Clerical Aid

[Machadawg]

My former PC died a valiant death in our hybrid RHOD campaign. I have rolled up a Dragonborn of Bahamut cleric. This my first cleric that wasn't just a mindless healbot. I plan on being a tank who does some buffing and spot healing. I would like some tips on spells, and divine metamagic I've already chosen feats but I'm open to suggestion. My stats are as follows:

8th level
Str: 18
Dex: 12
Con: 20
Int: 12
Wis: 18
Cha: 15

Also any cool character background ideas would be helpful. I'm LG.

Thanks!!

[Qc Storm]

Good devotion, I think it was? Uses turn undead uses to grant DR to all allies.

Divine Shield allows you to increase your shield AC by once again spending turn undead uses.

[Craft (Cheese)]

What are your feats? Made a decision on domain choices?

How many Turn Undead attempts do you have? Take the Rebuke Dragons ACF (which fits your character anyway) then dip Sacred Exorcist to get 2 turning pools (extra turning gives more turn attempts to both pools), maybe also Dread Necromancer to get a third pool.

Spells you should persist, in order of most-to-least important:

- Divine Power (Skip it if you think this makes your character too strong)
- Recitation (esp. if there are other worshippers of Bahamut in the party)
- (Divine Favor, once you get to level 12; for now it's redundant with Recitation)
- Mass Lesser Vigor
- Mass Conviction
- Cloud of Knives
- Elation
- Bless (unless you have a Bard in the party who can Inspire Courage)

Move Mass Lesser Vigor to the top of the list if healing is a higher priority than buffs to damage.

[Machadawg]

Improve toughness
Combat casting
Shielded casting
Divine metamagic
extend spell
Going to take persist spell, but I'm not sure if I can use it because of it requires 6 spell slots. So I took extra turning.

We really haven't fought any undead.

[Oko and Qailee]

Improve toughness
Combat casting
Shielded casting
Divine metamagic
extend spell
Going to take persist spell, but I'm not sure if I can use it because of it requires 6 spell slots. So I took extra turning.

We really haven't fought any undead.

Use Divine Metamagic

your persistent spells won't take up spell slots, it'll take up turning attempts instead.

Edit: This is the reason why the above poster is telling you to get so much extra turning. DMM: Persist Clerics are amazingly good, and they work how you described in the OP.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Improve toughness
Combat casting
Shielded casting
Divine metamagic
extend spell
Going to take persist spell, but I'm not sure if I can use it because of it requires 6 spell slots. So I took extra turning.

We really haven't fought any undead.

You can use Persist Spell if you have Divine Metamagic, even if you can't use the feat normally yet. You also can't take DMM until you have the metamagic feat you intend to use with it. You have enough feats (I assume you used flaws?) to get persist (along with DMM) and an extra turning or two; I'd replace Improved Toughness and Shielded Casting. Maybe Combat Casting too.

[Oko and Qailee]

- Divine Power (Skip it if you think this makes your character too strong)
- Recitation (esp. if there are other worshippers of Bahamut in the party)
- (Divine Favor, once you get to level 12; for now it's redundant with Recitation)
- Mass Lesser Vigor
- Mass Conviction
- Cloud of Knives
- Elation


What about adding Prayer to this list? +1 to all allies rolls and -1 to all enemies rolls is kinda awesome.

[Eldariel]

Improve toughness
Combat casting
Shielded casting
Divine metamagic
extend spell
Going to take persist spell, but I'm not sure if I can use it because of it requires 6 spell slots. So I took extra turning.

We really haven't fought any undead.

If you really want to be a monstrous melee combatant, you could just skip Combat Casting, Shielded Casting & Improved Toughness for a bunch of Extra Turnings to fuel Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell a few times. That probably gives you the most power. You can also, provided you can get your hands on a Rod of Extend Spell, Extend the buffs to last 48 hours (allowing two sets of persisted buffs). Power Attack is also a nice feat if you want to smack people up.

Persistent Divine Power (again, really strong, skip if you feel it makes you too strong as Craft said) & Mass Lesser Vigor are the biggest ones; Fast Healing 1 means everyone heals to full over time on their own and Divine Power gives you nice combat stats. The mentioned Recitation [Spell Compendium] would be pretty awesome for the party and yourself too. Then you can just Magic Vestment your armor (and shield if any) and Greater Magic Weapon your weapon and go to town (both become +2). Magic Circle Against Evil is a nice 10 min/level buff, and Superior Resistance [Spell Compendium] gives you even better saves. You can use 1st level slots for Blades of Blood [Spell Compendium] and sacrifice some health to wreck face.

[Craft (Cheese)]

What about adding Prayer to this list? +1 to all allies rolls and -1 to all enemies rolls is kinda awesome.

It's a luck bonus, which means it's redundant with Recitation. It also only gives a penalty to enemies if they're within the AoE of the spell as it's cast, which is highly unlikely if you persist it.

[Machadawg]

A persistent spell uses up a spell slot six levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

So say I burn a turn and persist divine power, it doesn't burn a slot six higher. Is that just for wizards and sorcerers?

I would get rid of combat casting and toughness but my DM is already ify on me being a dragonborn. If I were to be really powerful by dipping and using tons of metamagic and "overpowered" spells and cheese he would be not happy.
My last character was a sorcerer and my spells were "OP" \sarcasm. He did not like spell compendium.

[Craft (Cheese)]

A persistent spell uses up a spell slot six levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

So say I burn a turn and persist divine power, it doesn't burn a slot six higher. Is that just for wizards and sorcerers?

I would get rid of combat casting and toughness but my DM is already ify on me being a dragonborn. If I were to be really powerful by dipping and using tons of metamagic and "overpowered" spells and cheese he would be not happy.
My last character was a sorcerer and my spells were "OP" \sarcasm. He did not like spell compendium.

Divine Metamagic works like this: Instead of raising the spell's level, instead it burns a number of turn attempts equal to the metamagic feat's level increase, plus one. So you can cast Persistent Divine Power by burning 7 turn undead attempts. So if you have a pool of 14 turn undead attempts per day, you can persist 2 spells. 21 attempts, 3 spells. This is why getting as many turn undead attempts as you can is so important with a DMM build. Sounds like your group is pretty low-power though so 2 persisted spells per day (I'd go with mass lesser vigor and Recitation) is probably enough. Rebuke Dragons + Sacred Exorcist + One Extra Turning will get you 18 attempts.

[Machadawg]

Thanks. I definitely understand now.

I really like travel domain. I don't know if it fits what my character will be.
Death domain maybe. I really want to be hellfire and brimstone. If you are against Bahamut you are dead kind of thing.
War sounds good but I know its mediocre. Any tips.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Normally, clerics of a deity are restricted to taking only the domains offered by that deity: According to wikipedia (unable to check my book atm), Bahamut offers Air, Cold, Dragon, Good, Law, Luck, Nobility, Protection, and Storm. However, your DM may allow you to take a domain that's not normally offered by Bahamut, talk with them and see what your options are. If you're allowed to pick whatever you want, two good options are Planning (gives you Extend Spell as a bonus feat) and Undeath (gives you another Extra Turning as a bonus feat). Planning would work well for Bahamut but Undeath is kinda iffy. Maybe fluff it as your character having a big thing against Dracoliches?

Assuming you'll only be allowed to pick from Bahamut's domains though, I suggest you take Law (trading it out for the Law Devotion feat from Complete Champion) and Storm (seems to have the best selection of spells).

[Machadawg]

Cool thanks. I just read sacred exorcist. I just says that the turning stacks to determine the check. Are you sure it gives a second pool?

I also read rebuke dragons. It says it takes the place of turn undead. So if I took both I would have pools of turn undead dead and rebuke dragons. Is that what you guys were saying?

I should be able to pick any domain. Thanks again.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Cool thanks. I just read sacred exorcist. I just says that the turning stacks to determine the check. Are you sure it gives a second pool?

I also read rebuke dragons. It says it takes the place of turn undead. So if I took both I would have pools of turn undead dead and rebuke dragons. Is that what you guys were saying?

Yep: You get rebuke dragons (which can be used in place of turn undead for fueling divine feats such as DMM), and you get turn undead: It only stacks if you don't already have turn undead from another class, as Sacred Exorcist can be entered by non-clerics.

[Eldariel]

I was suggesting skipping multiple Turn-pools specifically 'cause it seems like a low op group and a "trick" to that effect seems a bit excessive; DMM is plenty strong even without multiple Turning-pools or Nightsticks after all. Extra Turning feat taken couple of times alone is enough for two spells a day (4 with Extend).