Immigrant from D&D 5e playing a cleric

[1Pirate]

After some time playing 5e, my friends have talked me into playing a Pathfinder 1e campaign. I'm not the only person new to PF at the table so the GM is limiting things to just the Core book. But even then I'm getting lost in a lot of the minutiae and it's hard to see how this build goes since it's been a little haphazard so far.

I went with the tried-and-true method of just thinking of something that sounded fun to play and then try to make that. So I had a sort of loud, fiery(figuratively and maybe literally) preacher in mind. Kind of see him as being a backline support type role, with a little bit of blast in him.

Half-elf Cleric of Sarenrae, Fire and Glory domains(kinda want to keep Fire).
Stats were rolled, 11, 13, 14, 12, 16, 13 after racials.

Using a scimitar, breastplate, and shield.

On advice, I took Selective Channeling.

So, anything to be aware of? Trap features? Easily overlooked stuff?

[Particle_Man]

Are you planning to stay a cleric? Nothing wrong with that, it is a strong option! But if you wish to go for a prestige class, for example, you need to get certain feats and skills as prerequisites, which can vary by prestige class.

Otherwise, for single-classes cleric I would make wisdom the highest stat, followed by charisma. Int should probably be your lowest stat so you will be hurting a bit for skills.

Edit: direct damage via spells is less useful in pathfinder so I would put the glory spells in your domain spell slot.

[Rynjin]

Edit: direct damage via spells is less useful in pathfinder so I would put the glory spells in your domain spell slot.

Direct damage is still nice to have, though I agree the Glory Domain's spells are better until you get Fireball at 5th level; Fireball is better than Searing Light (especially since you already GET Searing Light and can prepare it in a regular slot), Wall of Fire is better than Holy Smite, Righteous Might is usually better but not for your character, so it's a wash since Fire Shield isn't super great either, Fire Seeds is a hilarious spell but Undeath to Death has great niche use, Holy Sword is probably better than turning into a Fire Elemental, Holy Aura and Incendiary Cloud are about equally okay, and Gate is one of the best spells in the game vs Elemental Swarm which is...not, in the slightest.

Playing a Cleric is pretty forgiving since you can change all your spells every day.

Though remember that Prepared casters work differently in 5e as in Pathfinder; you don't get to prepare a set number of spells and use them interchangeably. If you prepare Shield of Faith, Bless, and Instant Armor as your 1st level spells, you get a SINGLE cast of each, not 3 casts of 1st level spells which can mix and match all of them; if you prefer you can prepare Shield of Faith x2 and Bless x1, for example.

Selective Channeling is solid for a Cleric, but some of the more specialized Feats might be better later if you find out you really like Summoning, Healing, or other specialties.

I don't recommend Prestige Classes. Not only are they complicated to make the most of for a new player, most simply aren't very good; Pathfinder heavily encourages players to stay in a single class and not multiclass at all.

Your stat spread overall looks fine, though consider swapping your Str and Dex around if you ever plan to actually USE that Scimitar. Without Dervish Dance (a non-Core Feat for Sarenrae worshipers that makes you great with scimitars) you can't get Dex to attack/damage with your Scimitar.

[1Pirate]

Yeah, probably going to keep it straight cleric for this one.

Any skills in particular that I should pay attention to?(based on session 0.5, Perception seemed to come up the most--not unlike 5e really)

[Rynjin]

Yeah, probably going to keep it straight cleric for this one.

Any skills in particular that I should pay attention to?(based on session 0.5, Perception seemed to come up the most--not unlike 5e really)

Perception is good for everybody. Kn. Religion and Planes are good for Clerics, Sense Motive is a great Wisdom skill to have. Depending on campaign, maybe put a single rank into Climb and/or Swim at 1st level and then never again after that. Everything else will depend on the situation/campaign you're in.

The only skills you typically want to avoid are Profession and Perform (they don't do much for you), Appraise (typically unused because most GMs don't know or don't care what it's meant to be used for, including myself), Use Magic Device (you're a full caster, so it's less useful for you), and Knowledges Geography and Nobility (almost NEVER used, even among the niche non-Monster Knowledges History and Engineering will come up with surprising regularity, but I have never made a Nobility check in 8 years of playing Pathfidner).

[Psyren]

I don't recommend Prestige Classes. Not only are they complicated to make the most of for a new player, most simply aren't very good; Pathfinder heavily encourages players to stay in a single class and not multiclass at all.

^ Seconded, especially for a castery/support cleric. Very few PrCs advance your domains and channel energy, both of which you will want for this.

Archetypes on the other hand are quite good. If you want a "loud preacher" type who is support focused, I recommend the Evangelist (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo-cleric-archetypes/evangelist/) archetype, which will give you bardic performance type buffs and fit perfectly with your concept.

[Rynjin]

^ Seconded, especially for a castery/support cleric. Very few PrCs advance your domains and channel energy, both of which you will want for this.

Archetypes on the other hand are quite good. If you want a "loud preacher" type who is support focused, I recommend the Evangelist (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/archetypes/paizo-cleric-archetypes/evangelist/) archetype, which will give you bardic performance type buffs and fit perfectly with your concept.

He's Core only, so no Archetypes, sadly.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Rynjin
The only skills you typically want to avoid are Profession and Perform (they don't do much for you)….

If the OP is playing a fiery evangelist, then Perform (oratory) could be very useful. Depends on the campaign, of course, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.


Originally Posted by Rynjin
Appraise (typically unused because most GMs don't know or don't care what it's meant to be used for, including myself)….

I have my players make Appraise checks fairly often, especially the party rogue. Maybe this makes me an outlier, or just a very bad man.

.

[Rynjin]

If the OP is playing a fiery evangelist, then Perform (oratory) could be very useful. Depends on the campaign, of course, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

Flavorful, certainly. A must-have if they're using Background Skills? Definitely.

Useful? Not in the slightest. Perform has no use other than to make you chump change during downtime unless you're a Bard and can use it to mimic more useful skills instead.




I have my players make Appraise checks fairly often, especially the party rogue. Maybe this makes me an outlier, or just a very bad man.

.

Not a bad man, but definitely an outlier. IME Appraise checks are almost as rare as Kn. Nobility checks because the typical GM will tell you straight up the value of an item, not wanting to bother with slowing the game down with an extra check. I actually stumbled a bit when my friend was running his first Pathfinder game a while back and called for an Appraise check to see the value of some boots. Everybody at the table (and of the 5 players, 4 are veterans of nearly a decade or more) had to actually look up the Appraise rules because nobody had any idea what the DCs were supposed to be.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Rynjin
...the typical GM will tell you straight up the value of an item, not wanting to bother with slowing the game down with an extra check.

I must not be typical, because I hardly ever tell players the direct value of an item. Their characters won't know without an Appraise check; otherwise they'll have to eyeball it. My players are good with that.

As for slowing the game down, we once spent ten minutes when one of the characters was trying (and failing) to kill a squirrel to feed a couple of refugees. Ten seconds to roll a d20 and add a modifier is no big deal.

[Psyren]

He's Core only, so no Archetypes, sadly.

There doesn't appear to be a reason for that other than an attempt to keep things simple, so I would still ask the question. Evangelist is very simple, since it's essentially just a merger of two core concepts - the cleric, and bardic performance. In exchange, the cleric gives up a domain, some proficiencies, and some channel progression.