Help building a beatstick cleric?

[Milodiah]

Hey Playground,

A friend of mine is a bit of a veteran 2e AD&D player who always enjoys playing the plate armor, frontlining, mace-bashing type of cleric in it. However, upon picking up a game of 3.5e, he's having trouble building that kind of character again, and I was wondering what advice you guys could give for replicating the battle cleric of AD&D in 3.5.


So far he's decided on playing a goliath, pretty solid choice from what I understand. I don't know his stats off the top of my head other than a 13 in Dex and a 16 or something in Wisdom. The feats we've got now are Combat Casting and Shielded Casting (starting at 5th level, so a whopping two feats), because he is going for a shield...beyond that it's nothing. I should add that for whatever reason, he's adamantly against taking a dip of Fighter, so that's out the window.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[PaucaTerrorem]

Pick up DMM: Persist.
If nightstick stacking is allowed buy a bunch of those to fuel DMM. If not, jack up your CHA.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Cleric into Ordained Champion is a solid beatstick. Shields are suboptimal as usual, but you can compensate by channeling and smiting and whatnot, because all that damage doesn't depend on base weapon damage. A dip in crusader will set you up with a stance and the entry requirements for Ruby Knight Vindicator.

[Milodiah]

Already looked into Ordained Champion.

When it says "must worship Hextor or Heironeous", that doesn't mean "be a cleric of", right? Merely pay respects to?

[ExLibrisMortis]

I think it is intended to be for clerics of Hextor or Heironous only. The Adaptation section lists Forgotten Realms and Eberron deities, and mentions that any lawful military church could have Ordained Champions. If you don't want to be a cleric of the H-es, pick any lawful god with the War domain and ask your DM for dispensation.

[Milodiah]

The issue here being he has already selected a god, one of the goliath ones. I will say that this player has also played 4e, so I don't think he'd feel too weirded out by a Tome of Battle class. Crusader may be an option here.

[Milodiah]

I did manage to sell him on Crusader, he's now thinking Crusader 3/Cleric 2, and going cleric from there.

[Flickerdart]

Starting with Cleric is better - Cleric 2 would allow him to enter Crusader as an IL 2 guy, and thus get 2nd level maneuvers at Crusader level 2 when he has 3 IL. The other way, he would only gain 3 IL at Crusader level 3.

Point him in the direction of the Divine Crusader - a class focused less on casting and more on bashing. 7 levels of Crusader and then Divine Crusader (and then something that progresses divine casting with full BAB, like Knight of the Raven) would make a pretty solid front-line guy.

[Aleolus]

Well, if his god offers it, the Strength domain is always nice to have on a Beatstick. Sure it only lasts one round, but melee combatants should take every Str boost they can get

[LudicSavant]

Before you worry about feats or prestige classes or anything, you should be making yourself aware of the spells that make melee clerics tick. Things like Blade of Blood (+3d6 melee damage as a swift action at level 1), Surge of Fortune (hit and crit without rolling dice), or Footsteps of the Divine (move really fast, with a variety of movement types).

[nedz]

These should be handy

Cleric handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1238)
Crusader Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2645)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, don't bother with Combat Casting and especially not Shielded Casting, just put max ranks in Concentration and always cast defensively if threatened.

What alignment is his character, and what domains does he have available from his chosen deity? These things are important, because there are feats like Law Devotion and spells like Elation that require a particular alignment/domain, plus his domain powers and domain spells can really help determine how he can be most effective.

I'll usually recommend four levels of Divine Oracle in Complete Divine for a melee Cleric, because it gets Evasion and Uncanny Dodge and the prerequisites cost almost nothing if you can get the needed Skill Focus feat from the Frog God's Fane in Complete Scoundrel instead of spending a feat on it. Something like Cleric 6/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10 is fairly ideal if you have Divine Metamagic for Persistent Spell to make certain buffs last all day.


One example of an ideal melee Cleric is a LN Human Cleric of Zarus (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20041203a) with the above Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10 build, starting with the Strength and War domains to be able to use a Greatsword. Use the spontaneous domain casting ACF in PHB2 for Strength, and trade the Strength domain's granted power for Divine Restoration in Dungeonscape. Take Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Divine Metamagic: Persistent, Power Attack, Extra Turning, and Craft Rod, and make your own Nightsticks from Libris Mortis. From your prestige classes you can get the Oracle, Law, and Destiny domains, and eventually use Divine Metamagic: Persistent with the spell Choose Destiny in Races of Destiny.

Your dump stats with at build are Dex and Int, priority stats are Str, Wis, and Con. You can get an enhancement bonus to Dex added to any magical gloves or bracers (Armbands of Might) for the same price as Gloves of Dex of the same bonus per MIC p234, and your Dex score only needs to be as high as the max Dex of your heavy armor. Int is a dump stat because as a Human even with a negative Int modifier you'll always get at least two skill points/level, and the build only needs to put ranks in Knowledge: Religion and Concentration, both of which should be kept at max ranks for most of your career.

Pick up a +1 Animated Heavy Shield and a standard Strand of Prayer Beads that's missing the Bead of Smiting, which costs 9,000 gp according to the DMG. Use the Bead of Karma on that strand to get +4 caster level when casting your daily buffs, put (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on your armor and shield every day, and (Extended) Greater Magic Weapon on your sword every day. Use DMM: Persistent with Mass Lesser Vigor, Divine Power, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Stormrage, and of course Choose Destiny.

In the later levels get a 6th level Pearl of Power and a standard Metamagic Rod of Extend. Every other day prepare Energy Immunity twice, and use the pearl to cast it three times for three different energy types, with the Rod of Extend on each so they last 48 hours. On the days in between prepare Energy Immunity and Superior Resistance each once, cast those and use the pearl to cast Energy Immunity again, using the Rod of Extend on each so they last 48 hours. For the cost of those two items and two 6th level spell slots per day, this makes you completely immune to all five energy types and gives you a +6 Resistance bonus to all of your saving throws.