3.5 Buffer Cleric

[Magnivore]

Hello, giants. Moderate-time lurker, first time poster.

A friend of mine is starting a new 3.5 campaign and I would like to play a character I haven't played before. I was going to play a Rogue who uses poisons, but due to our limited book selection I'm deciding against that. I have decided on a buffer cleric instead (kind of opposite ends).

Why choose buffer cleric? Simply because, according to the Cleric's Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1238.0), pure healing cleric is not as good, and I want to play a medic of sorts. In either case, I will be making sure people don't die.

The books we have access to are: Complete Arcane, Mage, and Warrior, PH1 (not 2, too OP according to the DM), and the Spell Compendium. It's not a lot, but then again D&D is not a hardcore hobby of ours despite our love of the game. I see all these wacky builds out there using a bunch of different resources and I've always wanted to do something like that, but we're not that creative or resourceful. The DM actually has done stupid things in our campaigns like blowing up my city hall, made a floating fortress for his zombie army and had basically a horcrux, and gotten Enlarge Person permanent on himself and a ring, all from basic PH1 rules. We don't like him being a PC.

Anyway, I've skimmed over the Cleric's Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1238.0) and will be going through a couple other random threads (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207940) I've come across regarding my topic (http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=131174) of interest.

TL;DR, what are good spells to use with my limited resources, are there builds that lay out what I should be doing and when, and how should I play my dude?

I greatly appreciate all your help.

EDIT: We start at level 1 with 100gp.

[Xerlith]

Well, yes. You basically got most right. Is Unearthed Arcana (available online at d20srd) on the table? If it is, how does your DM feel about mixing variants?

Human Paragon1/Cleric2/Human Paragon+2/Prestige Divine Bard2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3/Prestige Bard +X.

Basically optimize Inspire Courage, maybe grab DFI, that's it.

If he won't let you do that...

Lack of Complete Divine hurts a bit, but you can try going:

Cleric4/Warlock1/Eldritch Disciple10/Cleric+5
9th level spells, 6d6 damage at will, one greater invocation. Just pump Dex and Wis, you're mobile, can buff/debuff, blast (not recommended) and apply some healing at distance if REALLY needed (Healing blast). With 9th level spells you don't have to really optimize anyway. :smallbiggrin:

What is your party composition?

[Red Fel]

I'll leave this (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2710.0) here. The fact is, you don't need to be a healing Cleric - or, indeed, a Cleric at all - to be an effective healer. This guide offers some straightforward options that will allow almost anybody to do some spot-healing in a pinch.

A pity you can't use Tome of Battle, because if you really wanted to be a combat healer, Crusader is a surprisingly decent choice.

[Magnivore]

Well, yes. You basically got most right. Is Unearthed Arcana (available online at d20srd) on the table? If it is, how does your DM feel about mixing variants?

Human Paragon1/Cleric2/Human Paragon+2/Prestige Divine Bard2/Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3/Prestige Bard +X.

Basically optimize Inspire Courage, maybe grab DFI, that's it.

If he won't let you do that...

Lack of Complete Divine hurts a bit, but you can try going:

Cleric4/Warlock1/Eldritch Disciple10/Cleric+5
9th level spells, 6d6 damage at will, one greater invocation. Just pump Dex and Wis, you're mobile, can buff/debuff, blast (not recommended) and apply some healing at distance if REALLY needed (Healing blast). With 9th level spells you don't have to really optimize anyway. :smallbiggrin:

What is your party composition?

We don't have that. We only have the ones I listed in the first post, unfortunately. I have probably all the 3.5 books in file form too, but unfortunately we're not allowed to use anything we can't easily pass around despite it being able to be moved to a laptop. Fair, but it sucks at the same time.

I'm not sure how he wants to deal with the XP penalty with multiclassing, but being a human shouldn't hurt that anyway.

Party comp I think is a Monk who wants to eventually take over everything, and a fighter who is new to D&D (so sword and board, I would imagine).

If it matters or helps, my rolls are 12 - 10 - 7 - 13 - 18 - 14. I guess I would want 18 in Wis, and I think I would put 14 in Dex. Past that, I'm not sure. The Handbook says Dex is a dump. And this is when we all realize I need to have things spelled out ot me initially.:smallredface:

[Magnivore]

I'll leave this (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2710.0) here. The fact is, you don't need to be a healing Cleric - or, indeed, a Cleric at all - to be an effective healer. This guide offers some straightforward options that will allow almost anybody to do some spot-healing in a pinch.

A pity you can't use Tome of Battle, because if you really wanted to be a combat healer, Crusader is a surprisingly decent choice.

That's a neat guide actually; I'll bookmark that as well. It's a shame that the old WotC forums got shifted because all those handbooks they had and links to other useful things got totally screwed up, otherwise I'd be going through a bunch of those for a while.

[Gwendol]

When you say buffer cleric, do you mean buffing yourself or the party primarily?

You might want to reconsider your stat distribution. No matter what I wouldn't put 14 in DEX.
For the first run I suggest going straight cleric. It's one of the most versatile and strong classes in the game thanks to a good list of spells and a decent chassis.
What domains are you considering?

As for level one spells, protection from evil and obscuring mist are both good to have memorized in general.

[Ellowryn]

Not a single arcane caster in the group and you are allowed comp arcane/mage? And i assume that you only get the races out of those Phb? Best i got is go dwarf cleric, grab the war and law domains(Heironeous), get scale mail, longsword, and heavy shield, go Str14, Dex10, Con12, Int13, Wis18, Cha7 and put points into Str. See if the fighter will go big two-handed weapon and let you walk in front and absorb the aggro while he beats stuff from behind.

Don't bother with turning undead as with a 5 Cha it would be almost impossible, and focus on buffing yourself precombat while healing after it is over. Combat expertice for your first feat, and then grab Improved Trip, then stuff like dodge, hold the line, etc.

Not the greatest, but at least then you should have good ac, reasonable to hit and damage, and be able to keep the squishies in your party alive.

[Magnivore]

When you say buffer cleric, do you mean buffing yourself or the party primarily?

You might want to reconsider your stat distribution. No matter what I wouldn't put 14 in DEX.
For the first run I suggest going straight cleric. It's one of the most versatile and strong classes in the game thanks to a good list of spells and a decent chassis.
What domains are you considering?

As for level one spells, protection from evil and obscuring mist are both good to have memorized in general.


I figured what I would do is buff my party, like giving them +armor and +attack, then I would be a pile of armor and shield and not be touched anyway. As for stat distribution and spells, I really don't know what would be good overall. I may think that something is good but it's really not.

I'm considering protection or strength since they have stuff that I could use for the idea that I have.



Not a single arcane caster in the group and you are allowed comp arcane/mage? And i assume that you only get the races out of those Phb? Best i got is go dwarf cleric, grab the war and law domains(Heironeous), get scale mail, longsword, and heavy shield, go Str14, Dex10, Con12, Int13, Wis18, Cha7 and put points into Str. See if the fighter will go big two-handed weapon and let you walk in front and absorb the aggro while he beats stuff from behind.

Don't bother with turning undead as with a 5 Cha it would be almost impossible, and focus on buffing yourself precombat while healing after it is over. Combat expertice for your first feat, and then grab Improved Trip, then stuff like dodge, hold the line, etc.

Not the greatest, but at least then you should have good ac, reasonable to hit and damage, and be able to keep the squishies in your party alive.

Unfortunately yes, we didn't decide to play a caster. We have those books because that is just what is available to us. We're fans, not enthusiasts, of D&D (if that makes sense). Also yes, only material from our available books we can use. Otherwise I would stick with my rogue and use stuff from every book that was suggested in multiple rogue/poison handbooks.

[Gwendol]

Ok, I see. I'll throw something together for you to consider.

[Magnivore]

Ok, I see. I'll throw something together for you to consider.

Sweet, I look forward to it!

[Optimator]

Well, you have the SpC, so your cleric already has almost everything it needs to be a fantastic buffer.

Unearthed Arcana is available online in almost it's entirety so it should be fine. I personally love that book and all of its alternate classes and class features.

[Magnivore]

Well, you have the SpC, so your cleric already has almost everything it needs to be a fantastic buffer.

Unearthed Arcana is available online in almost it's entirety so it should be fine. I personally love that book and all of its alternate classes and class features.

I would love to use sources that I find online (since I've found probably every 3.5-'legal' book online) but our DM wants as little outside distractions as possible and wants to easily pass things around. I wanted to have my character sheet be in Excel form (http://www.stanford.edu/~rchilton/DnD/D&D_3e_character_sheet.xls) but he said he'd rather it be on paper. I think it's dumb that we have to do it this way, but it's either going to be 'do it this way or do not do it' so there's no point in me arguing about it.

[Magnivore]

Not a single arcane caster in the group and you are allowed comp arcane/mage? And i assume that you only get the races out of those Phb? Best i got is go dwarf cleric, grab the war and law domains(Heironeous), get scale mail, longsword, and heavy shield, go Str14, Dex10, Con12, Int13, Wis18, Cha7 and put points into Str. See if the fighter will go big two-handed weapon and let you walk in front and absorb the aggro while he beats stuff from behind.

Don't bother with turning undead as with a 5 Cha it would be almost impossible, and focus on buffing yourself precombat while healing after it is over. Combat expertice for your first feat, and then grab Improved Trip, then stuff like dodge, hold the line, etc.

Not the greatest, but at least then you should have good ac, reasonable to hit and damage, and be able to keep the squishies in your party alive.

I guess I will be going with this build as it is probably the most fleshed-out on in the thread thus far. I did like the one that Xerlith (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17123993&postcount=2) put up top, and I may even follow that class line unless something better is suggested for your plan. Otherwise, I'm putting all my character info down on paper (finally) and will be starting to play him tomorrow.