Piggy Knowles
2019-06-07, 11:42 AM
As I mentioned, in the last showcase, we’re doing a dual take on summoning: I Choose You! and Cold World (formerly known as the Shadow), two very different divine summoners.
INTRODUCTION
With more than a decade and a half of toying around with 3.5, I’ve accumulated a lot of spare builds and ideas. While I don’t have an active game going right now, I still like to pop open my builds folder and try to refine things. Recently I decided to make a dedicated effort to flesh out some of these builds into full write-ups, and reached out to some friends in the CO community who might be interested in doing the same. In the spirit of Tempest Stormwind’s Weekly Optimization Showcase (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?), I thought I’d showcase the end results here.
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
Right now the group consists of myself, the Viscount, Akal Saris, Venger and WhamBamSam, with a couple of other folks hopefully on their way. Typically one of us writes up the build concept and possibly a stub, the others share feedback on Discord or in some of the shared documents we have, and together we refine things until we’re happy with the final product. I’ll list the build’s main author whenever I showcase a particular build.
Buffsader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559259-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Buffsader) (ToB/Gish/Party Support)
The Utility Belt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560988-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Utility-Belt) (Psionics/Stealth/Utility)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569004-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Eternal-Sunshine-of-the-Spotless-War-Mind) (ToB/Psionics/Melee Damage)
The Melding Pot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579458-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Melding-Pot) (Incarnum/Utility)
That’s So Raven (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581950-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-That%92s-So-Raven) (Gish/Ranged/Debuff)
Dancing in the Dark (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582528-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Dancing-in-the-Dark) (ToB/Stealth/Lock-down)
Gladys Knight and the Pips (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583657-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Gladys-Knight-and-the-Pips) (Arcane/Face/Utility)
Zen in the Art of Archery (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584417-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Zen-in-the-Art-of-Archery) (Psionics/Ranged)
I Choose You! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588818-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-I-Choose-You!) (Divine/Summmoning)
As I mentioned, we’re looking at two different takes on summoners. We’ve had I Choose You! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588818-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-I-Choose-You!), so here’s Cold World!
https://m5.paperblog.com/i/178/1789576/winter-ghosts-L-BElHXF.jpeg
Cold World
**** is deep on the block and you got me locked down / In this cold, cold world...
BACKGROUND
Summoning is always a fun tactic, and one that gets a lot of love on the boards. There’s something really satisfying about calling up the biggest, nastiest creature from the depths of the lower planes to stand up and fight for you.
Some of our previous showcases have dabbled in a bit of summoning (such as the Utility Belt’s astral construct or Gladys Knight’s pips), but we haven’t done a full-on hardcore summoner yet. In general, though, this is well-plumbed territory, so there’s not a lot of need to do a full showcase. After all, anyone can pull up, say, Treantmonk’s excellent malconvoker guide and play one of the builds there more or less out of the box. But there are some interesting things that can be done with full summoners that aren’t quite so common. Together, we put together two takes on the classic archetype of the summoner.
While I Choose You! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588818-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-I-Choose-You!) looked at how to take a classic druidic summoner and tack on extraplanar monster summoning and binding (without sacrificing any druid goodies), for this build, we wanted to look at a different summoning tactic. Here we decided to build an extremely specialized summoner, one who specifically focused on taking one particular type of summoning (specifically, incorporeal undead) and working on making that one type shine.
To do that we asked a few basic questions: how do most foes deal with incorporeal foes? How can we strip away common ways of dealing with incorporeal creatures, whether offensive or defensive? What can we do to set up an environment where incorporeal creatures shine?
The end result is a lot of fun, and represents an archetype that doesn’t get seen much: a lockdown-focused cleric. I hope you enjoy.
THE BASICS
Race: Human or strongheart halfling. The extra feat is as important as ever in the early game, though with flaws or if you are starting at a higher level, any race will work.
Build Stub: Cloistered Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 1/Master of Shrouds 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Contemplative 1
ACFs: Cloistered cleric, divine magician, spontaneous domain casting.
Alignment: Lawful neutral, and you must channel negative energy.
Deity/Religious Order: OK, here’s where it gets a bit complicated. You must be part of a lawful good church or religious order. However, you must ALSO be non-good and rebuke undead. That means you’ll need to either worship a non-good deity who has a lawful good religious order, or you must be a concept cleric who is part of such an order. I built this character with the fluff of a member of the Order of the Iron Glacier, the lawful good order dedicated to creating pockets of shelter and law within the frozen wasteland of frostfell. Many members of the Order are devoted to the newly-divine Aengrist, but as Aengrist is lawful good, accepting Aengrist as your patron deity will prohibit you from rebuking undead. Instead, I envisioned this character as a non-deific winter-themed member of the Order of the Iron Glacier who seeks to use the tools of the harsh lands of frostfell to carve out a place of safety, one who respects Aengrist but believes that the unforgiving winter lands sometimes require a bit more pragmatism. I’m going to write this up accordingly, but I’ll leave some notes for other order ideas in the variants section.
Cold World
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Divine Magician spells
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Cloistered Cleric 1
Spell Focus (conjuration), Augment Summoning
Lore, rebuke undead, spontaneous domain casting (winter), divine magician
Ray of enfeeblement
While you start things off with two summon-focused feats, summoning at this level is not really ideal due to the short duration. Instead, put that Spell Focus to good use elsewhere with spells like ice slick. While snowsight isn’t terribly useful for you yet unless your campaign happens to start in the dead of winter, your first divine magician spell certainly is: ray of enfeeblement is a fantastic little debuff, and will work especially well alongside your later tactics. In general, that should be your M.O.: lay down some BFC with ice slick or obscuring mist, debuff foes with cause fear and ray of enervation, and basically stay out of harm’s way.
2nd
Cloistered Cleric 2
Not too much to add here, except that summoning becomes a viable option now that your critters stick around for two rounds instead of one. Keep in mind that your lawful alignment does restrict your options a bit as far as summoning goes; most notably, it means you won’t have access to the monstrous spiders. Your best option at this level tends to be the celestial dog.
3rd
Cloistered Cleric 3
Beckon the Frozen
Arcane turmoil
Beckon the Frozen is a solid damage boost for anything with a decent number of natural attacks, and also will serve as a nice way to add some damage to your spectral army in the near future. The medium monstrous scorpion, for instance, does quite well with three attacks. The celestial riding dog and fiendish wolf don’t get quite as much bang for their buck out of it, but are also both solid options.
That said, your summoning skills are quite possibly the least interesting thing about getting access to second level spells. First, your divine magician choice: arcane turmoil is your first access to dispelling magic, which is going to be a focal point throughout your career. Your goal is to lock foes down with battlefield control and debuffs so that your spectral army can shine, and there is no better debuffing option in 3.5 than dispelling. Arcane turmoil gives you your first taste of that, functioning as a targeted dispel.
Also at this level, you get access to obscuring snow. This is an insanely useful spell, surrounding you at all times with heavy swirling snow that blocks vision like a fog cloud for hours per level. That definitely has the potential to get annoying, both for you and your party… but thanks to snowsight, which you cast spontaneously, you should all be able to see through it without issue. Meanwhile, you’ll have total concealment against opponents who rely on vision until they can close within five feet. For other 2nd-level spells of note, both silence and shatter fit right in with your general tactics.
4th
Church Inquisitor 1
Detect evil, Inquisition domain
Church inquisitor is a very nice addition here. I always love at-will detection spells for their ability to function as radar, but the big draw is the inquisition domain. Arcane turmoil is suddenly a lot more deadly when you’ve got a +4 to your dispel checks. It also boosts your base Will save even further, qualifying you for...
5th
Master of Shrouds 1
Extra RebukingB
Rebuke undead
...master of shrouds! Early entry MoS via dipping into another class with a good Will save is something that has been well-known for decades, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. You’re entering a level later than usual (the most common method is cleric 2/class with good will save 1/MoS 1 for entry by ECL 4), but in exchange you don’t drop a caster level and get access to the inquisition domain, which is definitely worthwhile. This first level is pretty much a throw-away (though Extra Rebuking will definitely come in handy in the very near future), but luckily it comes at a time when your low level cleric spells still get passable mileage.
6th
Master of Shrouds 2
Divine Defiance
Summon undead (shadow)
Incorporeal enhancement
Master of shrouds doesn’t take long at all to start coming into its own. Shadows are incredibly strong at this level, when incorporeality and ability damage are especially deadly - and you can summon 3+Cha shadows a day. Oh, and just in case you wanted to really drive home how thoroughly it outclasses standard summoning, it’s also an SLA, letting you perform it as a standard action instead of the otherwise inconvenient full round… but it explicitly functions in all other ways as a summon monster spell, meaning that Beckon the Frozen should apply. That’s a very handy way to add some cold damage on top of your strength draining shadows.
Many enemies you’ll find yourself facing at ECL 6 will still be completely vulnerable to shadows. However, you will need to watch out for foes with magical ability. Luckily, that’s where the rest of this level comes into play. With 3rd-level spells comes dispel magic, and despite dropping a casting level you’re still effectively shooting at +3 above your ECL with regard to dispels. In addition to dispelling active spells, you can use this to suppress magical weapons that might otherwise harm your shadow army, or use it as a counterspell against more magically-inclined foes. Except who wants to waste an action by readying a counterspell? With Divine Defiance you can act as you normally would, summoning and debuffing and locking foes down, and when they try to respond magically, you can spend a rebuke attempt and an immediate action to shut that down too. Altogether it’s a very potent combination that should stay good for quite a few levels.
Finally, access to 3rd-level spells provide some other benefits as well. Incorporeal enhancement is your divine magician choice and gives a bevy of buffs to incorporeal creatures. While it’s probably not worth the action to cast on a single shadow, it becomes much more potent when you have a whole army available. Summon monster III is still quite effective thanks to Augment Summoning and Beckon the Frozen, and can provide some battlefield control as well, either by summoning dretches to drop a stinking cloud or celestial bisons or fiendish monstrous centipedes to serve as great big grappling walls of HP. And if you need to deal some damage, the fiendish ape with its three attacks is quite good, dealing a very nasty 6d6+20 damage if all three attacks hit.
7th
Master of Shrouds 3
Not a lot to talk about this level. More spell slots never hurt!
8th
Master of Shrouds 4
Summon undead (wraith)
Dispelling screen
MoS bumps you up to your next level in summoning prowess. As good as wraiths are, I tend to think the best strategy with these types of summoners is to overwhelm with numbers: summoning two shadows will very quickly drain a lot of common foes down to nothing.
But even more important than your summoning is your access to 4th-level spells. Again, your focus is on locking down foes in multiple ways. This level gives you several powerful tools. You have a couple of good walls here, namely dispelling screen (nabbed via divine magician) and wall of sand. The former is especially interesting for its ability to block spells, while the latter might be my favorite cleric BFC spell. And thanks to your spontaneous domain casting, you can also spontaneously cast ice storm at this level. This deals solid damage and reduces movement in a pretty decent-sized area for a full round. Best of all, your shadow army won’t be hindered by wall of sand or ice storm due to their incorporeality. That’s what you’re all about: lock down movement, remove magical effects, shut down opposing spells, and send your shadows out to play.
Oh, and I do want to call attention to a spell I haven’t talked about much. Summon undead is generally going to be inferior to your other summoning spells: an ogre zombie certainly isn’t bad, and probably about as useful in most situations as a fiendish ape, but mostly it’s just been giving you brutes rather than anything interesting. The level 4 version, however, changes all that. At this level you get access to the allip (AKA the most under-CR’d foe in the Monster Manual… good gods, how many low level parties have been slain by this thing?). By level 8 it’s only so-so, but it still has some interesting uses. Incorporeality and ability drain are nothing new for you, but the babble ability covers a surprisingly large area. Combine that with the fact that incorporeal creatures are quite good at getting into hard-to-access places, and sending a couple of allips ahead of you to hypnotize huge swaths of foes can be quite effective under the right circumstances.
9th
Master of Shrouds 5
Arcane Mastery
Improved summoning
A flat boost to all your undead summons? Sure, why not. Little boosts like this go a long way toward making sure your armies of shadows stay competitive even at higher levels.
As for your feat, Arcane Mastery, despite the name, isn’t just for arcane casters. Anyone with spell-like abilities (meaning you, as both church inquisitor and MoS give you SLAs) can qualify and start taking 10 on caster level checks. Now you never have to worry about low rolls on dispel checks again; between this and the various dispelling boosts this build collects, you should almost always succeed on your caster level check to dispel or counter something.
10th
Master of Shrouds 6
Summon undead (spectre)
Waves of fatigue
Another very big bump. First, your spectral army gets even more threatening: you can now summon a whopping four shadows with a single action, or bring up a couple of wraiths for some tag-teaming Constitution drain. I’m still very much of the opinion that you’ll almost always be better off summoning multiples (especially when you start thinking about buffs like incorporeal enhancement and Beckon the Frozen), but the spectre is also rather potent on its own, dishing out a pair of negative levels on a successful hit.
Second, let’s talk spells. 5th-level spells provide some extremely potent options. Blizzard completely shuts down visibility and severely hampers movement for everyone EXCEPT your party, thanks to your access to snowsight and snow walk. Boreal wind is perhaps my favorite cleric blasting option and also fits perfectly with your theme: it does decent damage in an absolutely gigantic area and pushes enemies around as a gust of wind, and as it’s an emanation that lasts for several rounds (and that can be redirected as a move action), it’s something you can cast in the first round or two before sending in your spectral army or using other spells. Your divine magician choice, waves of fatigue, is a phenomenal debuff that hits a good-sized area, drops Strength and Dex (making your shadows even scarier), and prevents your foes from running or charging, all without a save. Wall of stone may lack some of the charms of wall of sand, but it’s harder to outright bypass it and it can be used in a lot of creative ways. Plus you have a whole bevy of powerful utility options (true seeing, break enchantment, raise dead, revivify, scrying, plane shift).
11th
Master of Shrouds 7
Not much to talk about here; more spells are always nice, but nothing super interesting comes up at this level.
12th
Master of Shrouds 8
Divine Spell Power
Summon undead (greater shadow)
Greater anticipate teleportation
I’m not a huge fan of pulling a single greater shadow at this level (though incorporeal Spring Attack is cute alongside your walls), but a pair of spectres or four wraiths? Now that’s something I can definitely get behind.
As for 6th-level spells, there are some real doozies. Of particular note is greater dispel magic. This is the first level you’re really running into the CL cap on standard dispels, so removing it is huge. Death hail pelts a huge area with Strength- and Con-damaging stones for several rounds; it plays very nicely with your spectral army, which is immune to the hail and dishes out quite a bit of Strength or Con damage itself. Harm doubles as a powerful attack and a great way to fully restore one of your undead minions. And your divine magician spell this time around is greater anticipate teleportation. In addition to safeguarding you against common scry and die tactics (which would be more than good enough), this also seriously screws with short-range tactical teleportation in a very major way. Considering that you’re focused on locking down enemies, removing this means of bypassing your BFC is just the bee’s knees.
Oh, and I mentioned caster level. Take a look at this level’s feat. Divine Spell Power lets you spend a rebuke attempt to try to increase your caster level. Between synergy bonuses, a true holy symbol and the +3 bonus the feat itself provides, you should be looking at a bonus of +7 before adding your Charisma on any turning checks. With your Charisma focus, that should easily put you at +12 total at this level, meaning it is guaranteed to give you at least a +1 bonus to caster level (and gives as much as a +4 bonus on a roll of a 10 or higher). As levels progress and your Charisma increases (and you pick up other items to further increase Charisma checks), this becomes even more reliable. While you don’t want to constantly burn through your rebuke attempts, this is a great way to successfully dispel against more powerful foes, or eke out some extra boosts with spells like incorporeal enhancement.
13th
Master of Shrouds 9
Again, nothing big to talk about this level other than more spell slots.
14th
Master of Shrouds 10
Summon undead (dread wraith)
Waves of exhaustion
And finally, you hit the capstone of Master of Shrouds. It was a good run, and it ends well. I know I’ve been harping on always summoning crowds instead of a single creature but the dread wraith on its own is actually really scary even at ECL 14, and a huge step up from the standard wraith. With a +18 to its incorporeal touch attack, a 10’ reach, Combat Reflexes, Spring Attack and an excellent fly speed, it’s very good at harrying foes. It can incorporeally bypass most of your lock-down magic, using Spring Attack and reach to safely attack and withdraw from the most dangerous enemies while still positioning itself to get the most use out of its Combat Reflexes. Plus this thing just has a pile of hit points and is almost impossible to evade thanks to its lifesense ability (which also has the handy advantage of allowing it to still function well inside a blizzard). And if that doesn’t do it for you, you can always summon four spectres to swarm an opponent and start dishing out eight negative levels a round.
But as good as your summoning abilities are, your clerical casting is still worth noting. Waves of fatigue gets upgraded to its big brother waves of exhaustion, which takes everything good about the former spell and cranks it up to 11: twice the area, a penalty three times as powerful, and an even better movement debuff. Honestly there’s a ton that clerics get at this level, like greater scrying, resurrection, destruction, control weather and dictum/holy word/blasphemy (the latter of which really loves the fact that you can punch above your ECL thanks to Divine Spell Power). You also get SMVII, which means that you can summon forth an avoral or bone devil. The avoral is great for spamming dispels alongside you, as it gets them at will, while the bone devil is an excellent combatant with several strong SLAs of its own and a very nice fear aura.
15th
Paragnostic Apostle 1
Extra Rebuking
Holy texts, knowledge is power (penetrating insight), lore
Paragnostic apostle is a pretty common filler PrC, offering decent but not gamebreaking benefits to just about any full caster. Here it keeps your casting up, advances your rebuking and helps ensure that both your summoning and your dispelling stay top notch. To start things off, go ahead and take penetrating insight, which improves your dispelling and helps you pierce spell resistance.
Extra Rebuking isn’t flashy, but as turning will be used both for Divine Spell Power and your best “NOPE” option in Divine Defiance, getting another four attempts is always going to be appreciated.
16th
Paragnostic Apostle 2
Knowledge is power (call of worlds)
Mind blank
Adding fast healing onto a summoned critter isn’t gamebreaking, but definitely doesn’t hurt, especially for combat summons. That’s nice, because in addition to your usual summoning options, at this level you can start summoning frost giants via your domain spell. Alongside the flexibility of SMVIII (you unfortunately won’t be able to summon a blue slaad due to alignment issues, but greater elementals are always, um, great, and I’m a huge fan of the celestial triceratops), you have some very nice options.
Beyond summoning, as far as dispelling goes, it’s really hard to beat chain dispel. And for your divine magician spell, there are a ton of fantastic options, but I feel like it’s hard to go wrong with mind blank. I’ve said this elsewhere but in my opinion it’s the best defensive buff spell in all of 3.5, providing serious and outright game-changing defenses that last all day long.
17th
Paragnostic Apostle 3
Knowledge is power (divine understanding)
Since dispelling is such a key part of this build, let’s boost it even further: use divine understanding alongside the liberation domain (it explicitly does not need to be a domain that you have access to or that your deity offers). You’ll get a +1 CL on all spells from that domain, which includes standouts like break enchantment and, yes, greater dispel magic.
18th
Contemplative 1
Extra Rebuking
Bonus domain (law), divine health
Mage’s disjunction
Well, with 9th-level spells, it’s really hard to go wrong here. Clerics easily make up for their fairly sparse 8th-level options with a cornucopia of powerful choices here. Miracle in particular is absolutely incredible: not only does it have all the totally broken applications of wish, but it also is insanely flexible, duplicating any 8th-level or lower cleric spell or any 7th-level lower spell from any list without requiring you to burn any of your precious XP. Gate is, of course, similarly phenomenal. You also get imprisonment from the inquisition domain, and while I’m not a fan of touch spells that offer saving throws, it’s trivially easy to dish out a -4 penalty on the save and a very nice way of stopping enemies that don’t fear death. Oh, and since you’re specifically focused on completely shutting down foes, go ahead and grab disjunction via divine magician. It’s the best debuff in the game bar-none. I hear a lot of guff about how it’s not worth it because it destroys loot, but when it comes to facing other spellcasters, there’s just no replacement. (If you really really don’t like disjunction, reaving dispel is a solid replacement.)
Dipping into contemplative at this point is more or less free, so enjoy your free domain. Unfortunately as a non-deity specific cleric, you’re limited to domains “made available by your… alignment,” which in your case just means the law domain. This won’t give you many interesting new spells, but the +1 CL on law spells is certainly nice, especially for spells like dictum.
And again, I recommend you continue increasing your rebuking pool. Even without Divine Metamagic, spell battles are so prominent at higher levels that leaving the option open to use Divine Defiance more or less every round is huge. Extra Rebuking may seem a bit lame as a capstone feat, but it can be a big help. (You’ve also got 18 effective rebuking levels and a Charisma focus, making your rebuking itself decently powerful all on its own if you ever encounter opposing undead.)
19th
Paragnostic Apostle 4
Knowledge is power (see through the veil)
Might as well finish out paragnostic apostle while we’re at it; it basically gives you everything cloistered cleric would, but trades out 2 skill points per level for some neat extra abilities. See through the veil increases your effective turning level by 2, completely eliminating the levels you lost by dipping into church inquisitor and contemplative.
20th
Paragnostic Apostle 5
Knowledge is power (divine understanding)
Go ahead and take divine understanding again, since further boosting CL never hurts. I recommend grabbing it for the inquisition or law domain this time around; boosting dictum is pretty much always going to be worthwhile.
1: Ray of enfeeblement
2: Arcane turmoil
3: Incorporeal enhancement
4: Dispelling screen
5: Waves of fatigue
6: Greater anticipate teleportation
7: Waves of exhaustion
8: Mind blank
9: Mage’s disjunction
Wisdom and Charisma are your bread and butter: Wisdom drives your clerical casting, while Charisma powers your master of shrouds abilities and rebuking. Ideally you’ll want a passable Dexterity as well for purpose of ranged touch attacks (and because you lack the armor proficiencies of a standard cleric), but it doesn’t require heavy investment and you shouldn’t need much beyond that.
SAMPLE STAT ARRAYS:
28-point buy: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 12/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 14
32-point buy: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 12/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 16
Most of your skill requirements should be fairly straightforward. All told, you’ll require 13 ranks in knowledge (religion), 5 ranks in knowledge (arcana), 6 ranks in knowledge (the planes), 5 ranks in concentration and 5 ranks in spellcraft. Most of these are skills you’d want regardless, and you should have all the skill points necessary to hit these marks. Beyond that, spellcraft in particular is essential for anyone focused on dispelling and counterspelling, and concentration is always important.
All the usual clerical goodies are great here, but you should especially be on the lookout for a prayer bead of karma, which gives a huge CL boost for its cost. In general, anything that increases caster level in particular will be of good use for you. Because your primary summoning is of the spectral variety, most common items I’d suggest for a summoner (such as the ring of mighty summons) are less essential, though they’re still not bad.
In general, though, Cold World will be equipped like a standard cleric, and shouldn’t require any specialized equipment.
BUILD SUMMARY
Though you end up delaying your spellcasting for a level, you still finish things off with 19 effective levels in cleric and all the goodness that comes with that. You also rebuke as a 20th-level cleric (and with a Charisma focus on the build, you’ll likely be quite good at this). Rebuking doesn’t really get a lot of attention outside of dedicated necromancers, probably because most clerics tend to prefer to use their rebuke attempts to power Divine Metamagic, but strong rebuking is very nice against many of the foes that would otherwise be immune to your most powerful debuffs.
From an early level you have a variety of ways to hinder your opponents, many of which wouldn’t be available to an ordinary cleric: from the always excellent snowsight plus obscuring snow combo and other storm-based spells brought to you by spontaneous casting of the Winter domain to the various walls that a cleric has access to, you have quite a few nice forms of BFC. You also have numerous ways to go after magical foes: you get your first dispel effect at ECL 3 with arcane turmoil and even pick up powerhouses like dispelling screen and mage’s disjunction. Divine Defiance allows you to counter spells as an immediate action without requiring you to ready, and between Arcane Mastery, the inquisition domain and your various paragnostic apostle abilities, you should have an excellent dispel check that allows you to punch well above your ECL.
And your summoning. You take a different approach to summoning than most, using your summons primarily as debuffs rather than as bruisers. With a single standard action you can summon a shadow at ECL 6, two shadows at ECL 8, four shadows at ECL 10, four wraiths at ECL 12 or a dread wraith or four spectres at ECL 14, and due to your high Charisma, you can do this several times in a single combat. Incorporeal creatures with ability or level drain are scary enough on their own, but when you add on the ability to lock down your foe’s movements with BFC, suppress their magical gear or defensive buffs with your various dispels and counter their magic with Divine Defiance, they become downright oppressive. You can also accelerate their effectiveness either by buffing them with incorporeal enhancement or by further debuffing your enemies with ray of enfeeblement or waves of fatigue/exhaustion.
VARIANTS
A lot of the later levels of this build can easily be re-shuffled to fit in the divine prestige class of your choice. In fact, while I still highly recommend taking at least two levels in paragnostic apostle for the boost to your dispel checks, it is possible to take things in entirely different directions once you complete master of shrouds. For example, you could go with malconvoker for your last 6 levels, which would delay your spellcasting for another level but add on the planar binding line to your spell list and eventually allow you to double the effectiveness of your summoning spells.
As for the basic fluff of the build, the Order of the Iron Glacier was my choice for a lawful good order per church inquisitor’s requirements, but it is far from the only one. If you move away from the winter theme, there are still a ton of interesting options. How about a cleric devoted to Zouken who is a member of a lawful good monk’s order, and uses the celerity domain to buff her shadows with haste? Or a strongheart halfling dedicated to an order of Yondalla with the creation domain, whose shadows sap the strength of those who would seek to use brute force against halfling communities? Or a cleric of the Brotherhood of Those Who Smile in the Face of Death, who uses the plant domain to trap foes with entangle or wall of thorns while his shades drag down those who would seek to deny a natural death? Once you take the core concept - a lock-down cleric who uses battlefield control and dispelling/counterspelling to leave foes vulnerable to her incorporeal undead - there are a lot of thematic directions you can take this.
***
And that’s that! Please let us know what you think in the comments, and what you’d like to see for future showcases!
INTRODUCTION
With more than a decade and a half of toying around with 3.5, I’ve accumulated a lot of spare builds and ideas. While I don’t have an active game going right now, I still like to pop open my builds folder and try to refine things. Recently I decided to make a dedicated effort to flesh out some of these builds into full write-ups, and reached out to some friends in the CO community who might be interested in doing the same. In the spirit of Tempest Stormwind’s Weekly Optimization Showcase (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?), I thought I’d showcase the end results here.
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
Right now the group consists of myself, the Viscount, Akal Saris, Venger and WhamBamSam, with a couple of other folks hopefully on their way. Typically one of us writes up the build concept and possibly a stub, the others share feedback on Discord or in some of the shared documents we have, and together we refine things until we’re happy with the final product. I’ll list the build’s main author whenever I showcase a particular build.
Buffsader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559259-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Buffsader) (ToB/Gish/Party Support)
The Utility Belt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560988-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Utility-Belt) (Psionics/Stealth/Utility)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569004-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Eternal-Sunshine-of-the-Spotless-War-Mind) (ToB/Psionics/Melee Damage)
The Melding Pot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579458-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Melding-Pot) (Incarnum/Utility)
That’s So Raven (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581950-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-That%92s-So-Raven) (Gish/Ranged/Debuff)
Dancing in the Dark (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582528-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Dancing-in-the-Dark) (ToB/Stealth/Lock-down)
Gladys Knight and the Pips (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583657-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Gladys-Knight-and-the-Pips) (Arcane/Face/Utility)
Zen in the Art of Archery (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584417-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Zen-in-the-Art-of-Archery) (Psionics/Ranged)
I Choose You! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588818-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-I-Choose-You!) (Divine/Summmoning)
As I mentioned, we’re looking at two different takes on summoners. We’ve had I Choose You! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588818-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-I-Choose-You!), so here’s Cold World!
https://m5.paperblog.com/i/178/1789576/winter-ghosts-L-BElHXF.jpeg
Cold World
**** is deep on the block and you got me locked down / In this cold, cold world...
BACKGROUND
Summoning is always a fun tactic, and one that gets a lot of love on the boards. There’s something really satisfying about calling up the biggest, nastiest creature from the depths of the lower planes to stand up and fight for you.
Some of our previous showcases have dabbled in a bit of summoning (such as the Utility Belt’s astral construct or Gladys Knight’s pips), but we haven’t done a full-on hardcore summoner yet. In general, though, this is well-plumbed territory, so there’s not a lot of need to do a full showcase. After all, anyone can pull up, say, Treantmonk’s excellent malconvoker guide and play one of the builds there more or less out of the box. But there are some interesting things that can be done with full summoners that aren’t quite so common. Together, we put together two takes on the classic archetype of the summoner.
While I Choose You! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?588818-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-I-Choose-You!) looked at how to take a classic druidic summoner and tack on extraplanar monster summoning and binding (without sacrificing any druid goodies), for this build, we wanted to look at a different summoning tactic. Here we decided to build an extremely specialized summoner, one who specifically focused on taking one particular type of summoning (specifically, incorporeal undead) and working on making that one type shine.
To do that we asked a few basic questions: how do most foes deal with incorporeal foes? How can we strip away common ways of dealing with incorporeal creatures, whether offensive or defensive? What can we do to set up an environment where incorporeal creatures shine?
The end result is a lot of fun, and represents an archetype that doesn’t get seen much: a lockdown-focused cleric. I hope you enjoy.
THE BASICS
Race: Human or strongheart halfling. The extra feat is as important as ever in the early game, though with flaws or if you are starting at a higher level, any race will work.
Build Stub: Cloistered Cleric 3/Church Inquisitor 1/Master of Shrouds 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Contemplative 1
ACFs: Cloistered cleric, divine magician, spontaneous domain casting.
Alignment: Lawful neutral, and you must channel negative energy.
Deity/Religious Order: OK, here’s where it gets a bit complicated. You must be part of a lawful good church or religious order. However, you must ALSO be non-good and rebuke undead. That means you’ll need to either worship a non-good deity who has a lawful good religious order, or you must be a concept cleric who is part of such an order. I built this character with the fluff of a member of the Order of the Iron Glacier, the lawful good order dedicated to creating pockets of shelter and law within the frozen wasteland of frostfell. Many members of the Order are devoted to the newly-divine Aengrist, but as Aengrist is lawful good, accepting Aengrist as your patron deity will prohibit you from rebuking undead. Instead, I envisioned this character as a non-deific winter-themed member of the Order of the Iron Glacier who seeks to use the tools of the harsh lands of frostfell to carve out a place of safety, one who respects Aengrist but believes that the unforgiving winter lands sometimes require a bit more pragmatism. I’m going to write this up accordingly, but I’ll leave some notes for other order ideas in the variants section.
Cold World
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Divine Magician spells
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Cloistered Cleric 1
Spell Focus (conjuration), Augment Summoning
Lore, rebuke undead, spontaneous domain casting (winter), divine magician
Ray of enfeeblement
While you start things off with two summon-focused feats, summoning at this level is not really ideal due to the short duration. Instead, put that Spell Focus to good use elsewhere with spells like ice slick. While snowsight isn’t terribly useful for you yet unless your campaign happens to start in the dead of winter, your first divine magician spell certainly is: ray of enfeeblement is a fantastic little debuff, and will work especially well alongside your later tactics. In general, that should be your M.O.: lay down some BFC with ice slick or obscuring mist, debuff foes with cause fear and ray of enervation, and basically stay out of harm’s way.
2nd
Cloistered Cleric 2
Not too much to add here, except that summoning becomes a viable option now that your critters stick around for two rounds instead of one. Keep in mind that your lawful alignment does restrict your options a bit as far as summoning goes; most notably, it means you won’t have access to the monstrous spiders. Your best option at this level tends to be the celestial dog.
3rd
Cloistered Cleric 3
Beckon the Frozen
Arcane turmoil
Beckon the Frozen is a solid damage boost for anything with a decent number of natural attacks, and also will serve as a nice way to add some damage to your spectral army in the near future. The medium monstrous scorpion, for instance, does quite well with three attacks. The celestial riding dog and fiendish wolf don’t get quite as much bang for their buck out of it, but are also both solid options.
That said, your summoning skills are quite possibly the least interesting thing about getting access to second level spells. First, your divine magician choice: arcane turmoil is your first access to dispelling magic, which is going to be a focal point throughout your career. Your goal is to lock foes down with battlefield control and debuffs so that your spectral army can shine, and there is no better debuffing option in 3.5 than dispelling. Arcane turmoil gives you your first taste of that, functioning as a targeted dispel.
Also at this level, you get access to obscuring snow. This is an insanely useful spell, surrounding you at all times with heavy swirling snow that blocks vision like a fog cloud for hours per level. That definitely has the potential to get annoying, both for you and your party… but thanks to snowsight, which you cast spontaneously, you should all be able to see through it without issue. Meanwhile, you’ll have total concealment against opponents who rely on vision until they can close within five feet. For other 2nd-level spells of note, both silence and shatter fit right in with your general tactics.
4th
Church Inquisitor 1
Detect evil, Inquisition domain
Church inquisitor is a very nice addition here. I always love at-will detection spells for their ability to function as radar, but the big draw is the inquisition domain. Arcane turmoil is suddenly a lot more deadly when you’ve got a +4 to your dispel checks. It also boosts your base Will save even further, qualifying you for...
5th
Master of Shrouds 1
Extra RebukingB
Rebuke undead
...master of shrouds! Early entry MoS via dipping into another class with a good Will save is something that has been well-known for decades, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. You’re entering a level later than usual (the most common method is cleric 2/class with good will save 1/MoS 1 for entry by ECL 4), but in exchange you don’t drop a caster level and get access to the inquisition domain, which is definitely worthwhile. This first level is pretty much a throw-away (though Extra Rebuking will definitely come in handy in the very near future), but luckily it comes at a time when your low level cleric spells still get passable mileage.
6th
Master of Shrouds 2
Divine Defiance
Summon undead (shadow)
Incorporeal enhancement
Master of shrouds doesn’t take long at all to start coming into its own. Shadows are incredibly strong at this level, when incorporeality and ability damage are especially deadly - and you can summon 3+Cha shadows a day. Oh, and just in case you wanted to really drive home how thoroughly it outclasses standard summoning, it’s also an SLA, letting you perform it as a standard action instead of the otherwise inconvenient full round… but it explicitly functions in all other ways as a summon monster spell, meaning that Beckon the Frozen should apply. That’s a very handy way to add some cold damage on top of your strength draining shadows.
Many enemies you’ll find yourself facing at ECL 6 will still be completely vulnerable to shadows. However, you will need to watch out for foes with magical ability. Luckily, that’s where the rest of this level comes into play. With 3rd-level spells comes dispel magic, and despite dropping a casting level you’re still effectively shooting at +3 above your ECL with regard to dispels. In addition to dispelling active spells, you can use this to suppress magical weapons that might otherwise harm your shadow army, or use it as a counterspell against more magically-inclined foes. Except who wants to waste an action by readying a counterspell? With Divine Defiance you can act as you normally would, summoning and debuffing and locking foes down, and when they try to respond magically, you can spend a rebuke attempt and an immediate action to shut that down too. Altogether it’s a very potent combination that should stay good for quite a few levels.
Finally, access to 3rd-level spells provide some other benefits as well. Incorporeal enhancement is your divine magician choice and gives a bevy of buffs to incorporeal creatures. While it’s probably not worth the action to cast on a single shadow, it becomes much more potent when you have a whole army available. Summon monster III is still quite effective thanks to Augment Summoning and Beckon the Frozen, and can provide some battlefield control as well, either by summoning dretches to drop a stinking cloud or celestial bisons or fiendish monstrous centipedes to serve as great big grappling walls of HP. And if you need to deal some damage, the fiendish ape with its three attacks is quite good, dealing a very nasty 6d6+20 damage if all three attacks hit.
7th
Master of Shrouds 3
Not a lot to talk about this level. More spell slots never hurt!
8th
Master of Shrouds 4
Summon undead (wraith)
Dispelling screen
MoS bumps you up to your next level in summoning prowess. As good as wraiths are, I tend to think the best strategy with these types of summoners is to overwhelm with numbers: summoning two shadows will very quickly drain a lot of common foes down to nothing.
But even more important than your summoning is your access to 4th-level spells. Again, your focus is on locking down foes in multiple ways. This level gives you several powerful tools. You have a couple of good walls here, namely dispelling screen (nabbed via divine magician) and wall of sand. The former is especially interesting for its ability to block spells, while the latter might be my favorite cleric BFC spell. And thanks to your spontaneous domain casting, you can also spontaneously cast ice storm at this level. This deals solid damage and reduces movement in a pretty decent-sized area for a full round. Best of all, your shadow army won’t be hindered by wall of sand or ice storm due to their incorporeality. That’s what you’re all about: lock down movement, remove magical effects, shut down opposing spells, and send your shadows out to play.
Oh, and I do want to call attention to a spell I haven’t talked about much. Summon undead is generally going to be inferior to your other summoning spells: an ogre zombie certainly isn’t bad, and probably about as useful in most situations as a fiendish ape, but mostly it’s just been giving you brutes rather than anything interesting. The level 4 version, however, changes all that. At this level you get access to the allip (AKA the most under-CR’d foe in the Monster Manual… good gods, how many low level parties have been slain by this thing?). By level 8 it’s only so-so, but it still has some interesting uses. Incorporeality and ability drain are nothing new for you, but the babble ability covers a surprisingly large area. Combine that with the fact that incorporeal creatures are quite good at getting into hard-to-access places, and sending a couple of allips ahead of you to hypnotize huge swaths of foes can be quite effective under the right circumstances.
9th
Master of Shrouds 5
Arcane Mastery
Improved summoning
A flat boost to all your undead summons? Sure, why not. Little boosts like this go a long way toward making sure your armies of shadows stay competitive even at higher levels.
As for your feat, Arcane Mastery, despite the name, isn’t just for arcane casters. Anyone with spell-like abilities (meaning you, as both church inquisitor and MoS give you SLAs) can qualify and start taking 10 on caster level checks. Now you never have to worry about low rolls on dispel checks again; between this and the various dispelling boosts this build collects, you should almost always succeed on your caster level check to dispel or counter something.
10th
Master of Shrouds 6
Summon undead (spectre)
Waves of fatigue
Another very big bump. First, your spectral army gets even more threatening: you can now summon a whopping four shadows with a single action, or bring up a couple of wraiths for some tag-teaming Constitution drain. I’m still very much of the opinion that you’ll almost always be better off summoning multiples (especially when you start thinking about buffs like incorporeal enhancement and Beckon the Frozen), but the spectre is also rather potent on its own, dishing out a pair of negative levels on a successful hit.
Second, let’s talk spells. 5th-level spells provide some extremely potent options. Blizzard completely shuts down visibility and severely hampers movement for everyone EXCEPT your party, thanks to your access to snowsight and snow walk. Boreal wind is perhaps my favorite cleric blasting option and also fits perfectly with your theme: it does decent damage in an absolutely gigantic area and pushes enemies around as a gust of wind, and as it’s an emanation that lasts for several rounds (and that can be redirected as a move action), it’s something you can cast in the first round or two before sending in your spectral army or using other spells. Your divine magician choice, waves of fatigue, is a phenomenal debuff that hits a good-sized area, drops Strength and Dex (making your shadows even scarier), and prevents your foes from running or charging, all without a save. Wall of stone may lack some of the charms of wall of sand, but it’s harder to outright bypass it and it can be used in a lot of creative ways. Plus you have a whole bevy of powerful utility options (true seeing, break enchantment, raise dead, revivify, scrying, plane shift).
11th
Master of Shrouds 7
Not much to talk about here; more spells are always nice, but nothing super interesting comes up at this level.
12th
Master of Shrouds 8
Divine Spell Power
Summon undead (greater shadow)
Greater anticipate teleportation
I’m not a huge fan of pulling a single greater shadow at this level (though incorporeal Spring Attack is cute alongside your walls), but a pair of spectres or four wraiths? Now that’s something I can definitely get behind.
As for 6th-level spells, there are some real doozies. Of particular note is greater dispel magic. This is the first level you’re really running into the CL cap on standard dispels, so removing it is huge. Death hail pelts a huge area with Strength- and Con-damaging stones for several rounds; it plays very nicely with your spectral army, which is immune to the hail and dishes out quite a bit of Strength or Con damage itself. Harm doubles as a powerful attack and a great way to fully restore one of your undead minions. And your divine magician spell this time around is greater anticipate teleportation. In addition to safeguarding you against common scry and die tactics (which would be more than good enough), this also seriously screws with short-range tactical teleportation in a very major way. Considering that you’re focused on locking down enemies, removing this means of bypassing your BFC is just the bee’s knees.
Oh, and I mentioned caster level. Take a look at this level’s feat. Divine Spell Power lets you spend a rebuke attempt to try to increase your caster level. Between synergy bonuses, a true holy symbol and the +3 bonus the feat itself provides, you should be looking at a bonus of +7 before adding your Charisma on any turning checks. With your Charisma focus, that should easily put you at +12 total at this level, meaning it is guaranteed to give you at least a +1 bonus to caster level (and gives as much as a +4 bonus on a roll of a 10 or higher). As levels progress and your Charisma increases (and you pick up other items to further increase Charisma checks), this becomes even more reliable. While you don’t want to constantly burn through your rebuke attempts, this is a great way to successfully dispel against more powerful foes, or eke out some extra boosts with spells like incorporeal enhancement.
13th
Master of Shrouds 9
Again, nothing big to talk about this level other than more spell slots.
14th
Master of Shrouds 10
Summon undead (dread wraith)
Waves of exhaustion
And finally, you hit the capstone of Master of Shrouds. It was a good run, and it ends well. I know I’ve been harping on always summoning crowds instead of a single creature but the dread wraith on its own is actually really scary even at ECL 14, and a huge step up from the standard wraith. With a +18 to its incorporeal touch attack, a 10’ reach, Combat Reflexes, Spring Attack and an excellent fly speed, it’s very good at harrying foes. It can incorporeally bypass most of your lock-down magic, using Spring Attack and reach to safely attack and withdraw from the most dangerous enemies while still positioning itself to get the most use out of its Combat Reflexes. Plus this thing just has a pile of hit points and is almost impossible to evade thanks to its lifesense ability (which also has the handy advantage of allowing it to still function well inside a blizzard). And if that doesn’t do it for you, you can always summon four spectres to swarm an opponent and start dishing out eight negative levels a round.
But as good as your summoning abilities are, your clerical casting is still worth noting. Waves of fatigue gets upgraded to its big brother waves of exhaustion, which takes everything good about the former spell and cranks it up to 11: twice the area, a penalty three times as powerful, and an even better movement debuff. Honestly there’s a ton that clerics get at this level, like greater scrying, resurrection, destruction, control weather and dictum/holy word/blasphemy (the latter of which really loves the fact that you can punch above your ECL thanks to Divine Spell Power). You also get SMVII, which means that you can summon forth an avoral or bone devil. The avoral is great for spamming dispels alongside you, as it gets them at will, while the bone devil is an excellent combatant with several strong SLAs of its own and a very nice fear aura.
15th
Paragnostic Apostle 1
Extra Rebuking
Holy texts, knowledge is power (penetrating insight), lore
Paragnostic apostle is a pretty common filler PrC, offering decent but not gamebreaking benefits to just about any full caster. Here it keeps your casting up, advances your rebuking and helps ensure that both your summoning and your dispelling stay top notch. To start things off, go ahead and take penetrating insight, which improves your dispelling and helps you pierce spell resistance.
Extra Rebuking isn’t flashy, but as turning will be used both for Divine Spell Power and your best “NOPE” option in Divine Defiance, getting another four attempts is always going to be appreciated.
16th
Paragnostic Apostle 2
Knowledge is power (call of worlds)
Mind blank
Adding fast healing onto a summoned critter isn’t gamebreaking, but definitely doesn’t hurt, especially for combat summons. That’s nice, because in addition to your usual summoning options, at this level you can start summoning frost giants via your domain spell. Alongside the flexibility of SMVIII (you unfortunately won’t be able to summon a blue slaad due to alignment issues, but greater elementals are always, um, great, and I’m a huge fan of the celestial triceratops), you have some very nice options.
Beyond summoning, as far as dispelling goes, it’s really hard to beat chain dispel. And for your divine magician spell, there are a ton of fantastic options, but I feel like it’s hard to go wrong with mind blank. I’ve said this elsewhere but in my opinion it’s the best defensive buff spell in all of 3.5, providing serious and outright game-changing defenses that last all day long.
17th
Paragnostic Apostle 3
Knowledge is power (divine understanding)
Since dispelling is such a key part of this build, let’s boost it even further: use divine understanding alongside the liberation domain (it explicitly does not need to be a domain that you have access to or that your deity offers). You’ll get a +1 CL on all spells from that domain, which includes standouts like break enchantment and, yes, greater dispel magic.
18th
Contemplative 1
Extra Rebuking
Bonus domain (law), divine health
Mage’s disjunction
Well, with 9th-level spells, it’s really hard to go wrong here. Clerics easily make up for their fairly sparse 8th-level options with a cornucopia of powerful choices here. Miracle in particular is absolutely incredible: not only does it have all the totally broken applications of wish, but it also is insanely flexible, duplicating any 8th-level or lower cleric spell or any 7th-level lower spell from any list without requiring you to burn any of your precious XP. Gate is, of course, similarly phenomenal. You also get imprisonment from the inquisition domain, and while I’m not a fan of touch spells that offer saving throws, it’s trivially easy to dish out a -4 penalty on the save and a very nice way of stopping enemies that don’t fear death. Oh, and since you’re specifically focused on completely shutting down foes, go ahead and grab disjunction via divine magician. It’s the best debuff in the game bar-none. I hear a lot of guff about how it’s not worth it because it destroys loot, but when it comes to facing other spellcasters, there’s just no replacement. (If you really really don’t like disjunction, reaving dispel is a solid replacement.)
Dipping into contemplative at this point is more or less free, so enjoy your free domain. Unfortunately as a non-deity specific cleric, you’re limited to domains “made available by your… alignment,” which in your case just means the law domain. This won’t give you many interesting new spells, but the +1 CL on law spells is certainly nice, especially for spells like dictum.
And again, I recommend you continue increasing your rebuking pool. Even without Divine Metamagic, spell battles are so prominent at higher levels that leaving the option open to use Divine Defiance more or less every round is huge. Extra Rebuking may seem a bit lame as a capstone feat, but it can be a big help. (You’ve also got 18 effective rebuking levels and a Charisma focus, making your rebuking itself decently powerful all on its own if you ever encounter opposing undead.)
19th
Paragnostic Apostle 4
Knowledge is power (see through the veil)
Might as well finish out paragnostic apostle while we’re at it; it basically gives you everything cloistered cleric would, but trades out 2 skill points per level for some neat extra abilities. See through the veil increases your effective turning level by 2, completely eliminating the levels you lost by dipping into church inquisitor and contemplative.
20th
Paragnostic Apostle 5
Knowledge is power (divine understanding)
Go ahead and take divine understanding again, since further boosting CL never hurts. I recommend grabbing it for the inquisition or law domain this time around; boosting dictum is pretty much always going to be worthwhile.
1: Ray of enfeeblement
2: Arcane turmoil
3: Incorporeal enhancement
4: Dispelling screen
5: Waves of fatigue
6: Greater anticipate teleportation
7: Waves of exhaustion
8: Mind blank
9: Mage’s disjunction
Wisdom and Charisma are your bread and butter: Wisdom drives your clerical casting, while Charisma powers your master of shrouds abilities and rebuking. Ideally you’ll want a passable Dexterity as well for purpose of ranged touch attacks (and because you lack the armor proficiencies of a standard cleric), but it doesn’t require heavy investment and you shouldn’t need much beyond that.
SAMPLE STAT ARRAYS:
28-point buy: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 12/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 14
32-point buy: Str 8/Dex 14/Con 12/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 16
Most of your skill requirements should be fairly straightforward. All told, you’ll require 13 ranks in knowledge (religion), 5 ranks in knowledge (arcana), 6 ranks in knowledge (the planes), 5 ranks in concentration and 5 ranks in spellcraft. Most of these are skills you’d want regardless, and you should have all the skill points necessary to hit these marks. Beyond that, spellcraft in particular is essential for anyone focused on dispelling and counterspelling, and concentration is always important.
All the usual clerical goodies are great here, but you should especially be on the lookout for a prayer bead of karma, which gives a huge CL boost for its cost. In general, anything that increases caster level in particular will be of good use for you. Because your primary summoning is of the spectral variety, most common items I’d suggest for a summoner (such as the ring of mighty summons) are less essential, though they’re still not bad.
In general, though, Cold World will be equipped like a standard cleric, and shouldn’t require any specialized equipment.
BUILD SUMMARY
Though you end up delaying your spellcasting for a level, you still finish things off with 19 effective levels in cleric and all the goodness that comes with that. You also rebuke as a 20th-level cleric (and with a Charisma focus on the build, you’ll likely be quite good at this). Rebuking doesn’t really get a lot of attention outside of dedicated necromancers, probably because most clerics tend to prefer to use their rebuke attempts to power Divine Metamagic, but strong rebuking is very nice against many of the foes that would otherwise be immune to your most powerful debuffs.
From an early level you have a variety of ways to hinder your opponents, many of which wouldn’t be available to an ordinary cleric: from the always excellent snowsight plus obscuring snow combo and other storm-based spells brought to you by spontaneous casting of the Winter domain to the various walls that a cleric has access to, you have quite a few nice forms of BFC. You also have numerous ways to go after magical foes: you get your first dispel effect at ECL 3 with arcane turmoil and even pick up powerhouses like dispelling screen and mage’s disjunction. Divine Defiance allows you to counter spells as an immediate action without requiring you to ready, and between Arcane Mastery, the inquisition domain and your various paragnostic apostle abilities, you should have an excellent dispel check that allows you to punch well above your ECL.
And your summoning. You take a different approach to summoning than most, using your summons primarily as debuffs rather than as bruisers. With a single standard action you can summon a shadow at ECL 6, two shadows at ECL 8, four shadows at ECL 10, four wraiths at ECL 12 or a dread wraith or four spectres at ECL 14, and due to your high Charisma, you can do this several times in a single combat. Incorporeal creatures with ability or level drain are scary enough on their own, but when you add on the ability to lock down your foe’s movements with BFC, suppress their magical gear or defensive buffs with your various dispels and counter their magic with Divine Defiance, they become downright oppressive. You can also accelerate their effectiveness either by buffing them with incorporeal enhancement or by further debuffing your enemies with ray of enfeeblement or waves of fatigue/exhaustion.
VARIANTS
A lot of the later levels of this build can easily be re-shuffled to fit in the divine prestige class of your choice. In fact, while I still highly recommend taking at least two levels in paragnostic apostle for the boost to your dispel checks, it is possible to take things in entirely different directions once you complete master of shrouds. For example, you could go with malconvoker for your last 6 levels, which would delay your spellcasting for another level but add on the planar binding line to your spell list and eventually allow you to double the effectiveness of your summoning spells.
As for the basic fluff of the build, the Order of the Iron Glacier was my choice for a lawful good order per church inquisitor’s requirements, but it is far from the only one. If you move away from the winter theme, there are still a ton of interesting options. How about a cleric devoted to Zouken who is a member of a lawful good monk’s order, and uses the celerity domain to buff her shadows with haste? Or a strongheart halfling dedicated to an order of Yondalla with the creation domain, whose shadows sap the strength of those who would seek to use brute force against halfling communities? Or a cleric of the Brotherhood of Those Who Smile in the Face of Death, who uses the plant domain to trap foes with entangle or wall of thorns while his shades drag down those who would seek to deny a natural death? Once you take the core concept - a lock-down cleric who uses battlefield control and dispelling/counterspelling to leave foes vulnerable to her incorporeal undead - there are a lot of thematic directions you can take this.
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And that’s that! Please let us know what you think in the comments, and what you’d like to see for future showcases!