Cleric Build... Advice needed before I begin

[wlmartin]

For the first time in ages (and since banking some nice doh-ray-me!) I have thought about making myself a Cleric.

Firstly I wanted to focus on High Wis / High Cha.
I know that Cha, turning and such are not that good in DDO compared to PnP but I have my heart setting on being the best Cleric I can be and turning IMO is the heart of a good cleric so am looking to max out these 2.

To this end I am thinking of going Drow for the High CHA.

The only thing I hate about being a Caster is it is very much CAST, CAST, CAST, out of Mana... and all of a sudden you are a big stone paperweight taking up party space. I want to be able to heal as much as possible, use wands and scrolls when I am out of Mana but also want to have something to fall back onto.

I was thinking about M/Cing with a Paladin for 4-6 levels to give me some melee-ability once my SP runs out.

I want to steer away from the idea of a Battle Cleric / War Priest... I don't want to build a cleric that fights 1st and heals second... I also don't want a healbot, I want something where I am healing as much as I can but when my SP runs out I can charge into battle without fear for my life






So big question...

What build can I honestly see myself getting into where
a ) Money is no issue (I can buy +2 tomes and high end gear easy enough)
b) I want to build it with High WIS + CHA regardless of the uber/non-uberness of such a choice
c) I want to focus on being a tactical healer, SP+wands+scrolls FIRST and then be able to run into battle once I am all OOM
d) I want a balanced 1-20 character that is not high/low level dependant (ie good at low lvls, screwed at high lvls or in reverse)
e) I want to be able to have fun!!
d) I am willing to consider mixing a melee class (such as FTR/BAR/PAL/RNG) into the mix

[Chette]

A decent charisma will get you more uses of your aura/burst. My cleric has 20 I believe and has 9 uses of her aura. The burst doesn't do quite what mass-heal does, but it comes close. Assuming it's about 50 sp for a similar mass-cure spell that's an extra 50sp worth of healing for every 2 Cha, versus an extra 25 or so for every 2 Wisdom. Now, I'm not saying drop wisdom by any stretch of the imagination, my cleric still has maxed wisdom, I'm just pointing out how useful Cha can be now if you use your bursts properly.

I have never built a melee cleric, so I'm afraid I don't have any advice for you there. I would however remind you that you get mass-heal at level 17, so if you can get 17 levels of cleric this will make you nearly as good as healer as anything else out there.

[Kronik]

I would not take any levels of Paline if I were you. Pure clerics can fight when needed and have far more spell points to play with.

[justagame]

Well, you're going to get plenty of "don't spec for turning" comments, so I won't bother, and assume you want the best turning possible.

If you do, forget about multiclassing, let alone splashing 4-6 non-cleric levels. You will nerf your turning ability just as badly, if not worse, than if you had completely dumped cha.

If you're set on drow, you'll have rapier proficiency. Get yourself a decent rapier or two, don't dump STR, use divine might, divine favor, and divine power and you'll be able to fight decently when you need to. At the highest levels, when your melee ability starts to fall noticeably behind the true melee builds, you won't care, because the really powerful cleric stuff starts to kick in then.

[quintuss]

Hmm, when you are doing raids, you will irritate a lot of people when you a) run out of sp and/or b) start fighting.

Maxing out wis and cha will leave you little space for other important stats (con for example).

[ghettoGenius]

First. Dont take pally levels. You cant max both cha and wis. Just go with wis.

Even if you leave cha at 8 you can still get like 9 turns pretty easily. Turn based effects are supplemental at best and shouldnt be relied upon for core build functions. Maxing wis and putting all points here will make you a better caster/healer in general (adds saves/dcs/spell points, etc.).

Human
str 14
dex 8
con 14
int 8
wis 18
cha 12

Emp Heal, Toughness, MT, IMT, Maximize, SP, Quicken, GSP

[DToNE]

If you're dead set on having a high CHA Cleric, I would suggest looking into the Divine Might enhancement line. One of the bigger advantages of having a ton of Turn Undeads is the ability to utilize it's healing capabilities and using them to compensate for DPS stats that you didn't put in otherwise. This way, you can keep your high WIS and high CHA without having to dump too much into STR.

Since you're aiming to have high CHA and if you decide to multiclass, you can add a single level of FvS and a single level of Sorc to boost your SP by a substantial amount; you lose Divine Intervention, but this will allow you to use any Arcane Wands without failure (Arcane Scrolls is still out of reach though).

Of course, this is only one option out of many.

[ghettoGenius]

If you're dead set on having a high CHA Cleric, I would suggest looking into the Divine Might enhancement line. One of the bigger advantages of having a ton of Turn Undeads is the ability to utilize it's healing capabilities and using them to compensate for DPS stats that you didn't put in otherwise. This way, you can keep your high WIS and high CHA without having to dump too much into STR.

Since you're aiming to have high CHA and if you decide to multiclass, you can add a single level of FvS and a single level of Sorc to boost your SP by a substantial amount; you lose Divine Intervention, but this will allow you to use any Arcane Wands without failure (Arcane Scrolls is still out of reach though).

Of course, this is only one option out of many.

Some questionable advice here, especially when directed towards a newer player.

Divine Might should not be used as an alternative to strength. A good melee based build will supplement with strength, but the OP appears to want to follow a different path.

Absolutely DO NOT multiclass 1 level of FvS or Sorc for SP or wands ... you weaken your base class.

[bleuwulf187]

I found this build awhile back for a Drow cleric. I was able to do a lot of what you are apparently looking for. Here is the link:

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/63647

I did drop my str to 12 to raise my chr to 12 (start) and then used tomes. I took her (sorry, drow clerics were always female - at least in the forgotten realm mythos) to cap (lvl 16 at the time) fairly easy. I was able to run all of the raids and not be a "paper weight". Anyway, I had a lot of fun with the character.

[wlmartin]

Amazingly I have gone off the idea of making a Drow Turning Cleric... I have decided instead to completely turn in a different direction.

What do you guys think of missile cleric?
Im thinking that Zen Archery might be fun but not for damage instead for Para and Slaying.

I am thinking min/max with +WIS / +CON / +CHA (as dump)
Go for Zen Archery
Go for Para Bow with Slaying Arrows... simply keep a stock of the correct slaying or bane arrows

After all a cleric is useless without mana (or wands and such) but seems to become a martyr when following my original thought of Healing and then fighting. So why not keep the SUPPORT aspect of the character alive, keep the Cleric on the 100% pure cleric track but sacrifice just 1 feat in Zen Archery to get the hit bonus up and then by mixing in Para & Slaying Arrows I could see me being able to pick off the occasional bad guy or give the melee some breathing room....

People have said to me ZEN ARCHERY is a trick, high wisdom = cleric, cleric+bow = quick death. I have tried this before and may agree however by using this as a support mechanism rather than the focus of my build seems to satisfy my main concern of being the useless mana depleted cleric that sits by and watches everything roll past them... at least this way I have a chance of helping.

What do you think?

[unbongwah]

I've actually been kicking around a few ranged cleric builds. One is a cleric AA, the Radiant Archer; the other is the Zen Repeater.

[ghettoGenius]

Amazingly I have gone off the idea of making a Drow Turning Cleric... I have decided instead to completely turn in a different direction.

What do you guys think of missile cleric?
Im thinking that Zen Archery might be fun but not for damage instead for Para and Slaying.

I am thinking min/max with +WIS / +CON / +CHA (as dump)
Go for Zen Archery
Go for Para Bow with Slaying Arrows... simply keep a stock of the correct slaying or bane arrows

After all a cleric is useless without mana (or wands and such) but seems to become a martyr when following my original thought of Healing and then fighting. So why not keep the SUPPORT aspect of the character alive, keep the Cleric on the 100% pure cleric track but sacrifice just 1 feat in Zen Archery to get the hit bonus up and then by mixing in Para & Slaying Arrows I could see me being able to pick off the occasional bad guy or give the melee some breathing room....

People have said to me ZEN ARCHERY is a trick, high wisdom = cleric, cleric+bow = quick death. I have tried this before and may agree however by using this as a support mechanism rather than the focus of my build seems to satisfy my main concern of being the useless mana depleted cleric that sits by and watches everything roll past them... at least this way I have a chance of helping.

What do you think?

Well cleric+bow /= quick death. Unless you were referring to your own death lol.

Im not going to say it wont work, but I have yet to see a zen archery cleric build that was to my satisfaction. There used to be a nasty issue with reloading arrows/bolts which would interfere with spell casting, not sure if this is still commonplace but it has deterred many ranged caster builds for years. That and the fact that you will always do more damage if you just get Sov Host enhancements and use a longsword when compared to Silver Flame bow enhancements, especially without bow strength. Ranged damage is bad enough, on a cleric its even worse.

The only benefit I really see to it would be to hit enemies with cursespewers/shattermantle before casting spells like greater command or slay living, but you can do this with a sword as well.