Alberic Strein
2017-08-23, 09:17 AM
Hello you wonderful people.
So, after I had to whip out some NPCs on the fly for my last "one-shot" (fourth session now, awaiting the fifth) I played with the idea of a debuff focused warpriest, and since I've been trying to make one into a PC and by the gods am I lost.
The way I see it, due to a rather limited number of spells, the warpriest can't overly rely on them to get his bad touch on, which is why N. Jolly advises to take the Cleric VMC in his guide.
Now, my issues are multiple: First of all, the "good" debuffing domains tend to have bad blessings, and the good blessings bad domains. For example I just love the curse blessing (probably for all the wrong reasons) but hate the curse domain. I do like the darkness domain and blessing but they kinda do the same thing. The charm blessing could sell me on the curse domain, but I still don't overly like it and the charm domain's dazing touch sounds underwhelming as all hell.
Also, why are most blessings written in such a way as to exclude you out of the effect of your blessing?
Then the answer may be in the channeling, after all I invest three feats in channeling, so I may as well get some use out of it. First issue, how do the cleric and warpriest's channel energy stack, if at all? Second, do I want positive or negative energy? Can I somehow cheat my way into getting both? In which case, which should be which? The DC on the cleric given channel will be low and it will be behind in progression for most, if not the character's entire career. It would be worth it for Variant Channeling (which is going to be a must, I presume?) since I'm discarding half of the Channeling damage anyway, but the DC for the effect will be so low it's probably not worth it. Likewise, the cleric's channeling will probably not heal much with positive channeling, though I suppose a 30 feet bubble of healing always helps. Also, most of the negative variant channeling I'm looking at "scale", giving a modifier depending on the channeling. Which again, give me a never ending headache. At early levels, well I don't have channeling. When I get it, the Cleric's doing almost nothing. By level 11 they are equal in d6s but I still have a crappy DC for the cleric's, and by level 15 the cleric's channeling overtakes the Warpriest's by storm, except for the old issue of a still somewhat crappy DC.
Quicken Blessing is going to be delayed to level 13 unless retraining rules are used.
Channel Blessing sounds like a huge waste of absolutely everything.
I suppose I could avoid taking selective channeling (and so not having to raise charisma to 13) if I take Channel Smite at lvl 6 and refrain from channeling otherwise.
Spells seem straightforward enough.
So we'd be looking at:
Gin Hendrick
Warpriest VMC Cleric of Calistria
Stat array (assuming 20 points)
Str: 14
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis 16+2
Cha 14
(not married to any of these stats)
Skills: Perception (out of class) Knowledge: Religion (at least 3 ranks for deific obedience) Sense Motive (I just like it) though not having any social skill as a priest of Calistria irks me to no end.
Favored class bonus goes to warpriest, obviously, the human specific one sounds nice, adding 3 bonus feats over the course of the character's career.
Traits: Obligatory Fate's Favored tax and something else. Maybe magical knack or metamagic master. I like extending my buffs... And it works with debuffs too! Though it will probably be way less useful, since the debuffed creature will hopefully die soon enough.
Human bonus feat: I'm seriously considering tanking the skill point and bonus feat to get a +2 to strength. Otherwise I think taking extend spell at level 1 could still be a good idea, feel free to prove me oh so very wrong. A 2 minutes long divine favour at level one sounds nice. That's buffing instead of debuffing but still.
Blessings: Curse and Charm
Domain: Lust or Curse, probably Lust if I can. I'd take Chaos but I have an unreasonable amount of hate for the Chaos Blessing.
Spells: Divine Favour and Doom if I channel positive energy, Cure Light Wounds instead of Doom if I channel negative.
Variant Channeling (when I reach it) Luck.
Thoughts?
Well, that went everywhere, sorry about that.
So, after I had to whip out some NPCs on the fly for my last "one-shot" (fourth session now, awaiting the fifth) I played with the idea of a debuff focused warpriest, and since I've been trying to make one into a PC and by the gods am I lost.
The way I see it, due to a rather limited number of spells, the warpriest can't overly rely on them to get his bad touch on, which is why N. Jolly advises to take the Cleric VMC in his guide.
Now, my issues are multiple: First of all, the "good" debuffing domains tend to have bad blessings, and the good blessings bad domains. For example I just love the curse blessing (probably for all the wrong reasons) but hate the curse domain. I do like the darkness domain and blessing but they kinda do the same thing. The charm blessing could sell me on the curse domain, but I still don't overly like it and the charm domain's dazing touch sounds underwhelming as all hell.
Also, why are most blessings written in such a way as to exclude you out of the effect of your blessing?
Then the answer may be in the channeling, after all I invest three feats in channeling, so I may as well get some use out of it. First issue, how do the cleric and warpriest's channel energy stack, if at all? Second, do I want positive or negative energy? Can I somehow cheat my way into getting both? In which case, which should be which? The DC on the cleric given channel will be low and it will be behind in progression for most, if not the character's entire career. It would be worth it for Variant Channeling (which is going to be a must, I presume?) since I'm discarding half of the Channeling damage anyway, but the DC for the effect will be so low it's probably not worth it. Likewise, the cleric's channeling will probably not heal much with positive channeling, though I suppose a 30 feet bubble of healing always helps. Also, most of the negative variant channeling I'm looking at "scale", giving a modifier depending on the channeling. Which again, give me a never ending headache. At early levels, well I don't have channeling. When I get it, the Cleric's doing almost nothing. By level 11 they are equal in d6s but I still have a crappy DC for the cleric's, and by level 15 the cleric's channeling overtakes the Warpriest's by storm, except for the old issue of a still somewhat crappy DC.
Quicken Blessing is going to be delayed to level 13 unless retraining rules are used.
Channel Blessing sounds like a huge waste of absolutely everything.
I suppose I could avoid taking selective channeling (and so not having to raise charisma to 13) if I take Channel Smite at lvl 6 and refrain from channeling otherwise.
Spells seem straightforward enough.
So we'd be looking at:
Gin Hendrick
Warpriest VMC Cleric of Calistria
Stat array (assuming 20 points)
Str: 14
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis 16+2
Cha 14
(not married to any of these stats)
Skills: Perception (out of class) Knowledge: Religion (at least 3 ranks for deific obedience) Sense Motive (I just like it) though not having any social skill as a priest of Calistria irks me to no end.
Favored class bonus goes to warpriest, obviously, the human specific one sounds nice, adding 3 bonus feats over the course of the character's career.
Traits: Obligatory Fate's Favored tax and something else. Maybe magical knack or metamagic master. I like extending my buffs... And it works with debuffs too! Though it will probably be way less useful, since the debuffed creature will hopefully die soon enough.
Human bonus feat: I'm seriously considering tanking the skill point and bonus feat to get a +2 to strength. Otherwise I think taking extend spell at level 1 could still be a good idea, feel free to prove me oh so very wrong. A 2 minutes long divine favour at level one sounds nice. That's buffing instead of debuffing but still.
Blessings: Curse and Charm
Domain: Lust or Curse, probably Lust if I can. I'd take Chaos but I have an unreasonable amount of hate for the Chaos Blessing.
Spells: Divine Favour and Doom if I channel positive energy, Cure Light Wounds instead of Doom if I channel negative.
Variant Channeling (when I reach it) Luck.
Thoughts?
Well, that went everywhere, sorry about that.