Battle Cleric - 1 FTR / 15 CLR / Human/ 32 PT

[Sinj]

Hi all,

I am 4 levels in to my battle cleric build, and would appreciate some advice before changes start to cost days, gold, and dragonshards. I run a well respected pure bard with 28 STR (Raged) that operates similarly. I am very used to fighting and healing at the same time.

The intent is to develop a cleric who fights competitively with a fighter, and who can heal competitively with a pure healer. I understand there are some pros and cons to this build. I'm looking for any gross oversights I may have made. Please review the highlights of the build below:

Starting Stats (~End Stats):

18 STR (30) [18 + 1 Tome + 1 Human Enh + 6 item + 4 lvl bonus)
8 DEX (16) [+6 Item + 2 Tome]
16 CON (20) [+6 Item + 2 Tome]
8 INT (14) [+6 Item]
16 WIS (28) [+ 1 Human enh + 3 Cleric Enh + 2 Tome + 6 Item]
8 CHA (18) [+6 Item + 3 Cleric Enh + 1 Tome]

FEATS

LVL 1: Toughness, Khopesh Proficiency, Power Attack (FTR, FTR, HUMAN)
LVL 3: Mental Toughness
LVL 6: Improved Mental Toughness
LVL 9: Extend (For Aid, Shield, Divine Power, etc. to enhance Melee)
LVL 12: Improved Critical Slashing
LVL 15: Empower Healing Meta Feat

SELECT ENHANCEMENTS
Sovereign Host Advanced: Full Heal

PROS
1. I can deal damage like an exotic specced fighter (minus weapon spec.)
2. I have full healing capabilities and decent SP (minus maximize/empower)
3. I have enough hitpoints and AC (Esp. w/ Tower Shield) to enter a fight safely
4. I have a decent DC to cast offensive cleric spells (although I won't land as many as a 34 WIS will)
5. I have all of the Cleric Spells

CONS
1. I don't turn undead like a champ (but I can use the new spell that grants +4 to DC if needed)
2. I don't have a lot of DVs
3. My blade barriers won't be UBER

OPTIONS
1. I may swap my Toughness for Diehard later

That's it. Thank you for your help.

Cheers,

Sinj, Hysteria, Rainj, Greylock

[Sinj]

I started with 14 CON, not 16. oops.

[jmonty]

if you take maximize spell instead of improved mental toughness, your blade barriers well be ok, plus that works on your cure spells. and then you can take the enpower spell instead of enpower healing.

[sigtrent]

Looks pretty good.

You won't quite be throwing out the damage of most offensive specced fighters becasue they will be running two handed or two weapon fighting which is usualy 50% to 100% more damage than sword and board. That said you will be a strong cleric with very decent melee damage.

[Impaqt]

Die Hard is a great feat for characters that are a bit Squishy or if you Solo a lot... Otherwise I wouldnt get it.

Looks like a nice concept overall. Should play well. I question going the Kopesh Route... Seems a bit overkill for a Mid range damage build. I'd rather use that feat for something clericy.
Power attack... Should be OK, But againt not something I would do.... Single Handed Power attacks benefits are pretty small.

[Sinj]

Good advice. I'm hearing you on the maximize empower, and on the question of khopesh/power attack... I'll play around with some dragonshards and see what works best.

[Gol]

I personally find DPS to be all or nothing. I'm in the process of retiring my raw battle cleric in favor of a battle-capable cleric. The only difference being that I'm not putting the level-ups into Str - putting them into Wisdom instead. I'm going from 26/18/22/8/28/6 stats to 22/14/26/8/34/6 stats (and 28 to 32 point). I'm only keeping my old cleric now to help out on guild raids as needed or when my other main is ransacked in Shroud.

[Dark-Star]

Quicken is almost mandatory on a battle cleric in my experience, up there with extend and icrit.

My BC has:

Toughness (Dwarf)
Extend
Maximize
Quicken
Icritierce
TWF (made leveling up bearable, but you can swap this for whatever; empower is probably the best choice)

Like the previous poster alluded to, starting with an 18 wisdom and maxing it out seems to be the best (most versatile) way to go. With our melee buffs, 14-16 starting strength is fine.

[samho]

my 2nd battle cleric has the ability stat similar with yours. However, his feat selection was going to

(Human 32pt)
Stunning Blow,Extended Spell,Mental Toughness,
Improved Mental Toughness,
Empower Healing
Maximize
Skill Focus : UMD
Quicken

and my original battle cleric (28pt dwarf) has another wired setting:

Stunning Blow, Weapon Focus : Slash,
Extended Spell
Quick Draw
Toughness
Sap
(pending until I make up my mind, might be replace the quick draw for quicken and buy improved critical: slash for L15 feat)

[Emperor_Septim]

I really like the ideas behind this build, 1FTR/15CLR sounds perfect for the character I'm planning as well. The only difference is I plan on being a drow as opposed to a human, what if any changes would you suggest if I went that way?



Thanks

[Gorbadoc]

I think you're missing the point of the build. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how battle clerics are supposed to play (if someone could give a brief rundown of their play style, both while leveling and at high levels, that would be awesome), but I think the premise is that you make clerical spells your primary focus (including healing, buffs, and damage spells), but you dress yourself up like a classic sword-and-board fighter and pound the snot out of stuff when you're not casting. You want solid strength (so you can hit stuff), solid constitution (because you can't heal the party if you're dead), and fantastic wisdom (because your focus is on SPELLS). Dexterity, intelligence, and charisma don't substantially improve your combat abilities or spells, so they get sacrificed. Drow get great bonuses to the wrong stats.

[Gorbadoc]

The more I think about it, the more curious I get-- could a high charisma finessed drow cleric work? 10 strength; light armor and moderately high dexterity for finesse and a decent AC; 12 constitution; 10 intelligence; high wisdom and charisma...

It seems like that kind of build might work better as a back line caster/ranged attacker. Or as a bard, and dump the wisdom into another stat.

Incidentally, if I take one level of fighter on an otherwise pure cleric, does the game keep track of WHEN I took that fighter level? What I want to do (but doubt is possible) is take fighter at level 1, and once I get my BAB past 8, replace my fighter bonus feat with Improved Critical.

[samho]

Incidentally, if I take one level of fighter on an otherwise pure cleric, does the game keep track of WHEN I took that fighter level? What I want to do (but doubt is possible) is take fighter at level 1, and once I get my BAB past 8, replace my fighter bonus feat with Improved Critical.

For this question: Yes, this game did keep tracking when you took the fighter level (and when you pick up the feat, just go speak with mind flayer if you got any multi-class character)

[knight775042002]

My toon is 15cleric/1 fighter

I made this toon this way so I will be able to solo more also I can help the party to fight in needed.
20str
20dex
18con
17int
26wis
25chr
1288 Spell points
DV Heal III, and DV III. I might not be the best healer but my heal spells does 270 with out an item. (put alot of points in healing sp)
DV heal III is a good way to top ppl off. Also if you cant get someone with a heal spell you can most likely hit them with a DV heal (even behind walls and doors!)
My damaging spells once maxed will do 90-280 damage depends on the spell I cast. I dont hit as hard as a 16LVL tank but I still do about 35-45 per hit and crt around 70-80. (+5 green steel GC Holy/good burst)

I made this toon because I did not want to be a heal bot. At the same time I know when to stand back and let the tanks do the work.

[Stujake]

Cool