Character suggestions please?

[njhowen@hotmail]

Hi guys, new to the forums but have been reading stuff on here for some time!

At the moment we are playing in a forgotten realms setting 3.5 at level 5 and I was left with cleric. I moved my cleric over from an older game that only went to level 3. At the moment I have a war strength cleric weilding a greatsword with the odd choice of power attack and cleave as feats, it was hella fun and was by far the highest damage dealer in a party of 6 though!

However, as we go up levels I can't help but feel that it will be easily outclassed ( I think anyway). So I'm looking for suggestions as where to take it.

Conditions are that I still need to be able to spontaneously heal. I love combat but not hot on casting (unless someone can demo something really awesome). I'd like to continue something in the same vein.
We have only just started so my dm is fairly flexible in me changing a lot of stuff around as I couldn't make my mind up in time so just stuck.

I really want something that will kickass but still provide the heals that the party needs.

At the moment we have:

A Druid
Weird ranger type
Wizard
Fighter

[PaucaTerrorem]

Stick with Cleric. Buff yourself in the first round then proceed to wallop the bejezzus out of things.

[Flickerdart]

Clerics are very good. The idea is that you get a lot of spells that make you awesome in combat. Pre-cast some long-duration buffs (or cast them when you think there will be a fight) and then charge in! Cleave's not a great feat, but Power Attack is probably the best source of damage in the game.

In-combat healing is generally a sucker's game until you get Heal, because your healing won't keep up with enemy damage. Instead, beat them down and then use a wand of Lesser Vigor to heal between encounters - 750 GP for 50 charges, each charge heals 11HP. Have all the party members pitch in and get a few wands, and save your spell slots for later.

[CaladanMoonblad]

Stick with Cleric. Buff yourself in the first round then proceed to wallop the bejezzus out of things.

+1.

In addition, try to pick up a Crystal of Energy Assault (Magic Item Compendium pg. 64) at your first opportunity. For 300 gp (least, +1 damage), 3000 gp (lesser, +1d6 damage), or 6,000 gp (greater, +1d6 damage plus secondary effect), this is a great investment for a Greatsword. Get the lesser version, and your +1 Greatsword (2350 gp) can do 2d6+1d6+1 damage without a single Str modifier added yet. Couple your greatsword wielding cleric with a Belt of Giant Strength / Giant Size and really feel the rage of your deity smiting all foes out to 10ft.

Edit: If you love Cleave, stick with it. In fact, pick up Greater Cleave when you can. Nothing beats mowing through low level mooks like a lawnmower. Plus, you don't damage their gear like an AoE spell might, and you don't have to give up the spell. It doesn't sound like your group is on an optimization arms race, so play what you already know is fun.

[njhowen@hotmail]

I love cleave! What feats would you recommend from now though? People keep mentioning meta magic as a good option. What do you think? I wouldn't like to stick with cleric if people think that it will scale well. Just want to map out where I will be going with feats etc if that is the case!

[Urpriest]

As a Cleric you can definitely kick ass in melee with a greatsword. Cleave won't be all that great at higher levels when enemies have more hp, but Power Attack can potentially serve you well.

What god does your character worship?

There are basically two routes to go with a hitting stuff cleric: Divine Metamagic, or Prestige Classes. The former route is more powerful but more complicated, the latter more straightforward and less likely to get funny looks from your DM.

Divine Metamagic is a feat from Complete Divine that requires you to pick a metamagic feat that you have. You take Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, and Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell. Divine Metamagic lets you expend turn undead attempts to put metamagic on your spells instead of using higher level spell slots. Persistent Spell is a metamagic feat that makes certain types of spells last all day (in particular, Personal buffs, but also some other spells). Normally it's hard to use because it raises spell slot level by 6, but with Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell you don't have to spend a higher spell slot, instead you spend seven Turn Undead attempts. If you do this you can have one or two (depending on how many Turn Undead attempts you have, maybe more if you optimize) spells running all day, so you don't have to worry about casting them. Divine Power and Righteous Might are spells you will pick up later that are great for this, at lower levels Ice Axe (Spell Compendium) is a good option, and Mass Lesser Vigor (also Spell Compendium) will give your whole party Fast Healing 1 all day, meaning that you don't have to heal much.

The other route doesn't take as many feats. Instead, you take strong Cleric Prestige Classes like Ordained Champion (Complete Champion, you'll want to make your own version of it for whatever god you worship). Make sure not to lose more than three levels of casting and try to take PrCs that increase your Base Attack Bonus.

[BowStreetRunner]

Check out the Warpriest prestige class in Complete Divine. We've had a couple of these in our party and they do tend to be pretty useful. You will want to pick up the Practiced Spellcaster feat to keep your CL up, but as a melee cleric they do very well.

[Flickerdart]

I love cleave! What feats would you recommend from now though? People keep mentioning meta magic as a good option. What do you think? I wouldn't like to stick with cleric if people think that it will scale well. Just want to map out where I will be going with feats etc if that is the case!
If you have access to Complete Champion, check out the Devotion feats there. Clerics can even trade their domains for them.

Metamagic is good if you can find a way to mitigate the cost. The feat Divine Metamagic (Complete Divine) lets you spend Turn Undead uses instead of making the spell take up a higher level slot.

[Darth Stabber]

Cleric is a class that is very hard to screw up. So long as you maintain the ability to cast your highest level spells you can always fix yourself the next day by prepping new spells. And melee clerics are one of the better and easier builds, plus in that type of build PA and cleave are fine feat choices. You will continue to outperform "mundane" meleers, while still having access to all of the good stuff on the cleric list. The strength and war domains aren't the "best" choices, but given the strength of cleric, "bad" domain choices aren't that harmful. Being T1 has that sort of advantage.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Played a dwarven battle cleric about a year ago. Didn't even use all the crazy optimization tricks(didn't know about them) and was the most effective battle field controller in our game. Jacked AC to around 35 then ran around the field taking AoO from everyone and setting up flanks for our heavier hitters.