Help! I now have a Crippled Caster Cleric!

[lordkronos187]

This one is a homebrew doosy. I touched the wrong statue and spent 58 years in the abyss being tortured by a demon. By the time I was saved (don't have that info in character) the permanent damage was done. however my character went deep inside his own mind to keep his psyche from falling apart. Sooooo :

Went from a strapping young cleric lvl 6 to about 70ish years old, 130 lbs, plauged by nightmares both sleeping and waking, unimaginable residual pain, hampered movement , but all is not lost

Str 6
Dex 4
Con 8
Int 20
Wis 26
Cha 22

And since this was my first shot at Pathfinder I loaded up on channeling, extra channel, sellective channel, fast channel. I used to jump in melee all the time but that's out now. I have to rethink my entire battle strategy now that I'm pure support/heal/caster. So where does this leave me. I have a feeling this should open up my spell options cause my save dc's will be murderously high but I can't think of what to go to for spells now. This is a low gold/item world. So forget about gearing up to offset anything lol so, any advice for the Cleric equivelent of Raistlin? :P

[Psyren]

Stand behind the melee like Raistlin does.

You'll have to be more of an offensive caster/controller and do your best not to get hit. What are your domains?

Summoning is probably going to be a good idea too, but again, stay back so you won't get interrupted.

[lordkronos187]

Stand behind the melee like Raistlin does.

You'll have to be more of an offensive caster/controller and do your best not to get hit. What are your domains?

Summoning is probably going to be a good idea too, but again, stay back so you won't get interrupted.

For sure. Might as well hop in the barbarians backpack lol. My domains are going to change. Part of this involves switching patronage from Caiden to iomadaye (sp?) So ill have new options. I can't help wonder if there's a few low level spells that just g ot super dangerously useful cause of how high my dc will be.

[Psyren]

For sure. Might as well hop in the barbarians backpack lol. My domains are going to change. Part of this involves switching patronage from Caiden to iomadaye (sp?) So ill have new options. I can't help wonder if there's a few low level spells that just g ot super dangerously useful cause of how high my dc will be.

Sanctuary (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/sanctuary) is an obvious one given your current state.

Iomedae's domains are more gish-focused (fitting for the goddess of Paladins, but not good news for you.) In other words, her domains are more suited to a melee cleric than a caster. You can however use the Light and Archon subdomains. from the back row with some degree of effectiveness.

[Asrrin]

Avoid any spells that make attack rolls, even touch attacks, because of the stupidly low str and dex scores. You are basically going to want to focus on loads of save or suck spells and crank up your DC's.

[lordkronos187]

Sanctuary (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/sanctuary) is an obvious one given your current state.

Iomedae's domains are more gish-focused (fitting for the goddess of Paladins, but not good news for you.) In other words, her domains are more suited to a melee cleric than a caster. You can however use the Light and Archon subdomains. from the back row with some degree of effectiveness.

Sweet deal. I wonder if by that reading I can still have summons wreck stuff without breaking sanctuary. Those domains are pretty cool. I'm not concerned with optimizing or minmaxing my current state of affairs, cause those domains add some flavor.We get rewarded a lot with creativity. Do clerics get a lot of straight up "save or get screwed" spells?

[Psyren]

Sweet deal. I wonder if by that reading I can still have summons wreck stuff without breaking sanctuary. Those domains are pretty cool. I'm not concerned with optimizing or minmaxing my current state of affairs, cause those domains add some flavor.We get rewarded a lot with creativity. Do clerics get a lot of straight up "save or get screwed" spells?

You can summon just fine without breaking Sanctuary, and your summons can even fight on your behalf safely.

Clerics do indeed get lots of "save vs. X," but many require touching your target, which is dangerous for you. The ones that don't tend to be compulsions or mind-affecting, which isn't so bad in PF but can still screw you over if you fight the wrong types of creatures. Good low level options for you are Command and Cause Fear for instance - with a Wis score like that you're going to be locking down quite a few foes.

[DMVerdandi]

This one is a homebrew doosy. I touched the wrong statue and spent 58 years in the abyss being tortured by a demon. By the time I was saved (don't have that info in character) the permanent damage was done. however my character went deep inside his own mind to keep his psyche from falling apart. Sooooo :

Went from a strapping young cleric lvl 6 to about 70ish years old, 130 lbs, plauged by nightmares both sleeping and waking, unimaginable residual pain, hampered movement , but all is not lost

Str 6
Dex 4
Con 8
Int 20
Wis 26
Cha 22

And since this was my first shot at Pathfinder I loaded up on channeling, extra channel, sellective channel, fast channel. I used to jump in melee all the time but that's out now. I have to rethink my entire battle strategy now that I'm pure support/heal/caster. So where does this leave me. I have a feeling this should open up my spell options cause my save dc's will be murderously high but I can't think of what to go to for spells now. This is a low gold/item world. So forget about gearing up to offset anything lol so, any advice for the Cleric equivelent of Raistlin? :P

His mental scores are rediculously high, and honestly, so are his physical scores.
58 years of torture? One will leave the average person permanently broken and scarred beyond recognition. If we are going to say this is a demon, this demon is going to be far more ruthless with torture.
Either this is chinese water torture, which would have given him a wisdom score of 0 when properly done after about a year, or something non-physical, but mental, which still would have left him insane due to the psychological trauma.

If this is one of those heal the next day, hellish tortures, then why would he age? I am just saying, it's flimsily held together. If he was imprisoned for those many years, then I can see something better. Like, not fed well, and such, but even then, without proper nutrition I don't see any ways that he would survive that long. life expectancy into the 70's requires decent caloric intake.



I would think he would have 5's across the board if what you said really happened to him. He would be weak, slow, unhealthy, dimwitted, non-cognizant, and shallow socially. Just enough not to be completely catatonic, even though normally he would be.

20+ in mental scores would mean he is EXTREMELY charming, knowlegable, and aware. Things almost impossible to be in a 56 year long demon torture pit.
Only magical/divine intervention would have stopped even a strong willed man from not going completely insane after about a year. Torture everyday is really bad on it's own, but 56 years? Especially if he wasn't socialized.

When you see people survive as POW's generally they are secure in solidarity with others being tortured. You keep someone in a dark room alone long enough alone, and they won't be right again.

[lordkronos187]

You can summon just fine without breaking Sanctuary, and your summons can even fight on your behalf safely.

Clerics do indeed get lots of "save vs. X," but many require touching your target, which is dangerous for you. The ones that don't tend to be compulsions or mind-affecting, which isn't so bad in PF but can still screw you over if you fight the wrong types of creatures. Good low level options for you are Command and Cause Fear for instance - with a Wis score like that you're going to be locking down quite a few foes.

Now we're cooking with peanut oil. It sounds like ill be needing metamagic feats for some quickened stat buffs so I can have a touch attack that doesn't blow donkey schlong.

[lordkronos187]

His mental scores are rediculously high, and honestly, so are his physical scores.
58 years of torture? One will leave the average person permanently broken and scarred beyond recognition. If we are going to say this is a demon, this demon is going to be far more ruthless with torture.
Either this is chinese water torture, which would have given him a wisdom score of 0 when properly done after about a year, or something non-physical, but mental, which still would have left him insane due to the psychological trauma.

If this is one of those heal the next day, hellish tortures, then why would he age? I am just saying, it's flimsily held together. If he was imprisoned for those many years, then I can see something better. Like, not fed well, and such, but even then, without proper nutrition I don't see any ways that he would survive that long. life expectancy into the 70's requires decent caloric intake.



I would think he would have 5's across the board if what you said really happened to him. He would be weak, slow, unhealthy, dimwitted, non-cognizant, and shallow socially. Just enough not to be completely catatonic, even though normally he would be.

20+ in mental scores would mean he is EXTREMELY charming, knowlegable, and aware. Things almost impossible to be in a 56 year long demon torture pit.
Only magical/divine intervention would have stopped even a strong willed man from not going completely insane after about a year. Torture everyday is really bad on it's own, but 56 years? Especially if he wasn't socialized.

When you see people survive as POW's generally they are secure in solidarity with others being tortured. You keep someone in a dark room alone long enough alone, and they won't be right again.

*shrug* ok. Do it your way in your campaogn then. Divine intervention is a factor and there's a lot more to the story that I didn't go in to because its irrelevant to the mechanics I'm trying to work out

[Crasical]

His mental scores are rediculously high, and honestly, so are his physical scores.
58 years of torture? One will leave the average person permanently broken and scarred beyond recognition. If we are going to say this is a demon, this demon is going to be far more ruthless with torture.
Either this is chinese water torture, which would have given him a wisdom score of 0 when properly done after about a year, or something non-physical, but mental, which still would have left him insane due to the psychological trauma.

If this is one of those heal the next day, hellish tortures, then why would he age? I am just saying, it's flimsily held together. If he was imprisoned for those many years, then I can see something better. Like, not fed well, and such, but even then, without proper nutrition I don't see any ways that he would survive that long. life expectancy into the 70's requires decent caloric intake.

Dungeons and Dragons is a game of heroic fantasy. The Player Characters are heroic individuals who have the potential to fight and kill dragons, demons, and evil gods. Despite what might happen to a 'normal' person, a 6th level cleric is not normal, and it's perfectly plausible within a narrative for someone of that sort of mental fortitude to come out of such an ordeal scarred both physically and mentally but alive.
Magic healing doesn't reverse aging, which proceeds at a normal rate during the duration of his captivity, so I'm not sure what kind of point you're trying to make here. It's not implausible that they'd provide food and water for their captive to keep him alive for more torture. DnD doesn't provide rules for 'caloric intake' or anything like it, but sure, we can say that his crappy physical socres are the result of malnutrition.





I would think he would have 5's across the board if what you said really happened to him. He would be weak, slow, unhealthy, dimwitted, non-cognizant, and shallow socially. Just enough not to be completely catatonic, even though normally he would be.

That's not (except in some edge cases, I suppose) an interesting character to roleplay, or a character that can contribute meaningfully to the party.


20+ in mental scores would mean he is EXTREMELY charming, knowlegable, and aware. Things almost impossible to be in a 56 year long demon torture pit.
Only magical/divine intervention would have stopped even a strong willed man from not going completely insane after about a year. Torture everyday is really bad on it's own, but 56 years? Especially if he wasn't socialized.

When you see people survive as POW's generally they are secure in solidarity with others being tortured. You keep someone in a dark room alone long enough alone, and they won't be right again.

Narrative interest vs. realism again, and also 'able to contribute meaningfully to the party'. We can absolutely write off the increased mental scores as enduring the tortures of hell via meditation and prayer, because it's interesting. Also he needs -some- compensation for his suddenly-terrible melee stats if he intends to continue playing him, otherwise he's useless and it's better to just retire the character or kill him off.

[lordkronos187]

Also consider I am a venerably aged human. The stat penalties and bonuses are the biggest factor cause of age alone. I also suffer some permanent physical issues from the torture. And like I said divine intervention is a factor. Most of that time in hell was spent retreating in to my own mind. My "happy place". And in my happy place my mentals grew and gre far away from the reality of what was happening to my body. Also consider the extreme high stats are because this is a low gold low gear world. At level 6 we have maybe 2 magic items each and mine were +1 shield and ring of res. In this world we truly are epic heros . There are not many as gifted as we.