cleric or ur-priest?

[drakoonity]

Ok so the character I am currently playing is a level 3 monk (not srd has revisions so he is a lot better). At level 6 I am going to level dip into shiba protector, and then from there I was debating if I should go rest into cleric or ur-priest? What do you all think?

[Hecuba]

Ur-priest will generally be more powerful if you're going to be anything more than a 1 or 2 level dip, though the fluff can be prohibitive depending on the setting. If you are only looking at a short dip, Cleric may be better -- domains (or the things they can be traded for) will generally hold up better over the life of a character than a small number of low level spells.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Ur-Priest:

- Gives fast, early access to divine spells

- Has a game-breaking Steal-SLA ability if you take straight levels in it rather than PrC-ing out.

Cleric:

- Gives domains

- Gives turn/rebuke undead at level 1: Ur-priest doesn't give you this until level 2.

- Gives more spell slots to work with.

- Doesn't require worthless feats, and doesn't require you to be Evil. (Assuming your DM doesn't let you re-fluff or use the adaptation.)

- Has a higher caster level (most you can reach with Ur-Priest is 15, 19 with Practiced Spellcaster, less for you since you're entering from Monk).

- Has more levels so you can take more PrC levels (like getting all 10 levels of Dweomerkeeper).


The Ur-Priest has a number of disadvantages over a cleric, but the main advantage it has, the faster spell progression, is really, really huge. Ultimately it depends on what you want out of the build. What were you planning to do with your divine casting?

[Emperor Tippy]

With 7 levels of non cleric you top out with 7th level spells if you go Cleric. If you go Ur-Priest instead then you get 9th level spells at ECL 16.

9th level casting tends to win D&D so from a strict optimization perspective Ur-Priest is flat out better for you.

[Chronos]

Echoing what others have said: Switching to straight cleric that late is going to leave you far behind where your spells are expected to be for the entire rest of your career. Ur-priest will start off just as far behind, but will eventually catch up.