Clerical error

[NephandiMan]

I tried playing a Clericzilla for the first time on Sunday last (persistent Divine Power and Divine Favor, with Righteous Might whenever I need it), but our party's apparently organized and optimized well enough to make my damage-dealing capacities irrelevant. As if that weren't bad enough, our bard/Seeker of the Song could easily serve as a primary healer, and leave me completely irrelevant (unless we face a zombie apocalypse's worth of undead). Does anyone have any good suggestions for buffs (that our bard wouldn't make redundant) or debuffs (that I wouldn't be moving too slowly to use effectively)? If I can't get any help here, I'll probably ask the DM if I can just play a Wizard/Loremaster, with three levels of Archmage when I finish the PrC. At least then I could have plenty of save-or-X spells.

I can use pretty much any book and spell you can think of.

[Shademan]

simply kill the bard in his sleep.
oh no... to evil.
uhm, bards can make magic items? i dont THINK they can. you could be the pat crafter!
a carpenter! hint hint

[Kizara]

I tried playing a Clericzilla for the first time on Sunday last (persistent Divine Power and Divine Favor, with Righteous Might whenever I need it), but our party's apparently organized and optimized well enough to make my damage-dealing capacities irrelevant. As if that weren't bad enough, our bard/Seeker of the Song could easily serve as a primary healer, and leave me completely irrelevant (unless we face a zombie apocalypse's worth of undead). Does anyone have any good suggestions for buffs (that our bard wouldn't make redundant) or debuffs (that I wouldn't be moving too slowly to use effectively)? If I can't get any help here, I'll probably ask the DM if I can just play a Wizard/Loremaster, with three levels of Archmage when I finish the PrC. At least then I could have plenty of save-or-X spells.

I can use pretty much any book and spell you can think of.

It would help if we knew your party's makeuip and tactics who we know how you are being rendered irrelivant.

As for good buffs, Freedom of Movement and Death Ward come instantly to mind.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

It would help if we knew your party's makeuip and tactics who we know how you are being rendered irrelivant.

As for good buffs, Freedom of Movement and Death Ward come instantly to mind.

FoM and Death Ward are both nice buffs, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Cleric is wanting in the offense department, and those precious turn attempts could be spent on, say...

Okay, I don't have the SpC on hand. I can, however, direct the OP to a guide which references a wide variety of nice spells from that book I don't have.

[Keld Denar]

Recitation and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful are 2 of the clerics best AoE party buffs. Unfortunately, RWotF is a moral bonus, and the extra attack doesn't stack with Haste. Recitation is a luck bonus though, which stacks with everything but a luck stone and the Prayer spell (also a luck bonus).

Depending on what domains you have, the Courage domain has the spell Valiant Fury. This is probably the most amazing non-personal single target buff a cleric has. +4 MORAL bonus to STR AND CON. I have never seen another moral bonus to a stat. I've seen enhancement, inherant, and sacred, butn ever a moral bonus. The downside is that its only available from the Courage domain (or as an Archivist) and its only single taret. The upside is that its chainable! if you can get a medium rod of chaining or want to blow a 7th level slot on it.

[Cuddly]

Persisting Greater Aspect of the Deity could be cool, too. Level nine spell, but it's a free template (and if you're good, a nice fly speed and 2 more turns/day).

[DementedFellow]

Granted this build is for a Walker in the Waste prestige class, it is a very optimized build that will give you some insight on what items to purchase, what spells to persist and where to go. You can just think of the WitW levels as cleric levels without hurting the build you have at all.

[Bassetking]

One of my all time favorite cleric Buff Spells is "Ring of Blades"

Level 2 spell that deals 1d6+caster level(max 10) Magic, Silvered, Slashing damage to anything within 5' of you. Every round. Not a huge boost, true, but there's nothing to sneeze at an extra 13 damage a round at level 10.

[Eldariel]

Don't forget Beads of Prayer for +4 to CL over the buff period. Also, don't forget some Two-Handed Weapon and Power Attack. Also, don't forget Holy Warrior. Get the higher level buffs too. If that isn't enough, go with Ordained Champion PrC. That should be sufficiently powerful with correct feat choices. Oh, and Greater Magic Weapon lasts whole day anyways. Magic Vestment works too. Get Hastes and so on, and heal with the real Heal-spell, no wannabes. Also, get some offensive Magic in place.

Seriously, if Clericzilla isn't doing well, there's something wrong in the Clericzilla. You aren't Zillaing it up enough. Focus on some melee archetype; Crackdown or Lockdown. Get feats accordingly. Get even more spells Persisted. Start pwning.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Also, if you want to do blasting/debuffing, there is nothing more horrific than a DMM twinned Moonbolt. Cleric 4, 5d4 Str damage. Nice.

[Kizara]

Don't forget Beads of Prayer for +4 to CL over the buff period. Also, don't forget some Two-Handed Weapon and Power Attack. Also, don't forget Holy Warrior. Get the higher level buffs too. If that isn't enough, go with Ordained Champion PrC. That should be sufficiently powerful with correct feat choices. Oh, and Greater Magic Weapon lasts whole day anyways. Magic Vestment works too. Get Hastes and so on, and heal with the real Heal-spell, no wannabes. Also, get some offensive Magic in place.

Seriously, if Clericzilla isn't doing well, there's something wrong in the Clericzilla. You aren't Zillaing it up enough. Focus on some melee archetype; Crackdown or Lockdown. Get feats accordingly. Get even more spells Persisted. Start pwning.

I've had a look at ordained champion. The flavor is good, the mechanics are DECIDEDLY sub-optimal. Lose caster levels, gain silly war-domain focused stuff that isn't much better then simply having the war domain, lose domain abilities to gain a feat? Maybe, if you really needed the feat, but personally I like my domain ability.

Oh, if you want a good offensive spell? COMETFALL FTW! Bucketloads of cool.

[NephandiMan]

Well, thank you all. You've given me a nice selection of possibilities, and I somewhat regret that our next session won't be for another couple of weeks.

[Eldariel]

I've had a look at ordained champion. The flavor is good, the mechanics are DECIDEDLY sub-optimal. Lose caster levels, gain silly war-domain focused stuff that isn't much better then simply having the war domain, lose domain abilities to gain a feat? Maybe, if you really needed the feat, but personally I like my domain ability.

Ordained Champion is actually one of the very few cases where losing casterlevels is actually worth it (and trust me, I know how big a loss the CLs are). The Smite it gives you is incredible (+Character Level to damage, +Cha to hit and it's turns per day). Diehard is a solid feat that just suffers of tough prerequisites; something you get for free. Channel Spell multiplies your damage potential and can store a channeled spell in your weapon for the whole day.

Divine Bulwark allows you to generate a Damage Reduction at need; many creatures use attack patterns with huge numbers of natural attacks dealing medium damage by themselves; cutting 8 out of all that damage is superb - oh, and it's a swift action. Fist of the Gods is basically Arcane Strike for Divine Weapons that lasts multiple turns. Then you get free Quicken on all your War-domain spells (Divine Power and all Power Words). Oh, and you get the ability to burn turns for using Wisdom in combat! You're a friggin' Cleric so getting your Wisdom to attack and damage basically kills MAD while increasing your To Hit and Damage tenfold. Then you get a random boost to CL for War-domain; not very useful due to the spells involved, but it can help with your channeled spells. And losing domains for feats is often very useful; you'll make for a fine non-magical Fighter with them.


Basically, Ordained Champion is what Paladin always wanted to be. It's a Paladin that's on the Cleric-level on the scale of "good to awesome". So if you ever want to play a martial Cleric, Ordained Champion is the way to go. I'd even rather play him than a DMM Persist Cleric when it comes to melee. Quickened Divine Power in all your level 4+ slots means you'll have it handy basically all the time, and you get Divine Favor easily enough. Then just cast Righteous Might and go to town. Your buff sequence is basically:
Turn 1/Surprise Round: Quickened Divine Power, Righteous Might
Turn 2: Quickened Divine Favor (cast from your list, obviously), go to town.

If you're really in a hurry, just Quicken Divine Power and go to town with Smites and Channeled Spells; you'll still be dealing more than the appropriate Cleric in melee. Oh yeah, and you have Quickened Power Word: Stun. In all your level 8 slots. I don't need to tell you how good that is, right? For the record, coupled with the skills/spells to notice opponent's condition, you can basically nuke any creature with less than 150 HP with a Swift Action without prepared slots.

[Keld Denar]

If you want to have some wonky shananagans, have your cleric take Martial Study: Devoted Spirit strike and Martial Stance: Devoted Spirit stance. Then take 7 levels of Ruby Knight Vindicator and 3+ levels of Ordained Champion. Spontaneous Domain ACF for War Domain helps too. This comes into bloom late, but allows you to alphastrike anything within medium range back to the Stone Age.

How?

RKV has Divine Impetus, which allows you to trade turn attempts for swift actions. OC allows you to cast all War domain spells as swift actions. Flame Strike is on the War Domain spell list. Now, spend all your turn attempts to gain a large number of swift actions, then spontaneously convert every spell of level 5+ into Flame Strikes and cast them all in 1 round. I don't care who you are (unless you have evasion and really good saves), getting hit by 10-15 Flame Strikes in a single round will leave you as a greasy smear on the sidewalk. Since FS is medium range, you don't even have to be within charge range....just channel up and Hadoken everything that moves.

Whats not fun about that?

EDIT:
Oh, and if you do get Aura of Chaos from RKV, since you are tossing out about 15^2 d6s, and you'll reroll 1 in 6 each time, you up your damage by a flat ~17%, for about 919 average damage with some crazy damage spikes if you roll well.