Domain Question(s)

[Memnir]

Hey gang!

So, I've been out of the loop for a while, and missed the introduction of the Domains. I was pondering a new pontiff - and I was wondering what the word on the street is regarding them.

What would y'all regard is the most useful overall? How do the elemental ones measure up? Which is better for a melee cleric? For a caster cleric? Etc.

TYIA!

[cru121]

if running heroic elite / low reaper, the domain with damaging SLAs (usually evocations) are fun way to play a cleric blaster.

earthquake is a great spell and makes earth domain useful, but the cooldown is a bit too long

death domain - if you like instakills... is great.

knowledge / luck... decent general caster domains. displacement SLA is obviously great for any cleric without GS clickies

war domain if you want holy sword and exotic proficiencies.
if you can get crit expansion elsewhere (kensai 6 / swashbuckler 3 / ..), also check out other domains (animal, strength, ..)

destruction if you like barbs.

protection if you like tanky.

some domains are more optimal that others, but there's a lot of fun flavor options.

[Memnir]

there's a lot of fun flavor options.

Indeed! I think playing around with these will keep me entertained for a while.

TY!

[JP457]

I have a fire domain cleric right now and its a blast. Firewall and greater command for the win!

[TMTrainer]

I'm running a Death Cleric atm.

• Instakills are pretty good, and you get quite a few as well as one as an SLA. Slay Living, Destruction (+SLA), and Implosion (which is not a necro spell, but really good).
• Once you hit 11, Death to Undeath makes you stronger against undead than turn undead is. Your weakness suddenly becomes a strength!
• You have a few forms of CC that go off of your Necromancer DC. Cause Fear, Symbol of Fear, Doom (it's a fear effect!) and Chill Touch against undead.
• I can not understate how powerful negative levels are. Necrotic Ray, Enervate (from DD), Energy Drain, Symbol of Death are your methods of inflicting this wonderful debuff.
• You get quite a bit of Negative Energy SLAs. Necrotic Ray, Destruction, Chill Touch (from DD), Negative Energy Burst (from DD), and Inflict Moderate Wounds, Mass (from DD)
• You have better sustain than Pale Master, while also getting access to Harm, one of the highest damage Necromancer spells in the game.

Necrotic Ray and Symbol of Death are rarely mentioned, but holy moly, inflicting negative levels can be one of the strongest effects to apply to enemies in the game. Not only does it lower their damage, it lowers their max HP and their saves. When you fire a necrotic ray at an enemy the stated damage is actually quite a bit higher as you lower their max HP so this spell becomes especially good as enemies start packing thousands of HP.

I'm not saying Death is the best, but I love the themes and I feel like it brings a lot of strengths over simple blasting damage. I don't have experience with Fire, but if you want pure blasting damage, Fire is probably the strongest combined with the Light SLAs from DD. Electric is also probably really strong. Cold is more of a support domain (Fog Cloud is an incredible spell) while Earth provides an SLA version of the best CC in the game (Earthquake).

I don't know much about the other domains, other than Luck arguably providing the best damage mitigation in the game (displacement and bonus to saves) as well as great for being all around good for DC casting, and War which makes melee cleric fairly OK.

Also, the Healing domain is a trap imo. Good if you run out of SP frequently, but it's effects are just... not that good compared to everything else.

[Memnir]

I'm running a Death Cleric atm.

Death was my second choice actually.
I went with Good simply to have Blade Barrier early, taking into acount the lvl 10 Vet Start thing that ended this past weekend. I'm enjoying it - but am going to try a Death Cleric for sure.

[DrWily]

I'm currently on hiatus until I get Ravenloft, but my current cleric is running Strength domain and it's quite good. Getting STR mod to reflex means you can dump DEX entirely and use heavy armor while still having good reflex saves, you get knockdown immunity and pseudo Stun immunity. More importantly, you get +2 STR (+1 damage before modifiers like melee power), technically immunity to STR damage, and your turn undead/channel divinity uses gives you and your party a STR bonus for more damage. I find it's quite good if you want a high DPS cleric that doesn't need Holy Sword.

[fmalfeas]

I'm thinking strongly about building a Luck Domain cleric.

No longer fail saves on a 1...that's ED material, and to get all 3, you have to be Grandmaster of Flowers. Luck cleric can rock that at 14. With Cannith Crafting (and a lot of mats) could readily maintain levels of saves that keep you protected from nearly everything. And the Displacement SLA...could run as Warpriest, and wade into the fray, smiting about you while your foes just seem to find that their efforts are stymied by so many things...