Concept Builds: The Ascetic Cleric

[GilesTheCleric]

In advance of my upcoming (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T4F6cqeku8SHZORgDm7s3S7mb46vS7qitUwsdN51-C4/edit?usp=sharing) Cleric handbook, I'd like to have the community help me with creating exemplary builds (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bJ_UPdzuHJVx_-Bcy8a9s2mozVsDMgHYbvIxNxkjECA/edit?usp=sharing). Each will be based on a concept. Today's concept is:

The Ascetic Cleric. A Cleric that relies on nothing but prayers and their own deity-given body to survive and thrive. Vow of Poverty is optional.

General
Ideally the schtick will come online by level 6 or earlier.
Prestige classes and other non-Cleric levels and elements are fine, so long as the build remains primarily "Cleric".

3e
Level cap: Build ends at level 15.
Point buy: 32
Allowed sources: All 1pp WotC, including web content. Dragon Magazine, unupdated 3.0, and officially licensed 3pp content (eg. Dark Sun, Birthright, Kamalar) are also allowed.
Cheese: Any RAW-tight cheese is allowed, except NI/ arbitrarily large loops and Wish abuse.
Setting: Spelljammer. That is, every setting's content is allowed (and as a houserule, that includes Dark Sun)
UA variants: Chapter 1: everything allowed except bloodlines. Ch 2: everything but generic classes and gestalt. Ch 3: Only traits (1) and flaws (2) allowed. Ch 4-6: nothing allowed.

Houserules:

No multiclassing xp penalty.
Magic/ Psionics transparency.
No death from massive damage.


PF
Same as above, except
Point buy: 25
Allowed sources: All 1pp allowed, plus Dreamscarred Press and Drop Dead Studios
Unchained variants: All allowed.

Houserules:

Race Builder disallowed.

Feel free to contribute with just a build stub or some ideas for feats, spells, ACFS, or what-have-you, or even with an Iron Chef-style complete build. The best complete build will be credited to you and included in the handbook.



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Code immediately below (spoiler).

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Goal
This isn't a competition where only one person wins -- the whole community wins. There's no harm in making suggestions for improvements to any particular build. We're also not necessarily trying to create the most powerful character. Hewing closely to a mechanical interpretation of the concept is the end goal.



Small note: I don't know much about PF. The guide is geared for 3e, but if you have some build suggestions that people playing 3.P might appreciate, I'm happy to include them. Also let me know if there's some other widely-used houserules I should include for PF.

[Telonius]

Just a stub for now, but this would be a basic Vow of Poverty Sacred Fist build. Assuming that text trumps table in Sacred Fist, and we're not using fractional BAB. (If fractional, Cleric5/Monk1). Any other full-casting PrC could be substituted for Radiant Servant; Sacred Exorcist and Divine Oracle have fairly easy prerequisites.

Cleric 6/Monk1/Sacred Fist10/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3
Human
1 Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty
3 Combat Casting
6 Combat Reflexes
7 Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist
9 Extra Turning


Other build ideas:

Vow of Poverty, Incarnate/Cleric/Sapphire Hierarch. Bound soulmelds sub in for magic items; you'd be literally using your soul to power your character. I'd have to read up, but it's possible you could mitigate Sanctified spell damage for things like Luminous Armor with Strongheart Vest. (For a weirder version of that, dip a level of Binder for Naberius. This also has the effect of casting Summon Alignment Argument IX).

[flappeercraft]

I'm thinking maybe a Crusader 1/Cleric 4/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10/Contemplative 6 could be good
You can go human and get VoP at first level for the bonus feats.

[GilesTheCleric]

-snips- Cleric 6/Monk1/Sacred Fist10/Radiant Servant of Pelor 3

Vow of Poverty, Incarnate/Cleric/Sapphire Hierarch.

Sacred Fist is a good idea. You would still want to gear your spells to the typical melee things -- getting big, getting strong, and getting more hits, right?

Replacing magic items with soulmelds seems just about perfect. Does anyone have a discrete stub and maybe some good feats and melds for that?


Crusader 1/Cleric 4/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10/Contemplative 6.

I think that adds up to 21 levels. Cutting Contemplative to get back down to 15 seems best. Do you think Crusader should be taken at 1, or later on in the build for the better access to higher-level manoeuvers?

[ColorBlindNinja]

Worth noting that RAW Vow of Poverty won't let a Cleric have a Holy Symbol, if I recall.

Edit: In 3.5 anyway, not sure about PF.

[ATHATH]

Well, if you're not going to use armor, why not pick up that ACF that gives you a dragon-shell thingy instead of armor proficiency?

[flappeercraft]

I think that adds up to 21 levels. Cutting Contemplative to get back down to 15 seems best. Do you think Crusader should be taken at 1, or later on in the build for the better access to higher-level manoeuvers?

Ah crap didn't notice it was 21 and not 20. If the build is for 15 then Cutting contemplative is best but if it's for 20 cutting 1 level of RKV is probably better, 10th RKV level is a dead level and contemplative gets you the extra domain. I would take Crusader just after the cleric levels for the higher level maneuvers

Edit: I just noticed the sample builds we give are supposed to give are capped at 15 not 20 so yeah just remove contemplative

[Nifft]

Hmm, as an Ascetic Cleric, the idea of Wisdom to AC seems pretty keen.

Swordsage (unarmed) 1 / Cloistered Cleric 3 / Swordsage (unarmed) 2 / Ruby Knight Vindicator 10

That progression has two nice benefits:
No cross-class skill purchases; and
Your 2nd level of Swordage can pick a level 2 maneuver


Feats:
L1 - Martial Study (Vanguard Strike)
L3 - Martial Stance (Martial Spirit)
L6 - Adaptive Style
L9 - Weapon Finesse or Superior Unarmed Strike

With fractional BAB, that's BAB +13 at level 15, which gives you plenty of room to hit BAB 16+ before Epic.

With Flaws, the feats look more like:
L1 - Martial Study (Vanguard Strike), Martial Stance (Martial Spirit), Adaptive Style
L3 - Weapon Finesse

With Flaws + VoP, you would probably want to be a Human. Your feats would look like:
L1 - Martial Study (Vanguard Strike), Martial Stance (Martial Spirit), Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty
L3 - Adaptive Style
L6 - Weapon Finesse

[Telonius]

Worth noting that RAW Vow of Poverty won't let a Cleric have a Holy Symbol, if I recall.

Edit: In 3.5 anyway, not sure about PF.

The reason it won't let you have a holy symbol is because it has a price on it. The "Summon Holy Symbol" spell from Complete Champion (Clr 0) takes care of that; it specifies that the item is neither magical nor worth anything, but can be used for any purpose a holy symbol usually would.

[ColorBlindNinja]

The reason it won't let you have a holy symbol is because it has a price on it. The "Summon Holy Symbol" spell from Complete Champion (Clr 0) takes care of that; it specifies that the item is neither magical nor worth anything, but can be used for any purpose a holy symbol usually would.

That works. Oddly, the feat explicitly allows a Spell Component Pouch, but not a Holy Symbol.

[GilesTheCleric]

That works. Oddly, the feat explicitly allows a Spell Component Pouch, but not a Holy Symbol.

Unfortunately, Spell Component Pouches explicitly say that they don't contain a holy symbol, despite the wooden one only costing 1 gp. Could a holy symbol be tattooed on, and thus not count as a material possession? Could it be fashioned into a simple weapon? If a holy symbol is allowed to be part of armour or a shield, then it might also be able to be included as part of simple clothing, perhaps a beekeeper's outfit.

[Nifft]

Unfortunately, Spell Component Pouches explicitly say that they don't contain a holy symbol, despite the wooden one only costing 1 gp. Could a holy symbol be tattooed on, and thus not count as a material possession? Could it be fashioned into a simple weapon? If a holy symbol is allowed to be part of armour or a shield, then it might also be able to be included as part of simple clothing, perhaps a beekeeper's outfit.

Tattoos could be argued to have value, especially in settings with psionic and/or magical tattoos.

However, I've never seen a market price for branding.

So, there you go.

[Anthrowhale]

Coming online by level 6 is a pretty tight requirement but here's a fairly strong build.

Fire Souled Human Cleric 1 (Cloistered, Divine Magician, Domains Magic: & Knowledge, Spontaneous Domain (Magic))/Hathran 5/Dweomerkeeper 2/Spelldancer 1/Dweomerkeeper 2/Spelldancer 1/Contemplative 1

with feats:
(Human) Ethran
(Fire-Souled) Leadership
1: Combat Casting
Flaw 1: Heighten Spell
Flaw 2: DMM[Heighten]
3: Extend Spell
6: Customize Domain[Magic]
9: Persistent Spell
12: Initiate of Mystra

The shtick here is powerful prayers given by high spell level (level 1), high caster level (level 6), Persistent Spells (level 9), Supernatural Spell (level 11), and AMF casting (level 12).

Qualifying for everything requires some gymnastics.
Hathran requires Leadership and level 4 spells satisfied by Fire-Souled and DMM[Heighten] at level 1.
Dweomerkeeper requires an item creation feat and ability to cast arcane spells. Substitute Domain[Spell] provides access to Anyspell which allows arcane spells to be cast. Substitute Domain[Rune] provides Scribe Scroll which is compatible with Hathran.
Spelldancer has a high feat tax. Using Customize Domain[Magic] to provide access to Heroics and Spontaneous Domain[Magic] we can cast Heroics multiple times. Note that with Extend Spell these spells last >13 hours each at caster level 40 so only 4 spells are required for all-day access. Unfailing Endurance provide spell-based access to Endurance.
Divine Oracle can be satisfied by Frog God's Fane.

We are only using 13 levels here because Fire-Souled is an LA+3 template so we can only use level buy off to LA+2 at ECL 15. The net result is that we lose access to the one level of spells although this drawback will be mitigated at ECL 18. On the upside, the character needs absolutely zero items to be strongly effective. Summon Component (available in a custom magic domain slot) and Summon Holy Symbol cover the obvious spellcasting related item needs. As far as effectiveness, the ability to Persist many spells, including a selection of sorcerer/wizard spells via Divine Magician and Customize Domain[Magic] has obvious implications, particularly when they work inside of an Antimagic Field.

[gorfnab]

Worth noting that RAW Vow of Poverty won't let a Cleric have a Holy Symbol, if I recall.

Edit: In 3.5 anyway, not sure about PF.
The feat Worldly Focus (FoE) lets Clerics cast spells without needing a Divine Focus.

[ColorBlindNinja]

The feat Worldly Focus (FoE) lets Clerics cast spells without needing a Divine Focus.

Good to know, still seems like feat tax, though.