Caster Cleric Help

[alteil]

Im looking for some advice my planned cleric for an upcoming campaign.

Not really interested in a battle cleric as I've done a few of those before and would like to focus more on casting this time around.
Most likely just going the DMM route and just avoid the clearly broken applications of it. no Nightstick stacking so its hampered anyways.

Were limited to at most 3 classes/Prcs

Stats havent been rolled out yet but caster focused is the least MAD anyway so thats not gonna be a big problem.

Cloistered Cleric base for the extra domain and the flavor suits it better.
Domains anything in Boccobs Portfolio goes so most likely Planning/Magic or Trickery/Knowledge With Oracle/Travel and Magic or Trickery being possible depending on PrCs

would like some input for the Prestige Classes, looked around a bit and i think 2 out of Divine Oracle/Contemplative/Seeker of the Misty Isle/Sacred Exorcist/Radiant servant of pelor seem fine, personally leaning to the Contemplative/Oracle but if someone has some insight it would be appreciated.

Race: Whispergnome/StrongHeart Halfling/Human/Lesser Aasimar/Dwarf all seem fine, just dont know how much the extra feat matters compared to the Attributes/SLAs/proficencies and skills, ill decide later but feel free to suggest other races.

Feats is the typical stuff to qualify for prestiges DMMs and i would like to bake in a caster reserve feat like Fiery Burst so i can just not use my weapon ever anything else i should consider?

[sleepyphoenixx]

Divine Defiance is a must for a caster cleric imo.
Also consider Church Inquisitor for the free Inquisition domain (though you can also get it through the Planar Touchstone feat).

Dweomerkeeper is also great for a caster cleric, especially if you can qualify with Magical Training (it's a FR regional feat, so YMMV).

I also like Runecaster (also FR) which synergizes nicely with Dweomerkeeper since that needs an item creation feat anyway.
And runes only take 10 minutes to craft so they're very easy to stockpile leftover spells at the end of a day.

[Gruftzwerg]

Feats is the typical stuff to qualify for prestiges DMMs and i would like to bake in a caster reserve feat like Fiery Burst so i can just not use my weapon ever anything else i should consider?

If you want to mainly rely on fiery burst, I would recommend to consider Heighten Spell to always have one fire spell prepared at max lvl.

__

Further consider to get the Spell domain for (greater) Anyspell. With (gr) Anyspell you have access to all low lvl arcane buff spells to persist em via DMM. Thus a great option imho.

[Rebel7284]

Dweomerkeeper tends to be one of the more powerful caster prestige classes for clerics.

Something like:

Cloistered Cleric 3 of Mystra (Magic/Rune/Knowledge Devotion)/Church Inquisitor 2/Dweomerkeeper 10/X 5

Feats:
1. Magical Training
Bonus: Scribe Scroll from Rune Domain
3. Extend Spell
6. Persistent Spell
9. Initiate of Mystra
12. Craft Contingent Spell

Between Mantle of Spells and Anyspell/Greater Anyspell and of course the ability to persist spells, you end up with powerful, dynamic caster and the ability to ignore components of spells you cast can be ridiculous in addition to make it difficult to dispel.

[alteil]

Dweomerkeeper tends to be one of the more powerful caster prestige classes for clerics.

Something like:

Cloistered Cleric 3 of Mystra (Magic/Rune/Knowledge Devotion)/Church Inquisitor 2/Dweomerkeeper 10/X 5

Feats:
1. Magical Training
Bonus: Scribe Scroll from Rune Domain
3. Extend Spell
6. Persistent Spell
9. Initiate of Mystra
12. Craft Contingent Spell

Between Mantle of Spells and Anyspell/Greater Anyspell and of course the ability to persist spells, you end up with powerful, dynamic caster and the ability to ignore components of spells you cast can be ridiculous in addition to make it difficult to dispel.

This does look pretty good, tho you think its worth delaying the DMM stuff for that long or is this skipping it completly? My group also has a Bard and another TbD Arcane caster in that case would this still be better than going just Divine stuff?

[Rebel7284]

This does look pretty good, tho you think its worth delaying the DMM stuff for that long or is this skipping it completly? My group also has a Bard and another TbD Arcane caster in that case would this still be better than going just Divine stuff?

I mean, it's a brief outline. If you want DMM earlier, play a human and have it up by level 3.

edit: if flaws are allowed, you can get everything at level 1.

[alteil]

I mean, it's a brief outline. If you want DMM earlier, play a human and have it up by level 3.

edit: if flaws are allowed, you can get everything at level 1.

No Flaws, but Gm Greenlit the Planning Domain so i can get Extend for free and going Human for another extra Feat gets me everything by 6/9 depending on wether i delay Initiate of Mystra for something else or not, i still qualify for dweomerkeeper by using Substitue Domain to swap to the Rune domain, craft the scroll and then swap back. going human still lets me pick the fluff fiery burst without impacting the build too much so thats nice

[AsuraKyoko]

Illumian can get a more flexible version of DMM that's cheaper as one of the Illumian Words (Naenhoon). It's only useable twice per day, but if you aren't looking to do cheesy things, that's not a problem. It also works with any metamagic feat you know, so it's more flexible. Combining it with Planning domain means that you can get Persist Spell online at level 1 (assuming a good enough charisma).

Taking Church Inquisitor for the Inquisiton domain is awesome if you want to use Divine Defiance, because the +4 on dispel checks makes counterspelling much, much easier. The feat Arcane Mastery lets you take 10 on CL checks, which, when combined with the +4, makes counterspelling with Dispel Magic very reliable. You probably don't want to combine this with DMM, though, since it also wants to use your Turning attempts.

[Maat Mons]

I don't think Church Inquisitor is a good thematic fit with Boccob. He's True Neutral, and a Church Inquisitor must belong to a Lawful Good church or religious order.

[AsuraKyoko]

Ah, that is true. I was thinking about Mystra, since there's a number of Mystra related options being bandied about.

[Troacctid]

On a casting-focused cleric, I tend to think Wisdom is especially valuable, so I would be inclined towards lesser aasimar.

If you want a reserve feat to serve as a basic attack, I agree that Fiery Burst is a good bet. It's not too hard to power and its damage output is solid and reliable. I also agree that Divine Defiance kicks butt.

Crafting feats are worth considering. The best ones are wondrous items, arms and armor, runes (even without the prestige class), and contingent spells.

[alteil]

On a casting-focused cleric, I tend to think Wisdom is especially valuable, so I would be inclined towards lesser aasimar.

If you want a reserve feat to serve as a basic attack, I agree that Fiery Burst is a good bet. It's not too hard to power and its damage output is solid and reliable. I also agree that Divine Defiance kicks butt.

Crafting feats are worth considering. The best ones are wondrous items, arms and armor, runes (even without the prestige class), and contingent spells.
Hmm crafting feats could help save spells, maybe dropping fiery burst for runes ( flavourful) could free some spell slots and letme add a couple blast spells alongside some wands it should be fine.


Annyone got suggestions for spell mantle picks? I think stuff like break enchantment and dispel magic are good picks, not going for the spammable wish/ miracles as that would prolly ruin things in the long run.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Annyone got suggestions for spell mantle picks? I think stuff like break enchantment and dispel magic are good picks, not going for the spammable wish/ miracles as that would prolly ruin things in the long run.
Resurgence, Lesser Restoration, Tyche's Touch, Hesitate, Laogzed's Breath, Invisibility Purge, Summon Monster, Delay Death, Streamers or Surge of Fortune are decent options for mantle spells.
I wouldn't bother with Break Enchantment unless it comes up a lot in your games. Dispel Magic is a must of course.

Sacred Item is also worth a pick because it's permanent so you can convert any leftover spell slots into undead & demon killing arrows before resting.

If you took the Divine Magician ACF those spells might also make good candidates - Spellcaster's Bane for example if you want to focus on counterspelling.

[alteil]

Resurgence, Lesser Restoration, Tyche's Touch, Hesitate, Laogzed's Breath, Invisibility Purge, Summon Monster, Delay Death, Streamers or Surge of Fortune are decent options for mantle spells.
I wouldn't bother with Break Enchantment unless it comes up a lot in your games. Dispel Magic is a must of course.

Sacred Item is also worth a pick because it's permanent so you can convert any leftover spell slots into undead & demon killing arrows before resting.

If you took the Divine Magician ACF those spells might also make good candidates - Spellcaster's Bane for example if you want to focus on counterspelling.

No divine Magician since i actually like my domains/ trade one out for Knowledge Devotion

Nice sugesstions, wasnt aware of some of those.

Do you think its worth delaying DwK progression by 3 levels after the first level to be able to spell mantle 8/9th level spells down the road?

[sleepyphoenixx]

No divine Magician since i actually like my domains/ trade one out for Knowledge Devotion

Nice sugesstions, wasnt aware of some of those.

Do you think its worth delaying DwK progression by 3 levels after the first level to be able to spell mantle 8/9th level spells down the road?

There's no point taking the first level if you do that since it doesn't add much. You'll want to wait at least until your first Supernatural Spell.
You can delay after DwK 4 or 6 without much impact though or even go into a different PrC.

Unless you have a specific spell already in mind it's probably not worth it though.

[alteil]

Ok got to roll my stats 9 13 15 16 16 18

Got quiet lucky

How important is con for this kind of build? I dont really have any desires to go into melee ( got a crusader, a swordsage and a warlock up there) so i was thinking of pumping Int a bit higher to be the party Loremaster.

Str 9
Dex 13 or 15
Con 13, 15 or 16
Int 15 or 16
Wis 18
Cha 16

Leaning 16 int/ 15 con since i can pump con once due to my even Wis score

[TemporalTravels]

Once the medic goes down, everyone else does. Con can be pretty important for those pesky fireballs from smart wizards.

[Anthrowhale]

This is minor, but you don't need Magical Training to enter Dweomerkeeper as a Cleric. Instead, you can just take the Spell domain (or acquire it via Substitute Domain). In fact, you need only one available domain, since you can use Substitute Domain to switch between Magic and Spell, memorize an arcane spell, then switch back, and the arcane spell will still be memorized.

I'd also second Divine Magician. Given access to Substitute Domain, you can swap in whichever domains you want on any given day.

Using Substitute Domain with the Spontaneous Domain Casting ACF even allows you to swap which spells are spontaneously castable during the day.

Given the role of 'party loremaster', maybe you want to consider an Archivist instead? You can still do Archivist 3/Church Inquisitor 2/Dweomerkeeper 10, but Dark Knowledge might fit the concept better than Knowledge Devotion as it applies to your allies. Archivist has access to healing spells earlier than a cleric via (for example) the Healer list. They can also pick up many Ranger/Paladin spells at earlier-than-normal ECL. And of course there's "Summon Giants". To use Persistent Spell, you would either slide in Sacred Exorcist 1, or do the Mystic Wanderer 1/Spelldancer 1 sequence, with a finessed feat tax.

[Rebel7284]

This is minor, but you don't need Magical Training to enter Dweomerkeeper as a Cleric. Instead, you can just take the Spell domain (or acquire it via Substitute Domain). In fact, you need only one available domain, since you can use Substitute Domain to switch between Magic and Spell, memorize an arcane spell, then switch back, and the arcane spell will still be memorized.


Magical Training is more ironclad, but if your DM okays this approach, saving a feat is certainly good!