions I took. pick family domain and protection devotion, and write down HEAL's and 1 or 2 Cure X Wounds on each lvl. those are usefull for dmging undeads too. and since your 4ths will be either Cure or swift-spontaneous DP and 5ths Heal or swift-spontaneous flamestrike, and 2nds shivering touches. you dont rly need spontaneous heal, just prepare it. Also a wand of lesser vigor or some lesser vigors at your #1lvl spells can do all the out of combat heals and in combat your HEAL is the only real option, with this build you just loose 2 CL/spellcasting progression when it ccomes to healing.


My suggestion:

1) Dip contemplative/church inquisitor for domains and goodies without losing any more casting.
I am looking for a prestige worth taking for many lvls, with actual benefits and not minor goodies, that is because we play under the
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebxe/welcomerules 4.0, I think you might be familiar with this, and I cant waste 3 expansion slots for a "meh" domain(we already have an optimized dispeller, and Sun, and Good domains arent that great:smallconfused:), while I can get 3 great spells or a feat with those 3, the reason I didnt gave all the rules is because they cause confusion, and because most wouldn't bother read the pdf, sorry about that.


2) Divine-rethemed Abjurant Champion Cant do that, DM forbids such things

3) I only played a bone knight once and it was awesome, but I got into it ASAP. The class is simple and effective. If you don't mind persisting effects, etc, then, yes, it can be summed down to veil of undeath + death ward + some damage reduction + minor skill/damage bonuses + mount + undead creation/control abilities. The real reason I dont want him is because we wont play at lvl 20 cause of some templates and DM interpretention of "epic", we will play up to lvl 19. So, I cant miss my 9ths. But tbh the BKnight's immunities arent that great, veil of undeath when you realize you are fighting something that can do all these bad things to you does the trick, and death ward armor just if youa re surpriced/lost initiative.


Knight of the Raven from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft full bab,9/10 cl,an utility "familiar",sun domain and turn undead.Only requirement is to be good.It is not on your allowed books,but you can give it a try.
Not in my list of available books, thx though, I knwo the PrC, its nice.



Beside the usual Cleric+ PrCs, the two things I could imagine being worth pointing out are the Escalation Mage from Faiths of Eberron (charisma-keyed free metamagic, but its deity association could be a problem) and Sanctified Mind from Lords of Madness (full BA, 5/6 casting and fairly useful abilities; the draw is that its class features may take some of the self-buffing burden off your first few rounds' swift actions).

The deity is a problem yes, I can't pick him.
LoM, I always felt this book is creepy:smallyuk:, well the PrC isnt bad but I cant aford to loose more spellcasting progression (today I learned this minor thing about never reaching lvl 20)