D&D 3.5e Martial Version of Intuitive Attack Feat?

[PleaseGoOutside]

I'm currently playing a Human Cleric of Jergal, my domains are Time & Suffer. My current stats are S: 11 D: 7 C: 16 W: 20 I: 15 CHR: 15, (Rolled with path of glory) and we are currently level 5. I remember back when I played a Cleric of Pelor, the favorite weapon was a mace, and along side it I picked the Initiative Attack feature which allows me to use wisdom instead of strength for both simple and natural weapons. My only issue here is with Jergal, according to the forgotten realms wiki, his favorite weapon was listed as Scythe. I understand scythe is an exotic martial two handed weapon, so I plan on taking the exotic weapon proficiency feat to use it. I prefer to use the scythe (unless it absolutely won't work) seeing as it's something my deity favors, but my only question is, is there an alternative feat I can take like intuitive attack that would work for martial weapons? If not, would there be an alternative weapon you all recommend? If all else fails I plan on sticking to the classic heavy mace. Please and thank you all for the help. I'll take any and all recommendations and I am extremely grateful for them, I hope you all have a good day.

[Lilapop]

I'm not sure you really need a feat like that. You have access to a number of strength buffs, which you might want to use anyway to increase your damage. If you actually want to go this route, a potential alternative weapon would be the heavy sickle from the Planar Handbook - keeps the scythey appearance, but is a simple weapon.

Minor nitpick on proficiencies: Scythe is a martial weapon, not exotic. Doesn't really change anything, except that you can get it through war domain (and iirc there are ways to get domains from outside your deity's list).

[Fouredged Sword]

A scythe is a fine weapon, but you should consider that a cleric's primary melee power comes from buffs, not stats.

Strength is much easier to buff than wisdom.

So, spending a feat to get your wisdom in place of strength for weapon attacks gives you +5 to hit and +5 damage to your attack. This isn't bad.

The two go to spells for Clerics who want to use a melee weapon are Divine Power and Righteous Might. Both are a little bit away still at 5th level, but you will get there.

Divine Power is a 4th level spell that turns you into a fighter. It gives you BAB equal to your HD, a +6 enhancement bonus to strength, and your caster level in temp HP.

Righteous Might is a 5th level spell that's enlarge person+. It grants you +4 strength as a size bonus (so stacking with bulls strength), increases your size, and grants a number of defensive bonuses like armor and DR/evil.

Pair the two and you get +10 strength, full BAB, large size, temp HP, extra armor, and DR/evil.

And because your strength adds 1.5 damage to a two handed weapon you deal +7 extra damage and have +5 to hit.

But this is when you have the buffs active.

So - Here is the catch. Do you want to be a melee cleric? Being a melee cleric is totally within your abilities.

But here is the catch - Consider the humble quarterstaff.

It is also a two handed weapon, but you can wield it one handed as well without penalty. You can wield it as a single two handed weapon, a double weapon, a one handed weapon, or a light weapon at will, whatever suits your in the moment. It's a simple weapon so you don't need to spend a feat on it. It qualifies for intuitive attack.

A scythe deals 2d4 damage rather than the 1d6 damage of the quarterstaff. It has a x4 crit multiplier rather than a x2. So, it deals on average 2 more points of damage and once every few sessions will suddenly deal a ton of damage randomly. Is that worth a feat?

Well, you are a cleric. You can afford to waste a feat on martial proficiency.

But the same feat could be spent on intuitive attack to make the quarterstaff deal an extra +7 damage and get +5 to hit, meaning you do damage more consistently.

But it's harder to buff wisdom compared to strength. But are you going to be focusing your spells on buffing strength? Or are you going to be a primarily casting cleric who wants to not completely suck in melee? With your stats I would aim for the latter and pick up intuitive strike and a quarterstaff, most likely an actual magic staff when you get the money, most likely one with two wand chambers in it for a wand of CLW and a wand of Shillelagh to turn your simple quarterstaff into a weapon that deals 2d6 base damage and gets a cheap +1 enhancement bonus for a bit.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You can go at this from a different angle by enhancing your scythe with the aptitude property, from ToB. It'll apply Intuitive Attack to that scythe. For bonus points, take a bunch of interesting feats that wouldn't normally apply, then make the scythe metalline, sizing, morphing, and (when turned into a ranged weapon) Hank's bow (for infinite force ammo) so you can have a multipurpose tool for use in practically all situations.

[Anthrowhale]

If you want to go scythe, I'd suggest looking into the Sense Weakness spell which allows you to automatically confirm any critical hit. At 9th level, you add Surge of Fortune to the combo so you can automatically achieve a critical hit. Note that this works in combination with power attack to provide a killer opener. Beyond that, making the scythe vorpal as soon as possible (level 12? 13? 14?) adds quite a bit to the fear factor since Sense Weakness + Surge of Fortune + Vorpal autokills most melee opponents. As a capstone, you get Time Stop at level 17, so you can Time Stop / Sense Weakness+move / Surge of Fortune+move / ready action to attack when Time Stop ends. If you make your time domain be spontaneous as per the PHB II alternative class feature, then you can trigger this combo multiple times in a combat so as to flit around the battlefield playing "off with their heads" over and over.

[Biggus]

A scythe is a fine weapon, but you should consider that a cleric's primary melee power comes from buffs, not stats.

Strength is much easier to buff than wisdom.

So, spending a feat to get your wisdom in place of strength for weapon attacks gives you +5 to hit and +5 damage to your attack. This isn't bad.

The two go to spells for Clerics who want to use a melee weapon are Divine Power and Righteous Might. Both are a little bit away still at 5th level, but you will get there.

Divine Power is a 4th level spell that turns you into a fighter. It gives you BAB equal to your HD, a +6 enhancement bonus to strength, and your caster level in temp HP.

Righteous Might is a 5th level spell that's enlarge person+. It grants you +4 strength as a size bonus (so stacking with bulls strength), increases your size, and grants a number of defensive bonuses like armor and DR/evil.

Pair the two and you get +10 strength, full BAB, large size, temp HP, extra armor, and DR/evil.


You can also stack Elation (+2 Str (morale), C2, BoED) and Lesser Holy or Infernal Transformation (+2 Str (sacred or profane), C4, SpC) for a total of +14 Str by level 9. Later you can upgrade that to Holy or Infernal Transformation (+4 Str (sacred or profane), C7, SpC) and Greater Visage of the Deity (+4 Str (untyped), C9, SpC) for a total of +20 Str at level 17. If Dragon Compendium is open the feat Ability Enhancer can increase that to +18 at level 9 and +26 at level 17. All you need now is a good scout or diviner so you've got time to cast them all before the fight starts...