New Cleric Build Divine MetaMagic

[Zekarra]

Hi I am Building a character for play in our next campaign. We will be only using the CORE 3.5 Books and Supplements designed for GrayHawk only. Lists include PHB 1 & 2, DMG 1 & 2, Monster Manual(s), Races Series, Complete Series... ETC. There will be NO ACCESS to Forgotten Realms, Eberon, DragonLance or any other Setting.

I will be playing an Aasimar Cleric with the option to Buy Off the LA+1.
Aasimar from Races of Destiny is Allowed
Aasimar from Planar Handbook is Similar with minor word choice Differences

Starting at Level 1 and Progressing to Epic.
Stats have not been rolled but best stats will go Cha 1st and Wis 2nd
We currently plan on taking Flaws for Feats but are only allowed 1 Feat
Looking for PRC's and feat choices to maximize the Divine MetaMagic.
I will have Access to NightSticks but not until later and Best Case Scenario will be 1 or 2 NightSticks

Cleric Deity will be an Unusual Choice:

Mayaheine: Good, Law, Protection, War are her Domains
Deity Favored Weapon: Bastard Sword 35 gp 1d10 19–20/×2 - 6 lb. Slashing
Choice 1 Domain: War Domain-Granted Power: Weapon Proficiency Bastard Sword, Weapon Focus Bastard Sword
Choice 2 Domain: Protection Domain-Granted Power: You can generate a protective ward as a supernatural ability. Grant someone you touch a resistance bonus equal to your cleric level on his or her next saving throw. Activating this power is a standard action. The protective ward is an abjuration effect with a duration of 1 hour that is usable once per day.

I am Trying to stay away from PELOR and Heironeous and yes I know Pelor would be a better choice.

Thanks Again

[Buufreak]

What are we doing here? You have presented information but nothing about wanted or expected retorts. Are you wanting advice, picked apart, a pat on the back?

[Endril]

Looking for PRC's and feat choices to maximize the Divine MetaMagic.

Given the lawful alignment and war domain access, would your DM allow you to qualify for Ordained Champion (of Mayaheine)?

This reminds me of my most-played character.
3 cleric, 2 church inquisitor, 5 ordained champion, 10 contemplative.
IIRC, feats were extra turning, extend spell, persist spell, divine metamagic, holy warrior, power attack, divine might, law devotion, knowledge devotion (from church inquisitor), and I'm not sure beyond that, but it should be a good start.

Protection devotion is fantastic. I'd take it instead of (or in addition to) the domain.

As for maximizing divine metamagic, my choices wouldn't surprise you too much. You could persist divine favor at early levels. Once you get 3rd level spells, giving the whole party fast healing by persisting a mass lesser vigor is nice. Once I got divine power and righteous might, those were the 2 I always had on (with a nightstick). I would often persist those with divine metamagic and use a level 7 spell to also persist divine favor. When I got 9th level spells, I would sometimes use miracle to cast giant size, persisted with divine metamagic. The bonuses are insane, but I found it wasn't always good to have up because there are some places you can't fit into when you're colossal.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Church Inquisitor in Complete Divine could be fitting.

Divine Oracle also in Complete Divine is useful, especially if you use the Frog God's Fane location in Complete Scoundrel to get its feat prerequisite without having to spend a feat on it.

Contemplative also in Complete Divine is good for finishing out the last half of a build.


Keep in mind that the War domain grants martial weapon proficiency in the favored weapon, so you'll be using that bastard sword two-handed unless you spend another feat on exotic weapon proficiency.


Also keep in mind that the Complete Divine Errata (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/errata) made some changes to Divine Metamagic, namely that it now requires you to have the selected metamagic feat, and that it only works on divine spells. So you'll need both Extend Spell and Persistent Spell to take Divine Metamagic for Persistent Spell, which is regarded as the best way to use it. This allows you to make buffs last all day, such as Divine Favor, Divine Power, Holy Star, Stormrage, Greater Visage of the Deity, etc., but it's also useful for party-wide buffs like Elation, Mass Lesser Vigor, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, and even Magic Circle Against Evil.


Take Extra Turning and at 9th pick up Craft Rod, this will allow you to craft your own Nightsticks.


If you want to take classes that specifically help with Divine Metamagic, the only thing that would really help is getting multiple different turning abilities that can fuel it. For example, you can replace Turn Undead with Rebuke Dragons in Dragon Magic, which specifically still works with divine feats. Take Sacred Exorcist in Complete Divine to also gain Turn Undead, so now you have 3+Cha+Extra Turning+Nightsticks of each of those, effectively doubling the number of times you can use Divine Metamagic each day.

[sleepyphoenixx]

If you want more turning uses for DMM you should trade in your cleric Turn Undead for one of the ACFs that count as TU for feats and abilities, like Destroy Undead (ECR).
Then you can later take a level of Sacred Exorcist for regular TU and get twice the turning uses.

[Zekarra]

@Buufreak Quote un Quote "Looking for PRC's and feat choices to maximize the Divine MetaMagic." As I am Specifically looking for PRC's to get out of Cleric ASAP. And Any Other Feats that may help in acquiring more turnings to use.

@Endil I'm not sure I can do the Ordained but I have looked it over. I would like too but not sure DM will let it fly. I already know how Divine MetaMagic Feat Works and the Prereq's for each Meta Magic Feat including all errata. The War domain info is good to know I did not actually notice that part. So the Exotic Feat may be something I do in time. Our DM has a HERO school we can goto at certain levels for an Exuberant amount of gold to acquire more feats and skills. Most of us have only gotten to the first and maybe second rank of the school so i could use that for the aforementioned EXOTIC weapon. I know some Domains have the ability to turn Earth/Air/Water/Fire Elementals but i don't know of any classes, if you could list those in I will definitely look at those.

@Sleepyphoenixx What do you mean ACF's and ECR the sacred Exorcist is one I'm looking at but not sure yet.

Thanks again for the info. :-)

[Gullintanni]

@Buufreak Quote un Quote "Looking for PRC's and feat choices to maximize the Divine MetaMagic." As I am Specifically looking for PRC's to get out of Cleric ASAP. And Any Other Feats that may help in acquiring more turnings to use.

@Endil I'm not sure I can do the Ordained but I have looked it over. I would like too but not sure DM will let it fly. I already know how Divine MetaMagic Feat Works and the Prereq's for each Meta Magic Feat including all errata. The War domain info is good to know I did not actually notice that part. So the Exotic Feat may be something I do in time. Our DM has a HERO school we can goto at certain levels for an Exuberant amount of gold to acquire more feats and skills. Most of us have only gotten to the first and maybe second rank of the school so i could use that for the aforementioned EXOTIC weapon. I know some Domains have the ability to turn Earth/Air/Water/Fire Elementals but i don't know of any classes, if you could list those in I will definitely look at those.

@Sleepyphoenixx What do you mean ACF's and ECR the sacred Exorcist is one I'm looking at but not sure yet.

Thanks again for the info. :-)

I'm not sure whether or not you're using a shield - but two handing a weapon is generally superior to sword and board regardless, so no need to shell out for the Exotic Weapon Proficiency unless it's for flavor's sake. If you really want a shield, investing in an Animated Shield is a better long term plan than picking up the EWP.

[Buufreak]

Apologies. Its somewhat easy to miss things when on a tiny phone screen.

[sleepyphoenixx]

@Sleepyphoenixx What do you mean ACF's and ECR the sacred Exorcist is one I'm looking at but not sure yet.
ACF's are Alternate Class Features, options that replace one class feature with a different one. ECR is Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.

The basic idea is that Destroy Undead is not Turn Undead - but it can explicitly be used to fuel things that require TU - so picking up Turn Undead from another source - Sacred Exorcist in this case - gives you two pools to fuel DMM instead of one.

[jdizzlean]

if you were going to use ECR, Knight of the Raven is another solid choice, and pairs well with church inquisitor as well

[Arael666]

@Buufreak Quote un Quote "Looking for PRC's and feat choices to maximize the Divine MetaMagic." As I am Specifically looking for PRC's to get out of Cleric ASAP. And Any Other Feats that may help in acquiring more turnings to use.

You want out of cleric why exactly? Since you're going the DMM route I tought you were trying to build a clericzilla, and as much as people love the Ordained Champion, losing caster levels is realy bad in my opinion.

I would go with cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 4/Sacred Exorcist 1/Church Inquisitor 1

Church inquisitor has very nice class features, the ability to imediately save against any ilusion just by seeing it has really come a long way to avoid what "interact with" means at the tables I've played.

Divine Oracle is a trap, sure you get an evasion like ability that you can't use because Dex is a dump stat for you and with your multiclassing your dex base save will be abismal. Of course it can be usefull if you dip warblade and get action before tought.

Divine disciple as an ok class I would sugest, you lose nothing and get a few nice class features (extra domain at level 4).

You said you wanted to avoud Heironeous, but according to Sean Reynolds (http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/we/greyhawkdeities.html) he gets access to the planning domain, wich gives you extend spell for free, and since cleric builds are usually starved for feats (expecially DMM ones) you should consider taking him. You could also argue that Mayaheine should get access to planning domain, since Sean Reynolds has said that Lawfull deities with noble pursuits (justice/honor) are eligible for that domain. (can't find that quote right now :smallannoyed:)

Getting different turn pools is essential if you want to maximize your DMM, destroy undead is an alternative class feature that replaces your turn undead and is specified to work with DMM (rebuke dragons from dragon magic also works), then you take a one level dip in sacred exorcist to get turn undead back and pronto, two 3+CHA turning pools at your disposal (extra turning gives +4 to BOTH pools). You can also dip Death Delver for rebuke undead and get a third pool, but again, loss of caster levels :smallyuk:

Another way to maximize your DMM is by investing in metamagic rods of extend, thus making your spells last for 48 hours instead of 24, esseantially doubling the ammount persistable spells.

PS: Check the Herectic of the Faith feat, it's awesome and might open you for new ideas.

[Zekarra]

Thanks all for the input I have what I need now.

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