Best Cleric Spells to Buff Everyone Else

[Breitheamh]

I'm trying to make a Cleric who buffs everyone else, instead of himself (maybe use Divine Favor for some encounters, but not a lot of Divine Power and Righteous Might). What are the absolute best spells to prepare consistently? (Can't persist yet) Right now, max spell level is 4th.

[Anxe]

1st - Bless, Shield of Faith, Protection From Evil
2nd - Aid, Resist Energy, Shield Other, Bull's Strength
3rd - Prayer, Mass Resist Energy
4th - Death Ward, Greater Magic Weapon, Recitation

[Silvanoshei]

Lv 1 - Bless, PF-Evil/Good, and Command is good.
lv 2 - Bull's Strength, Owl's Wisdom, Shield Other, Spiritual Weapon.
lv 3 - Magic Circle Against Evil, Dispel Magic, Magic Vestment.
lv 4 - Freedom of Movement!!!, Greater Magic Weapon, Spell Immunity, Tongues, Dismissial, Death Ward, Air Walk.

Just observe your DM and feel/anticipate his challenges and prepare before hand.

[ericgrau]

Seconding prayer, it's a **** ton of +1s and -1s. On the downside, it's a ton of +1s and -1s to keep track of. Hour/level buffs extended/recast to 24 hours like shield other, imbue with spell ability, GMW and magic vestment are great. Shield other is downright amazing but its range is a little low. So is imbue with spell ability (close wounds/shield other + divine favor) because it utilizes extra actions that non-casters normally don't use - immediates, a passive non-action ability, and/or buff round - and extra actions are king.

Single target short duration buffs are pretty horrible. Basically your actions are extremely limited so you want to hit as many targets as you can or cast as many ahead of time as you can. Don't count on having more than 1 or 2 buff actions that matter. That's why persist is so good. SpC has some good mass/aura spells like mass aid but nothing your level that beats prayer AFAIK. Maybe one would be good as a pre-combat buff before foes arrive, but you don't always get the jump on your foes. The fixed range ones are amazing later once you get persist. Swifts and immediates are nice too, but I don't know any such party buffs off the top of my head. Normally I spam close wounds instead.

Clerics have a billion good 10 min/level buffs but you can't always count on doing a dungeon run. Go for the above first. But you're a friggin' cleric so you can switch to 10 min/level buff spamming with a day's notice. So keep a long list of them on the side, just don't use them normally.

So ya, boils down to action economy planning.

[Breitheamh]

Cool, thanks. I think I can work with this. Thanks for the advice. :smallsmile:

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If using DMM: Persist, there's Bless (1st), Blessed Aim (SC, 1st), Elation (BoED, 2nd), Mass Lesser Vigor (SC, 3rd), and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful (SC, 5th).