Cleric Spell Guide

[sirgog]

I also would consider giving Summon Monster 5 and 7 better ratings - Summon Monster 5 creates an earth elemental that can take quite a pounding, and can hold foes (allowing you to quickly pull out heavy picks and insta-crit them to death). Summon Monster 7's Efreeti is very situational, but is of most merit when the party is suffering a lot of fire damage (particularly in the final seconds of the raid A Vision of Destruction) - enemies will aim potent fire attacks at the Efreeti, causing them to (often) miss you.

Divine Power is worth memorizing on non-melee specced Clerics with a 12 or higher base Strength - they can meaningfully contribute in melee in situations where the party is taking little damage, and DP will add significant damage while they do so.

I think you underrate Greater Command - many foes just can't make the Will save in any halfway decent time, and casting it on a pack of 6-8 mobs will often take three or more out for the entire fight, preventing a LOT of incoming damage.

[samho]

More accurately: Protection from Evil / Holy Aura / Magic Circle against evil don't stack with Chaosguard (Protection From Chaos) as well.

And since Protection from evil / magic circle and Protection from chaos was alignment base, it will not appear on your character sheet (as well as not working with trap and such which consider neutral damage source). However you can find the bonus apply with dice and combat log (against evil or chaos type).

Holy Aura was slightly different. You can see it's effect on character sheet so it works even with trap.

[Cedwin]

Great list for beginner clerics, +1 rep.

[Elealar]

So effectively, Protection from Evil/Holy Aura/other Alignment-based protections effectively act as if they had their own bonus type? They stack with everything else, but not themselves? So, to make things clearer, we could call it "+2 Aligned-bonus to AC/Saves". Not an official bonus type in 3.5, but seems like it'd work here; Sacred/Profane don't really work since there are some other sources of said bonus types in the game, but an unique bonus that stacks with everything but other alignment-based bonuses would act identically to how Protections presently stack.

[MoiraKatonic]

hey nice guide! I don't agree with everything but still some very useful info in there. thanks for writing it

[Hafeal]

Thanks for the list, El.

To the OP, FYI, you can check out my thread here for a complete list of Cleric spells which can be organized by level, type, etc. I have a separate page doing buff stacking. I actually have some material ready to upgrade it, I just haven't been able to post it yet.

[Elealar]

hey nice guide! I don't agree with everything but still some very useful info in there. thanks for writing it

Hey, if you disagree with things, feel free to voice your opinion where we disagree. I'll at the very least add notes, and if you're really persuasive, change the description. I'll freely admit that I haven't extensively tested every single spell in every single quest in the game, so I may be missing some very useful implications, so if you have e.g. had great success with single-target Save-or-X spells in some places, or Cleric Vanilla (No-Ad-Effects) Direct Damage, tell me and I'll re-evaluate the spell descriptions. If this guide is actually going to be used, best for it to include more than one point of view.

[Kralgnax]

Great post & thread, a couple of mild disagreements:

Aid (individual or mass) is a solid spell, unless you’re grouped with a bard – bless (1 point morale bonus to attacks) + bonus HPs which stack with the short-duration Divine Power for a low SP cost. Not a killer, but not bad

Greater command is very solid against groups of non-immune critters with weak will saves (elementals, trolls, giants, etc.) – anything in the “ strong but dumb” category.

[miceelf88]

Good list- agree with the others that say that greater command is the bees knees.

i think your weighting in general assumes you have a full complement of party members of other classes-ie., a wizzy to cast glitterdust, bard negates the need for aid, etc. IN the real world, that's often not the case- either you don't have a wizzy or he doesn't want to cast glitterdust, etc.

grtr command and sonic burst are my crowd control options at mid level- they both target numerous guys, they both immoblize and they make killing the mobs easier. I use sonic burst if the mobs are weak but smart, grtr command for tough but dumb. One or the other usually applies. Glitterdust doesnt' actually immobilize, which makes it slightly less useful, IMHO. And the casters I usually run with are much more quick with the firewalls than with the glitterdusts. So, they have a firewall going, and I plop a group of mobs running through the firewall with either burst or command. instant weenie roast.

I think aid should also be rated higher for the reason noted above- often you won't have a bard, and in that case, aid is good, not just for the hp.

Mass cures in general are good, especially if there isn't a main tank and damage is distributted more evently. even in the case of a main tank, I usually hit him with my single target heals, then alternate with mass cures, if others are also taking damage. (i tell folks to stay close to him if they want to get healed)

[Pollyester]

Very informative thread, thanks. I have a question regarding "alignment" based spells...in case I am wording that incorrectly, I am referring to spells like "Chaos Hammer" which does max damage to targets who are lawful and can only be cast by chaotic or neutral casters. I've tried casting "Order's Wrath" as my cleric is lawful, but did not notice any damaging effects. (It was on a bunch of hobgoblins, if that makes any difference.)

I would like to know a few things:

A.) Are these spells useful? I don't see them mentioned in this guide (unless I missed it) so I am guessing they aren't widely used.

B.) How does one know the alignment of enemy creatures. I am not remotely familiar with pen and paper D & D, and a new comer to the game. My limited knowledge has come from sources like Wikipedia, so still wondering.

[Hafeal]

Hobgoblins tend to be lawful evil, so, Order's Wrath would not not effect them, you need Chaos Hammer for them. I think many players avoid these spells because most, it seems to me, players tend to have no clue what alignment creatures are ... and the effects from these spell are not so great, especially given that there are often better alternatives. That being said, I do carry them on my cleric and have found them to be useful a time or two.

Very informative thread, thanks. I have a question regarding "alignment" based spells...in case I am wording that incorrectly, I am referring to spells like "Chaos Hammer" which does max damage to targets who are lawful and can only be cast by chaotic or neutral casters. I've tried casting "Order's Wrath" as my cleric is lawful, but did not notice any damaging effects. (It was on a bunch of hobgoblins, if that makes any difference.)

I would like to know a few things:

A.) Are these spells useful? I don't see them mentioned in this guide (unless I missed it) so I am guessing they aren't widely used.

B.) How does one know the alignment of enemy creatures. I am not remotely familiar with pen and paper D & D, and a new comer to the game. My limited knowledge has come from sources like Wikipedia, so still wondering.

[Pollyester]

Hobgoblins tend to be lawful evil, so, Order's Wrath would not not effect them, you need Chaos Hammer for them. I think many players avoid these spells because most, it seems to me, players tend to have no clue what alignment creatures are ... and the effects from these spell are not so great, especially given that there are often better alternatives. That being said, I do carry them on my cleric and have found them to be useful a time or two.

Ah, I see. I was wondering if hobgoblins were lawful as they seem to have a fairly organized society, at least from what I've observed. I notice on the loading screen tips that devils are lawful evil while demons are chaotic evil, but other than that little bit of info, I have not seen much information about that. Which is kind of a shame, I would like to know a little more about the inner workings of DDO monster society...call it my inner social science nerd need to know.

I may carry the spell around for some quests, I think it's interesting to try out the different spells and see what happens. Thanks for your answer.

[vilhazarog]

...
To the OP, FYI, you can check out my thread here for a complete list of Cleric spells which can be organized by level, type, etc. I have a separate page doing buff stacking. I actually have some material ready to upgrade it, I just haven't been able to post it yet.

Actually I did see that, but I was still confused on how stuff stacks, for example the version I'm looking at makes no mention of how bless stacks.

Also, it's nice to see what vets think of various spells, I've ignored greater command for example, now I'm going to try it out.

Finally, a general question, Dispel Magic got a favorable rating in this guide but is it really useful? Can anyone give me an example where it's worth casting, are there some buffs out there that spellcasters use that really need to be popped off? So far (at mid level) any spellcaster spending time casting buffs is a great thing for me, gives me more time to kill them before they cast something bad at me.

[Elealar]

A word of note: the alignments of creatures in this game tend to follow the PnP monster "Usual"s and of course, the "Always". So take a look at the Monster Index from PnP D&D 3.5 System Reference Document; if you're curious about one creature's alignment, just check there. I have yet to face a single deviation in this game (though I haven't of course tested most).

That said, most intelligent opponents, along with the whole category of Undead, you fight are evil making Chaos Hammer and Order's Wrath vastly more limited than Holy Smite. Elementals, Oozes, Rust Monsters and other similar creatures are practically always True Neutral (there may be some evil-aligned elementals in the game, not sure), so the the line of spells as a whole are ineffective against them.


Alright, I'll alter the Greater Command (though it does already point out it's handy while soloing). Though I personally don't find Aid great; generally I find you'd rather cast Bless for those bonuses, it being multitargeting and level 1; the Temporary HP are quite few and generally that mana would be better off spent casting Cures in combat (though of course, spending an action in combat not affecting the enemies increases your resource expedition...). I'll add the notes (though Aid already has the "unless you really need the Temp HP"-clause), or rather alter the descriptions a bit.

[erethizon]

Though I personally don't find Aid great; generally I find you'd rather cast Bless for those bonuses, it being multitargeting and level 1; the Temporary HP are quite few and generally that mana would be better off spent casting Cures in combat (though of course, spending an action in combat not affecting the enemies increases your resource expedition...). I'll add the notes (though Aid already has the "unless you really need the Temp HP"-clause), or rather alter the descriptions a bit.

Bless costs 10 spell points while mass aid costs 20, so for an extra 10 spell points everyone in your party is getting an additional 13-28 temporary hp. You also have to consider that you get mass aid at level 5 and do not get your first mass cure until several levels later. This means that you can give your entire party of a minimum of 78 extra hit points for just 10 spell points above the cost of the bless spell. I like to start every quest with this spell during the buffing portion of the quest and if I find the entire party is taking damage in a tight area (as sometimes happens during fights) I will recast it on the spot just to "heal" everyone (especially during those levels before I get a mass cure spell).

[sirgog]

Thought I'd redo the high level spells, as I disagree with a lot of your suggestions here.


Level 6:
Bull's Strength, Mass: Don't ever cast this on players. You can't cast this until level 11, and +4 Str min level 11 items are a dime a dozen on the brokers. (Min level 7 and 9 ones are more valuable).
Banishment: Situational spell, but in the quests where it is good, it's better than any other spell any class gets. If you are in the Vale of Twilight explorer area (or quests on normal), this will be your best spell overall. Back when the cap was 14, I referred to this spell as 'Mass Swat Mephit', but now it's more like 'Kill target Devil and its family'.
Blade Barrier: Best damage spell (overall) in the game. Weak against foes with 5000+ hp (Shroud orthons above Normal, Subterrane devils, Epic trash mobs and many rednames) or against foes with high saves and evasion (troglodyte rangers, fire elementals), but overall, an amazing spell.
Cometfall: Small damage plus a save-or-knockdown. Greater Command is superior in most situations (as most mobs have pretty low Will saves), but there's a time and a place for this spell too.
Create Undead: Has no uses excluding former exploits, except for the odd prank (ooh, someone's AFK, let's set Ghouls onto them
Greater Dispel Magic: Godly in the PvP pit, near worthless out of it as mobs tend to have very high caster levels on the few dispellable buffs they use. May change in future as the spell has an intrinsically powerful effect, particularly if we encounter future bosses that cast Fly or Haste or other buffs that matter.
Harm: Was great when the cap was 12 and foes had less HP. But, doing 400 damage (1400 on a crit) barely tickles most bosses now.
Heal: One of the top spells for Clerics. 0.7 seconds and 35 SP to heal 285 damage - sign me up. The second most efficient healing spell (SP/HP ratio) and the best spell to save someone's *** with.
Heroes' Feast: Should be excellent for Poison immunity in raids - except that it's bugged in its interaction with Greater Heroism. People with both effects do not recieve the Poison immunity, making this spell weak indeed.
Symbol of Fear: Very situational but powerful spell. Fear is a very powerful type of crowd control, but it slows down quest completion. Use sparingly and only in truly tough quests.
Symbol of Persuasion: Situational and long cooldown, but has an incredibly powerful effect. If a fight is expected to be tough, dropping one of these beforehand can change the entire battle. Unlike other Symbol spells, this one is powerful even when only two mobs in a pack of ten fail their saves, so it's worth loading even on toons with lower Wisdom scores.
Undeath to Death: Worthless, everything you'd want to use a save or die on is immune due to the HP cap.
Word of Recall: Timesaver spell. Good for level 20s that bind to Menechtarun but want to be able to get to Amrath in a halfway reasonable time for Tower raids.

Level 7:
Destruction: Great on low Fort save foes that have over 1000 hp. Air Elementals in particular. Most foes you *really* want dead are immune though.
Greater Restoration: Never enter the Subterrane or an unknown quest without it. If someone has 2 or more negative levels, hit them with this. If they have one, let them wait it out or use a Restoration scroll. People often cop seven to ten of them in a couple seconds against beholders.
Pro Elements, Mass: One of the best spells in the game. In fights where there's a lot of incoming elemental damage, it's like a free 120 hp to everyone - every time you cast it. Be warned - this spell causes heavy lag when spammed in raids (as the game server has to tell all twelve players that you just cast five different spells on each of them). The protection stacks in the worst possible way with Resist spells, but that isn't a factor as this spell will still prevent deaths from 400 point Fireballs.
Restoration, Mass: Useful in some Beholder fights, but less so than Greater Restoration in most cases.
Resurrection: Good because it lets you raise people more rapidly than once per ten seconds if the **** hits the fan (as it does not share a cooldown with Raise Dead). Keep two Raise effects prepped all the time from now on.
Spell Resistance, Mass: Useful in areas where you suffer non-damaging spells and aren't getting constantly dispelled - which isn't often, but this spell is usually worth preparing and casting. Very good in quests you do not know.
Symbol of Stunning: One of the best crowd control spells in your arsenal, as stunned mobs are automatically critically hit, and thus die fast.
Symbol of Weakness: Very situational debuff spell. Fun against beholders, including rednamed ones.

Level 8:
Death Pact: Never take this off your prepared spells list. Even the best of us roll 1s in Elite traps, or against Epic cometfalls, or just cop two high damage attacks in rapid succession. This is your 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card.
Death Ward, Mass: Pretty much always worth having prepared - most quests have some foes that do nasty debuffs that this prevents
Firestorm: About as useful as a cat nailed to your door. Damage doesn't even tickle foes at level 15, and most stuff is immune to fire anyway.
Holy Aura: Bonuses are useless for most builds - if they help you, then by all means cast this spell.
Symbol of Death: Also about as useful as a dead cat nailed to your door. Only kills things that one critical hit with a weapon would kill. There's one situational use for it in Vision of Destruction, but most people prefer other methods there.

Level 9:
Energy Drain: Potent no-save debuff. Rednames are immune of course. When you absolutely, positively need a foe crowd controlled, soften them up with two Energy Drains, and you'll be able to land anything on them.
Heal, Mass: Your best spell - once you learn to use it. Worthless without Quicken, but this spell is the pinnacle of healing efficiency, restoring up to 2400hp (assuming Empowered and hitting the maximum of six players, all of whom need it). In practice it tends to heal for about half that (once you learn to time it, the rest will be overhealing), and on a 7.5 second cooldown, that's 160hp/second without burning much mana. Empowered Heal, for comparison, heals for about 420 per 5 seconds, or about 84hp/sec.
Implosion: Amazing in easier content, at endgame, everything is immune (or in Amrath, almost everything saves). Carry it on favor or XP runs and love it, then swap the reliable spells in for the hard stuff at 20.
True Resurrection: This spell combines Raise Dead with a Heal - might sound pretty unimpressive, but it turns battles simply by not taking as long to cast as a raise followed by a heal. Keep at least two Raise effects memorized, as they all have a long cooldown but these aren't shared. For Tower of Despair part 2, or Epic Lailat, or other raids that can go to hell fast, prepare all three.

[Hafeal]

A word of note: the alignments of creatures in this game tend to follow the PnP monster "Usual"s and of course, the "Always". So take a look at the Monster Index from PnP D&D 3.5 System Reference Document; if you're curious about one creature's alignment, just check there. I have yet to face a single deviation in this game (though I haven't of course tested most).

Yes, a good link. A word of caution, not all DDO creatures are there (e.g., Flensers come to mind) and many creatures, especially humanoid types, have a variety of alignments they could be.

[Elealar]

Yes, a good link. A word of caution, not all DDO creatures are there (e.g., Flensers come to mind) and many creatures, especially humanoid types, have a variety of alignments they could be.

Aye; Humanoids (particularly non-monstrous Humanoids) have greatly varying alignments (there are even some Good opponents in that Bringing the Light-quest IIRC) and you need to own auxillary source books not legally available online to figure out Flensers and the like. Most of the creatures in the game are straight from the SRD (except with 100 times more HP) though.

Another thing that link is useful is for figuring out what weak saves creatures have (or rather, the Types & Subtypes-list with the reservation that creatures with class levels advance by standard class saving throw tables instead); knowing that Outsiders & Dragons have All-Good Saves, while Fey have poor Fort, Animals & Magical Beasts poor Will, Aberrations only good Will, Elementals only good Fort or Ref & Giants only good Fort is exceedingly useful.

Most Monstrous Humanoids and Humanoids in this game advance by class levels (though the good Will-save on Monstrous Humanoids with racial HD is worth noting), so their saves aren't that useful, and most Oozes, Undead, Constructs and Plants have the slew of immunities that make their poor saves non-issues.


sirgog: I'll get by doing a spell-by-spell comparison of our rankings soon; I'll give Symbols proper description and color the "trash"-spells as trash. Those seem to be the biggest deviations, aside from Cometfall. Thanks for that list.

[Kralgnax]

A suggestion, if I may. Sort spells into four (possibly colour coded) groups:

1. Don't leave home without it (i.e. Command, Soundburst, Gr. Command, Blade Barrier, Pro elements, etc.)
2. Situational must , with situatiation (Nightshield vs. casters)
3. So-so or replaced - i.e. Bless once you have Aid, Divine Favor once you have Divine Power, the good pets (lvl 1 & 3 spring to mind) slay living, etc.
4. Absolute **** you will probably never prepare (Close wounds, for instance)

[samho]

A suggestion, if I may. Sort spells into four (possibly colour coded) groups:

1. Don't leave home without it (i.e. Command, Soundburst, Gr. Command, Blade Barrier, Pro elements, etc.)
2. Situational must , with situatiation (Nightshield vs. casters)
3. So-so or replaced - i.e. Bless once you have Aid, Divine Favor once you have Divine Power, the good pets (lvl 1 & 3 spring to mind) slay living, etc.
4. Absolute **** you will probably never prepare (Close wounds, for instance)

Something to keep it in mind:

1. Bless can use to remove bane, while aid have no such function (as other function of aid might be replace by Heroism / Good Hope / Greater Heroism beside temporal hp)
2. Nightshield also function as a resistance buff (max resistance 3)
3. Divine Favor stack with Divine Power. They don't have function overlapped so it's nothing wrong to load both up.