Thinking about re-building my cleric.

[Vengenance]

I have a capped cleric amongst several other capped characters. My cleric, however is the first character that I ever rolled and is now more than two years old. He's a 28 pt build and for the most part is nothing but a heal-bot that I only bring out to run raids with. He's not very fun to play and really needs a complete over-haul, which is where this crowd comes in. I need a new cleric, one that can take a punch, use effective crowd control, and maybe even swing an axe. I don't care about having DVs, which is why I'm leaning towards a Dwarf. This cleric can be pure or multi so long as it remains mostly cleric. I can make 32 point builds, have access to all +1 tomes, and good gear. If you have a good cleric that fits into some of these categories please jot it down, I'm open to any and all suggestions. My initial thought is to build a dwarf Cleric 15/Ftr 1 with the following stats:

Str: 16 (+2 Tome, +6 Item)=24
Dex:9 (+1 Tome, +6 Item)=16
Con: 17 (+1 Tome, +6 Item, +2 Dwaven Con)=26
int:8 (dump)
Wisdom: 17 (+2 Tome, +4 level, +6 Item, +3 Enhancement)=32
Char:6 (Dump)

[DaveyCrockett]

For the spell point advantage, I'd splash 1 level of paladin instead of fighter, personally.

[Vengenance]

I'm open to that.

[Divinius_d'Phiarlan]

Battle Clerics are so much fun I highly recommend it. I'm still rolling my day 1 guy but he is a one of a kind build with every kind of bound gear imaginable. Stick to 16-18 STR and ditch CHA and you'll be golden.

[Vasha]

I'd say splash paladin over fighter too. The extra feat is nice... but when they raise the cap and you can get level 2 paladin without losing spell access the extra saves will be nicer

[sirgog]

I'd say splash paladin over fighter too. The extra feat is nice... but when they raise the cap and you can get level 2 paladin without losing spell access the extra saves will be nicer

There won't be much in the way of extra saves with a Charisma like that.

My advice: Paladin over Fighter if you put your level up points into Wisdom. Fighter over Paladin if you put them into Str. Both are viable options.

Given your description 'might want to swing an axe', I'd say go Paladin and Wisdom, and pull out the axe only when you are running as one of two clerics - otherwise keep to the offensive casting.

[moops]

Also remember that you can change the feats of your 28pt build, and make it alot more fun to play

I have a 28pt that still is an awesome offensive caster, as well as swings a vorpal every now and then, since only a confirmed 20 matters, str not as important.

[Vasha]

There won't be much in the way of extra saves with a Charisma like that.

My advice: Paladin over Fighter if you put your level up points into Wisdom. Fighter over Paladin if you put them into Str. Both are viable options.

Given your description 'might want to swing an axe', I'd say go Paladin and Wisdom, and pull out the axe only when you are running as one of two clerics - otherwise keep to the offensive casting.

yeah.. if he plans to keep a 6 charisma... didn't notice that

[Vengenance]

Also remember that you can change the feats of your 28pt build, and make it alot more fun to play

I have a 28pt that still is an awesome offensive caster, as well as swings a vorpal every now and then, since only a confirmed 20 matters, str not as important.

My cleric doesn't suck, I do alright at end game content, I just don't have any fun playing him. Like I mentioned, he was my first character I rolled on the server and I started him w/only a 15 Wisdom and 10 str. He can't melee for a dang, although I do pull out my vorp on him just to mess around once in awhile, and his spell dcs are high enough to land consistently. Given my Char will only be a 6, I don't really see what the advantage of going pally over fighter will be except for the slight increase in sp pool. I think the extra feat would be more valuable to me than that.

[Anthios888]

Stats look pretty good for an all-around cleric, though if it was me I would max wisdom. What feats are you looking to take? The extra fighter feat could give you more mana with mental toughness, spell penetration, or empower healing (not my pick, I prefer maximize) if you were planning on taking improved critical: slashing or piercing. Paladin is a good choice for this kind of casting hybrid, but the new mithral tower shield set in the hound raid won me over for the fighter level. Since hound is relatively easy to complete and the combination gives 20% increased threat and +3 insight to AC, I thought it worked well with a hybrid cleric build.

Levik's Bracers - Levik's Defender, Healing Amplification 20%, Strength +6
Levik's Defender - +5 Tower Shield, Levik's Defender, Healers Bounty, Sonic Guard

[Vengenance]

Thinking about these feats:

Level Feats
Ftr 1 Stunning Blow
Cleric 1 Empower
Cleric 3 Extend swap for heighten later on
Cleric 6 Quicken
Cleric 9 Maximize
Cleric 12 Spell Pen I
Cleric 15 Spell Pen II

Wisdom is pretty much maxed at 17, since I don't really gain anything by going with a 18 wisdom unless I count on getting myself a +3 tome. If I go human then I will probably go with an 18 since it will be easier to get to a 34 wisdom since you can get the +1 Wisdom Human enhancement.

[Anthios888]

Good feats, I'm a fan of spell penetration. Have you considered taking fighter at level 11 or 12 (if you prefer to get blade barrier/heal/cometfall quicker) and picking up improved critical? Until then you can get by with longswords, simple weapons, or as I did, pick up a dwarven axe feat and switch it out later on. Stunning blow is nice to have, but I wanted improved critical: piercing for when I loot that wounding of puncturing rapier any day now...

One argument against what I just said is to make a mineral II dwarven axe from the shroud that would come with keen already on it.

[Vengenance]

I was actually thinking about taking fighter at level 1 to make leveling more fun.

[Vengenance]

Have this Cleric to level 3, and although he doesn't lead the kill count he can at least hit the things he swings at. So far I'm staying pure cleric, and trying to decide when the best time would be to take a fighter level, but so far it's been pretty fun and I've been able to pretty much solo everything I've tried, even Den of the Kobolds Bros. w/o much effort.