Dwarven Reach Cleric build advice

[nmitchell2]

A bastard child of a Dwarven noble family is eventually driven to leave out of frustration at the expectations placed upon his shoulders despite the obvious lack of respect compared to his half-brothers. On his travels through a small human settlement, he finds a small shrine to Caylen Cailean at the inn he stayed the night at. The beliefs and ideals preached by this god struck a chord with the Dwarf, who set about finding out as much as he can about 'the accidental god'. The more he learned, the more inspired he felt and the more motivated he became to worship and follow the gods teachings. Now, he is a fully fledged cleric of Caylen Cailean who adventures and celebrates in his name.

The family that this Dwarf came from lives close to an entrance to the uppermost layer of the Darklands and are often charged with defending their lands against Duergar attacks, hence this Dwarf adopting the Spell Smasher racial trait. He was given the same combat training as his half-brothers and was one of the best among them, despite the punishment for failure being much harsher for him, hence my decision to start with 1-2 levels of Fighter. He wasn't trusted with a lot of the responsibilities that his half-brothers were and had more time to indulge in casual pastimes, one of which was reading and learning about the other races and monsters in the world, he will have the Lore Warden archetype of Fighter. In keeping with his responsibility to help defend the lands owned by his family against Duerger, he had a weapon of his choice forged, he wields a Dwarven Longhammer.

From a game mechanics standpoint, the decision to start Fighter gives me an early leg up on the feats race and the Lore Warden archetype gives me two additional skill ranks in knowledge-based skills; I should be useful in the early game both in and out of combat and the benefits of this dip will continue to be useful throughout the game. It won't make up for the slowed spell progression but the Magical Knack trait makes sure the spells I do have are as effective as they can be. I will also have the Fate's Favoured trait because Divine Favour and later Divine Power. I will be taking the Travel domain and the Ferocity subdomain of Strength.

The part I am struggling with the most is feat selection. Early on I need Combat Reflexes and Power Attack to function, I kinda need Toughness and Improved Initiative as well, I want Steel Soul. My 11th level feat (Cleric level 9) is Sacred Summons, I really want Superior Summoning as well which is at the end of a 3-feat chain. Lunge at level 9 is great, Dazing Assault at level 15 is amazing. Quicken Spell and Quick Draw with a (Lesser) Rod of Quicken is something I want to try out in the mid-levels. I don't know how to fit it all in early enough, even with a two level dip in Fighter.

I would also like some advice for spells; I know I want Divine Favour and/or Divine Power prepped along with things like Greater Magic Weapon and Magic Vestment. I know 5th level spells are kinda crowded with Summon Monster V and Wall of Stone, 6th level spells are even more crowded with Heal and Summon Monster VI. Do I prep random things like Comprehend Languages on the off chance it will be useful and convert it to a Cure Light Wounds if not? This isn't even taking into account domain spells like Enlarge Person and Longstrider, Fly and all sorts of teleportation spells. Help?

[Eldariel]

You really don't need Lunge as a Cleric. You already have Righteous Might & al. And you want reach for control first and foremost; 20' tends to be plenty to get full attacks and 25' isn't much of an improvement. Similarly, Toughness and Improved Initiative are luxury feats; they aren't a part of your core competence but bonuses if you have spare feats.

If you're going Summoning, highly consider Summon Good Monster/whatever your alignment is. The list expansion is nice and standard action summons are about infinitely better than full round particularly if you melee. Even when they can't act on the same turn. Though delayed casting hits summoning extra hard. Remember, classes are metagame constructs. A story like yours doesn't mandate fighter levels; it can simply be a part of the combat prowess of a Cleric.

Comprehend Languages and its ilk are best off scrolled for when you need them. Prepare general duty control and utility in non-buff slots. Stuff like Cause Fear, Command, Silence, Shatter, etc.

[nmitchell2]

You really don't need Lunge as a Cleric. You already have Righteous Might & al. And you want reach for control first and foremost; 20' tends to be plenty to get full attacks and 25' isn't much of an improvement. Similarly, Toughness and Improved Initiative are luxury feats; they aren't a part of your core competence but bonuses if you have spare feats.

If you're going Summoning, highly consider Summon Good Monster/whatever your alignment is. The list expansion is nice and standard action summons are about infinitely better than full round particularly if you melee. Even when they can't act on the same turn. Though delayed casting hits summoning extra hard. Remember, classes are metagame constructs. A story like yours doesn't mandate fighter levels; it can simply be a part of the combat prowess of a Cleric.

Comprehend Languages and its ilk are best off scrolled for when you need them. Prepare general duty control and utility in non-buff slots. Stuff like Cause Fear, Command, Silence, Shatter, etc.

You're right about Lunge, I thought it lasted until your next turn for some reason. Toughness is probably expendable with smart play but the thing about reach builds is that they rely on positioning and Improved Initiative helps me achieve that before enemies get to act. I don't know, maybe I'm overestimating its usefulness.

I have since found out that another player is intending to play a Goliath Druid and use a similar tactic to my own; she will Wild Shape to gain huge reach and use her turns casting spells while melee attacking using Combat Reflexes. I'm unsure if me playing a Reach Cleric in a game with a Goliath Druid using the same tactics will leave me feeling underwhelmed.

[Eldariel]

You're right about Lunge, I thought it lasted until your next turn for some reason. Toughness is probably expendable with smart play but the thing about reach builds is that they rely on positioning and Improved Initiative helps me achieve that before enemies get to act. I don't know, maybe I'm overestimating its usefulness.

I have since found out that another player is intending to play a Goliath Druid and use a similar tactic to my own; she will Wild Shape to gain huge reach and use her turns casting spells while melee attacking using Combat Reflexes. I'm unsure if me playing a Reach Cleric in a game with a Goliath Druid using the same tactics will leave me feeling underwhelmed.

Yeah, Initiative is big but don't worry about it. You can take AoOs flatfooted thanks to Combat Reflexes anyways.

Cleric is just as strong as Druid, just with the strengths at slightly different points. And AoO builds stack great, the more the merrier. Summon Monster is a big thing in Clerics' favour; it's just way better than SNA. Work out Domains to maximize your strengths - though again, reconsider the Fighter-level if playing with other Tier 1 classes.

[Geddy2112]

If you are dipping fighter anyways, consider looking into warpriest if you want even more martial juice. A 1 level fighter dip for heavy armor and martial weapons makes sense, but 2 is just overkill and slows down casting far too much.

I greatly second that improved initiative is a luxury feat, and far less important for your build that most. Lunge is also luxury, and toughness is a garbage feat unless 1. you have a familiar 2. you have a d6 HD and 3. your DM will target your familiar in combat. Their HP depends on yours, so they need all they can get. Since none of those things are true for your cleric, you can pass on it. Superior summons is not as important as one may think, but it is by no means bad. Augment summons and then sacred summons are the major workhorses of the cleric summoning tree(and it makes you better than the druid who has to full round summon).
Your feat tree should be 1. Combat reflexes 1(Fighter bonus) Power attack 3. Spell focus(conjure) 5. Augment Summons 7. Sacred summons and after that it is dealers choice-those feats alone and the might of cleric will have you doing just fine, everything else is icing on the cake.

For your spells, remember that you can prep again during the day so long as you have slots open. Leave a couple slots open for those oh snap we need this obscure spell. The druid can help you out here, as you both have access to spells that come in handy sometimes but not that often. If you have off adventuring days, just prep them then. At higher levels you won't need your 1st/2nd/3rd level spells for anything but utility, so at that point feel free to get a little more hogwild and carefree with the lower levels, or use minor but handy all day buffs.

If you are summoning, the higher level summoned creatures often come with their own spells, spell like abilities, and magical powers. For example, a lantern archon can be summoned at 5th level, and has truespeech, meaning it can act as a translator or interpreter, and can read any language or writing ever. A lillend azata is a 7th level bard in a box. It comes out the gate swinging, +2 inspire courage, knock SLA, truespeech, 2 cure serious wounds 1 cure light wounds, invisibility, flight(it can carry you and your friends) and no slouch in combat to boot. The duration of summoned monsters is short, but they are force multipliers and several spells in one.

As for the goliath druid, don't see it as a contest of who can do the job better, but combine your powers to lock down the entire combat and be the brusier brothers. Nobody will reach your party's feeble casters or ranged characters before they are bludgeoned to death by you two. Pick spells to compliment each other, as you both have druid or cleric only spells and tons of overlap. Also, if both of you are summoning then you can further throw roadblocks to prevent enemies from getting close, smashing them down with combat reflexes once they cut through your meatshield summons.