Sword and Board, TWF, or SWF?

[Velan]

Just wondering what people are with their battle clerics. Would a single weapon fighting build, a sword and board, or a two weapon be more effective? I tend to think Sword and Board, as my "old cleric" is sword and board. TIA.

[Amundir]

Probably depends on what your patron's favored weapon is.

[Ballrus]

Just wondering what people are with their battle clerics. Would a single weapon fighting build, a sword and board, or a two weapon be more effective? I tend to think Sword and Board, as my "old cleric" is sword and board. TIA.

Swf + orbs.

[Hjarki]

Just wondering what people are with their battle clerics. Would a single weapon fighting build, a sword and board, or a two weapon be more effective? I tend to think Sword and Board, as my "old cleric" is sword and board. TIA.

S&B is almost exclusively a defensive fighting style that will deal less damage than the other alternatives unless you have an enhancement tree that specifically favors this style in some fashion (Swashbuckler primarily but an argument could be made for Vanguard).

TWF is a potentially high damage fighting style but it normally needs a lot of support from an enhancement tree (Assassin, Tempest, Shintao and Vistani are the most common). Lacking that support, it frequently underperforms what people expect.

SWF tends to be the most appropriate fighting style for builds that do not have melee trees that particularly favor one style over another. If you're not using any of the trees I've mentioned above, SWF is probably your best option from an offensive standpoint. The fact that it's also the only common fighting style without a stat requirement also makes it easier to slot into builds that are not ordinarily melee-focused.

That being said, a pure Cleric isn't going to be particularly competitive for melee damage.

[C-Dog]

Well said, Hj!

S&B is almost exclusively a defensive fighting style that will deal less damage than the other alternatives unless you have an enhancement tree that specifically favors this style in some fashion (Swashbuckler primarily but an argument could be made for Vanguard).

More, Sword and board needs the feats that help the sword, and also the ones that help the board, so (usually?) it requires some Fighter levels add to the basic # of feats.

Here is a benchmark battle cleric you can base your build against -

o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5518865

At the other end of the spectrum, here's a Fighter w/ 8 Cleric levels -

o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...hter-Cleric%29