Okay, so about this Cleric...

[CIDE]

I recently joined a Pathfinder/3.X game set in a custom world. Using PF charcter sheets and experience progression (So CMD, etc) but capable of exchanging PF with 3.X stuff with class features if desired.

25 pt buy
Level 1
Rolled starting gold of 140 gp
At this point in the gameplay only one deity is unlocked (long story) and its domains are Law, Good, and Sun.
Trying to see if the DM will let me use a Dragonborn without Bahamut present but not entirely sure. Aside from that most races are allowed except ANY outsiders (native or otherwise).

Now, I wasn't going to ask for help initially. I've built Cleric's before and I've done so to balance with the party like most of my characters. Only this time the general consensus of this entire group is...disturbing. Such as Clerics pre-Pathfinder being useless as anything other than healers. The DM however seems to be the only one that thinks otherwise; it's just the other players.

With that said I want to show them exactly how "useless" a cleric can be. So, Gentlemen, gentlewomen, and gentlegnomes... How can we build this?

P.S. The implication so far is a lot of undead for villains. But I'm unsure of how long that will last.

[Xervous]

I recently joined a Pathfinder/3.X game set in a custom world. Using PF charcter sheets and experience progression (So CMD, etc) but capable of exchanging PF with 3.X stuff with class features if desired.

25 pt buy
Level 1
Rolled starting gold of 140 gp
At this point in the gameplay only one deity is unlocked (long story) and its domains are Law, Good, and Sun.
Trying to see if the DM will let me use a Dragonborn without Bahamut present but not entirely sure. Aside from that most races are allowed except ANY outsiders (native or otherwise).

Now, I wasn't going to ask for help initially. I've built Cleric's before and I've done so to balance with the party like most of my characters. Only this time the general consensus of this entire group is...disturbing. Such as Clerics pre-Pathfinder being useless as anything other than healers. The DM however seems to be the only one that thinks otherwise; it's just the other players.

With that said I want to show them exactly how "useless" a cleric can be. So, Gentlemen, gentlewomen, and gentlegnomes... How can we build this?

P.S. The implication so far is a lot of undead for villains. But I'm unsure of how long that will last.


Those domains are just sad, and you should be sad too. Try very, very hard to get better ones. Like Time (improved initiative and amazing domain spells), or perhaps Planning (free metamagic: extend, which you need for persist...)

Regardless, you are playing cleric, so away with the pained tears, which are more like whimpers from a rich bratty kid who was made fun of by everyone else because he got, well, everything, and then they took away his shoelaces.

1. Cloistered cleric from unearthed arcana. Suddenly you're a skill monkey and can meet any prestige class skill prereqs with ease. HP loss is minimal, and your BAB doesn't matter past level 6. Be sure to trade off the knowledge domain for knowledge devotion

Now there are options for how you are going to go Godzilla on the battlefield.
Melee or ranged...

Melee gets power attack (which gives you most of your damage), and with all the size enhancing goodness that is available ONLY to clerics, plus that which clerics can access, you are going to be a massive area of GO DIRECTLY TO -10 HP for most enemies. However this isn't that clean with the point buy you have going for you.

Ability Score drafts... (just a guess...)
Lategame build. this notes that casting > everything else later on, and maximizes its wisdom at the expense of other abilities, keeping the minimum STR to get power attack, while putting (arguably not enough) everything else into CON for survival.
STR: 13
CON: 12
DEX: 8
INT: 8
WIS: 18
CHA: 8

Tanky
STR: 13
CON: 16
DEX: 8
INT: 8
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

Well distributed with 4 points to toss around... perhaps bring dex/int up to 10 if that matters to ya...
STR: 13
CON: 14
DEX: 8
INT: 8
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

Archery

step 1. Get the feat Zen Archer
2. ????
3. cast and attack based off Wisdom

Now make note that the archer cleric does a lot less damage than the melee cleric, especially early game, but he has ranged engagement options without having to burn up spells.

(not sure how to do ability scores for zen archer clerics)


One thing you should get confirmed is the nature of nightsticks, because if those stack, you will be wanting a lot of those to fuel divine metamagic-persisted spells. If not, then you just don't buy so many and will have to decide what you want on all day (extended persistent spells last 24 hours, cast those a day before you go adventuring to get double your amount of DMM persisted spells)







(still adding in bits)

[nedz]

Are non-human deities available ?
Or are these blocked as well ?

[the_david]

Tell your DM that all the deities in Pathfinder have 5 domains.

[CIDE]

Even with several Clerics I never used a Cloistered Cleric. Gonna check that out once I get my book back (later today).

As for deities there's only the one deity available for right now. The DM didn't give too many details but there are reasons for that in character. Other deities apparently exist but culturally with where things are at my character wouldn't even think about them and stuff. So later if a deity is switched (if allowed) it can maybe happen. But at level 1 I get this single deity.

Edit:

I will remind him of the five domains thing. I considered it after my conversation with him. I don't see him again until Monday afternoon.

Edit 2:
Anyone know if the Separtist (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo---cleric-archetypes/separatist) would be a good alternative in order to get the other domains? I've never used it and it seems reasonable.

[TypoNinja]

Even with several Clerics I never used a Cloistered Cleric. Gonna check that out once I get my book back (later today).

As for deities there's only the one deity available for right now. The DM didn't give too many details but there are reasons for that in character. Other deities apparently exist but culturally with where things are at my character wouldn't even think about them and stuff. So later if a deity is switched (if allowed) it can maybe happen. But at level 1 I get this single deity.

Edit:

I will remind him of the five domains thing. I considered it after my conversation with him. I don't see him again until Monday afternoon.

Edit 2:
Anyone know if the Separtist (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo---cleric-archetypes/separatist) would be a good alternative in order to get the other domains? I've never used it and it seems reasonable.


Cloistered Cleric is on the SRD

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm

[animewatcha]

Okay. Is there a way to up the leveling base damaged sterf so he can be neutral cleric that channels negative energy which will damage to his party members?

[Fates]

Pre-PF clerics are weak? I always found pathfinder's changes to the cleric class annoying. Turn undead is far better than CPE, in my opinion, and aside from that there aren't many differences.

At low levels, a cleric might not be particularly useful at anything but healing, but, particularly if you have access to things like Spell Compendium, clerics can dominate a game by the time they get 3rd level spells. Cloistered cleric is a fine idea, but really, I think you'll be able to show them pretty quickly how useful you can be simply by choosing the right spells.

Oh, and pathfinder deities get 5 domains. I suggest you suggest a couple more to your DM.