enhancments

[Hobgoblin]

so what enhancments do people taking on a cleric?

Looking for 3 types just out of curiousity.

my ideas- please post if this is incorrect or not

1. healbot: healing line, empower healing reduce costs, wis enhancements are maybe, toughness only kinda mandatory

2: offensive casting cleric: sp line, smiting line, toughness line spell pen not sure what else

3: battle cleric : never played one, so the only thing i can think of thats mandatory is toughness line

thanks

hob

[thewalex]

so what enhancments do people taking on a cleric?

Looking for 3 types just out of curiousity.

my ideas- please post if this is incorrect or not

1. healbot: healing line, empower healing reduce costs, wis enhancements are maybe, toughness only kinda mandatory

2: offensive casting cleric: sp line, smiting line, toughness line spell pen not sure what else

3: battle cleric : never played one, so the only thing i can think of thats mandatory is toughness line

thanks

hob

I think that the benefits offered to Clerics by the Radiant Servant are useful to all three types you listed (healbot, offensive casting, and battle clerics), The auras and bursts can help heal and top off in between battles, can heal the melee mass if you're in the mix or heal you while you toss out Heals or BB as a "cast and forget about it" heal over time. I'd suggest those enhancements until the other Cleric PrEs come out.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Radiant_Servant_enhancements

With specific regards to your types, yes, toughness is useful to all three types, but more so to OC and Battle. Spell Pen is really an OC only enhancement. WIS enhancements are a must for both healbots and OC, as they both increase total SP and increase save DCs on offensive spells. A battle cleric will probably want to think about taking enhancements to help attack bonuses or bonuses to confirm critical hits (I'm assuming you'd also want to take melee weapon related feats that go along with your weapon of choice).

Generally speaking (with the exception of the WIS enhancements), you probably want to take anywhere from I to III tiers of any enhancement, as tier IV can get expensive in terms of AP points that you need to invest.

[SirValentine]

so what enhancments do people taking on a cleric?

The full Life Magic line, and Radiant Servant. Every. Single. Cleric.

First level of Wand/Scroll Mastery. +25% for 1 AP? Heck yeah!

Toughness. More HP = good. Sure you can heal yourself...but Death Pact only saves you once from taking a 400-point disintegrate to your 350-HP face.

1. healbot: healing line, empower healing reduce costs, wis enhancements are maybe, toughness only kinda mandatory

Healbot...ugh. Why do people do this, purposely ignore the power and versatility of their class to only use one ability from it? Sorry, not the topic of this thread, I'll stop digressing.

If you're not casting offensively, the Wis enhancements are not that useful, the extra SP is tiny. The direct +SP enhancements would give you more payback.

On a healbot, I'd say Toughness is MORE important than for a real Cleric who can kill their enemies via spells and/or melee. You need to survive until your party members can save you.

For most Clerics, more than the minimum 1 rank of the healing crit enhancement lines are too many AP for the payoff compared with other things, but for a healbot with nothing better to spend your AP on, you might want more of them. Likewise more of the the scroll/wand line could be useful.

2: offensive casting cleric: sp line, smiting line, toughness line spell pen not sure what else

All or all but one +Wis enhancements (whichever gets your Wis to an even number). Your DC is your life.

Why do offensive casters need Radiant Servant? Because doing most of your healing for free with aura/bursts leaves that much more mana for crowd control, nuking, insta-kills, etc..

Smiting Line is awesome with Divine Punishment spell. The crit lines for smiting not as useful, I wouldn't take more than the first rank unless somehow you had AP to spare.

Spell penetration line is quite expensive, but sometimes useful. Get the first rank for sure, try to squeeze in more if you can afford it. Don't neglect an item to improve your spell pen, too, when facing foes with SR.

I wouldn't plan to take the SP line. If you're left with 1 or 2 AP left over after getting everything else you need and can afford, it's a useful spot to drop that last point into. Same with Extra Turns.

3: battle cleric : never played one, so the only thing i can think of thats mandatory is toughness line

"Battle Cleric" is a loaded term used by different people to mean different things, but I'm going to assume you mean a melee-focused Cleric.

Whatever racial enhancements you can to improve your melee.

Radiant Servant again. Your aura will continuously heal yourself and your party members without having to stop swinging your weapon. And it will help make up for your smaller SP pool.

If you have AP left over, SP enhancements probably more useful here than on other two, since your mana pool may well be smaller due to lower Wis and/or splash of other class.

[Habreno]

What I find works for me, as a dual-specced healing/offensive casting Cleric is the following:

AP: Benefit
Radiant Servant and Pre-req's (those not part of healing or smiting lines)
2: Heal +2
1: Improved Turning
1: Divine X (Might if over 14 base CHA, Vitality/Healing if under, Light in early undead levels, Fortitude before you get Protection from Poision at L7. Really something that you take based on what you think is useful, if any are useful.)
6: CHA +2 (far better benefit over any religion. WF Battleclerics may better use the Lord of Blades enhancement, but these are few and far between, especially given WF's -2 CON penalty, making Divine Might that much harder to use)
6: RS I and RS II

Full Healing Line
10: +40% outgoing healing
6: 9% crit chance on outgoing healing
6: 2.25x crit multiplier on outgoing healing

Full Smiting Line
10: +40% outgoing smiting
6: 9% crit chance on outgoing smiting
6: 2.25x crit multiplier on outgoing smiting

60: Total so far

12: WIS +3
4: Concentration +4
2: Capstone
1: 20 SP
1: +25% effectiveness on Wands/Scrolls

80: Total AP


Of course, I am building for maximum healing and casting, with little left after those, Radiant Servant, and 3 points of Wisdom.