New Cleric, which Feats/Enhancements?

[~Quozl]

Just rolled my first Cleric, a 32-pt Human build with the following abilities:

STR 10
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 18
CHA 12

I took Toughness and Mental Toughness for my first two Feats and haven't spent any AP yet. I just made L2.

Interested in making a heal/DV bot. Suggestions on what Feats to take? I must admit the Enhancements are pretty intimidating. I like the idea of taking all the Stat increase and Racial Toughness enhancements but understand it may not be practical.

Which Enhancements increase healing? I'm getting confused by 'light' spells. Also looks like Wand/Scroll Enhancements will be helpful.

Any help appreciated.

[Angelus_dead]

I took Toughness and Mental Toughness for my first two Feats and haven't spent any AP yet. I just made L2.

Toughness is not too useful for that kind of nonaggressive character, because you won't often by the direct subject of enemy damage. You may like to change it later. (The value of Mental Toughness will also decrease as time goes on)

Interested in making a heal/DV bot.

Be warned that DVs aren't too important, and that a cleric who just does Heal/DV is missing out on opportunities to contribute with either offensive spells or weapons. For you, I recommend also getting some casting ability via feats.

For Healing:
Feats- Empower Healing, Maximize, (Empower), (Mental Tough)
Enhancements: Life Magic IV, Wand+Scroll Mastery, Empower Healing

For DV:
Feats- Extra Turning
Enhancements: Divine Vitality, Extra Turning

For offensive casting:
Feats- Maximize, Heighten, Extend, (Spell Focus Necro)
Enhancements- Wisdom III

[DoctorWhofan]

For DVs take extra turning feat. Also, the extra turning enhancements. Toughness, not so much. Other feats are Empower Healing, Maximise and Quicken, all that can be used for healing.


Somehow my level 16 capped cleric is STILL using DVs. Very useful in the Shroud, especially during part 4 Lagville. Get used to people telling you that they are not useful anymore.

[Sehenry03]

Yeah I agree with Doctorwhofan...DV's just come in handy everywhere and people love you more for it. Myself I made a cleric with max wis and cha...con is ok but with +6 items and a +2 tome later your playstyle won't be affected a lot with a slightly lower con. I wouldn't put anything into str or dex...your AC is never gonna be any good and your str doesn't matter for your build. The fun thing about your build is yes you can be a healbot but you can also be an offensive cleric. I wouldnt't worry much about toughness or mental toughness I would get extend, empower healing, quicken, maximize, extra turn undead and a bonus of whatever ya want. The main thing is play whatever type ya want and have fun. You can make any cleric build work

[Inspire]

I think toughness is a great feat selection for a Healing orientated Cleric. Your focuses will be first and foremost on Wisdom, Constitution secondary, and Charisma behind those. Toughness will give you access to 40 additional Hps for when things go "pear shaped", like a delayed blast fireball to the noggin, in which case every little bit helps.

I like this feat set-up for a human(end game) Cleric;

1) Toughness
1) Extend
3) Empower Healing
6) Empower
9) Quicken
12) Maximize
15) Spell Penetration or Spell Foucs(Enhantment/Necromancy)
18*) Greater Spell Penetration or Greater Spell Focus(Enhantment/Necromancy)

Heighten is another good option.

* Not yet avaliable.

[~Quozl]

Thanks all for the great feedback!

I should say that I was considering only keeping the Toughness and Mental Toughness for low levels where it seems to have the most effect and swap out later. Since the Minos Legens is getting 'fixed' so it no longer grants the Toughness feat I won't have access to the cheap/easy 30HP from the Enhancements unless I actually take the Feat.

So does Maximize and Empower help with healing allies? This is where I get confused since there is an actual Empower Healing Feat.

Also which Spell Crit Enhancements are specific to healing? This is another area where I have no idea what to get.

If I'm not concerned with Turning Undead is there any other use for Charisma other than UMD?

Thanks!

[Goldeneye]

So does Maximize and Empower help with healing allies? This is where I get confused since there is an actual Empower Healing Feat.

Maximize and Empower both add a little juice to your healing spells (making them more effective at the cost of more sp) - In terms of Empower Healing, its exactly like empower, except it only effect your healing spells, and is more mana-efficient then Empower

Also which Spell Crit Enhancements are specific to healing? This is another area where I have no idea what to get.

I wouldn't worry about spell-crit enhancements until higher level, the action points are better put to use towards increasing spell power, more sp, and increased scroll/wand efficiency. spell-crit enhancements only really start being beneficial when you get mass heals, in my opinion

If I'm not concerned with Turning Undead is there any other use for Charisma other than UMD?

for a cleric, your CHA modifier = how many times you can turn undead per day, since turn undead is broken, it's basically used as DV's to restore sp to an another caster. - so your CHA modifier effects how many times you can DV per rest

Your off to a nice start w/ your cleric - built like a true cleric

[eyepuppy]

I think toughness is a great feat selection for a Healing orientated Cleric. Your focuses will be first and foremost on Wisdom, Constitution secondary, and Charisma behind those. Toughness will give you access to 40 additional Hps for when things go "pear shaped", like a delayed blast fireball to the noggin, in which case every little bit helps.

I like this feat set-up for a human(end game) Cleric;

1) Toughness
1) Extend
3) Empower Healing
6) Empower
9) Quicken
12) Maximize
15) Spell Penetration or Spell Foucs(Enhantment/Necromancy)
18*) Greater Spell Penetration or Greater Spell Focus(Enhantment/Necromancy)

Heighten is another good option.

* Not yet avaliable.

Taking both empower and empower heal is kind of a waste if you ask me. I would much rather have a MT than both.

[~Quozl]

Ok, thanks again everyone. This is VERY educational if not overwhelming.

My alt's are 15 Ranger, 8/7 Ranger/Rogue, 16 Rogue, 14 Fighter, 14 Wizard, 16 Sorcerer, and now 3 Cleric. Of all these I find the Cleric to be the most difficult to create. I had know idea before but now... Seems with so many options there more opporunities to shoot yourself in the foot.

So. It is very helpful to know that Max and Emp affect healing but not the Heal spell whereas Emp Healing does and cost 5SP less than regular Emp. Eyepuppy which of the three would you keep?

DoctorWhofan do you carry Empower Healing? I hear you on DEX and I've plenty of +6 items to drop on her to get DEX to 16. +3 DEX armor bonus is around the max for most heavy armors I think and I don't have Armored Agility Enhancements.

Also seems that I don't need to worry too much about the Spell Dam/Crit Enhancements until later levels.

Anyway, I went ahead and leveled to 3. Just been dropping Skill Points into Concentration, Heal, and UMD. The story so far:

Lvl. Feats
1. Toughness
1. Mental Toughness(can easily switch either out later but wanted all the boost I could for early on survivability)
3. Extend - I didn't take this earlier cause the difference between 1 minute and 2 wasn't big however 3 minutes to 6 is getting into useful range. esp. now I that have Resist Energy.

Only spent 4 out of 9AP's so far:
Cleric Divine Vitality I
Cleric Wisdom I(Got the bauble from Butcher's Path so now have an even 20)
Cleric Energy of the Zealot I(these early ones get used to meet the 'points spent' prereq's.

Suggestion for spending the 5AP's? Not alot available. 10% increase to heal spells or Wand/Scroll Efficiency. Actually I think Cleric Charisma I may be available as well.

You all have giving me a lot to think about which truly was the goal. I now don't feel like I need invest every single point into the Heal category. A bit of balance may be in order.

Aranticus what do you consider a 'proper' cleric? I'd to hear some ideas and even if I don't implement all of them it's still food for thought. I'm getting the picture a good cleric can be more than a heal/dvbot.

Thanks again everyone!

[Inspire]

Taking both empower and empower heal is kind of a waste if you ask me. I would much rather have a MT than both.

I disagree,

1) Empower Healing aids the Heal spell and will most likley aid Heal, Mass aswell... Empower does not.
2) Clerics, if they so desire, can reduce the cost of Empower Healing through enhancements, not Empower.
3) Empower aids spells like Blade Barrier, Poison, Contagion, Holy Smite, etc... which are an offensive casting Clerics bread and butter.
4) At level 16 MT and IMT both grant 85sp each, an average Max/Emp/Extended/Quickened(?) Blade Barrier costs 80-95sp.

Automation runs around with 1605sp and does fine for himself, then again, I have a powergaming playstyle... it might not be for everyone.

[maddmatt70]

Taking both empower and empower heal is kind of a waste if you ask me. I would much rather have a MT than both.

I like your post a great deal in the warpriest thread but I disagree with this comment. I would take one or the other or both. Maximize for blade barrriors and I am very partial to empower healing right now so I have that on all my clerics. I have empower on my clerics that are more specced for blade barriors and I don't have it on my cleric that is more specced to do cc and insta kill spells..

[LeeRoy]

I think toughness is a great feat selection for a Healing orientated Cleric. Your focuses will be first and foremost on Wisdom, Constitution secondary, and Charisma behind those. Toughness will give you access to 40 additional Hps for when things go "pear shaped", like a delayed blast fireball to the noggin, in which case every little bit helps.

I like this feat set-up for a human(end game) Cleric;

1) Toughness
1) Extend
3) Empower Healing
6) Empower
9) Quicken
12) Maximize
15) Spell Penetration or Spell Foucs(Enhantment/Necromancy)
18*) Greater Spell Penetration or Greater Spell Focus(Enhantment/Necromancy)

Heighten is another good option.

* Not yet avaliable.

drop the spell pen take mental and improved mental toughness