Noob Cleric Build Advice, Pathfinder 1E

[micahaphone]

Hi, soon enough I'll probably be playing in a pathfinder 1E game, and I'm hoping to have anyone tell me if I'm missing something glaring. I started out in PF with heavy GM handholding, our campaign switched to 5E once the GM got the books, and I've been in that system for years now.

I'm making a cleric (or maybe inquisitor?) of Feronia, I'm thinking of going dwarf w/ ash and liberty (or protection) as the two domains. Rolled stats are 17-8-14-13-13-11. With dwarf I'd have
13
13
16
11
19
6


I'm thinking of going a bit blasty with mostly support casting, buffing my allies. Not sure what the rest of the party will look like, but most of us are new to PF so I doubt anyone will be optimized.

GM intends to start us around level 4 or 5, I'm not sure what feats or skills to tag, or if I should rearrange my stats. I've tried twice to use a program called PCGen to create my character sheet, but I keep running into issues, like it won't let me choose domains, so I guess I'm back to good ol' pen and paper.

[Kurald Galain]

Well the inquisitor is mostly a melee warrior, so if you want support caster / buffer / and a bit blasty then Cleric is your best bet.

A fun archetype is Evangelist (gain bard songs for more support ability).
A nice dwarf feat is Steel Soul. Liberation is also good for your defense (Protection is not so good, really).
If you want to boost your party, you could consider feats like Flagbearer, Insightful Advice, Obscuring Beacon; or Bodyguard and Scarlet Rose Devotion.
For a blaster, Burning Amplification is a nice feat; combine with any fire spell like Burning Disarm.
I would swap str and int for the additional skill point. However, you could wield a reach weapon, cast a spell every turn, and use AOO to trip anyone coming nearby.

[micahaphone]

I'll swap strength and int, thanks for the tip.

I realize I haven't looked into archetypes enough, I'll give Evangalist a look!


Steel Soul seems to apply to all saving throws against spells, but the Hardy trait that it upgrades only applies to poison. Is Steel Soul still only for poison, or is it an upgrade to all spell saving throws?

Flagbearer seems great, but I don't think I'll ever have the charisma for it, especially with a dwarf's -2 CHA. Unless Pathfinder has another way to get ASI other than 4th, 8th, etc level up?

Bodyguard and Burning Amplification look like great early feat picks.

I see recommendations for Warrior Priest for initiative and concentration bonuses, is casting defensively that common of a thing for a non war priest?

Is Selective Channeling worth it to not heal the enemy, or does Channel Energy not come up that often in game?

[Kurald Galain]

Steel Soul seems to apply to all saving throws against spells, but the Hardy trait that it upgrades only applies to poison. Is Steel Soul still only for poison, or is it an upgrade to all spell saving throws?
"Hardy: Dwarves gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities."


I see recommendations for Warrior Priest for initiative and concentration bonuses, is casting defensively that common of a thing for a non war priest?
It's not a bad feat, but you generally don't need concentration bonuses on a full caster. If you want initiative, just take the Imp Init feat.


Is Selective Channeling worth it to not heal the enemy, or does Channel Energy not come up that often in game?
Yes, selective channeling is great and makes in-combat healing a viable strategy. But on a race with cha penalty... maybe not.

[micahaphone]

Wow, I missed the comma after poison in Hardy - I thought it was only for poison type damages and conditions, like in 5E. A blanket bonus against all spells certainly makes the -2 CHA sting less :biggrin:

I should note that I'm not 100% set on dwarf, I'm just a fan of them in general in fantasy. If there's some other race that would make a better cleric or fit my stat block better, let me know.

[SpacemonkeyDM]

I'll swap strength and int, thanks for the tip.

I realize I haven't looked into archetypes enough, I'll give Evangalist a look!


Steel Soul seems to apply to all saving throws against spells, but the Hardy trait that it upgrades only applies to poison. Is Steel Soul still only for poison, or is it an upgrade to all spell saving throws?

Flagbearer seems great, but I don't think I'll ever have the charisma for it, especially with a dwarf's -2 CHA. Unless Pathfinder has another way to get ASI other than 4th, 8th, etc level up?

Bodyguard and Burning Amplification look like great early feat picks.

I see recommendations for Warrior Priest for initiative and concentration bonuses, is casting defensively that common of a thing for a non war priest?

Is Selective Channeling worth it to not heal the enemy, or does Channel Energy not come up that often in game?

Archtypes is one of my favorite things about pathfinder, so I would always say look at archtypes to really get the character you want.

Selective Channeling tends to be always needed in my groups. My players clerics is always having to channel in the middle of combat and healing the enemies would make combat that much more taxing on the players resources.

[micahaphone]

I had been admittedly ignoring channeling with my low charisma - I could swap strength and charisma for an 8 str and 9 charisma. Is channeling still useful with a -1 in it?





Should I just play an oracle? They seem more complicated to build but easier to play, as they cast ike a 5E caster. Are they weaker than clerics?

[Kurald Galain]

I had been admittedly ignoring channeling with my low charisma - I could swap strength and charisma for an 8 str and 9 charisma. Is channeling still useful with a -1 in it?
The amount per day is not a big deal; the issue is that Selective Channel requires 14-16 charisma to use effectively.


Should I just play an oracle? They seem more complicated to build but easier to play, as they cast ike a 5E caster. Are they weaker than clerics?
The main downside is getting 2nd/3rd level spells a level later. So yes, they are a bit weaker but still a very strong class.

And much easier to play, yes. But since dwarf is +wis -cha, it matches much better with cleric.