Newb questions about Cleric

[hardfarm]

Im lvl3 atm,and Idk what spells to use for soloing.
Help please with casting chose and melee.

[Visty]

whatever buffs your defense and offense while meleeing
shiwld of faith, prto from evil, divine favor, aid, resist energy, etc

the good thing about clerics is that you can swap spells in taverns and shrines so you can experiment around which fits you the most

[Mockduck]

Actually, at level 3, you'll mostly want to use weapons in combat over spells for damage. As you get higher in level clerics will have better offensive spells.

However, you did say what is best for SOLOING. So let me offer some suggestions.

Mostly the key spell at level 3 will be Cure Light Wounds. Keep yourself alive! A few other good 1st level spells you will likely want in your arsenal will be Command, Bless and Nightshield.

Command: great way to temporarily stop multiple attacks, ranged attacks and to fight mobs one at a time. Useful for many levels, even my high level cleric uses it sometimes.

Bless: +1 to Armor Class and attack at a low spell point cost. Especially useful in low level questing. Also removes Bane, which is a frequent "go-to" spell when running quests on Hard or Elite in lower level quests.

Nightshield: +1 bonus to saves, but primarily good for being one of the only ways to avoid damage from mobs casting magic missile (hint: another way is to run around a corner or put some physical object between the missiles and you, can be tricky to pull off but practice improves your success.)

For 2nd level spells, there's really many good ones:

Aid: Adds 8 + 1 per caster level (max level 10) temporary hit points and +1 morale bonuses on attack rolls and saves against fear are granted to an ally. (great for a few more hit points.)

Bear's Endurance: An ally gains greater vitality and stamina, giving a +4 enhancement bonus to Constitution. (will also give you more hit points/con)

Bull's Strength: The affected ally gains strength and power, giving a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength. (increased damage, strength.)

Cure Moderate Wounds: Another key spell you will cast. Heal even more!

Lesser Restoration: Stat damage? No problem! Use when you take Con damage from poison traps, too.

Owl's Wisdom: More spell points through better Wisdom.

Resist Energy: This will be a critical spell for you throughout the game. Use to reduce damage from fire attacks, traps and just about anything related to fire/ice/sonic/electricity.

At level 3 you will have four 1st and three 2nd level spells to choose from. I'd go Cure Light, Command, Bless and Nightshield for 1st, Cure Moderate, Resist Energy and Aid for 2nd, switching out spells of course as individual needs and quests require.

[azrael4h]

Im lvl3 atm,and Idk what spells to use for soloing.
Help please with casting chose and melee.

As far as melee, at that level you're not likely to have gotten anything better than the Ember Mace you can pick up for free in the starter dungeon. I used it until I found a Long Sword +1 (I have an elf, so I got the prof. feat for long swords for free). Pick the best heavy mace you can find, and carry a shield. Your feats should be spent on meta magic feats, not bloody TWF.

Your healing spells are automatically memorized, so you'll always have CLW/CMW available. This does mean you really have 3 level 1 and 2 level 2 spells to choose from.

Level 1:
Bless - As said; this is an outstanding spell for the cost; long lasting, and a solid boost no matter what. In all DnD games, this is a mainstay on my Clerics.

Summon Monster I - I used this when dealing with boss critters or while soloing on hard. Not worth alot, but the dog will draw fire for awhile, letting you deal damage or escape. Easily replaced.

Prot. from Evil - A solid enough spell, though somewhat situational. Nightshield or Shield of Faith might be a better choice here.

Nightshield - Blocks magic missile spells; making it almost invaluable. My normal go-to defensive spell for level 1.

Shield of Faith - IIRC this improves as you level; but it's effect early on isn't quite that strong. Again, I generally go for Nightshield.

IMO, for level 1, Bless and Nightshield are practically required. Anything else is situational, or can be safely ignored.

Level 2:
Bull's Strength - +4 to Strength; which boosts damage and to-hit. Invaluable, as a solo Cleric will be in the melee more than blasting things with spells (you don't have the SP to do that solo).

Aid - Boosts HP, and a bonus to saves and to-hit. Not worthwhile, mostly because you can farm a clickie on Korthos which casts this 1/day. (The spell itself IS good, but I'd rather farm a couple of those items instead, or rely on easily obtained potions, rather than fill a spell slot).

Summon Monster II: Worse in some ways than SMI. Slightly tougher critter, but tends to go burrowing instead of fighting for your life. Still, I've found it handy to draw off boss critters, particularly on hard.

Lesser Restoration: VERY good for a solo cleric who keeps taking STR and CON damage from traps. Or for a Cleric in a party with a numbskull who charges through traps before letting the rogue deal with them. Or one with a numbskull party lacking a rogue. Whichever. Get it, keep it, love it.

Resist Energy: Also good to help cut back on trap damage; I prefer the potions myself. Hulk smash crates long enough, and you'll have a substantial collection.

IMO, level 2 has a ton of good spells. Really no stinkers in the lot (other than SMII).So switch out as needed; though again a few easily obtained items can make a couple not necessary to memorize.

[Impaqt]

Im lvl3 atm,and Idk what spells to use for soloing.
Help please with casting chose and melee.

Whats the build? WHile most characters can easily solo their way to level 5 or 6, SOlo Clericing from levels 7-10 can be pretty difficult with the wrong concept and build.

[Woody00]

Resist Energy is a spell you are gonna want to keep on your hot bar. If you cast the spell you can then drag the individual energy icons to your hotbar to make it easier on yourself. The spell is an invaluable tool to help reduce incoming damage.

At your level I've found that soundburst actually works pretty good as a short aoe stun. The glory of that spell won't last too long though and you will be swapping it out fairly quickly.

Nightshield is good to give you MM immunity. Magic Missile is a killer at those levels without something to block it.

Shield of faith. Good for a little ac boost.

Bless.

Protection from evil.

[Autolycus]

It probably depends on your build. At low levels on my high Wisdom, high Strength Cleric, I found that "most" buffs were unnecessary and ate up too many spell points. I was able to melee everything I ran into. The following spells seemed best for me at low levels.

Cure x wounds - for obvious reasons
Soundburst - great crowd control (especially against mages - fortitude save)
Command - great for knocking down big threats (Giants, Ogres - will save)
Resist Energy - preventing damage

Greater Command - when you can get it.

[Mockduck]

It probably depends on your build. At low levels on my high Wisdom, high Strength Cleric, I found that "most" buffs were unnecessary and ate up too many spell points. I was able to melee everything I ran into. The following spells seemed best for me at low levels.

Cure x wounds - for obvious reasons
Soundburst - great crowd control (especially against mages - fortitude save)
Command - great for knocking down big threats (Giants, Ogres - will save)
Resist Energy - preventing damage

Greater Command - when you can get it.

Word. Most of your spell points will probably be used for self-healing, although things like Command, Soundburst and such can prevent damage as well. I'm more of a fan of Command over Soundburst, myself, but both are fine for level 3.

[Woody00]

It probably depends on your build. At low levels on my high Wisdom, high Strength Cleric, I found that "most" buffs were unnecessary and ate up too many spell points. I was able to melee everything I ran into. The following spells seemed best for me at low levels.

Cure x wounds - for obvious reasons
Soundburst - great crowd control (especially against mages - fortitude save)
Command - great for knocking down big threats (Giants, Ogres - will save)
Resist Energy - preventing damage

Greater Command - when you can get it.

GC and Blade Barrier were the two spells that really caused a turning point in how I played my cleric. I went from a healbot to a CC/dps/heal cleric. A well placed BB and making your enemies fall on thier butt for minute or more can save you tons more mana than just standing back and throwing heals while everyone beats on the badguys.

[Autolycus]

GC and Blade Barrier were the two spells that really caused a turning point in how I played my cleric. I went from a healbot to a CC/dps/heal cleric. A well placed BB and making your enemies fall on thier butt for minute or more can save you tons more mana than just standing back and throwing heals while everyone beats on the badguys.

GC is very nice and a staple on my quickbar. I'm really looking forward to getting Blade Barrier at next level. I didn't mention it since he is low level.

One thing I considered, but would definitely add due to the changes in Update 3 is Summon Monster. It's good for distracting enemies and soaking damage, and since it was changed from 1 minute/level to 10 minutes, it's much more efficient at low levels.

[Woody00]

GC is very nice and a staple on my quickbar. I'm really looking forward to getting Blade Barrier at next level. I didn't mention it since he is low level.

One thing I considered, but would definitely add due to the changes in Update 3 is Summon Monster. It's good for distracting enemies and soaking damage, and since it was changed from 1 minute/level to 10 minutes, it's much more efficient at low levels.

Have to watch it with pets. Sometimes they will aggro or charge something and screw up the quest. But yeah I see alot more summoned pets now with new changes.

[TheDjinnFor]

Im lvl3 atm,and Idk what spells to use for soloing.
Help please with casting chose and melee.

First piece of advice:

-Your melee weapon: Not a spell. But that's the point. Use it to fight in melee; it's got no spellpoint cost.
-Divine Favor: Short buff that increases melee damage.
-Bull's Strength: More melee damage, but lasts longer. Doesn't stack with items.
-Command: For anything big and ugly (Ogres, Trolls) that you don't want to fight in melee, use this.
-Hold Person: For anything humanoid that you want to kill fast, use this. Works well on Troglodytes and Hobgoblins.
-Soundburst: Anything that looks like it cast spells (plus everything else at low level, really). Drop it constantly versus kobolds.
-Resist Energy: Any time you expect big damage from casters or traps, use this.

Second piece of advice: Don't solo.

[azrael4h]

I've found that on hard mode solo runs Bless and Bull's Strength are practically required; particularly for stronger critters. And some annoying ones that are weak, but hard to hit. I use the extend spell metamagic feat, which doubles the duration of most spells. Prot. from Evil is too situational; I dropped it at 3 for Divine Favor. Sound Burst is nice for weaker mobs; knocks a couple out and lets you deal with them piece-meal.

However, you should always try to use items for your buffing needs if you can. In building my new Cleric over the weekend, I've picked up a couple that cast aid 1/day, one that casts something that gives me more SP 2/day, one for Feather Fall 1/day, one for Expeditious Retreat 1/day, a couple CLW 1/day, etc... I have about a dozen items like that now, not counting 1 use potions.

Potions, I've found 3 of Jumping, a couple Barkskins, a couple Aid, a couple Bull's Strength, how-ever-many Resist x pots, etc... While I'm conserving my potions for when I leave Korthos (nothing really requires it there, since a decent STR Cleric can easily solo Hard with a couple well placed buffs or a summon), the clickies are in constant use. In normal runs, I never use anything else.

I solo 90% of the time, and this has worked across several characters, including two clerics. The only thing is that you only get two quick-use bars on screen at a time, and I'm using 4 at level 3. Not counting #20, which I put my metamagic feats on.

[MarDeRoam]

As i was reading through this post, having a lvl 7 cleric myself and to see if i'm using my spells correctly XD, i was a bit confused about the last post. More so the last line: The only thing is that you only get two quick-use bars on screen at a time, and I'm using 4 at level 3.

@ Az: I'm not sure if i'm just misunderstanding this, but you can have all 20 quickbars open on your screen, not just 2. The main bar has 2 small buttons on the left side, one is used to pop-out the bar that is in the front. Then, if the bar is out of the main, you can adjust it to the wanted place on your screen, you even can place it horizontal or vertical.
This way you can build up your screen with all the filled bars open for quick acces.

I don't have any pic available, but you could try to search these forums to find some pics other players added that's showing their screen and how they have it build up. At least it was very helpfull to me :-)

If i misunderstood, ignore the above XD, and i wish you good luck on leveling your cleric.

ps. clerics are wanted in low-lvl-pugs, it is great to learn about your cleric, to be part of a group and complete quests together, help each other out. At least it makes me smile when i was helpfull (healing nearly dead mates and finish the quest without death/whipe) to the party.

[azrael4h]

@ Az: I'm not sure if i'm just misunderstanding this, but you can have all 20 quickbars open on your screen, not just 2. The main bar has 2 small buttons on the left side, one is used to pop-out the bar that is in the front. Then, if the bar is out of the main, you can adjust it to the wanted place on your screen, you even can place it horizontal or vertical.
This way you can build up your screen with all the filled bars open for quick acces.

If i misunderstood, ignore the above XD, and i wish you good luck on leveling your cleric.


You didn't misunderstand anything. :P I didn't know you could have more than two up at once, and in most games I've played that button closes the "extra" bar, not pops out the next down the line. Good to know, and knowing is half the battle! ;)

[Stealthdog]

At level 3, I find soundburst as one of the most important spells you can have when soloing. Not so much in groups, but still nice.

The ability to take out a large portion of mobs is very helpful at that level.

My general rule is if I can get a wand version of something, I generally don't have it prepared. Soundburst is an exception.

[MarDeRoam]

You didn't misunderstand anything. :P I didn't know you could have more than two up at once, and in most games I've played that button closes the "extra" bar, not pops out the next down the line. Good to know, and knowing is half the battle! ;)

Good to hear i cleared this up :-), i had figured it early enough in the game, but the pictures on these forums tought me how to place them the best, what to put where and such.
Another very usefull tip i got from reading these forums is to place your clickies that go after another on one bar. Like for my rogue, my main gear is on one bar, when i start i make sure to have these all on. When i need to search-disable/picklock i have a bar with all clickies after another in order i need them. Potions fill up another two bars and so on.
For the cleric it is the same, place your spells on one (or two as you advance) bars, wands and scrolls on another, your healing items together (i leave my healing spells on the main #1 bar so i have it hotkeyed under the numbers, i can hit 3 (CCW) on my keyboard whenever i need to cast a healing).

/end thread-hiyack ;-)

ps Az, if you'd like to ask/share more send me a PM, i'd be gladly to help whereever i can