Going strange with a cleric

[Mordaedil]

So background here. We are getting a new player in one of my groups games soon and she's usually only played something akin to an elf ranger before and she wanted to try something new. One of our players suggested a type of cleric that goes shadowdancer, but it was built from an optimizing point of view and she didn't really like it, so I decided to go nuts with something I've been wanting to experiment with before, but never had the opportunity to play before.

So we're making her a cleric of Olidammara, using trickery and madness(added as custom in my DM's campaign) as her domains, test subject as her flaw and we're starting at level 4. Ability scores are not rolled yet, so I'm holding off on exact build (albeit going pure cleric or cloistered cleric might be just fine for her, to make things less complicated), but instead I want to discuss feats. I decided we should go with tentacles to get really weird, so we've looked at what is required, Abberant blood and we went with Inhuman reach to fill as the requirement and we've picked up Deepspawn. I imagine she can deliver touch spells with this reach as well? She wanted to be able to attack with the tentacles and her weapon (tbd) so we picked up Multiattack as well, please let me know if there's a better idea here.

Starspawn, to get limited flight is something that stands as obvious (does this make beastial hide worth picking up for her?). Theme-wise, Ocular spell to deliver cure wounds/heal spells might be good given how much she's basically a human turned tentacle monster at this point. Extend Tentacles as a spell is a no-brainer and might have been what made me think of this direction in the first place. I also know about the savage species feat for even more range, but my DM gave me a strict warning he'd start using savage species against us if we started using it. Miniatures Handbook is also banned at his table.

So I'm curious, how much more nuts can we get with this? What really crazy things can we get and what should I look for? I might come back for more help after we roll, but right now I just want to have the options on the table. I think I also must keep in mind that something too complex might throw her off, so prioritize theming and fun in any build you want to present.

[CozJa]

So background here. We are getting a new player in one of my groups games soon and she's usually only played something akin to an elf ranger before and she wanted to try something new. One of our players suggested a type of cleric that goes shadowdancer, but it was built from an optimizing point of view and she didn't really like it, so I decided to go nuts with something I've been wanting to experiment with before, but never had the opportunity to play before.

So we're making her a cleric of Olidammara, using trickery and madness(added as custom in my DM's campaign) as her domains, test subject as her flaw and we're starting at level 4. Ability scores are not rolled yet, so I'm holding off on exact build (albeit going pure cleric or cloistered cleric might be just fine for her, to make things less complicated), but instead I want to discuss feats. I decided we should go with tentacles to get really weird, so we've looked at what is required, Abberant blood and we went with Inhuman reach to fill as the requirement and we've picked up Deepspawn. I imagine she can deliver touch spells with this reach as well? She wanted to be able to attack with the tentacles and her weapon (tbd) so we picked up Multiattack as well, please let me know if there's a better idea here.

Starspawn, to get limited flight is something that stands as obvious (does this make beastial hide worth picking up for her?). Theme-wise, Ocular spell to deliver cure wounds/heal spells might be good given how much she's basically a human turned tentacle monster at this point. Extend Tentacles as a spell is a no-brainer and might have been what made me think of this direction in the first place. I also know about the savage species feat for even more range, but my DM gave me a strict warning he'd start using savage species against us if we started using it. Miniatures Handbook is also banned at his table.

So I'm curious, how much more nuts can we get with this? What really crazy things can we get and what should I look for? I might come back for more help after we roll, but right now I just want to have the options on the table. I think I also must keep in mind that something too complex might throw her off, so prioritize theming and fun in any build you want to present.

Is Magic of Eberron a book aviable to your group? Because Daelkyr Half-blood race, impure prince PrC and the Symbionts seem fitting for this concept

[Kayblis]

Have you read about the Master Transmogrifist? I believe we have a handbook for that PrC here. It's a prestige class based around body alteration and transmutation spells that change your form, and seems just like what you're looking for. You can choose to specialize in aberrations and the like, as there are quite a few tentacle monsters in the MMs as well as other freaky stuff. The catch: it's a 6/10 arcane casting PrC. Maybe talk with your GM about a possible divine version of the class - that's homebrew, but it'll push your concept in a very unique way.

[Mordaedil]

I knew about the Master Transmogrifist, it's printed in Complete Arcane, but yeah, the arcane requirement was a bit of a kick in the shin for that.

Symbiont is kind of what we wanted to go with for this, that's a neat find. I'll run Impure Prince by the DM, that seems like it has some really neat synergy with what I am going for.

[Pleh]

A 4th level character won't have a whole bunch of feats, even with flaws. How far are we building up to?

Also, if she's taking Trickery Domain, have you considered grabbing Devotion as well? Project a simalcrum of yourself is pretty terrifying when you're a bizarre tentacle monster.

[Mordaedil]

I want a grab-bag of feats, but anything for sixth and ninth level would be most useful. The campaign isn't set to go until 20, but to just shy of 14. (So 15 and 18th level feats are probably a non-issue)

Devotion feat for Trickery is a nice one.

My expectation is that whether she goes cloistered cleric or regular cleric was going to be ability score based. I figured if she got only one decent score, it'd have to be her wisdom and she'd go regular cleric, but if she got several decent ones, we could put some into dexterity and go cloistered cleric, since we can go with light armor and a bunch of extra stuff at that point.

[Kayblis]

My expectation is that whether she goes cloistered cleric or regular cleric was going to be ability score based.

That's a good idea, but also remember that Cloistered Cleric gets the Knowledge domain, which she can trade for Knowledge Devotion for bonus to-hit and damage, along with more skill points to invest in knowledge. This makes her tentacles and weapons more deadly, as well as giving her the in-character knowledge of monsters, history and anatomy to use her crazy forms and powers in a more complete and calculated way, making the character know what he's doing instead of just being a natural abomination.

[Mordaedil]

Rolls were performed, landing at an 18, 16, 15, 13, 10, 10 (after scrapping two worse rolls). With this really nice spread, we decided to go with a cloistered cleric spread as follows.

Str 13->14
Dex 18
Con 10
Int 15
Wis 16
Cha 10

The extra skillpoints will certainly come in handy and she can play as a face as well (even though it kinda sucks that aberrant feats give a penalty to some of those.)

Any suggested alterations? Would weapon finesse be a good idea or is it better to compensate lost attack bonus with spells?

[Zaq]

I’d consider making CON not be 10. Clerics can draw some fire, so unless you’re REALLY confident that you’ll ALWAYS have enough defensive magic in place to keep yourself safe, I’d either swap it with STR or DEX.

Are you planning on actually mixing it up in melee? Is STR going to be very important to you? (If you are going to be in melee, CON is even more important than if you aren’t, so . . .)

I also find going DEX>WIS to be strange on a primary caster. DEX is a valuable stat, but isn’t having more spells (and having your spells be more effective) more valuable than AC/Ref/init? Is there something unusual that you’re trying to qualify for with your DEX?

[Mordaedil]

The main thought behind putting strength there was to make the tentacles somewhat useful for combat purposes, but since we are doing a cloistered cleric, maybe it's not actually as vital, so flipping strength and constition seems like a good idea, it would give her an extra 8 hit points to play around with, definitely a welcome thing.

The idea behind giving her 18 dexterity was simply because it'd get the most out of her AC since she is restricted to wearing light armor and a higher wisdom isn't crucial at early levels (starting at 4th does make me reconsider a lot of things, including spell recommendation). Flipping those two might be a good idea still, but I think putting the one level-up point towards constition isn't a terrible idea, as long as future ability gains go toward wisdom.

Is there anything to gain by going with a higher charisma?

[Zaq]

Typically, Clerics only care about CHA for Turning. If you’re burning lots of TU attempts for DMM or if you think you’ll actually be frequently using TU to turn undead, CHA will help with that. Otherwise, you can afford to put a low score there.

[Mordaedil]

Is there anything in particular that would help with a strange build centered around making her seem as alien as possible?

Aside from the homebrew stuff I saw here on a Google search that is.