What are the best cleric spells?

[flappeercraft]

So right now im playing a campaign with a 3rd level human cleric of hextor. I know quite a few good spells but what do you reccomend? My domains are destruction and war, also my party consists of the cleric, a fighter 1 / wizard 3 dwarf, a fighter 3 hobgoblin and a fighter 1 / barbarian 1 / dragon shaman 1 (green) half orc. The point of this character is a inbetween of aiding and fighting himself. We are all hextor followers so spells such as faith healing work. Any canon book/dungeon magazine is allowed. If you need stats from the characters just tell and I will post them. Also we just finished a mission and exp hasnt been awarded yet so I might level up to 4th level or 5th if im lucky so post any spells for up to 5th level characters.

[Spore]

From a scope of someone only familiar with core D&D and Pathfinder so on a baseline:

- Bless
- Magic Circle against/Protection from Chaos if your plot already shows signs of chaotic (good) forces fighting against you
- Sanctuary as you are the force multiplier, expect attacks coming your way
- Obscuring Mist because snipers will also target you
- Hold Person is surprisingly effective on social encounters (cast it, let your best grappler pin the enemy down and another one bind him with ropes, e voila, one enemy at your whim, possibly hostage)
- Resist Energy because environmental damage occurs on any level and this is the level where elementals and other smaller supernatural threats become more common
- Silence is quite situational but doesn't impede your Hobgoblin's ability to wreck face. Have him be in the melee range of the enemy and you win the encounter.

I'm sure other people more versed in the game's ressources can point out many more spells but I feel the core cleric list is quite strong early on.

[Bronk]

Deific Vengeance is a nice second level spell for blasting undead from the Spell Compendium.

[Eldariel]

From a scope of someone only familiar with core D&D and Pathfinder so on a baseline:

- Bless
- Magic Circle against/Protection from Chaos if your plot already shows signs of chaotic (good) forces fighting against you
- Sanctuary as you are the force multiplier, expect attacks coming your way
- Obscuring Mist because snipers will also target you
- Hold Person is surprisingly effective on social encounters (cast it, let your best grappler pin the enemy down and another one bind him with ropes, e voila, one enemy at your whim, possibly hostage)
- Resist Energy because environmental damage occurs on any level and this is the level where elementals and other smaller supernatural threats become more common
- Silence is quite situational but doesn't impede your Hobgoblin's ability to wreck face. Have him be in the melee range of the enemy and you win the encounter.

I'm sure other people more versed in the game's ressources can point out many more spells but I feel the core cleric list is quite strong early on.

Silence is excellent. Absolutely superb, in fact. You can prepare an action to AOE cast it near an enemy caster should they begin casting. Their spell is lost and they cannot cast again, since nobody on these levels generally has access to good, non-verbal spells. If terrain (such as most rooms) prevents moving out of the area, all the better. No save being the key here. It also has other uses, such as being cast on allies to provide an essential move silently of infinite for the whole party as long as they stay within 20' radius of each other. Better yet, it can also be cast on objects to be used in this function and then be used as a thrown weapon (or in case of e.g. an arrow, an extra effect) to center it on enemy casters. Given casters are basically always the most dangerous enemies, this is all extremely useful and remains so for many levels.

All the buffs (particularly Protection from X on these levels) and some of the general utility, such as Shatter (break non-magical weapons on enemies for instance), and the single target debuffs are quite useful. Cleric spells are worse than Wizard in this respect, but they aren't bad. Cause Fear, Command & Hold Person can still do work occasionally and lacking better ones, some are worth preparing. Oh yeah, and Hide from Undead/Lesser Restoration/etc. are obviously very powerful for their intended purpose. Particularly Hide from Undead is just insane for a 1st level spell vs. undead opponents. Shield Other can have some great uses if you work for it, but right out of the gates it's only "okay". The 1 hour/level is really useful and, depending on your durability, it can save some squishies or share the burden of the tanks (it gets much better when you get some spell combo that makes you essentially damage immune, of course).


Outside Core, there's surprisingly little in terms of good combat spells on these levels. Darkbolt [Lords of Madness] and Tyche's Touch [Lost Empires of Faerun] are some of the few 2nd level gems. 1st level mostly features more buffs and utility. 2nd also includes Close Wounds [Spell Compendium], which can be a lifesaver so it might be good to keep one around for emergencies. There's the absolutely wonderful Guidance of the Avatar (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) and there's Divine Insight [Spell Compendium] both of you make you an instant virtuoso in any skill (for one skillcheck). Absolutely incredible for making those clutch rolls. Best of all, they stack.

[Darrin]

1st:

Blade of Blood (PHBII). Adds +1d6 damage to a weapon, or sacrifice 5 HP for +3d6 damage.

Conjure Ice Beast (Frostburn). Gives you access to the SNA list, and some interesting special attacks: frigid touch, ice breath, cold aura, and engulf (more on this one later). Cold aura is particularly nifty: free action every round, 1d6 cold damage in a 10' burst, *no save*. Summon a bunch of beasts at once to do Xd6 damage to a small area with no save. Check with your DM if the phrase, "In all other ways, conjure ice beast I functions like summon monster I" allows you to use Augment Summoning, Golden Desert Honey (Complete Mage), or Ring of the Beast (Complete Champion) with your ice beasts.

Ice Slick (Frostburn). Grease for healbots but 4x the area. Cast snowshoes or ice skate to treat it as normal terrain.

Protective Interposition (Forge of War). Swift-action teleport, good for repositioning the meatbags on the front line.

Ray of Hope (Book of Exalted Deeds). Excellent buff for your meatbags, although it overlaps a bit with bless.

2nd:

Spiritual Weapon (Core). My favorite offensive spell. Fire-and-forget, force damage, and bypasses DR.

Close Wounds (Spell Compendium). Already mentioned.

Cloud of Knives (PHBII). Sort of fire-and-forget, free attack every round.

Dark Way (Spell Compendium). Your first "wall" spell, as you can anchor it vertically instead of horizontally. Good for splitting up the battlefield, cut off escape/pursuit, or get you across a pit/chasm.

Obscuring Snow (Frostburn). One half of the Snowglobe of Murder, a 30' radius globe that blocks all vision. The other half is snowsight, which is only a cleric spell as part of the Winter domain, but is easily wandable for only 750 GP, and can be handled by any druids/rangers in the party.

3rd:

Bladebane (Unapproachable East). A la carte bane weapon.

Conjure Ice Beast III (Frostburn). Huge monstrous centipede now available, which can engulf large-sized creatures, or four wolves for 4d6 cold aura.

[flappeercraft]

Thank you for the suggestions, they seem pretty good. Any other suggestions?

[Eldariel]

1st:

Blade of Blood (PHBII). Adds +1d6 damage to a weapon, or sacrifice 5 HP for +3d6 damage.

Conjure Ice Beast (Frostburn). Access to the SNA list, and also a good blasting spell: you can give your ice beasts a 10' burst cold aura, 1d6 cold damage as a free action with no save. At higher levels, giant centipedes can engulf your foes.

Ice Slick (Frostburn). Grease for healbots but 4x the area. Cast snowshoes or ice skate to treat it as normal terrain.

Protective Interposition (Forge of War). Swift-action teleport, good for repositioning the meatbags on the front line.

Ray of Hope (Book of Exalted Deeds). Excellent buff for your meatbags, although it overlaps a bit with bless.

2nd:

Spiritual Weapon (Core). My favorite offensive spell. Fire-and-forget, force damage, and bypasses DR.

Close Wounds (Spell Compendium). Already mentioned.

Cloud of Knives (PHBII). Sort of fire-and-forget, free attack every round.

Obscuring Snow (Frostburn). One half of the Snowglobe of Murder, a 30' radius globe that blocks all vision. The other half is snowsight, which is only a cleric spell as part of the Winter domain, but is easily wandable for only 750 GP, and can be handled by any druids/rangers in the party.

3rd:

Bladebane (Unapproachable East). A la carte bane weapon.

Conjure Ice Beast III (Frostburn). Four ice wolves for a 4d6 cold aura (no save) or a huge centipede that can engulf.

Oh yeah, Frostburn has all kinds of incredible Cleric-stuff. There's also Blood Snow, which is very strong in the right environment (or the right spells). The AOE is massive, the save is repeated, Nausea is a fairly strong condition and it also drains Constitution while at it. One of the better Cleric AOE Save-or-Sucks, though again limited to snow and it unfortunately doesn't limit enemy mobility (it does restrict most other actions tho). If we're gonna mention level 3s, while it's less often mentioned than with their Wizard counterparts, Clerics get Shivering Touch from this book, which is no doubt their single best target single target attack spell on these levels, able to on average paralyze dragons out of the box with just touch and spell resistance (and can be metamagicked to work against most things).

EDIT: Oh yeah, since we're talking an evil Cleric now, Wither Limb [Book of Vile Darkness] is a 2nd level single-target Fort save-or-lose. Withering the hands makes most humanoid types lose pretty darn hard, unable to cast somatic spells or wield weapons and it's got no real limitations level-wise. Seething Eyebane is a permanent level 1 save-or-lose (comparable to the 3rd level Blindness-spell) but at the cost of 1d6 Con-damage to self. It might be worth considering at times particularly on higher levels though, particularly since you have a relatively easy access to Lesser Restoration. Though later on, I'd focus most of the low level spells on buffs as those tend to scale better than offense.

[flappeercraft]

Oh btw guys im in no interest of area spells that intervene with casting since half the party are casters

[flappeercraft]

Guys I just came up with an item that could be usable for my party, its a at will blade of blood spell (CL 2) for the half orc. That way instead of dealing 2d6+14 (with rage, bull strength and power aura) he would deal 5d6+14 by just sacrificing 5 hp. Is it worth the money to get that item? Btw the half orc uses a greatsword so he can get power attack and do even more damage probably.

[animewatcha]

If you open up 'at will' items like that, you open up shenanigans for items like continuous true strike.

[Eldariel]

Oh btw guys im in no interest of area spells that intervene with casting since half the party are casters

That's hardly a problem. In fact, that's the natural environment where such spells shine. Casters can act at range from various angles and you can coordinate with party members and control the spell location; just cast the AOE in such a way that it only impairs enemy casters. Something like Silence can be cast on an object so you can just throw the object (and thus the spell) when it's time to start slinging spells too, allowing you to essentially move the silence field. Worst case scenario, if it becomes disadvantageous, dismiss is.

[Willie the Duck]

Oh btw guys im in no interest of area spells that intervene with casting since half the party are casters

You're a cleric with the war domain and you are in the back line with the casters?

[Spore]

You're a cleric with the war domain and you are in the back line with the casters?

I figure he is the last one to enter melee. Keep in mind he is the only one without Fighter/Mundane levels.

[flappeercraft]

The cleric is not in the back line with the casters its more like mid field and also take into account every one else has at least 1 level of fighter except him. Even the wizard has a level of fighter although the wizard goes at range not melee but can handle melee. Also with the war domain he got the feat weapon focus composite longbow but he is geared for melee. Btw casting doesnt mean backline you can cast on melee and its also quite useful to do so if done right.

[flappeercraft]

About an object to use for silence would an arrow do? The wizard has a pretty good accuracy with the bow. +8 attack bonus, would that be good?

[Eldariel]

About an object to use for silence would an arrow do? The wizard has a pretty good accuracy with the bow. +8 attack bonus, would that be good?

Yes, or a torch or a block of wood or a rock or whatever. It doesn't need to be something you can do damage with tho there's nothing wrong with using arrows either (tho figure out with the DM what happens if they're destroyed on use). Again, you can also cast it on a point in space on the enemy casters like any normal AOE. With a readied action that's going to stop at least one spell and inconvenience them a lot longer.

[flappeercraft]

Is there any other spells to help out the fighters deal damage? Please tell. Looking for stuff like blade of blood and thats stacks with blade of blood.

[Flickerdart]

Is there any other spells to help out the fighters deal damage? Please tell. Looking for stuff like blade of blood and thats stacks with blade of blood.

If you can't find anything else, bull's strength isn't a bad spell. The duration is good, and it adds a hefty amount of damage to your guys: assuming a two-handed Power Attack warrior, that +4 Strength converts to +2 to damage normally, +1 extra because two-handed weapons add 1.5 STR instead of STR to damage, and +4 more because the extra to-hit can be converted into more damage with Power Attack (at 2:1 returns because of two-handed weapons). +7 damage for 5 minutes goes a long way.

[Troacctid]

Master's Touch gives proficiency with any weapon or shield, which would allow you to upgrade to a more powerful exotic weapon, e.g. from a greatsword to a jovar.

Bladeweave doesn't increase damage, but it does daze the enemy on a successful hit, which is very strong.

Both of these are Sorcerer/Wizard spells, though.

[flappeercraft]

Flickerdart both melee guys (half orc and hobgoblin) use greatswords and we commonly use bull strength. We also have the half orc rage while under the effect of bull strength. We dont have power attack yet but we had that planned. Thanks any ways though

[flappeercraft]

Blade weave seems like a good choice I will consider it and its no problem that its for arcanes we have a wizard on the party. (I control both the wizard and cleric due to lack of players so its good)

[Deophaun]

You can prepare an action to AOE cast it near an enemy caster should they begin casting. Their spell is lost and they cannot cast again...
Their spell is not lost because you're casting silence before they have begun casting their spell, meaning that they can choose to take a different action instead. Which, if they have a move action, means they can just move out of the area and cast as normal.

[Yahzi]

1. Cure Minor Wounds. Because it is so low level, beginners can do it, meaning nobody dies from childbirth anymore, which is huge.

2. Zone of Truth. It doesn't necessarily lead to good societies, but it sure does lead to orderly ones. Why waste resources on detectives, trials, and prisons when you can just get the truth out?

3. Plant Growth (from the Plant domain). Same effect as modern fertilizer. Turns a poor society into a rich one.

4. Commune. Not sure if raising the poll tax is the right thing to do? Worried that a neighboring state might be planning to betray you? Just ask!

Then, once you've completely reworked your society to be 10x as productive, you'll have lots of money left over to hire big dumb heroes to go out and kill things for you.

[Eldariel]

Their spell is not lost because you're casting silence before they have begun casting their spell, meaning that they can choose to take a different action instead. Which, if they have a move action, means they can just move out of the area and cast as normal.

Depends on how the DM rules about using the "If she begins casting a spell..."-trigger (which is explicitly spelled out in PHB as an option, but only for attacks and counterspells), with the difference that if it has Verbals, Silence should cause it to be lost automatically. There should be no problem with this by the usual Ready rules though - a spell that prevents finishing the spell in the first place should be at least as good as damage. Ultimately, what you really care about is the lost action though so it really doesn't matter that much though.

[Khedrac]

About an object to use for silence would an arrow do? The wizard has a pretty good accuracy with the bow. +8 attack bonus, would that be good?
Only if your DM is being sensible.

RAW arrows fired from a bow that hit their target are destroyed. If silence was cast on the arrow and the arrow no longer exist then the silence ends...
Arrows that miss have a 50% chance of being destroyed.

[Eldariel]

Only if your DM is being sensible.

RAW arrows fired from a bow that hit their target are destroyed. If silence was cast on the arrow and the arrow no longer exist then the silence ends...
Arrows that miss have a 50% chance of being destroyed.

Does a spell end if the anchor is destroyed tho? Given Silence is castable on space it could be argued that the spell would just remain there.

[flappeercraft]

Wouldnt the solution then be cast after the arrow hit? That way it doesnt count as destroyed lost magic because it is destroyed to begin with so it would have to sorta be destroyed again.

[flappeercraft]

Yahzi I dont need to worry about making better the society im part of because to beggin with another character (not mine) is controlling it, 2nd its also like the most ordered one I have seen/found and third of all if a 3rd level cleric can do it the leader can. The leader is a 30th level character Cleric 10 / Contemplative 10 / Fighter 8 / Monk 2