Cleric or Wizard?

[ImSAMazing]

So I am playing in an upcoming lvl 1 campaign and I am wondering if I am going to play a Cleric or a Wizard. I am new to 3.5 but not to DnD. I will play one of those 2. The party exists out of: a duskblade, a barbarian and probably an other martial. Which one should I play? Builds? Spells to pick, races to consider. Any help is appreciated.

[Enran]

Gonna recommend wizard. Clerics are fantastic, but they work best when party buffing or self-buffing for melee, which really only seems like it'll add more of what you already have. They're good at other roles (like debuffer, offensive spellcaster, and utility), but wizards are generally just better at those roles. So if you're going for ability, I'd recommend wizard.

Of course, it depends on the tone and type of the campaign, and if you're confident enough in your allies' ability to keep the melee out of your face.

[Brova]

I recommend going Wizard. Focus on buffing your allies or dropping high powered offensive spells on your enemies. Don't bother too much with battlefield control, as it looks like your allies probably want to close with the enemy. There are a variety of possible options. Just taking a bunch of PrCs that are full casting and better than straight Wizard is good (Fatespinner, the first level of Mindbender, so on), as is War Weaver. I personally like Ultimate Magus, though it's a bit restrictive in terms of build.

[ComaVision]

I'm going to disagree with everyone else and recommend Cleric.

You're starting at level 1 and new to 3.5e and Cleric has way more out-of-the-box survivability. Nobody else in your group can use healing wands, and wizards can't either. A Cleric with a bad spell selection changes them the next day, a Wizard has to buy more.

To be succinct, a Cleric is just more learning friendly.

[Flickerdart]

So I am playing in an upcoming lvl 1 campaign and I am wondering if I am going to play a Cleric or a Wizard. I am new to 3.5 but not to DnD. I will play one of those 2. The party exists out of: a duskblade, a barbarian and probably an other martial. Which one should I play? Builds? Spells to pick, races to consider. Any help is appreciated.

I would recommend the cleric, for these reasons:

Beefy beef wall of beef: The cleric comes with heavy armour proficiency, shield proficiency, and a d8 hit die. The weapon aspect is not important because your friends will be hitting things for you, but it doesn't look like any of them will be focusing on holding the line, so you're going to get nasties punching you in the face. High-op wizards with Abrupt Jaunt and stacked mirror images will be fine, but you're not at tlat level of system mastery yet.
Zero cost for screw-ups: The wizard is full of pitfalls for a new player. Learn crappy spells? It costs gold to get new ones. Your familiar got stepped on? Eat an XP hit. Someone stole or destroyed your spellbook? Hopefully you paid for a backup. Clerics get up in the morning, and then pray to their gods for any spells off their list. And if they screwed up, they can turn their useless spells into heals, and get a brand new set of spells the next day.
More slots for free: At every level, clerics have an extra daily slot of every spell level - their domain spell. The wizard can make up the gap at the cost of specializing, but that reduces his versatility.
Pelor saves, everyone else takes damage: A good Fort save and Wisdom for a casting stat makes clerics great at saving throws. You don't want to be a wizard when poison is on the menu.
Discount wizardry is just a domain away: The Magic domain lets clerics use scrolls and wands like a wizard. The Spell domain lets them straight up prepare arcane spells (sort of) through Anyspell and Greater Anyspell. If your party is missing both arcane and divine casting, it's easier for clerics to fill both roles from the early levels.

[Aleolus]

I am actually going to recommend Cleric for one big reason: Your group will need healing. Potions can only do so much, especially at higher levels, no one you've listed so car can make good use out of Use Magic Device, and natural healing progresses at a snails pace. My suggestion is go with Cleric and take a feat to improve your ability to heal. Maybe not your first feat, but at some point

[Nifft]

Cleric is a great class for experimentation.

Even if you pick terrible spells on day 1, you get to pick all new spells on day 2, from your whole list.

You are competent to hit things in the face with a weapon.

You are good at casting spells.

You have good defenses (hit points, saving throws and AC).

You can heal yourself and others between fights.

Race: What's available? Is it a particular setting or a homebrew? Human is usually a great choice no matter what.

Builds: Cleric 20 is solid, top of the line power. You can increase power and versatility above the top of the line by going into a PrC, but those tend to vary a lot between settings. Like, if you're in Mythical Not-Egypt and the sun-god loves the undead (because mummies or whatever), then Radiant Servant of Pelor is probably not available.

[DMVerdandi]

At this level... I would suggest cleric.
Not only will the armor help you, but you are new to the game, so messing around with scribing and all that mess is unnecessary.
Now, here are my tips.


1. Remember, Cleric knows ALL cleric spells available.
Any book your DM allows, You know the spells from it. You can only prepare the number that is on your list, but you have complete and permanent access to them all.

2. Turn Undead is not for turning undead. It's for fueling Divine Metamagic.
(If you want to be GREAT at that, see if you can get prestige paladin for 2 levels. Turn Undead always stacks, AND you can get divine grace. Use Serenity feat so you can use WIS with turn undead.)

3.Use the spontaneous domain casting ACF.
Cure just isn't the best thing to cast spontaneously. Pick a Domain YOU want and do it.

4.If there is one spell I suggest you get on your list from the arcane side, It would be heroics.
Do it.

5. Read handbooks on the best cleric spells.

6. Try to make EVERYTHING work through Wisdom scores. And buff your wisdom to high heaven.

7. Just because you are a cleric doesn't necessarily mean you have to play a templar.
Roleplay wise, it is just a holy warrior that actually is empowered through their faith. And can take cues from any culture that has warriors of faith.

8.Play a philosopic/athiest cleric.
You can pick your own domains.

9.True Neutral happens to be the best cleric alignment.

10.Equip yourself properly.
Early in the game, buy weapons and armor. Later, you need to focus on magic items that boost your casting.

11. Use Status and Greater status spells
It is one of the best utility spells clerics have [essentially lets you know all of the statuses and general location of your teammates]

12. Choose a role
Then build your feats and go to spell list around it.

[Telonius]

That party is seriously heavy on the melee. No obvious skillmonkey, no obvious face, one partial caster in the Duskblade.

I'd ask the DM if it's possible to make you a Cloistered Cleric. It will give you some much-needed skill points to play around with. I know it's heresy to suggest losing a caster level, but in this instance it might be better to pick up a level of Rogue and Able Learner first, then going Cleric the rest of the way. Rogue/Cleric of Olidammara would make sense and give you access to the (very nice) Trickery domain.

[Kurald Galain]

Wizard, simply because at low levels, the wizard spell list is much better than the cleric's - both in combat (you've got control spells like Grease and encounter winners like Color Spray straight from level one) and in utility (e.g. Silent Image, Mount, and Charm Person).

Sure, the cleric knows every spell in all the books. But the wizard can buy every spell from pocket change, so that's ok. Plus you get a familiar and some great alternative class features to pick from. Just make sure that you've got decent constitution and a wand of Mage Armor, and you can match the cleric in survivability while trumping it in versatility.

[nedz]

That party is seriously heavy on the melee. No obvious skillmonkey, no obvious face, one partial caster in the Duskblade.
Good points, which all point to a Beguiler.
Non melee, skillmonkey, face, Arcane caster with the stuff Duskblades don't have.
Just grab Arcane Disciple a few times for the divine stuff, though you might need something like the Educated feat to pick a domain at level 1.

[Warrnan]

Ok. Chaotic neutral kobold cleric of Kurtulmak, the kobold god. (I think that's his name.) The kobold domain gives trapfinding. Grab useful domains to taste.

Enjoy playing my personal pick for most powerful class in the game and fulfilling two roles, debuff remover and trap monkey. You can probably steal many wizard tricks with domains and alternate class features. Go look at the clerics hand book. :)

[Nifft]

Ok. Chaotic neutral kobold cleric of Kurtulmak, the kobold god. (I think that's his name.) The kobold domain gives trapfinding. That god is Lawful Evil.

He has some nice domain choices, but none of them are Chaotic.

It's totally viable to play a Cloistered Cleric of Kurtulmak (LN or LE of course) with the Knowledge, Trickery, and Kobold domains.

[Seto]

I'll recommend Wizard if you're knew to 3.5, because having a limited selection of spells known is easier to handle, less bookkeeping, and doesn't risk you getting as overwhelmed with the tremendous amount of information that choosing and preparing spells out of all possible Cleric spells, everyday, would require.

If that doesn't scare you, or you're restricted to PHB or something, I change my recommendation to Cleric because, as others have said, you're less likely to die at low levels and you're less likely to make choices you'll regret once you've gained better system mastery.

[Brova]

Good points, which all point to a Beguiler.
Non melee, skillmonkey, face, Arcane caster with the stuff Duskblades don't have.
Just grab Arcane Disciple a few times for the divine stuff, though you might need something like the Educated feat to pick a domain at level 1.

Playing a Beguiler is fun. That's totally something you could do. I recommend asking your DM about a couple of things (Diplomacy + charm person interactions, Rainbow Servant) if you plan to go that way. You'll want to expand you spell list somehow. Arcane Disciple is good, as is Shadowcraft Mage. If your DM rules that Rainbow Servant is full progression, then that's also sweet. UMD and wands or scrolls can also cover gaps. Other than that, you basically want to hit people with spells that make them lose. At low levels that's sleep or color spray, but at high levels it can be dominate person or major image.

If you just want trapfinding, you can try a theurge build. Illumian Beguiler/Wizard/Ultimate Magus drops a caster level, but gets metamagic shenanigans and a boosted caster level.

[Warrnan]

Ok. I got the alignment wrong on the Kobold god. Haha. You could arguably just play a kobold of any alignment and grab that domain or just go LN to fit in with a non-evil party. It's the easiest way to get trapfinding with a full 20 level casting progression.