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View Full Version : Building a cleric for Tomb of Horrors.



Adumbration
2007-12-17, 09:30 AM
So. As some may remember, a while back I asked for help building a rogue-character for the Tomb. I ended up with a Rogue 5/Fortune's friend 5, which was a jolly good fun, as it turned out. No trap could touch me.

Fast forward to now. At the end of our last session, after we've turned up again at the place we started, our Goliath Barbarian with some sort of eye of death he found at the tomb gave our divine spellcaster (DMPC) a glare of death. After this the DM took over his character, and for unknown reasons (either roleplay or, as we suspect, something to do with the eye) charged our arcane spellcaster with it. This is where the session ended, with all of us laughing with sides aching.

OOC later we concluded that the arcane caster and my character would be able to take down the barbarian (he was reincarnated before as an elf, he had lost all his items and he had a Mark of justice on him. Yes, he was unlucky). Me and the player of the arcane caster decided that we wouldn't resurrect either. We had only two wishes for resurrection left, and we weren't about to use them on a traitor and, well, the divine caster had lost his stuff as well. We were both neutral-aligned, so our DM accepted this. They're going to roll new characters for the next time.

Then I decided that I, too, would like to change my character, and since our DM conveniently had a rogue made up here at the forums, we concluded that I would make a divine caster this time. This also lead to our arcane caster's jumping on the bandwagon a bit later: he's going to make a witch.

After a rambling this long, maybe I should get to the point. Is this build viable for survival?

I'm making a human cleric level 10, with Vow of Poverty and a yet-to-be-specified dragon wyrmling cohort (see Book of Exalted Deeds for Exalted cohorts). We're rolling stats with seven 4d6s, dropping the lowest on both occasions. Since this campaign doesn't have XP, and according to BoED you can convert spell component costs into XP, our DM is willing to overlook most of the component costs.

TheLogman
2007-12-17, 09:52 AM
I made a Cleric a while ago for MY group's Tomb of Horrors venture (Which hopefully is coming up soon). I actually gave him Vow of Nonviolence and Peace.
Spoiler for the reason
Because there is actually only 1 living creature in that whole place, the Ooze

I also gave him mostly Spell Completion items, Detect Magic Wand, which should make it easier on the players, Healing Wands and Scrolls, and A few scrolls of Command for the true ending boss I also gave him a Bag of Tricks, which should let him trigger traps without getting pwned.

Oh, and a Cloak of Resistance, which gives bonuses to Saves. Nothing great, you could replace the last feat with Vow of Poverty, but it will limit your casting. The lack of battle armor and weapons won't hurt you here though, so keep your Wisdom high, and you won't have a problem with the Poverty.

CabbageTheif
2007-12-17, 10:06 AM
the ooze

but what about the gargoyle? its an optional room that you can circumvent, did you miss that?

Adumbration
2007-12-17, 10:58 AM
Thanks for the advice so far, although I doubt that I will be able to take Vow of Peace: my Dm quite clearly adviced me against it. And he reads these forums. (Hi, SoD! :smallamused: )

I'm surprised, though, that no one has yet brought up the dragon cohort I'm taking.

TheLogman
2007-12-17, 11:01 AM
Alright fair enough, two monsters in the entire place that the Cleric Isn't allowed to Whack on, but can still buff and heal allies that ARE whacking on it.

For the most part though, the Tomb is great for Casters who take Vow of Peace and Nonviolence. Bonuses to your spells, a +6 bonus to your AC, and best of all,

You can kill anything you want except for two monsters in the whole dungeon

EDIT: Don't get too attached to that cohort. He will probably die. Also, I don't advise Vow of Poverty, since a Cleric is much better WITH items, and there isn't enough combat to make that bonus to AC worth much. Can you take Divine Metamagic and more turning? Being able to give buffs that last all day could be useful.

SoD
2007-12-17, 11:30 AM
Thanks for the advice so far, although I doubt that I will be able to take Vow of Peace: my Dm quite clearly adviced me against it. And he reads these forums. (Hi, SoD! :smallamused: )

I'm surprised, though, that no one has yet brought up the dragon cohort I'm taking.

For the record, when you were first mentioning these, and when I was opposing them, I thought he was on about our ongoing campaign. But for a one off, go ahead.

Ganurath
2007-12-17, 11:36 AM
Are there any undead in the Tomb that an evil cleric could command? If not, I'd suggest going the path of the Radiant Servant of Pelor. Or, if you prefer staying Neutral, just go pure Cleric with feats that bolster turning. Glory Domain and Empower Turning spring to mind in that regard.

TheLogman
2007-12-17, 11:38 AM
There are bearly any undead at all in the place, other than like a Lich, a ghost maybe, and maybe 6 mooks that are in a pit. Nothing much for turning, whereas using Turn Attempts to fuel your buffs is a good idea

Lady Tialait
2007-12-17, 11:44 AM
Cleric for ToH....wow, last time I went into that place I was a fighter, I died in a pit full of spikes with the cleric....that sucked.

hmmm....
not much fighting so lots of stuff to buff the party and lots of saves buff, all i can say, it's a high save haver reward, plus a few Augary's won't hurt...how much truble could be saved if you just asked your god 'is touching this thing a good idea?' and getting 'just....get out of there..okay? your stupid for trying'