Feedback on my cleric build for Expedition to Castle Ravenloft / Curse of Strahd 3.5

[Arparrabiosa]

Hey folks!

I'll be joining a Expedition to Castle Ravenloft / Curse of Strahd adapted to 3.5 game soon. Here is what I prepared:

Lesser aasimar cloistered cleric 4/crusader 1. Lightbringer cleric ACF. Will progress as cleric until I can get to Sacred Exorcist.

(32 point buy) Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 16.

Feats:
-Extra turning
-Protection devotion (losing the domain)
-Knowledge devotion
-Exalted turning (7D6 damage total)
-Stand still

Flaws:
-Phantom sparks
-Insomniac (a background thing)

Deity: The Morninglord. Domains: luck, protection (traded away) and knowlege.

Spellcraft +7, Knowledge arcana +7, Knowledge local 7, Knowledge the planes +8, Knowledge nature +7, Knowledge religion +8

Spells:
2nd-Spiritual weapon, aid (d), close wounds x2
1st-Bless, Entropic shield (d), Shield of faith, Divine favor

Maneuvers:
Douse the flames, foehammer, mountain hammer, charging minotaur, vanguard strike

Stances:
Thicket of blades

Notable equipment:
MW fullplate, MW glaive with a wandchamber (with a blade of blood wand), anklets of translocation, reliquary holy symbol, healing belt, lesser vigor wand and some scrolls (lesser restoration, remove paralysis, resurgence, ray of resurgence...

What do you think? Any tips or input are appreciated.

[Zarvistic]

I'd go with something other than exalted turning, unless retraining is an option for you. I would also go with a lot more swift action spells instead of those standard ones you have, as you've plenty to do with standard actions already between turning and maneuvers. There's for example protective interposition at level 1, and quick march at level 2.

Not sure if your level is high enough to select that stance just yet. Perhaps bolstering voice instead?

[Anthrowhale]

Thicket of Blades requires initiator level 5, but you only have initiator level 3. Is that why you wanted the level of Crusader? 3rd level spells might be better.

Exalted Turning stacking with Destroy Undead makes sense but is not RAW---did you check with the DM?

Lathander does not grant the Luck domain?

Taking one level in each knowledge skill will allow you to use Knowledge Devotion for every possible monster you encounter.

Overall, it looks like you are trying to make a gish cleric?

Gish clerics often use Divine Metamagic[Persistent Spell] or similar. Of course this cuts into your destroy undead budget. A reliquary holy symbol and a nightstick will increase your number of destroy undead effects.

Destroy Undead really requires you to stay a cleric to advance it. That's fine, but it means multiclassing has a significant drawback. Still, you might consider something like Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 1/Cloistered Cleric <n> to pick up an extra turn undead pool which you could use to power divine metamagic while preserving a high level destroy undead.

For Destroy Undead optimization, you might consider Heighten Turning which allows you to add up to your cleric level to the save DC. The downside of Heighten Turning doesn't appear to be relevant, so this is a very significant free boost to the save DC. There's also an item (Circlet of Persuasion) which adds 3 to the save DC. It looks like Quicken Turning might also work with Destroy Undead since Quicken Turning requires an expenditure of Turn Undead which Destroy Undead says explicitly works with Destroy Undead. Given that, you could use your swift action to drop a <level>d6 damage bomb on all undead in a 30' radius, then otherwise act normally.

[Arparrabiosa]

Not sure if your level is high enough to select that stance just yet.


Thicket of Blades requires initiator level 5, but you only have initiator level 3. Is that why you wanted the level of Crusader? 3rd level spells might be better.

Oh, ****. That really messes up my build. Having access to Thicket of Blades and Stand Still was central, yes. But I also wanted to have access to martial weapons and heavy armor from that Crusader level without sacrifying the skill points from cloistered cleric. My character has a strong monster-hunter, vigilant of Stendarr, Van Helsing, Geralt of Rivia vibe so beign able to melee things and Knowledge Devotion against the monsters I'm fighting is essential for the theme.

I don't know what to do then. Full cloistered cleric, then Radiant Servant to get the proficiencies back seems like the obvious choice now.



Exalted Turning stacking with Destroy Undead makes sense but is not RAW---did you check with the DM?

Yes, no problem with that.


Lathander does not grant the Luck domain?

Lord morninglord is a Ravenloft chaotic good god. He gives access to: Good, Luck, Protection and Sun domains.


Overall, it looks like you are trying to make a gish cleric?

Exactly. Divine Metamagic is out of our table, sadly.

[Anthrowhale]

Martial weapons don't provide much beyond simple weapons, so you can probably make do on that axis for a level.

For armor class, the best approach I know which might be available is something like Spell Domain[Anyspell[Alter Self[Crucian]]].

If DMM is out, something like Heightened Quickened Exalted Destroy Undead seems potentially attractive. That's quite a bit of party-friendly AoE undead damage as a swift action. Of course, it might be to powerful.

[Zarvistic]

Just as an alternative suggestion. How about Cleric 1 / Paladin 3 / Crusader 1? Still gives you 3 domains, nice paladin stuff from ACFs, you can dump charisma with the serenity feat, grab a few swift spells and the maneuvers similar to what you have. You could dump int too mostly by adding kami's intuition for wisdom instead of intelligence on knowledge rolls. There's also intuitive attack for wisdom on attack rolls. Not as powerful as what Anthrowhale is suggesting for sure, but I think it might match the power level of the adventure better.

[Troacctid]

Honestly, if you're actually going to invest multiple feats into turning, I prefer regular turning over destroy undead. If you take some combination of Empower Turning, Quicken Turning, Improved Turning, Divine Energy Focus, and Disciple of the Sun, you can wreck a lot of the encounters, especially if you add on magic items to boost your turning even further. Radiant Servant of Pelor is good for this as well.

[Anthrowhale]

Honestly, if you're actually going to invest multiple feats into turning, I prefer regular turning over destroy undead. If you take some combination of Empower Turning, Quicken Turning, Improved Turning, Divine Energy Focus, and Disciple of the Sun, you can wreck a lot of the encounters, especially if you add on magic items to boost your turning even further. Radiant Servant of Pelor is good for this as well.

There's a tricky tradeoff here.

Range: Turn Undead is 60', Destroy Undead is 30'
Effect: (optimized) Turn Undead is destruction beneath some HD threshold. Destroy Undead is <level>d6 damage.
Scope: Turn Undead is several at low levels and ~1 at high levels. Destroy Undead is everyone.

So, optimized Destroy Undead is particularly good against a horde, an overlevel/resistant foe, and in the context of other damage dealers. Optimized turn is good vs. fewer undead of comparable HD in a more solo situation.

[Troacctid]

There's a tricky tradeoff here.

Range: Turn Undead is 60', Destroy Undead is 30'
Effect: (optimized) Turn Undead is destruction beneath some HD threshold. Destroy Undead is <level>d6 damage.
Scope: Turn Undead is several at low levels and ~1 at high levels. Destroy Undead is everyone.

So, optimized Destroy Undead is particularly good against a horde, an overlevel/resistant foe, and in the context of other damage dealers. Optimized turn is good vs. fewer undead of comparable HD in a more solo situation.
The latter is more common in this campaign.