Shadows Abound: How do I make the best 'Shadow-Priest' Cleric?

[Darklady2831]

"Steeped in darkness, silently stalking the foes of your shadowed god. Wielding a blade of purest silver and casting fear into the hearts of the enemies of your faith. That is what it means to be of shadow. That is what it means to be in service of the Other." - Marwen of Morgue de Rotte (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=803440)


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Image credit to aritakaruka (http://aritakaruka.deviantart.com/) on DeviantArt

Greetings Playgrounders. As the title and the quote suggest, I'm looking for help making a "Shadow Priest" character. Or more specifically, I'm looking for help developing one out of the character I'm currently playing in a real-life game of Dungeons and Dragons. So far I've found some ideas, but I'm by no means a great optimizer or even someone who knows much of the more obscure spells and features out there. So I come to you, to help make this (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=803440) character into a full blown dark gandalf.

Specifically, I'm looking for several abilities to have, granted by magic items, spells, templates, or anything else that I could grab.

The Ability to go incorporeal during combat.
The Ability to use at least some illusions.
The Ability to sneak up on my enemies.
The Ability to reliably support the rest of the party as a healer.
The Ability to reliably provide knowledge and intelligence to the party.


Currently, I've got #4 down due to Spontaneous Healer and #5 down due to the Cloistered Cleric's Lore ability. #2 could be covered by the Trickery or Illusion Domains, thought obviously the Illusion domain is preferable. If my DM allows me to retrain the Trickery domain I will, if not then when I take a level of Contemplative I'll take the Illusion domain, though I'd prefer to take the Magic or Spell domain instead. Next level, I plan to start on #3 by taking a level of Rogue, which when combined with Able Learner will allow my Cloistered Cleric levels to take stealth skills alongside my knowledge skills.

I know about the Ethereal Jaunt spell, and the Cloak of Etherealness. While they are great, they don't allow me to act offensively while they're active. Are there any ways for a Cleric to gain the defensive bonuses of Incorporeality while still being able to fight back?

[Florian]

If you can backport PF material, a Darkness mystery Oracle would be the perfect fit.

[Inevitability]

A single level in the Ghost template class gives you incorporeality, which makes stealth trivial. Note, however, that your DM may either forbid you from taking the class, or at least make you take more than one level.

In Savage Species, there's a ritual that grants permanent incorporeality (without losing your own type) for 36000 GP and +2 LA.

[d20familiar]

Take a look at the Shadow Lord (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/shadow-lord-cr-2) pathfinder template and its incorporeal step ability:

When a shadow lord moves, it gains the incorporeal subtype and quality, including a deflection bonus to AC equal to its Charisma bonus. It loses the incorporeal subtype and special ability when it stops moving.

[Florian]

Take a look at the Shadow Lord (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/shadow-lord-cr-2) pathfinder template and its incorporeal step ability:

You know that you can only apply Shadow Lord to an creature that already has the Shadow Creature template, right? That moves the CR to +3, something that is very contra productive to a full caster class.

[d20familiar]

Good point about shadow creature requirement, Florian. I totally missed that with no hyperlinks from Shadow Lord to Shadow Creature :smallfrown:

[Gildedragon]

You want the Dark Creature template
And you will want a couple levels in ghost (up to 3; if you can buy off the LA piecemeal)
If you want to remain among the living : Child of the Night (Tom) progresses spellcasting
Ghostform spell
Polymorph into something incorporeal
One with shadow martial maneuver
The Shadow Mystery of the Umbral Body

[Rebel7284]

Lawful Evil
Rogue 1/Hit and Run Sneak Attack Fighter 1/Invisible Fist Monk 2/Abrupt Jaunt Conjurer 1/Ur-Priest 4/Shadowcraft Mage 5/Telflamar Shadowlord 4

Note that the collar of umbral metamorphosis grants you the dark template. The permanent version is only 22000GP as I recall

[Flickerdart]

How do you feel about project image or the Trickery Devotion feat? They're high level, but they allow you to create a semi-real illusory duplicate that you can cast spells out of. Enemies who think it's really you will fruitlessly attack it while you sit back and laugh.

[Red Fel]

Specifically, I'm looking for several abilities to have, granted by magic items, spells, templates, or anything else that I could grab.

The Ability to go incorporeal during combat.
The Ability to use at least some illusions.
The Ability to sneak up on my enemies.
The Ability to reliably support the rest of the party as a healer.
The Ability to reliably provide knowledge and intelligence to the party.


Of which deity is your Cloistered Cleric? If you haven't picked one, I'd suggest Wee Jas, and it's time to pursue the Ruby Knight Vindicator class from Tome of Battle. Here's why.
RKV advances your divine spellcasting 8/10 levels. Can't say no to that.
Incorporeality? RKV gives you access to Shadow Hand maneuvers, which give you access to a counter that turns you incorporeal, a stance that gives you concealment, and another stance that turns you invisible. Become the night.
Illusions? Well, there, I can't help you so much; I'd suggest finding Cleric spells that do that.
Stealth? Again, Shadow Hand. The aforementioned concealment and invisibility are great. There's also RKV's Armored Stealth ability, which lets you ignore your armor check penalty to Hide checks.
Healing? Aside from your Cleric abilities, RKV gives you access to Devoted Spirit maneuvers, which offer highly efficient healing - heal your allies by murdering things!
Knowledge and Intelligence? You've got that covered with your Cloistered Cleric levels, don'cha?
Then there are the other benefits of the RKV class, like being able to burn TU uses for swift actions, maneuver recovery, and bonuses on your martial strikes. And the benefits of maneuvers in general; White Raven allows you to break the action economy, Shadow Hand allows you to become untouchable, Devoted Spirit gives you very efficient spot-healing, and Stone Dragon lets you break things.

Shadow Hand also gives you a form of teleportation which, unlike Dimension Door, does not limit your actions after teleporting. Which is just plain sweet.

Take a dip into Crusader to grab your maneuver prerequisites, and then haul tail into RKV.

[Darklady2831]

Sorry I haven't replied before now, I've had a busy day. First, thanks to everyone for all of the ideas and help, I've had a blast just looking through the books containing these ideas. Now to address them all. :smallbiggrin:

I am unable to use Pathfinder material for this game, so the Darkness Mystery Oracle is out.

The Ghost template class is a possibility, because the group's wizard does want to become a Lich later in the campaign. I might be able to talk to my DM about having my character become a ghost in a sort of 'Ringwraith' sense, sustained by the will of my deity. Not entirely sure how the DM will be handling the LA from the Lichdom though.

The Dark Creature template is a definite possibility, but again I'd have to talk to my DM about gaining it (we've already started playing).

I did look into Child of Night, and it is a definite possibility depending on how the campaign goes (I've already got the special requirement down as of last session).

Having just looked at the Trickery Devotion feat, I have a feeling that I'm going to keep the Trickery Domain and grab that feat later on.

On the RKV, the campaign setting we're using is fully homebrewed, with none of the Greyhawk, Faerun, or Eberron deities showing up. My Cleric worships a deity of Death, Shadows, Magic, and Knowledge called 'The Other'. True Neutral and one of the more powerful gods in the setting (if we derive power from number of domains available to the clerics of a deity), though that is likely because he's a deity of a monotheistic religion whereas most other gods are of polytheistic pantheons. As for viability of the RKV, I'm not sure I want to sacrifice 3 more levels of spellcasting on top of the level of Rogue I'm going to be taking soon. I'd prefer to keep the spellcasting as full as possible (18 or 19 out of 20 levels, if possible).