Let's buff someone else

[Kazyan]

As a DM, I've got a buffer cleric and someone else who will do the actual combat. (They're both antagonists.) The thing is, I, uh, don't actually know how to buff someone else as a cleric all that well. All the good cleric buffs seem to be self-only, besides Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, so this setup loses its bite if there are no actual buffs happening. Google isn't telling me much, either.

The cleric will be level 13. Long-term buffs are preferred, but if the PCs aren't exceedingly clever in their approach, short-term buffs will work as well.

[Slipperychicken]

Do you know what domains the Cleric has?

[Azoth]

Cleric5/Runecaster8(pgtf) will let you make permanent runes anyone can use without using UMD so you can make runes of all those lovely self only buffs and have your beat stick use them on himself.

[Kazyan]

Do you know what domains the Cleric has?

I was thinking Kobold and Trickery, since I thought a kobold in this relationship would be fitting.


Cleric5/Runecaster8(pgtf) will let you make permanent runes anyone can use without using UMD so you can make runes of all those lovely self only buffs and have your beat stick use them on himself.

Now this is a good idea. I'll see what it can do and how it would affect the treasure from the encounter. (Though it's not exactly an everyday fight...)

[ericgrau]

As a DM, I've got a buffer cleric and someone else who will do the actual combat. (They're both antagonists.) The thing is, I, uh, don't actually know how to buff someone else as a cleric all that well. All the good cleric buffs seem to be self-only, besides Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, so this setup loses its bite if there are no actual buffs happening. Google isn't telling me much, either.

The cleric will be level 13. Long-term buffs are preferred, but if the PCs aren't exceedingly clever in their approach, short-term buffs will work as well.
The long term buffs tend to be better and these also target others. Greater magic weapon, imbue with spell ability (my favorites are close wounds or shield other) and sometimes magic vestment. Cleric crafting is really nice too. "Short term buffs" should really be called "short term buff", because you rarely get more than 1 if even that many. Casting makes noise. Plus by the time foes notice each other a fight quickly begins. So long term buffs and similar tactics like crafting seem weaker individually but are far stronger because you can get 5-10 of them for 0 combat actions. Often a short term buff is a trap that may be break even or even decrease combat effectiveness, since a standard action that could have been spent on offense is a steep price to pay. Even during your buff round you pick your favorite to the exclusion of the others, such as righteous wrath of the faithful. This is also why persistent spell is so good. Even with persist there are really nice aura spells in spell compendium for buffing groups (not necessarily with "aura" in the name).

Clerics don't have that many hour/level or 24 hour buffs though. Where they truly excel are 10 min/level buffs. There's endless utility among those such as air walk and freedom of movement. With the right domains you can get more such as stoneskin. If you can get within an hour of your foe without alerting him then great, otherwise you gotta use extend spell and possibly burn 2-3 castings to keep the buffs up for most of the daylight hours.

While the cleric's long term buffs can target others, he can also target himself with these and should probably participate in the melee too or else with offensive casting. As I pointed out buffing mid-fight isn't that effective, and it's especially poor on the 2nd or 3rd round when the buff won't get used for very long.

[Azoth]

Fun for the beatstick could be a Cleric1/barb1 (pounce/whirling frenzy)/HexbladeX with Death domain traded for death devotion. Give him a Vexing weapon (dragon mag: only works for hexblades and allows you to as a free action give the weapon's enhancement bonus as a minus to AC/saves/other things for a round), dark companion, divine might, and power attack.

Watch him start handing out negative levels to anyone he attacks (upto 3-4 depending on his ECL), while making the foe he chooses to beat down debuffed to trivial.

One I have used at higher levels was to give him a belt of battle and a bard dip + doomspeak. Turn went like this: Free action: rage. Swift action: activate belt of battle spending 2 charges for a standard action. Free action: move dark companion in range to give -2. Standard action: Doomspeak -10 to everything. Free action: hexblade curse -4 to everything. Free action: Divine Might: charisma to damage. Fullround action: Charge. Free action during charge: activate Vexing weapon to give -5 to everything. Non action during charge: Trigger Dreadful wrath: -2 to everything. Total: -23 to Attack/saves/AC. Better if he had had another swift action (or a buff round) to trigger death devotion to have thrown out some negative levels too.

[Kazyan]

The long term buffs tend to be better and these also target others. Greater magic weapon, imbue with spell ability (my favorites are close wounds or shield other) and sometimes magic vestment. Cleric crafting is really nice too. "Short term buffs" should really be called "short term buff", because you rarely get more than 1 if even that many. Casting makes noise. Plus by the time foes notice each other a fight quickly begins. So long term buffs and similar tactics like crafting seem weaker individually but are far stronger because you can get 5-10 of them for 0 combat actions. Often a short term buff is a trap that may be break even or even decrease combat effectiveness, since a standard action that could have been spent on offense is a steep price to pay. Even during your buff round you pick your favorite to the exclusion of the others, such as righteous wrath of the faithful. This is also why persistent spell is so good. Even with persist there are really nice aura spells in spell compendium for buffing groups (not necessarily with "aura" in the name).

Clerics don't have that many hour/level or 24 hour buffs though. Where they truly excel are 10 min/level buffs. There's endless utility among those such as air walk and freedom of movement. With the right domains you can get more such as stoneskin. If you can get within an hour of your foe without alerting him then great, otherwise you gotta use extend spell and possibly burn 2-3 castings to keep the buffs up for most of the daylight hours.

While the cleric's long term buffs can target others, he can also target himself with these and should probably participate in the melee too or else with offensive casting. As I pointed out buffing mid-fight isn't that effective, and it's especially poor on the 2nd or 3rd round when the buff won't get used for very long.

Alright. Any specific 10 min/level spells you have in mind to improve a beatstick?


Fun for the beatstick could be a Cleric1/barb1 (pounce/whirling frenzy)/HexbladeX with Death domain traded for death devotion. Give him a Vexing weapon (dragon mag: only works for hexblades and allows you to as a free action give the weapon's enhancement bonus as a minus to AC/saves/other things for a round), dark companion, divine might, and power attack.

Watch him start handing out negative levels to anyone he attacks (upto 3-4 depending on his ECL), while making the foe he chooses to beat down debuffed to trivial.

One I have used at higher levels was to give him a belt of battle and a bard dip + doomspeak. Turn went like this: Free action: rage. Swift action: activate belt of battle spending 2 charges for a standard action. Free action: move dark companion in range to give -2. Standard action: Doomspeak -10 to everything. Free action: hexblade curse -4 to everything. Free action: Divine Might: charisma to damage. Fullround action: Charge. Free action during charge: activate Vexing weapon to give -5 to everything. Non action during charge: Trigger Dreadful wrath: -2 to everything. Total: -23 to Attack/saves/AC. Better if he had had another swift action (or a buff round) to trigger death devotion to have thrown out some negative levels too.

The beatstick's build is fixed, actually, but the Vexing weapon is neat. I'll remember that.

[ericgrau]

Well just from core:
resist energy
protection from energy
magic circle against evil
water walk or air walk
freedom of movement
spell immunity (if the enemy knows the party)

I forgot heroes' feast, that's all day so it beats the 10 min/levels.

Plus domain spells and a bunch from spell compendium.

If you do get a buff round then the melee can carry a level 1-2 potion such as enlarge person. Especially if he uses reach/tripping/etc. But if you don't have a buffing round then it's not worth the time and he should just swing his sword.

[Urpriest]

Level 13 means you can swing Energy Immunity and Superior Resistance, that should be handy, especially with the Rod of Extend and Pearl of Power trick to get all five energy types up for only two spell slots.

As others have mentioned, Freedom of Movement and Greater Magic Weapon are good, Magic Vestment too if you can buff CL. If you think you have a few minutes' warning Death Ward is handy. Clerics get a lot of immunity-granting stuff.