[3.5] 1st Level Cleric Spells

[Thurbane]

Hey all,

Looking for some suggestions for spell selection.

If I was putting 2 levels of Favored Soul on a melee brute monster (say, a Thraskor), what spells would you recommend for his spells known? 3x 1st level (and 5x 0 level, FWIW).

Ideally would be long(ish) term self buffs and/or swift/immediate spells.

Cheers - T

[WhamBamSam]

I'm a little surprised by how little I can think of off the standard Cleric list. A lot of the things I pick up with Cleric dips tend to be off Domains or through Divine Magician.

Blood Wind is a good one for many monsters, though perhaps not for a Thraskor with it's single natural attack.

Protection From Good is a reasonable stock choice.

If the creature is going to be encountered in an icy or snowy environment, Snowshoes would be helpful, though depending how you parse it, it may not be enough to allow the creature to charge.

[Nifft]

Lesser Vigor is good for a tank, you can pre-cast it to improve your endurance in battle, or restore yourself after combat.

Command a caster or archer to approach, and then demonstrate your melee prowess (probably starting with an AoO).

Divine Favor becomes decent at caster level 6, which you can have for two real levels + Practiced Spellcaster + four more HD.

[MeimuHakurei]

Good choices from core:

Bless - a small boost, but affects all allies and even a fear save boost on top of the attack buff.
Comprehend Languages - nice utility for reading texts.
Cure Light Wounds - healing is obviously useful.
Divine Favor - getting more hit and damage is a good idea for a melee.
Endure Elements - another neat utility spell.
Obscuring Mist - a niche battlefield control spell mainly to cover against ranged attacks.
Protection from Evil - AC bonus and protection from mind control; most users of mind-controlling abilities are evil.
Sanctuary - keeps people from attacking you that you don't want to deal with.
Shield of Faith - more AC buffing goodness
Summon Monster I - not very useful as meatshield, but an acceptable scouting tool for several occasions.

[Darrin]

Cleric spells I like. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21691649&postcount=5)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Protection from Evil (1 minute/level)
Obscuring Mist (1 minute/level)
Ebon Eyes (10 minutes/level)

I this situation you can use the spell search function in dndtools to look for 1st level Cleric spells with the casting time containing "swift" or "immediate" or the duration containing "hour" or "min" (since it's entered as 1 min./level).

[Thurbane]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Practiced Spellcaster is a great idea, I'm surprised I hadn't already thought of it!

A quick search of swift/immediates only shows the following:

Blade of Blood
Blood Wind
Grave Strike
Incite

[Nifft]

Glad to help.

One last thought: instead of Favored Soul, how about a Spontaneous Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm)?

The NPC with two class levels would only get 2 standard Cleric spells known, but would also have 2 first-level Domain spells known, and spontaneously cast all four. (Plus this NPC would get Turn/Rebuke Undead attempts which you could use for [Divine] feats like Divine Alacrity or Divine Might or whatnot, either of which would be basically a Swift action buff spell from a separate resource pool.)

[Troacctid]

Gonna have to mention resurgence. Get an additional saving throw against any ongoing magical effect. Extremely potent anti-debuff tool.