Battle Cleric 12/8 Cleric Paladin

[awesomekill]

I don't know how to use the character planners that I see people here using... but so far I've been having a lot of fun with my new character. I started out with one level of Paladin, and then went all cleric so far. My thought is to go 12/8 to get both the cleric prestige and the Paladin of the Chalice one.

Here's my guy so far:
http://my.ddo.com/character/sarlona/thorsky

at level 1/11 my stats are:

Str 20
Dex 8
Con 22
Int 12
Wis 26
Cha 19
254 hp / 840 spell pts

I'm using the wrath of sora kell set for the +2 hit/dam, and +40% spell damage. I have a hammer of leaden clouds and a stunning blow feat, which so far I've found useful. I'm always buffing Wisdom when I can, and since Wisdom is useful for both Clerics and Paladins, there seems good synergy. I'm hoping to get enough AC, auras, and buffs from my Paladin side to be able to survive melee, provide useful heals, buffs, etc, and some damage as well....

I'm open to the idea of more cleric, I just wanted 12 for sure for the second level of prestige, but I am not sure if 13/7 or 14/6 may provide the best bang for the buck.

Any advice is appreciated as its my first multiclass!

[unbongwah]

There are some interesting cleric 12-based builds out there; but in general you don't want to shift gears mid-leveling if you haven't planned things out. For one thing, pally splashes on clerics are generally seen as less useful than, say, monk or fighter splashes; for another, you didn't take pally 2 which gets you Divine Grace, which is arguably the primary incentive for a pally splash in the first place.

[ArcaneMelee]

Cleric and Paladin sound like they have synergy, but they don't really. While they both share wisdom as a casting stat, that deep of a splash will kill your spell DCs, so there's no point to ramp up your wisdom ultra high.

On top of that, both get Divine Favor and Divine Might, and they don't stack.

If you really want to do it, though, go 15 Cleric/3 Monk/2 Pal

Edit:
Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.9.1
DDO Character Planner Home Page

[awesomekill]

There are some interesting cleric 12-based builds out there; but in general you don't want to shift gears mid-leveling if you haven't planned things out. For one thing, pally splashes on clerics are generally seen as less useful than, say, monk or fighter splashes; for another, you didn't take pally 2 which gets you Divine Grace, which is arguably the primary incentive for a pally splash in the first place.

It's coming. After I get 12 in cleric, I'm going to start leveling the Paladin. I am planning to go at least to 6 for the extra benefits against Outsiders.

Paladin Knight of the Chalice I

Usage: Passive

Cost: 4 action points

Spent: 16 action points

Requires One of: Paladin Divine Sacrifice I, Paladin Divine Might I

Requires All of: Paladin Extra Smite Evil II, Paladin Energy of the Templar I, Paladin Courage of Good I

Available to Paladin class level 6

You are sworn to fight demons, devils, and other evil outsiders, driving them from Eberron forever. Your maximum number of Smites is increased by one, your anti-fear aura is improved, and you have +1 to attack Evil Outsiders and deal 1 to 6 additional damage with melee and unarmed attacks against them. You resist evil influences particularly well, gaining a +2 bonus to saves against spells and effects produced by Evil Outsiders. You may possess only one prestige enhancement line at a time for each class.\n\nD&D Dice: You deal 1d6 extra damage to Evil Outsiders.

~~~

I have 2 other levels that are unplanned, to go either 14/6, 13/7, or 12/8, depending on whether I get more from the cleric or paladin levels.

[awesomekill]

Cleric and Paladin sound like they have synergy, but they don't really. While they both share wisdom as a casting stat, that deep of a splash will kill your spell DCs, so there's no point to ramp up your wisdom ultra high.

On top of that, both get Divine Favor and Divine Might, and they don't stack.

If you really want to do it, though, go 15 Cleric/3 Monk/2 Pal

Edit:
Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.9.1
DDO Character Planner Home Page

I was figuring by going wis, I could buff my str with divine power (or my hit with divine favor), and sort of have the advantage of both. I'm starting to lean towards 13/7 to get more of the mass spell buffs. at 11, I dont get mass protection from elements, mass spell resist or cure serious wounds mass.

[Memek]

All those Paladin levels will destroy the build. Now, at 11/1 you are a nearly full Divine with WIS primary and STR secondary who can DC cast, heal and even his melee isnt far off from the other melees. You're uber, although the 1 level of Paladin is already suboptimal.

At higher levels, your melee prowess will fall behind - that doesnt mean that it wont make sense to melee anymore, far from that, but that your heals and DC casting would be the main strength of the character while the melee will be a nice bonus.

WIth so many Paladin levels, you are killing all the strengths of the build. The ability to be a main healer, the DC spells, and not even your melee ability will see a significant improvement.

Right now you are a great healer and DC caster and a decent melee. With taking that many Paladin levels, the build will suck at everything at high levels.

If you absolutely must take Paladin levels, then take 2.

What you're seeing with your character now at level 12 with a minor Pala splash will play out very differently at high levels with a deeper and far more tainting Pala splash.

The 1 Paladin level gives you proficiency now, thats worth 1 feat. 2nd Pala levels give CHA modifyer to saves, which is kind of nice for your Reflex save. Apart from that? Nuthin.

[awesomekill]

Going Pali 7 gets Resistance, Bullwark, and Courage of Good II. Also Extra Smite 3. 8 gets extra turning, another level of toughness, another enegy of the templay and lay on hands... So it seems that going more than 7 is a waste, which makes room for 13 cleric, providing access to level 7 spells.

I realize that it's not going to be uber, as a pure class would be... This is mostly for fun. I'm trying to make a useful battle cleric that melees and casts in equal portions, but definitely not intending for him to be a replacement for a pure healer or melee....

What I see him offering is:

Auras:
Bullwark of Good II, Resistance of Good II, and Courage of Good II

Healing aura and bursts, heal, mass heals through CSW, Cure various things including stat/level damage.

Generic Buffs: Aid, Prot Evil, Bless, Prot Elems, Spell Resist, and Death Ward, though that one has to be cast individually.

Spells up through level 7, so includes BB, Comet Fall, Slay Living, Destruction, etc...

I dunno... maybe its a complete waste, but its been fun so far. I already have 3 pures. (Monk, Wiz, and Rogue)

[unbongwah]

Personally I would probably do something like pally 2 / ftr 1 / cleric 17, since it looks like you want a melee-capable WIS-based caster. Pally 2 adds Divine Grace for boost to saves, Ftr add extra feat & Haste Boost, and cleric 17 ensures you get lvl 9 spells. [TBH I would've skipped pally entirely, but I'm presuming you don't want to LR just to get rid of that pally lvl, so I'm trying to make the most of it.]

Watering down your cleric levels with more pally or ftr doesn't make much sense on a WIS-based build; you're just hitting the point where your DPS spells will be pulling ahead of melee (Blade Barrier FTW!).

Had you wanted to do something novel like cleric 12 / pally 6 / ftr or monk 2, I would've planned that out as a STR-based build from the outset.

[awesomekill]

Personally I would probably do something like pally 2 / ftr 1 / cleric 17, since it looks like you want a melee-capable WIS-based caster. Pally 2 adds Divine Grace for boost to saves, Ftr add extra feat & Haste Boost, and cleric 17 ensures you get lvl 9 spells. [TBH I would've skipped pally entirely, but I'm presuming you don't want to LR just to get rid of that pally lvl, so I'm trying to make the most of it.]

Watering down your cleric levels with more pally or ftr doesn't make much sense on a WIS-based build; you're just hitting the point where your DPS spells will be pulling ahead of melee (Blade Barrier FTW!).

Had you wanted to do something novel like cleric 12 / pally 6 / ftr or monk 2, I would've planned that out as a STR-based build from the outset.

Hmm... something to think of. I started out with something like 14 str, 16 wis, and 14 cha. Going with your suggestion, reverse the str and wis, then level str?