[3.5] Buffing a weak party into an unstoppable force

[Mountain]

In our current campaign, I'm playing a cleric/malconvoker with DMM persist in a party with a rogue/swordsage/assassin/something, a straight-class fighter, a bard, and an ultimate magus.

I want to know what my cleric can do at CL 17 to improve the entire party so that the rogue and the fighter feel like they're relevant when fighting something CR-appropriate. (I don't think there's much I can do for the bard; he just doesn't try.)

I'm particularly interested in all-day buffs, whether they're hour/level or persistent, but any advice might help.

[The DM is okay with touch spells being persistent.]

[Oxydeur]

Persisted prayer is a simple buff and debuf (but you can do better than that à CL 17)
Persisted lesser vigor will keep your team at full hp at the beginning of each encounter.
A Persisted Mass Resist Energy can be very useful for specific place or foes (like a red dragon infested volcano castle).
Persisted Spell Resistance on a fighter can be serious threat to ennemy casters.
Persisted Cloak of Chaos/Holy Aura/Shield of Law/Unholy Aura give +4 AC, +4 on saves, protection agains possession and mental influence and a debuff effect on the opposed alignement baddies if they strike your pals.

I only have the SRD right now, but i'm sure you can find awesome buff spell in other books.

I you want your pals to do more damage, make the bard buy a masterwork horn, a vest of legends and cast inspirationnal boost. Maxing inspire courage can be a serious buff to melee character (especially with Dragonfire Inspiration)

[jokeaccount]

If your rogue has the Craven feat use Resistance to Fear on him. Some people believe it doesn't work with Craven but your DM will think it does so that's a major buff already. There are lots of good cleric buffs like recitation etc. Also you can buff their armor and weapons to +5 if they don't already have them. Just look in the books for all the AC and +Atk +Dmg +Saves +Skills +Abilities buffs you can find. With straight up dmg dealers can't do much more. Also find encounter specific buffs and keep an eye on them (like buffing the fighter with disrupting weapon for example)

[nedz]

Are you familiar with the Chain spell metamagic feat — to spread individual buffs around ?

[Pluto!]

Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Recitation, Elation and Mass Lesser Vigor tend to be the staple mass-buffing DMM: Persist suite.

[Metahuman1]

I'd see if I can also get DMM: Chain Spell.

Then, put all kinds of good buffs on the other players. The fighter get's Righteous Might when you get it, the Rouge get's divine Power, Everyone getls Divine Favor, The Heart of X line, Energy Immunity, Lessor Vigor, Haste, Displacement, so on.

[Pluto!]

Chain spell only works on spells with a range greater than touch. That often means it takes some finagling with Reach Spell or similar to even Chain touch spells.

If you're trying to chain personal-range spells, you pretty much need a Spellguard of the Silverymoon build, which takes more commitment than can usually be wrangled onto an existing divine caster's build that wasn't designed with SgotSm in mind.

[Mountain]

Great suggestions so far.

As for Chain Spell, I'm familiar with the Ocular Spell/Reach Spell trick, but I can't exactly swing 2 feats on it at this point in the game.

Currently, my all-day buffs are: (not all on myself)

Persistent Divine Power
Persistent Divine Favor
Persistent Spell Resistance
Superior Resistance
Persistent Lesser Vigor
Longstrider
Greater Magic Weapon
Greater Magic Vestment
Persistent Elation
Persistent Channeled Divine Shield
Persistent Bull's Strength

I think I'll pick up Holy Aura in place of Divine Power. Melee is only a secondary option for me anyway, and I can always just cast it with my belt of battle to still get full attacks.

Edit: That would also free up Spell Resistance to be something else.

[herrhauptmann]

Are you feeding the party Heroic Feast every morning? Mind you, if the rogue has the feat Craven, he might not want to partake.

Protection from X will help the fighter with a bad will save. Even if he gets dominated/charmed, the effect should be suppressed while Protection from X is up.
Summoning spells will help the rogue a lot. Instead of waiting on the fighter to get behind the enemy and provide flanking, or worse, expecting the rogue to expose himself by maneuvering; you summon a celestial and tell it "Listen to Bob the Rogue." And hand control of it over to the rogue.
Now he can coordinate his actions with those of a dedicated flanker. This is a big deal, because now he's not begging the fighter or anyone else to do specific things on their turn so that he can be effective.


If your rogue has the Craven feat use Resistance to Fear on him. Some people believe it doesn't work with Craven but your DM will think it does so that's a major buff already.
What does resistance to fear do?
Does it grant fear immunity? Or just a bonus on saves vs fear?

[Curmudgeon]

What does resistance to fear do?
Does it grant fear immunity? Or just a bonus on saves vs fear?
I think jokeaccount is referring to Remove Fear, which simply provides a +4 bonus to resist fear effects rather than actually making the target immune to fear.

[herrhauptmann]

I think jokeaccount is referring to Remove Fear, which simply provides a +4 bonus to resist fear effects rather than actually making the target immune to fear.

Ahh, that makes more sense.
Thank you.