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View Full Version : first time Clericzillia



peloriansun
2007-09-09, 05:42 AM
I just went clericzillia for the first time tonight and boy did i have a blast. I leveled a frost giant in 2 full attacks.

Zincorium
2007-09-09, 05:46 AM
First time going on the dark side, eh?

Honestly I find the nicest thing about the clericzilla to be that even if you tick people off, they like the healing afterwards enough that they won't get after you for it. That said, it's best to be quiet when stealing the spotlight, it is a social game after all.

Once you get into the persistent buffs and nightstick cheese it's usually time to roll up something else, though.

peloriansun
2007-09-09, 05:48 AM
oh, no peristant or anything, just righteous might and divine power. I felt that the frost giant was a big enough threat to use the big guns. Also, what is this nightstick you speak of.

Zincorium
2007-09-09, 05:54 AM
Nightsticks are on page 78 of libris mortis, which while it provides a lot of buffs for undead also gives an edge to destroying them.

Basically, you get four additional turn attempts per day per nightstick. Which fuels the persistent spells and anything else which needs turn undead attempts to work.

Shas aia Toriia
2007-09-23, 08:42 PM
don't be clericzilla. Somebody in Africa just starved for you bad choice.:smallfrown:

tannish2
2007-09-23, 11:44 PM
yes but 70 or 80 puppies were just kicked and eaten, and thousands of babies were smashed with sledgehammers because of it. see? some good came of it.

Renegade Paladin
2007-09-24, 12:11 AM
Bah. By the time one of my characters is done taking runescarred berserker, he'll be doing the Clericzilla trick as a barbarian. Yeah, you read that right. Righteous might and divine power, no cleric levels required. :smallamused:

OneWinged4ngel
2007-09-24, 03:09 PM
don't be clericzilla. Somebody in Africa just starved for you bad choice.:smallfrown:

You want people to never play clerics? Unfortunately, most groups disagree to the point that they rather irrationally shoehorn one player into being one whether they like it or not. :smallconfused:

Shas aia Toriia
2007-09-24, 03:23 PM
No, being a cleric is fine. Just not clericzilla. That's. . . gamebreaking. Unless your fellow party members are Batman and Druidzilla. :smallbiggrin:

OneWinged4ngel
2007-09-24, 03:39 PM
No, being a cleric is fine. Just not clericzilla. That's. . . gamebreaking. Unless your fellow party members are Batman and Druidzilla. :smallbiggrin:

Being a friend of the guy that *coined* the phrase CoDzilla... I can say with some certainty that Clericzilla refers to "any cleric, because they're amazing without even trying." Seriously, the OP said that all he did was cast two mainstay mid-level core spells. That means "the average cleric does this. With no feats, no build customization, no domain choosing, no nothing." And then you're saying "don't play that, but I'm not telling you not to play a cleric." What are you trying to tell him to play? A cleric that doesn't cast spells from the PHB list? Because a cleric that does cast spells from the PHB list is a Clericzilla straight off level 1.

It does not refer to any specific sort of build or anything. If you're playing a Cleric, unless there's some seriously houserules nerfin' it, you're playing Clericzilla. That's all there is to it.

Saying "don't play Clericzilla" is saying either "don't play a cleric" or "nerf it to hell." Of course, intentionally playing it in as suboptimal a way as you can possibly imagine ("use your actions to stab yourself") would count as "nerf it to hell."

Wolf53226
2007-09-24, 03:41 PM
It's only game breaking if you always pull it out, from the op's posts, I gather he only uses it when the team needs that extra umph. Which is perfectly fine in my book.

wumpus
2007-09-24, 08:28 PM
While I agree that in general, these powers should be used widely, one roleplaying question remains.

Does the cleric by chance follow Thor (or any other Norse gods?). If so, you are required on pain of holy smiting to open the can of whoopass every time a frost giant is spotted.

That is all

Dr. Weasel
2007-09-25, 01:50 AM
It's only game breaking if you always pull it out, from the op's posts, I gather he only uses it when the team needs that extra umph. Which is perfectly fine in my book.

There should be no problem with using the basic Cleric buffs unless you intend to massively nerf every other class as well. Making a Cleric stay as your heal-guy is equivalent to making Wizards memorize 17 Fireballs and 35 Magic Missiles every day or making the Rogue ditch every skill that isn't Hide/Move Silently/Search/Disable Device. By Righteous Might/Divine Powering yourself your being more useful to the party than by just sewing them back together.

Unless there is a second meleer and that character's player for some reason takes offense, use the class as it was designed.

Kurald Galain
2007-09-25, 05:38 AM
Saying "don't play Clericzilla" is saying either "don't play a cleric" or "nerf it to hell."

That would be rather exaggerated. "Don't play clericzilla" can be as simple as "don't use these three spells". That still leaves you a couple of hundred other spells to work with. Similarly, "don't use polymorph" is a far cry from "nerf the wizard to hell".

OneWinged4ngel
2007-09-25, 03:34 PM
That would be rather exaggerated. "Don't play clericzilla" can be as simple as "don't use these three spells". That still leaves you a couple of hundred other spells to work with. Similarly, "don't use polymorph" is a far cry from "nerf the wizard to hell".

That's just silly. Not using those three spells doesn't actually make the cleric less of a beast. Seriously. He has tons of other things that absolutely own everything, starting at level 1. A cleric not using Divine Power and Divine Might can breathe radioactive fire just as effectively as one using those two spells. Remember, tanking is just ONE of the things the cleric can do amazingly well. :smallsmile:

Shas aia Toriia
2007-09-25, 03:48 PM
OneWinged4ngel, I think you're totally missing our point. :smallmad: It's possible to play a cleric that doesn't be Clericzilla. Just because a 20 level wizard doesn't memorize lots of gate, timestop and shapechange, doesn't mean he's nerfed. It's possible to play a cleric without out-shadowing your other party members.

Ralfarius
2007-09-25, 04:53 PM
I think what OW4 is trying to say is that most of the cleric's repertoire of useful spells makes the cleric inadvertently outshine the other party members. The major way to stop a cleric outshining is to limit a great deal of said repertoire, and that gives the impression that you want the cleric to either be a heal-bot or buff-bot. Granted, there's nothing wrong with that, but if the cleric wants to be pro-active in their helping the party succeed, they kind invoke the powers of the cleric-zilla with most any combination of half decent divine spells.

Not saying that you're implying the cleric should be relegated to healing and buffing only, but that's the impression given to those who believe the cleric is a 'zilla because they're powerful without trying.

Kurald Galain
2007-09-26, 03:56 AM
I think what OW4 is trying to say is that most of the cleric's repertoire of useful spells makes the cleric inadvertently outshine the other party members.

I don't think it's quite that bad. If you remove that Divine Might spell that gives him a fighter's BAB and so forth, and one or two others, you can take care of the worst of the problem. There is a wide spectrum between having the cleric upstage everyone, and limiting him to healbotting.

Ironically the Cleric Spheres from 2nd edition pretty much solve the problem, by not allowing every god to grant every kind of spell.

tannish2
2007-09-26, 04:02 AM
Being a friend of the guy that *coined* the phrase CoDzilla... I can say with some certainty that Clericzilla refers to "any cleric, because they're amazing without even trying." Seriously, the OP said that all he did was cast two mainstay mid-level core spells. That means "the average cleric does this. With no feats, no build customization, no domain choosing, no nothing." And then you're saying "don't play that, but I'm not telling you not to play a cleric." What are you trying to tell him to play? A cleric that doesn't cast spells from the PHB list? Because a cleric that does cast spells from the PHB list is a Clericzilla straight off level 1.

It does not refer to any specific sort of build or anything. If you're playing a Cleric, unless there's some seriously houserules nerfin' it, you're playing Clericzilla. That's all there is to it.

Saying "don't play Clericzilla" is saying either "don't play a cleric" or "nerf it to hell." Of course, intentionally playing it in as suboptimal a way as you can possibly imagine ("use your actions to stab yourself") would count as "nerf it to hell."

2 words:
mystic

theurge


if thats not a cleric nerf, i dont know what is.
i even found someone who figured out how to optimize it.

peloriansun
2007-09-26, 06:08 AM
Wow, Didn't think I would generate any actual discussion.

In other campiagn i always play some sort of arcane fellow, but the party really needed a healer so i thought i would step up, been having great times since.

Shas aia Toriia
2007-09-26, 07:23 AM
OK, good. Just don't spam clericzilla, let the other party members feel useful.

ReluctantDragon
2007-09-26, 07:40 AM
OK, good. Just don't spam clericzilla, let the other party members feel useful.

Or...

Y'know, play in whatever manner is equitable to you and your group having fun. If you and your party have a great time just dealing all kinds of damage in a hack 'n slash atmosphere, then spam clericzilla as much as you want. Use it outside of combat to intimidate npc's. I've done that.

Henchman: Do your worst! I'll never talk!
Wizard: Oh? Are you sure about that?
Henchman: YES!
Cleric: *casts his buff spells, looks down at the puny, girlie man* Give 'im to me for two minutes. I can pray to Heironeous to speak with the dead once I'm done with him. Not a problem.
Henchman: ...Okay, we were hired by the baron to destroy the granary and cause riots so he could institute martial law and put a stranglehold over this part of the kingdom.
Wizard: Thank you.

What matters here is that you had fun. It doesn't matter whether you had fun casting the big spells or a bunch of Orisons(cantrips). I can see a concern of you eclipsing others in a fight, but so long as you remain aware of the rest of the party and their ability to have fun, there won't be any problems. Cheese it up as little or as much as you want.

RD