Whelm Battlecleric Concept Help Please

[Arkat]

Concept

Echo of Whelm-using, SWFing, 14/x Dwarf Cleric using Strength Domain. Good healer/buffer but no offensive spells to speak of.

Struggling with the idea of a 14Cleric/6Ftr or 14Cleric/6Barb Battlecleric.

Strength Domain means I have to get my Competence modifiers to Crit range and Crit multiplier from the Kensei tree or one of the Barb trees, most likely Occult Slayer.

The other Domains I'm considering are the Animal, Destruction, or maybe the Protection domain. If I choose one of those, there's definitely a good synergy between those domains and the new Falconry tree because I can concentrate on raising my Wisdom and Constitution instead of Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom. I'd still need to get Tier 5 from Kensei or Occult Slayer for all the crit stuff, though.

Has anyone else come up with a Battlecleric build that uses Domains and the new Falconry tree? If you've also incorporated the new Barb stuff, I'd like to hear about that, too.

Currently leaning towards a 14Cleric/6Barb build.

Thanks.

[Tilomere]

Edit: Nvm, Vish is all over it!

[Vish]

Ok made me look at barbarian
I would go occult slayer, destruction
Want me to build it?

[Arkat]

Ok made me look at barbarian
I would go occult slayer, destruction
Want me to build it?

Please do.

[Vish]

Please do.

Overwhelm
14/6 cleric barbarian
Dwarf
Destruction domain
Onatar, warhammers

Str 11 3
Dex 9 1
Con 17 8
Int 10 2
Wis 18 16 +7
Cha 12 6
+6 tomes

Ap
37 occult slayer core3 tier5
26 bird man wis kta and +30 helpless core4
6 dwarf cores only
11 fb core3

Skills heal, Umd, jump

1 cleric shield mastery
2 cleric destruction domain
3 barb power attack
4-5 barb
6 cleric cleave
7 barb
8-9 cleric great cleave
10-11 cleric scroll raise dead
12 barb ic blunt tier5 barb
13-15 cleric quicken
16-18 cleric imp shield mastery
19 cleric
20 barb

21 oc
24 bogw
26 sp pos or PTWF
27 blinding speed
28 mass frog
29 dire charge
30 Celestia
Completionist

Running in dc, twist haste and extra action boosts


Fighter version
12/8 cleric fighter
Dwarf
Animal domain
Onatar, warhammers

Str 11 3
Dex 9 1
Con 17 8
Int 10 2
Wis 18 16 +7
Cha 12 6
+6 tomes

Ap
35 Kensai core3 tier5
26 bird man wis kta helpless core4
13 stalwart d +25 prr/mrr +20% hp
6 dwarf cores only

1 cleric shield mastery
2 cleric animal domain
3 fighter cleave
Feat power attack
4 fighter wf blunt
5-6 cleric great cleave
7 fighter
8-9 cleric empower heal
10 fighter ws blunt
11 cleric scroll raise dead
12 fighter ic blunt tier5
13 fighter heavy armor combatant crit mult
14-15 fighter greater weapon focus blunt
Feat imp shield mastery
16-18 cleric quicken
19 cleric heal
20 cleric

21 oc
24 bogw
26 sp pos or PTWF
27 blinding speed
28 mass frog
29 dire charge
30 Celestia
Completionist

Notes
Ok, when I was building these, all I could think of was warhammers and shield. So they are shield builds. I believe you lose too much trying to swf with no shield, unless you are using an orb, but at 14 this is not a dc build. So it's not max. If you went 17 levels and took implosion, then it would make sense to orb with the hammer. And you get more mileage out of your wisdom. As it is, it is mostly just buffing your spell pool, since again, not dc caster. Except for frog and dire charge. Then your max wisdom will count. If you want to go this route then it's more like my bird man build which goes 41 ap bird man. But then you're a bird man.
Otherwise they are wis con builds, so that should make for easy gearing. I kept them dwarfs. I like the idea of a dorf using whelm. So I built an occult slayer and a weapon master. They both should have good hp. I think the os is better dps, but not by much. The fighter should have more hp. Basically just a cleric icon, using a heal.
So that's for fighting style. I prefer to run in dc and use crusade. And twist in haste and extra action boosts. You could run ld, then u may have to twist consecration and sacred ground. Depends on your playstyle. But either way I'd be dropping a heal aura.
Also, the barb is more flavor. Since you went destruction to cast while raging, and you get extra rages, but all you're getting out of it is con. So a small hp buff for the whole domain. But it fits the raging dworf.
Ok this is best I can do with a 14/6 or the 12/8. Otherwise I would go 17 and full bird. Then prob splash ftr. Like I say look over my bird man build, just take onatar, and swap khopesh for whelm. Of course, it's an untested build.

[Arkat]

Thanks, Vish.

I'm definitely going for Whelm and Orb usage. Probably using the Golden Orb of Death. I get your shield-use point but I absolutely LOVE the attack speed boost that the SWF line of feats gives and I also LOVE that PSWF synergizes so wonderfully with Whelm.

Regardless of which path I take, I'm definitely NOT taking any T5 enhancements from any of the Cleric trees. The Kensei T5 enhancements are very strong and the Occult Slayer's T5 enhancement, Occult Metalline, is the most appealing T5 enhancement of all of them.

After thinking about it, if I go Dwarf (which I originally wanted to do) I'm probably going to go the STR route instead of the WIS route. Stunning Blow is a great feat.

I'm also starting to consider a Fallen Aasimar even though it goes against my original concept. With Aasimar, I can go either the STR route or the WIS route. This leaves open the possibility of investing just enough points in the Falconry tree to get WIS to Hit and Damage. I'd have to say goodbye to Stunning Blow, though.

The Divine Crusader vs. Legendary Dreadnaught conundrum also has my head spinning although I am leaning toward Divine Crusader. Thematically, that makes the most sense and it's got some very nice stuff in it, to boot.

Decisions, decisions.

[unbongwah]

1 cleric shield mastery
16-18 cleric imp shield mastery
OP said they were going SWF.

12/8 cleric fighter
Animal domain
Wis 18 16 +7
With this particular combo I would say ftr 6 / cleric 14 is better so you can use Feral Charge. An extra stun seems more helpful than +5 dmg +2 MP from ftr 8.

After thinking about it, if I go Dwarf (which I originally wanted to do) I'm probably going to go the STR route instead of the WIS route. Stunning Blow is a great feat.
Stunning Blow DC is STR-based; Falconry (Bird Attack) and Feral Charge DCs are WIS-based. So you'll have to decide right off the bat which approach you're taking.

[Vish]

Overwhelm
14/6 cleric barbarian
Dwarf
Destruction domain
Onatar, warhammers

Str 11 3
Dex 11 3
Con 18 10
Int 12 4
Wis 18 16 +7
Cha 6 0
+6 tomes

Ap
37 occult slayer core3 tier5
26 bird man wis kta and +30 helpless core4
6 dwarf cores only
11 fb core3

Skills heal, Umd, balance

1 cleric swf
2 cleric destruction domain
3 barb power attack
4-5 barb
6 cleric cleave
7 barb
8-9 cleric great cleave
10-11 cleric scroll raise dead
12 barb ic blunt tier5 barb
13-15 cleric Iswf
16-18 cleric gswf
19 cleric
20 barb

21 oc
24 quicken
26 pswf
27 blinding speed
28 mass frog
29 dire charge
30 Celestia
Completionist



Divine might build
Str 18 16 +7
Dex 8 0
Con 16 6
Int 12 4
Wis 8 0
Cha 14 10
+6 tomes

Ap
37 occult slayer core3 tier5
7 dwarf cores only
11 fb core3
4 warpriest divine might
21 open to tweak