Mr. Death God - A DPS Cleric

[sigtrent]

From Sigtrent's Build Request Thread

Mr. Death God a Lawful Good – Dwarven – Cleric 13 / Paladin 1
Requested By: Sigfried Trent
Presented By: Sigfried Trent

Introduction
The was not a request. I was working on the ultimate undead machine and was amazed at the damage it could deal out with healing spells. I figured a small shift in focus and you could do similar damage to just about anything using the harm spells. It’s not the first time we’ve seen negative energy attack clerics but I wanted to take my spin at making a really deadly one. I went dwarf for the mana, the defenses, and the shortness. I splashed paladin at level 12 to get a bit more mana and a bit stronger defense. I wouldn’t have done it if not for the mana boost. Unlike the undead slayer I simply dumped charisma. No empower healing since it doesn’t work on harm spells but this guy is still no slouch at fighting undead.

Starting Statistics (32pts)
STR 14 – DEX 12 – CON 16 – INT 8 – WIS 18 – CHA 6

Feats: Mental Toughness, Spell Focus Necromancy, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Maximize Spell, Empower Spell

Skills: Concentration 17

Enhancements: Armor Mastery 2, Dwarven Con 1, Dwarven Faith 2, Spell Defense 3, Prayer of Life 3, Incredible Life 3, Life Magic 4, Energy of the Zealot 4, Wisdom 2

Leveling Guide

1st Level: Cleric
Empower Spell : Concentration 4

2nd Level: Cleric
Concentration 1

3rd Level: Cleric
Mental Toughness

4th Level: Cleric
Wis +1

5th Level: Cleric

6th Level: Cleric
Spell focus Necromancy

7th Level: Cleric

8th Level: Cleric
Wis +1

9th Level: Cleric
Maximize Spell

10th Level: Cleric

11th Level: Cleric

12th Level: Paladin
Wis +1 : Greater Spell Focus Necromancy

13th Level: Cleric

14th Level: Cleric

Build Commentary
[FONT=ArialHe’s a pretty straight up casting cleric with a bit in the way of battle stats, but you are focused on pumping up spell damage and getting crits on your harm spells. I wish I could get in more feats, but what can you do?[/FONT]

Number Crunching
Final Statistics (Assuming +1 tomes and +6 items as desired)
STR 14(20) – DEX 18 – CON 24 – INT 8 – WIS 30 – CHA 6

Melee Attack Profile (+5 Dwarven Axe): BAB 10, Str 2, Weapon 5, Divine Power 7, Divine Favor 3 = 27/27/32/37 1d10 + 13 (20 X 3)

Full Armor Class (+5 Full Plate and +5 Shield): Armor 13, Dex 3, Barkskin Potion 3, Deflection 4, Shield 7, Chaos Guard 2 = 42

Fort Save: Amazing (25+)
Reflex Save: Decent (15+)
Will Save: Amazing (25+)

Hit Points: About 270
Spell Points: About 1245

Max Necromancy Spell DC: 30 (With focus item)

Average Base X 1.4 (Life Magic) X 1.5 (Superior Potency) X 1.5 (Empower) X 2 (Maximize) = total base damage X 2.75 (Critical) = total crit damage

Cure/Cause Serious Mass (80 Mana) 30 base (avg) = 188 normal (avg) – 518 critical (avg)
Blade barrier (75 Mana) 52 base (avg) = 156 (avg)

Numbers Commentary
High DC values, crazy good damage output with harm spells. Great damage with other damage spells. A deep mana pool, a good pile of hit points, good AC, quite decent melee combat, strong saves where it counts most, and a beard.

[Blazer]

Pretty sure you can't maximize Harm. As such, you won't hit those critical numbers.

I thought the max for Harm was 731 HP = 140 * [1 + .5 (Potency/Null6) + .4 (LM4)] * 2.75 (Max spell crit).

[Impaqt]

AS mentioned in the other thread, HEAL is not Maximizeable or EMpower SPell-able...

Only Empower Healing works on HEAL. There is no meta ENH for Harm.

Blade Barrier on the other hand.....


13d6 +50%+50%X2
45.5+22=67+33=100X2=200XCrit = OMG thats awesome.

[sigtrent]

AS mentioned in the other thread, HEAL is not Maximizeable or EMpower SPell-able...

Nooooo!!!! Heh, didn't know that. Hmmm I need to do a bit of first hand testing with all this but that definately puts a damp blanket on the amazingness of the idea. I'm not too familiar with what types of damage the variours cleric spells are based on.

[Impaqt]

Nooooo!!!! Heh, didn't know that. Hmmm I need to do a bit of first hand testing with all this but that definately puts a damp blanket on the amazingness of the idea. I'm not too familiar with what types of damage the variours cleric spells are based on.

Its got nothing to do witht he type of damage....

Heal ad Harm are Fixed Damage.. 10pts per level. Up to Level 15. Period. There is no variable aspect to the spell. Therefor is not subject to Maximize and Empower Spell (ANd should NOT be applicable to Empower Healing either.. but DDO Chose to implement it to work)

I just wish empower healing would work on HARM... It doesnt make sense that it works onHEAL.. Might as well allow it to work on Harm as well.

[sigtrent]

Heal ad Harm are Fixed Damage.. 10pts per level. Up to Level 15. Period. There is no variable aspect to the spell. Therefor is not subject to Maximize and Empower Spell (ANd should NOT be applicable to Empower Healing either.. but DDO Chose to implement it to work)

I just wish empower healing would work on HARM... It doesnt make sense that it works onHEAL.. Might as well allow it to work on Harm as well.

My interest in the damage type was more to do with the ehancements and items needed in increase critical chance and base damage on the various clerical damage spells.

I agree, sure would be nice to get a multiplier on harm... MMMMMM In general it woudl be great to get empower healing on any of the cause X spells.

I think with the new meta magics it may be a good occasion to take a close look at various spell damage efficiencies across spells levels and metamagics.

[Impaqt]

I started a chart of Clerical Spells and Damage enhancements a while back.... I should finish that ne of these days....

[Magus_d]

so with Heal/Harm not being affected by metamagic are you still going with this build as is; or are you changing anything?

[sigtrent]

so with Heal/Harm not being affected by metamagic are you still going with this build as is; or are you changing anything?

I'm not certain but I do plan on revisiting it and figuring that out. I swapped out heigten for Maximize on my cleric to do a bit of testing to see what I though of casting for damage with a cleric.

I've only done two quests so far. It was interesting. Heal certainly is not effected by maximize so that's out and apparently harm isn't effected by empower healing. I think that means it's damage may not be as good as a maxed out cause critical. My cleric is at 11 now, I may swap out extend for empower so I can test that. I was trying to see how important extend was to me at level 11, my conclusion was that it wasn't particularly essential. folks tended to shed my buffs by shrining more often than it wearing out.

With MAXimize only my flame strikes and commet fall were doing around 100pts a piece. I didn't get a chance to test healing undead or harm spells much as I was in fairly fast groups running for favor.

I think this build is still a pretty good platform if you want to run a damage dealing cleric. Solid mana, solid defenses.

I may have my spell damage calculations off by a bit as well. I've seen various formulas posted. Which things are additive vs which are cumulative.

[MrCow]

I splashed paladin at level 12 to get a bit more mana and a bit stronger defense.

The further we get to the higher levels the less true that a level of paladin will grant more SP. Currently we have SP that looks like this:

Level SP
1     130
2     155
3     180
4     205
5     230
6     260
7     295
8     335
9     380
10    430
11    485
12    545
13    610
14    680

The remain levels will look like so:

Level SP
15    755
16    835
17    920
18    1010
19    1105
20    1205

The 20th level of cleric gives 100 base SP. Currently a level of paladin grants an SP bonus, mostly from WIS. I think around that timeframe most clerics like this will have a WIS of 34+, netting 120 SP from the WIS bonus. In the end it is an SP benefit, but a slight one.

[Magus_d]

I just started two clerics in the past couple of days, one based on this build, and one based on the halfling medic. So far they are both good at what they are suppose to do.

With this build I'm only lvl 3, but I find the resists at this level to occur too often on the inflict line, so for now I'm using Nimbus of Light. I'm hoping that once I start getting bigger boosts to my wisdom and the SF:Necromancy that things will start to work a bit better.

Please give us an update on how things go as you keep playing this character. I am looking for a good caster/damage dealing cleric but I don't usually have the means to respec my feats once I get higher levels like most other people do.

[Impaqt]

The further we get to the higher levels the less true that a level of paladin will grant more SP. Currently we have SP that looks like this:

Level SP
1     130
2     155
3     180
4     205
5     230
6     260
7     295
8     335
9     380
10    430
11    485
12    545
13    610
14    680

The remain levels will look like so:

Level SP
15    755
16    835
17    920
18    1010
19    1105
20    1205

The 20th level of cleric gives 100 base SP. Currently a level of paladin grants an SP bonus, mostly from WIS. I think around that timeframe most clerics like this will have a WIS of 34+, netting 120 SP from the WIS bonus. In the end it is an SP benefit, but a slight one.

The 1level of paladin bonus Spell Points is Entirely Wisdom Based... We can Project the l15-20 Table, But thats no guarantee.

1 Level of Paly offers quite a bit more than just spell points though..... AUra, Martial Proficiency, Hit points, Save bump....

THe drawback is pretty small overall.... Lose a Spell slot, Lose 1 on your spell Pen.....

[Zenako]

The 1level of paladin bonus Spell Points is Entirely Wisdom Based... We can Project the l15-20 Table, But thats no guarantee.

1 Level of Paly offers quite a bit more than just spell points though..... AUra, Martial Proficiency, Hit points, Save bump....

THe drawback is pretty small overall.... Lose a Spell slot, Lose 1 on your spell Pen.....

Loss of that spell slot is not pretty small if you ask my Cleric. Love having choices of spells to focus at those levels. Also you might be losing access to the highest level of enhancements the class could take as well. (may not make a difference but to some builds it might.)