Planning a dwarf cleric build. But is dwarf the right race for it?

[Madokar]

I've been toying with some different character ideas for campaigns down the road. One thing I want to try my hand at is playing a dwarf character. Since I've never played a dwarf before. Thing is, I don't want to play a stereotypical dwarf. i.e: a drunken, hammer-swinging barbarian/fighter. To that end, I was thinking of playing as a cleric. Something to compliment the idea of exploring new horizons, as I have never played a cleric before either.

Going with that, I figured I'd more or less mashup my favourite dwarf characters. Varric Tethras from the Dragon Age series along the lines of personality and backstory. With a touch of Durkon Thundershield in mind for the rest. The dwarf in question would be a NG follower of Pharasma, the goddess of the dead on Golarion. His domains would be the Healing Domain and the Repose domain with the Souls subdomain power. Which would place him in the position of the group healer and undead fighter.

Thing is, I'm a tad on the fence with going through with the idea. Because under Pathfinder rules (the setting my group usually plays in), dwarves have a bonus to Wisdom, but a penalty to Charisma. Wisdom is good for most cleric abilities and features, so the bonus is appreciated. However, the Charisma penalty will make channelling positive energy more difficult. Can't channel as often, have a lower save DC for channeling to deal damage, etc.

So I was wondering if anybody would have any ideas and suggestions on how to make a dwarf cleric work with Pathfinder rules? I like the concept, but I'm not sure it can be as mechanically solid as it could be.

[Kurald Galain]

Well, channeling to deal damage to undead is not a very good ability, so having a low DC on that isn't a big deal. Channeling to heal is nice, but if you want to do that more often, there's feats for that.

On the other hand, a wisdom bonus is great and allows you to debuff and control enemies a great deal. You can even spend a trait to key charisma-based skills off another ability instead, if you want to remain socially strong (and there's spells to boost that, too).

[Madokar]

Well, channeling to deal damage to undead is not a very good ability, so having a low DC on that isn't a big deal. Channeling to heal is nice, but if you want to do that more often, there's feats for that.

On the other hand, a wisdom bonus is great and allows you to debuff and control enemies a great deal. You can even spend a trait to key charisma-based skills off another ability instead, if you want to remain socially strong (and there's spells to boost that, too).

What trait are you talking about?

[Pugwampy]

All those classic DND game boxes have dwarf clerics. I love Eberk .

I assume the main reason for anyone picking a Dwarf cleric is because he offers more "butt kicking" options than a Human cleric .

What exactly do you want your cleric to focus on ? Channeling , Spellcasting or Fighting ?

As you pointed out , a dwarf is poor choice for channeling but great for the other two .
That said a Channel cleric with selective channel feat is one heck of a game changer in combat .

[Madokar]

All those classic DND game boxes have dwarf clerics. I love Eberk .

I assume the main reason for anyone picking a Dwarf cleric is because he offers more "butt kicking" options than a Human cleric .

What exactly do you want your cleric to focus on ? Channeling , Spellcasting or Fighting ?

As you pointed out , a dwarf is poor choice for channeling but great for the other two .
That said a Channel cleric with selective channel feat is one heck of a game changer in combat .

I suppose I want him to be the healer who also can be the ace in the hole for when the party comes up against undead. If there was a paladin on the team, they could be the one to channel positive energy in a pinch. But I don't like to assume, so for now I'm wondering if there is a way to make the channelling work. If it can't, then I guess I focus on spellcasting.

[Eldariel]

Well, channeling to deal damage is a very inefficient way of going about dealing with Undead anyways; the amount of effect you have compared to an attack action, another spell or a control action is minor unless there are tons of extremely weak Undead around (in which case you probably aren't awfully threatened by them anyways; and your channel damage remains the same regardless of your Cha). It's mostly a free extra source of healing; nice to have in the pocket but rarely a dealmaker or breaker. Generally you have more influential combat actions available so it's mostly an out-of-combat resource saver and you often have time to just use Wands there. Thus, it's one of those "nice to have but if you take a penalty to it, whatever" much like 3.5 Turn Undead (though with Divine Metamagic, that ironically became more important).

You have a bonus to the more important stat, Wisdom, as well as Con that everybody wants. There's nothing particularly important that's derived off Channeling in PF either so having a slightly worse Cha is easily worth the trade-off.

[haplot]

If you were using 3e or 3.5 id suggest taking some of the feats at let you turn your turning attempts into other things like give party fast healing 3 for a short while or allies weapons gain alignment for over comping DR.

I think theres also ones that increase your caster level or improve your healing too.

They use up your turning attempts from what I remember so if youre not going against undead on any particular day, that side of your character isn't totally wasted.

The book these come out of is Complete Divine. As its a 3.5 book I believe and I think you said you are using Pathfinder, you could always ask your DM if you could use them, or come up with something similar.

Good luck finding the right build

[Pugwampy]

I'm wondering if there is a way to make the channelling work.

It does work and very well too .
Look up Priest class in Tome of Secrets . Sweet D8 channel Bruh.

My group favours specialist healers and always skip over clerics for channel priests .
Priests give up combat but have more spells and stronger channels . its a good deal .

[Kurald Galain]

I suppose I want him to be the healer who also can be the ace in the hole for when the party comes up against undead.

Note that you have spells for this purpose, such as Burst of Radiance.

[Madokar]

Note that you have spells for this purpose, such as Burst of Radiance.

See, I don't know these things. I don't have an understanding of the cleric class and what it is capable of. Which is I appreciate all the help given thus far.