Any suggestions how to uber my Cleric in D&D 3.5 (Pen and Paper, the old!)

Ferrio

Banned
I've rarely ever played pen and paper D&D, but one of my friends got a little fiesty and decided he wanted to do a campaign.

So far what I've decided:


Cleric 3rd level:

STR 13
DEX 14
CON 15
INT 10
WIS 17
CHA 15

Patron: Pelor, Domain: Sun, Healing
Feats: Reach Spell, Domain Focus (healing)

Equip:
Heavy Pick
Breastplate
Small Shield


Eventually I'll want to prestige into a Radiant Servant of Pelor


I was curious if there were any loopholes in really maximizing your character.
 
I've never played Pen and Paper but my suggestion is to play either Baldur's Gate I, Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale I, Icewind Dale II, or Neverwinter Nights and don't look back
 
3.5 clerics are some of the most powerful characters in the game. It's all about Divine Power and Righteous Might. For further craziness, read Complete Warrior and Complete Divine for the new divine feats powered by turning attempts.
 
Yeah, you may want to look into alternate uses for turning power - you won't be going against undead all the time, and it's nice to have that flexibility.
 
Gattsu: BG/IWD are based on ADD, really different from 3.5.

Never played a cleric, but having looked through the Complete Divine some, it's worth reading if you're wondering about how to play/make the most of your character.
 
Firstly, dump the dex. You can wear heavy armor and still cast, so do it! Get the heaviest armor you can find, asap. Sock those points into Wis, Con, and Cha. Wisdom for spells, Constition for the hitpoints, charisma for turning attempts.

Divine Power: 4th level spell, gives you a STR bonus and some hitpoints-per-level. More importantly, it gives you a 1-1 attack bonus- in other words, the same as a fighter. At high enough levels, this will instantly give you more attacks, at a higher attack bonus. And you can still cast spells.

Righteous Might: 5th level spell. This doesn't totally trump Divine Power, but it does on key thing- it increases your size. You get a sizeable Str bump, also. Size increases give you far more than they cost; you get reach and, your weapon size increases (and therefore, the damage it does goes up). You become slightly easier to hit, and probably lose some dex bonus- but with reach, the whole point is to hit them when they can't hit you.

Turning attempt feats: these burn your turning attempts to gain various powers. Divine Metamagic is the big one. Burn turning attempts to add metamagic affects to your spells. Since the bane of clericdom is bufftime, anything to cut that down is usefull. Persistent Spell is another one- I can't remember what book it's from offhand, but it allows you cast a spell with a 24 hour duration.

Edit: Sorry ferrio, I dont' type very fast :)
 
Ferrio said:
Don't see the Righteous Might Feat. But crap that's a lot of feats based on turning... hmm

Sorry, I was talking about spells.

The divine feats aren't all up to snuff. Divine Might, Divine Shielding, and Divine Metamagic are the standouts.
 
Looking at some feats, I think I found one that might be nifty. But have to take 2 other feats that kinda suck to get it.


The feat:

Divine Influence.

Benefit: As a free action you may reroll any die you have rolled once per day per two levels. Once you have rerolled you may not effect this die again.
 
Yep, that's a good one. It's worth noting that Divine Might and Sheild are really only worth it if you pump your Cha as you level- which is more of a paladin thing.

You might want to dig around here and here, as well as the character optimization board in general. Lots of interesting stuff floating around.

Edit: it's unfortunate that persistent spell got nerfed so badly. A persistent spell lasts 24 hours, but is considered six spell levels higher (it used to be four). In terms of Divine Metamagic, that's seven turning attempts. Still, Divine Metagmic with Quicken or Extend is tasty stuff.
 
Holy shit Maximize Spell + Divine Metamagic are sick

If I'm getting this right it means i can maximize a spell, by using a turning attempt but it doesn't have to be 3 spell slots higher....
 
Ferrio said:
Holy shit Maximize Spell + Divine Metamagic are sick

If I'm getting this right it means i can maximize a spell, by using a turning attempt but it doesn't have to be 3 spell slots higher....

Not memorized, no. All it does is burn turning attempts- 1+each level the spell would be increased by the relevant feat. Quicken would be 5 total, etc.

This makes the Extra Turning feat and having high charisma a good thing :D
 
Wait, what? I don't see how you get that,


This is how the feat reads:

Prerequisites: Ability to turn undead or rebuke undead, selected metamagic feat.
When you take this feat, choose a metamagic feat you already have. This feat applies only to that metamagic feat. As a free action, you can take the energy from turning or rebuking undead and use it to apply a metamagic feat to divine spells that you know. ...
Special: Each time you take this feat, choose a different metamagic feat you know to which to apply it.
 
"....you must spend one turn or rebuke attempt, plus an additional attempt for each level increase in the metamagic feat you're attemping...."

From Complete Divine.
 
Yeah, what the errata changes is that you must HAVE the metamagic feat already to use it with Divine Metamagic. It doesn't contradict the rest of the rules (too bad!).

Yep. Flamestrike away, sir.
 
I mainly wanted to be a spellcasting cleric (Servant of pelor has less hit dice than regular cleric). Reason I wanted to get reach spell was so I wouldn't have to get close to danger.
 
The trick with any magic-using character is to find the low-power spell abilities that can be abused to good effect. They're always in there - something that with a little lateral thinking can be turned into something that the game's creators never imagined. Haven't looked at 3.5 clerics, but I'm sure there's something in there. Especially if you can combine your skills with others.
 
Ferrio said:
The feat:

Divine Influence.

Benefit: As a free action you may reroll any die you have rolled once per day per two levels. Once you have rerolled you may not effect this die again.

WTF? That's insane :) After a few levels you could reroll just about every saving throw you'll face. And the clercic already has the best saves (except reflex, but that doesn't matter much since he has hit points AND can heal himself). Same with Divine Metamagic. The expansion books of D&D, some things never change :)

In any case, a mid-level or higher cleric that has the time to buff is pretty much the best melee character you can get.

Stay away from Flamestrike and wizard-like spells, they tend to suck. You're there to buff/heal youf and your party and to crush skulls. Don't try to turn your cleric into a warrior/wizard, it won't work.
I'm not too familiar with 3.5 but some essential 3.0 low to mid-level spells are:

command
prayer
invisibility purge
hold person
dispel magic / greater dispelling
greater magic weapon
air walk
divine power
righteous might
spell resistance
harm (does it have a save in 3.5?)

No decent cleric should be without these, the rest is pretty much the icing on the cake :)
 
You definently want the extend metamagic feat and get a rod of it too. Basically you can extend all your buff spells like magic weapon and the magic armor one and use stuff like divine power and rightous might and you will be an uber unstoppable machine. You will be a better fighter than the fighter class plus be able to heal and buff.

Also follow the link for lot's of broken stuff.

Clerics are broken.

You can find all kinds of cleric builds on that board also.
 
Top Bottom