(PATHFINDER 1ST EDITION) Cleric Evangelist Build Help.

[Nyan]

I am making a cleric for a campaing and im wondering about my build and if it could need some improvments.

Character stuff

Stats : 10 12 15 16 16 16 (Yes i rolled, Yes they are insane)
Stating level: 1
Leveling: EXP using medium speed.
Wealth: Average starting wealth.

Party besides myself: Alchemist Grenadier, Bloodrager, Fighter.

- No variant multiclassing
- No Traits
- All sources allowed besides third party stuff.
- No Combat Stamina
- HOMEBREW: I was allowed to get proficiency with all Sheilds due to that being the hombrew gods favored weapon in his world.
- NOTE: I think we will level pretty slow. And im not sure we will ever reach higher levels. Im guessing we wont go higher than 10 but you never know. I dont want plan for a build that comes online way too late.

Current Character (May change as you guys suggest stuff)

Stats:
STR: 10
DEX: 15
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 18 (16+2)
CHA: 18 (16+2)

Race: Aasimar (will not change this)
Class: Cleric
Archetype: Evangelist
Domain: Glory (Heroism subtype)
First lvl feat: Spell focus (Conjuration.)
Favored class bonus: +1 hp

Strategy: My idea right now is to use bardic performance then go with bless or other buffs. Then when i cant buff use the Aid another action to help out my allies or spam guidance on the grenadier in the backline. In the future going for the summoning feats to use that to maximise the benefit from my buffs. Never really attacking due to my lack of str really. Going all out support.

Questions about changes.

Domain: With evangelist i only get one. So it has to count. Ive narrowed it down to a few that my gm allowed for his deity. Law, Protection, Good, Glory....Protection and glory seems to be the better picks but im unsure between these two. (Taking the heroism or defense sub domains for either) which do you think is good and why?

Feats: Probably my biggest problem here i dont know when and what i should go for. Cause it kinda decides alot on my playstyle. My initial idea is summoning. But other feats of note is: Flagbearer (gonna try to get myself a banner of ancient kings. Not sure ill get it tho.), Master perfomer and greater, Discordant voice, extra performance, lingering performance, maybe some channel feats. Oh and that feat that allows me to spend a spell slot to make an enemy reroll.

I would love more suggestions and perhaps some different ways i could go on about it. Should i skip summoning and focus on the performance? Pick channel feats? I have no clue.

Archetypes: Anymore that works well with evangelist?

Stats: Is what i have right now good or should i switch stuff around?

Racial abilities: I thought about picking Scion of Humanity. But is it worth it? Seems better to me to be immune to person spells since im counted as an outsider. Or is it something i can get that i reeeeeally would want like a human only feat or something?


I wanna go for a full support buff build that will help the others shine. Ive also considered going full healing with channeling shennanigans but ive seen people both saying jts not worth it and saying its amazing. There seems like so many ways to go on about this way i am kinda stumped.

[Faily]

Should probably move this to the 3.5/Pathfinder sub-forum if you want responses.

[Nyan]

Should probably move this to the 3.5/Pathfinder sub-forum if you want responses.

Havent found ap pathfinder sub forum :/ dont know where it is.

[Psyren]

Stats:
STR: 10
DEX: 15
CON: 16
INT: 12
WIS: 18 (16+2)
CHA: 18 (16+2)

Race: Aasimar (will not change this)
Class: Cleric
Archetype: Evangelist
Domain: Glory (Heroism subtype)
First lvl feat: Spell focus (Conjuration.)
Favored class bonus: +1 hp

I'd put the 16 in Dex rather than Con (more details below). Otherwise no issues.

I assume the SF Conjuration is so you can pick up Augment Summoning at 3? See below concerning feats.



Strategy: My idea right now is to use bardic performance then go with bless or other buffs. Then when i cant buff use the Aid another action to help out my allies or spam guidance on the grenadier in the backline. In the future going for the summoning feats to use that to maximise the benefit from my buffs. Never really attacking due to my lack of str really. Going all out support.

Any reason you're not attacking from range? Your dex is decent (even moreso if you put the 16 there) and maintaining your performance buffs is a free action, so I would pack a crossbow. This gives you something more impactful to do after you've gotten a summon on the field and buffed everyone. "Guidance spam" is pointless since it won't stack with your bardic performance.



Domain: With evangelist i only get one. So it has to count. Ive narrowed it down to a few that my gm allowed for his deity. Law, Protection, Good, Glory....Protection and glory seems to be the better picks but im unsure between these two. (Taking the heroism or defense sub domains for either) which do you think is good and why?

Both are fine. I would personally cosign your Glory (Heroism) choice because the morale bonuses will stack with your competence bonuses from Inspire Courage, and the swift action activation goes well with your summoning. Both powers from Heroism stay good as you level, whereas Resistant Touch from protection loses steam as your party picks up cloaks.



Feats: Probably my biggest problem here i dont know when and what i should go for. Cause it kinda decides alot on my playstyle. My initial idea is summoning. But other feats of note is: Flagbearer (gonna try to get myself a banner of ancient kings. Not sure ill get it tho.), Master perfomer and greater, Discordant voice, extra performance, lingering performance, maybe some channel feats. Oh and that feat that allows me to spend a spell slot to make an enemy reroll.

If you think you're going to level slowly, definitely grab Extra Performance and/or Lingering Performance. I would actually consider grabbing these earlier than the summoning feats, since summons usually won't start being worth it until level 4 or so. Channel Feats are also useful, especially Quick Channel. You'll have a lot of options for how best to maximize your actions in a fight.



Racial abilities: I thought about picking Scion of Humanity. But is it worth it? Seems better to me to be immune to person spells since im counted as an outsider. Or is it something i can get that i reeeeeally would want like a human only feat or something?

Being an outsider is going to be better for you since you don't need to be enlarged etc. I wouldn't bother with SoH.



I wanna go for a full support buff build that will help the others shine. Ive also considered going full healing with channeling shennanigans but ive seen people both saying jts not worth it and saying its amazing. There seems like so many ways to go on about this way i am kinda stumped.

Channel is more than enough healing. By summoning and buffing everyone, you'll do more to keep them alive than reactively restoring HP.


Archetypes: Anymore that works well with evangelist?

Evangelist modifies domain, spontaneous casting, and channel energy (1,9,15). So you can only combine it with archetypes that don't modify any of these. Unfortunately, nearly every other cleric archetype also modifies domain; I haven't gone through every single one but from a brief glance I'm not seeing any that would be compatible with this archetype. You shouldn't need any others though anyway.

[RatElemental]

If you want to evangelize to enemies too, there's the redemption subdomain of good. Not the best mechanically though, but you can no sell blasphemy with it which I find hilarious.

[Nyan]

Okay! Thank you so much for the input so far.

So for some of the questions that Psyren brought up.

Why im not attacking from range is cause i figured i could use a tower sheild for some extra AC being proficient in that and all because of the homebrew deity. Hence opting to use the aid action rather than attacking myself. Or would it simply be better to use a crossbow? I looked at hand crossbow but i would still need both hands to reload it making a tower sheild not possible.

As for the domain i want to point out with the defense subdomain the resistant touch is replaced by an aura that gives +2 ac to my allies. That lasts a number of turns equal to my level. Does this make it better than Heroism? To me it seems heroism is better late game while defense is better early. I dont know...

Finaly to the feats. Picking Spell focus was indeed intended so i could pick augmented summoning as soon as possible.

Extra performance seems perhaps a bit overkill? I mean i already got 6 rounds of performance a day and that could be about one maybe 2 combats early level ish? Would not master performer be more worth it between those? If im being generous and guess we will reach level 11 then i have only 6 feats to go with. So im swamped with selections. How would your feat progression look if you made this character? Not to mention would you throw in quick channel somewhere?

[Psyren]

Why im not attacking from range is cause i figured i could use a tower sheild for some extra AC being proficient in that and all because of the homebrew deity. Hence opting to use the aid action rather than attacking myself. Or would it simply be better to use a crossbow? I looked at hand crossbow but i would still need both hands to reload it making a tower sheild not possible.

Aid Another requires you to be in melee range too, which is a bad idea for several reasons - your weak strength means your CMD is going to be extremely low, and casting in melee is a bad idea in most games but especially in Pathfinder.

The tower shield might sound cool but I don't think it's a good idea. For one thing, tower shields are heavy (you're practically carrying a suit of full plate on your arm!) which is not a great situation for a character with 10 strength. For another, you can't use the hand holding a tower shield for anything else, not even divine somatic components, which means your main hand has to be free so you can cast anything. Contrast that with a light shield, which lets you cast by swapping the weapon to that hand and back as a free action, or a buckler which will let you use a two-handed ranged weapon.

You could try a hand crossbow, sling or throwing weapons instead, but the first two need feats and the latter needs strength (and is much more expensive ammunition-wise, until you can get a Blinkback Belt anyway.)



As for the domain i want to point out with the defense subdomain the resistant touch is replaced by an aura that gives +2 ac to my allies. That lasts a number of turns equal to my level. Does this make it better than Heroism? To me it seems heroism is better late game while defense is better early. I dont know...

Nah, that's fairly useless. It's deflection, which means Protection from Evil already covers it, and you'll likely get a Ring of Protection before too long too even if it takes you awhile to level.



Finaly to the feats. Picking Spell focus was indeed intended so i could pick augmented summoning as soon as possible.

Extra performance seems perhaps a bit overkill? I mean i already got 6 rounds of performance a day and that could be about one maybe 2 combats early level ish? Would not master performer be more worth it between those? If im being generous and guess we will reach level 11 then i have only 6 feats to go with. So im swamped with selections. How would your feat progression look if you made this character? Not to mention would you throw in quick channel somewhere?

A typical combat lasts about 5 rounds. If you're only expecting one fight per day then 6 rounds is fine, but I'd expect you to be up against more than one. In a game where you level fairly quickly this is less of a big deal, but it sounded like yours would linger at each tier a bit longer, which would mean making your bardic performance rounds last longer would be more important.

[Nyan]

Okay so i think ill go with a crossbow in that case. Switching out con and dex. Finaly sticking with the heroism domain.

Now for the feats. I have a few options.

Going for summoning feats straight away (i wont be as good at it as a herald caller but thats fine)

Extra performance for longer inspiration then either master performer or summoning.

Improved initiative and then one of the above.

Although nobody has mentioned flagbearer. Some googling says its a very good feat although is it really worth it?