I am going to be writing this over the next few days. I plan to get VERY detailed, including listing every spell and how it should be used. This is the first part, and the least detailed.
(PART 1: INTRODUCTION) Many people have the power of the cleric misunderstood. Many do not know how to use it; others have the misconception that it is unstoppable.
The truth of the matter is, the Cleric is probably the most complicated class of all; and it does have weaknesses. However, it definately has strengths to offset those weaknesses. However, most of the strength of the cleric lies in its versatility.
Versatility makes it seem like an ungodly powerhouse; because versatility means the ability to adapt to any situation. It has nuking power in order to deal with physical-resistant foes and has tremendous melee power to deal with magical resistant foes.
The Cleric is a servant of the deities, and as thus is easy to role play relatively appropriately. It only gets hard if you have an especially cruel DM (:evillol:) or you are unfamiliar with the deity you choose to serve.
As we can see already just from the basics, it is indeed a hybrid. Lower BAB than a fighter, but can cast spells. Lower HP than a fighter, but has Will as a strong saving throw; clogging up a weakness of a class and gaining a strength in return.
But from this information it almost looks like the cleric is 'gimped' because of its low BAB.
However when we look into the spells it gains, and the powers it has access to; we will soon learn that the cleric is a force whose power cannot be denied. But nor can its weaknesses. _________________ "Life builds you up just to tear you down." - 3rd Strike
A good start,I look forward to reading more.
i'll finish this eventually.
got a few PMs asking me where teh f*** i've been and why I haven't finished this.
the answer is a combonation of: PRC, side-tracking, laziness, and school work.
~ Lock _________________ "Life builds you up just to tear you down." - 3rd Strike
The Cleric’s Spellbook by Jennalee
Clerics have the most formidable array of protection, buffing, healing and restoration spells of all the caster classes. They get many spells which are invaluable in helping their party-mates stay alive and slay their foes more effectively (Clerics get a lot of AB boosting spells). Clerics do not get many direct damage spells but do have some good offensive spells like Implosion and the awesome Harm. Careful choice of your domains (notably Air) can help with this aspect though it might be better to choose domains which empower your class’ strengths (buffing and healing – you may have most of the buffs but choosing the right domains can give you the few you don’t have).
If you want to know about the abilities and spells the Domains grant, the Cleric section on ShadeRaven’s NWN site has all this and some other very useful info.
Note that some of these spells (some of the better ones too) were added in the NWN expansion packs so if you only have the original client, they will not be available.
Contents: • Buffs • Healing and Restoration • Direct Damage • Indirect Damage/Disabling • Area of Effect • Insta-kill • Summoning • Misc/Special Circumstances
NOTE: in all the duration lengths the /lvl means per casterlevel (in this case, Cleric).
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Buffs: Cantrips: Resistance, Virtue
I: Bless, Divine Favor, Endure Elements, Entropic Shield, Magic Weapon, Protection from Alignment, Shield of Faith
III: Clarity, Darkfire, Magic Circle Against Alignment, Magic Vestment, Negative Energy Protection, Prayer, Protection from the Elements
IV: Death Ward, Divine Power, Freedom of Movement, Greater Magic Weapon V: Battletide, Monstrous Regeneration, Spell Resistance, True Seeing VII: Regenerate VIII: Aura versus Alignment IX: Undeath’s Eternal Foe
Possible extra buffing spells from Domains: Aura of Vitality (VII): War domain Barkskin (II): Plant domain Cat’s Grace (II): Animal, War domains Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (III): Knowledge domain Divine Power (III): Strength domain Energy Buffer (V): Earth, Fire, Protection domains Freedom of Movement (III): Travel domain Haste (V): Travel domain Improved Invisibility (V): Trickey domain Mage Armor (I): Magic domain Minor Globe of Invulnerability (IV): Protection domain Stoneskin (IV): Earth, Good, Magic domains Stoneskin (V): Strength domain True Seeing (III): Animal domain True Seeing (IV): Knowledge domain
NOTE: some spells which Clerics normally get are listed multiple times under different levels because certain domains give you these spells at lower or different levels.
A breakdown of buffs: Vital Buffs: Bull’s Strength: 1d4 +1 to STR, 1 hour /lvl. Hit harder, more accurately in melee and carry more.
Endurance: 1d4 +1 to CON, 1 hour /lvl. More HP, die less. Unfortunately if this spell runs out and you’re under your natural HPs, you may die. Same goes for the fairly useless Virtue’s +1 to HP.
Owl’s Wisdom: 1d4 +1 to WIS, 1 hour /lvl. This will add to your spell DC which is good if you’re casting offensively but it won’t grant you any permanent spell-slots.
Eagle’s Splendor: 1d4 +1 to CHA, 1 hour /lvl. This is good if you have invested in CHA and use the Cleric’s turning abilities and special feats which feed off the Turn Undead uses like Divine Shield and Divine Power - and Divine Wrath if you took CoT levels. (Incidentally, any party-mates which also use CHA will also benefit like bards and pallys but they usually also have this spell too). Your CHA bonus is also essential to how long the War domain special ability lasts if you took it.
Fox’s Cunning: 1d4 +1 to INT, 1 hour /lvl. This is not very important to you but your rogue/wizzy partymates will enjoy it. INT will add more points to a rogue’s skill modifier for Search and Disable Trap and add DC to a wizard’s spells though they also have this spell. It may also boost your modified Spellcraft skill up to another multiple of five, giving you another +1 to all saves vs. spells.
NOTE: if you’re playing on a multiplayer server, the strength of these buffing spells and their duration may have been modified.
You should take the Extend and Empower or Maximize Spell metamagic feats. Casting these fairly long-term buffs extended while you’re lower level will help them last a lot longer so they don’t run out when you really need them. At later levels, they should last a veeery long time so Empowering them will give you a good chance to get +7 to a stat (while Max always makes sure it’s 5 but costs a higher spell slot than Empower Spell) as extending them should not be necessary.
AC/Armor Buffs: Shield of Faith: +2 deflection AC with a bonus +1 per 6 casterlevels to a max of +5; 1 turn/lvl
Magic Vestment: empower the touched armor or shield with a +1 AC bonus [er 3 casterlevels to a max of +5; 1 hour/lvl
Stone Bones: grants the chosen undead creature +3 natural AC; 10 minutes/lvl. Use it on your summoned undead creatures to make them last longer.
Weapon Buffs: Darkfire: immolates a non-magical (melee?) weapon giving it 1d6 +1 per two casterlevels (to a max of +10) of fire damage; 1 hour/lvl
Magic Weapon: empowers the touched weapon with +1 enchantment (if it’s unenchanted); 1 hour/lvl
Greater Magic Weapon: empowers the touched weapon with +1 enchantment per 3 casterlevels to a max of +5 (if it’s not enchanted higher); 1 hour/lvl
You either directly target the weapon or the creature and it will enchant their main-hand weapon. These spells would be very powerful in low-magic worlds but they usually nerf them.
Battle Spells: Divine Power: grants the caster 1 HP per level and raises their STR to 18 if it’s not already there (but it will not rise any further if it’s above). Most importantly though, it gives you the same BAB as a warrior of your level AND gives you their extra attacks if you don’t already have them at full AB! 1 round/lvl. However, this AB bonus doesn’t stack with the AB bonuses from other spells (not sure, need verification).
IMO, probably the most overpowered Cleric spell of then all which gives Clerics every reason to just ditch STR and dump all their ability increases into WIS and go for a full caster route. Once you reach high level, cast the spell extended and now you can hit stuff even if you have no STR, and the spell will last a long time! You may even hit better than some warriors since any extra attacks you gain are at the highest AB! If you’re going to abuse this spell and go this route, you might want to take Zen Archery as one of your feats and multiclass to get martial weapon prof. and use a bow so you have good AB without the spell and even better with it.
Aid: +1 to AB, +1 to saves vs. fear, +1d8 max HP; 1 turn/lvl Bless: +1 to AB and damage, +1 to saves vs. fear; 1 turn/lvl Prayer: +1 to AB, damage, saves and skills for you and your allies in the area of effect, and -1 to all of the above to your enemies; Colossal AoE, 1 round/lvl, penalties can be resisted with SR.
Battletide: +2 to AB, damage and saves to you and your allies in the area of effect, and -2 from all the above from your enemies; Large AoE, 1 round/lvl, penalties can be resisted with SR.
Undeath’s Eternal Foe: gives you and your allies immunity to negative energy damage, level/energy drain, ability score decreases (stat decreases), poison and disease; 1 round/lvl. Very very nice – after all it is a 9th level spell.
Monstrous Regeneration: gives the target the ability to regenerate 3 HP per round for the duration of the spell; 1 round/2 casterlevels. Use for long, tough battles. (BTW the spell documentation is wrong – Druid also get this spell, not just Clerics)
Regeneration: gives the target the ability to regenerate 6 HP per round for the duration of the spell; 1 round/casterlevels. Use for long, tough battles – better than the former spell.
Divine Favor: grants the caster +1 to AB and damage per 3 caster levels to a max of +5 for 1 turn.
Resistance: gives the target +1 to saves, lasts for 2 turns.
Elemental Resistance: Protection from the Elements: 30/- against all elemental forms of damage, absorbing up to 40 pts of damage from any single element type before collapsing. 24 hours. The other elemental protection spells don’t last as long.
The Endure and Resist element spells are similar but don’t last by far as long so ditch them when you get to a higher level. Clerics do not naturally get Energy Buffer but several of the Domains offer it as an extra spell. Energy Buffer is more powerful than Protection from the Elements but is also of a shorter duration.
Use these spells to absorb elemental damage from traps etc, especially other casters. These might just save your life if you meet with a deadly elemental trap.
Protection from Alignment Spells: Protection from Alignment: grants the target +2 deflection AC, +2 to saves and immunity to mind-affecting spells and spell-like abilities from the chosen alignment (good or evil); 1 hour/lvl, no save. Magic Circle vs Alignment extends this to allies close to the caster but isn’t as useful.
Aura vs Alignment: grants the caster +4 deflection AC against the chosen alignment, immunity to mind-affecting spells from creatures of the chosen alignment and 25 SR against spells cast by creatures of the chosen alignment. A creature of that alignment which successfully strikes the caster takes 6 + 1d8 damage for each successful strike against the Cleric. 1 round/lvl, penalties can be resisted with SR and has a Will save.
Misc: Clarity: removes the effects of Sleep, Confusion, Stun and Charm and protects from such effects until the spell expires. For ever effect removed, it causes the target 1 pt of damage; 1 turn + 1 round/lvl. Use this on your front-line weak-willed meatshields if the need arises
Remove Fear: removes and protects your allies from fear. 1 creature/ 4 lvls is affected, lasts 10 turns. Useful if you’re trying to fight mummies or dragons (or anything else with fear aura).
Entropic Shield: creates a magical field around the caster which causes 20% of ranged attacks to miss; 1 turn/lvl
Freedom of Movement: grants Freedom – immunity to paralysis, slow and entanglement spells and effects; 1 turn/lvl
Death Ward: protects from death spells, spell-like abilities and effects; 1 hour/lvl Spell Resistance: grants the target 12 + 1 per casterlevel SR, 1 turn/lvl. Obviously, use if there’s lots of casters around.
Negative Energy Protection: makes the target immune to all negative energy attacks including supernatural ability damage and level drain; 1 turn/lvl. A must-have against certain undead creatures like Spectres and Vampires.
Ultravision: lets you see in the dark and pierces the effects of Darkness, 1 hour /lvl
True Seeing: the target can see through Sanctuary and Invisibility effects and can automatically see hiding creatures. Use against rogues and other sneaky types . 1 turn/lvl.
Extra Domain Buffs: The best of these would probably be Aura of Vitality (War) and Improved Invisibility (Trickery) though Stoneskin is also nice. Haste is also very nice when there’s few perma-haste items around. These are spells which the other caster classes get.
Aura of Vitality (VII): all allies within the area of effect (colossal) receive a +4 bonus to STR, DEX and CON. I round/lvl.
Barkskin (II): 3 to +5 to natural AC. Levels 1-6: +3, 7-12: +4, 13+: +5; 1 hour /lvl Cat’s Grace (II): +1 to DEX, 1 hour /lvl
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (III): grants the target +10 to Spot and Listen checks; 1 round/lvl
Energy Buffer (V): 40/- against all elemental forms of damage, absorbing up to 60 pts of damage from any single element type before collapsing; 1 turn/casterlevel
Haste (V): +4 deflection AC, 1 extra attack (main hand only) per round, 1 extra action per round, +50% movement speed; 1 round/lvl
Improved Invisibility (V): renders the target invisible. When they attack or cast a spell, they become 50% visible but still retain 50% self-concealment; 1 turn/lvl
Mage Armor (I): +1 to natural armor, dodge, deflection and enhancement AC. The dodge AC stacks but the other AC bonuses will not stack with those of the same type; 1 hour/lvl
Minor Globe of Invulnerability (IV): protects from spells level 3 and under; 1 round/lvl
Stoneskin (IV, V): grants the target 10/+5 DR, absorbing 10 pts of melee damage per casterlevel to a max of 100 before collapsing; 1 hour/lvl
Possible extra healing spells from Domains: Cure Serious Wounds (II): Healing domain Heal (V): Healing domain
Use these spells as the situation requires.
The Cleric gets Spontaneous Cast which means they can go without memorizing most of the healing spells yet still be able to cast them when the situation requires in place of a same level spell, saving the spell slots for the other, generally more important spells.
Spontaneous Cast works with all the Cure Wounds spells and all the Inflict Wounds spells only – you’ll have to memorize Heals, Harms, Mass Heals, Restorations and the Raise Dead and Resurrection spells.
This ability will only use spells from the Cleric’s spellbook so it will not work on spells memorized as a Druid (or one of the other Divine caster-classes), just the Cleric’s spells.
The healing domain will make you cast all the healing spells as if they were empowered.
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Direct Damage: Cantrips: Inflict Minor Wounds I: Inflict Light Wounds II: Inflict Moderate Wounds, Negative Energy Ray, Sound Burst III: Inflict Serious Wounds, Searing Light IV: Inflict Critical Wounds, Hammer of the Gods V: Circle of Doom, Flame Strike VI: Harm VIII: Earthquake, Fire Storm, Sunbeam
Possible extra direct damage spells from Domains: Call Lightning (III): Air domain Chain Lightning (VI): Air domain Ice Storm (V): Magic, Water domains Melf’s Acid Arrow (II): Magic domain Negative Energy Burst: (III): Evil, Magic domains Negative Energy Ray (I): Evil domain Searing Light (II): Sun domain Sunbeam (VII): Sun domain
Disabling/Indirect Damage: I: Bane, Doom, Scare II: Hold Person, Silence III: Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Contagion IV: Poison VI: Control Undead VII: Word of Faith IX: Energy Drain
Possible extra disabling/indirect damage spells from Domains: Enervation (V): Death and Evil domains – target temporarily loses 1d4 character levels; 1 hour/lvl, fort save and SR Entangle (I): Travel domain Poison (III): Water domain Slow (IV): Travel domain Web (II): Travel domain
Use these to disable and weaken your foes, especially Word of Faith which has no save. Being blinded is scary (I can’t seeee! Heelp!)
Cast Silence on yourself or your meatshield to shut up any casters when you or they come into range of them.
You can use Control Undead to dominate an undead creature if you’re a bit evil.
Area of Effect: II: Darkness III: Glyph of Warding V: Blade Barrier IX: Storm of Vengeance
Possible extra AoE spells from Domains: Acid Fog (VI): Destruction domain Creeping Doom (VII): Plant domain Entangle (I): Travel domain Slow (IV): Travel domain Stinking Cloud (III): Destruction domain Wall of Fire (IV): Fire domain Web (II): Travel domain
Darkness can be a great spell if you use it right – your rogues/assassins will love you. Cast Ultravision on you and whoever will be fighting the area of effect so they won’t be blinded and cast it in front of the charging enemy.
Glyph of Warding is the spell equivalent of a trap – not particularly useful.
Cast Blade Barrier and have your tanks stand just behind it so it’s between them and the enemy. If it works, the stupid enemy will stand in it and die much faster.
Storm of Vengeance is nice for softening up large groups of enemies, if it works where you are.
Insta-kill: V: Slay Living VI: Harm (pretty close – Heal for Undead), Undead to Death (undead only), Banishment (outsiders and summoned creatures) VII: Destruction IX: Implosion
Possible extra insta-kill spells from Domains: Phantasmal Killer (IV): Death domain - weak with SR, Fort and Will saves
When you first get these spells, they are usually very good but become less useful later on as your foe’s Fort save gets higher. Harm doesn’t have a save but is affected by SR. If you’re near pure Cleric though, your Implosion will have a fairly high DC and since this spell is cannot be protected from with immunity to death magic, you can go around popping things with a low Fort save. Implosion is Evocation so you might want to pick up the spell foci feats for Evocation and pump WIS if you want to use this to full effect
Summoning: I: Summon Creature I II: Summon Creature II III: Summon Creature III, Animate Dead IV: Summon Creature IV V: Summon Creature V VI: Summon Creature VI, Create Undead, Planar Ally VII: Summon Creature VII VIII: Summon Creature VIII, Create Greater Undead IX: Summon Creature IX, Gate
Possible extra summoning spells from Domains: Lesser Planar Binding (V): Good domain
Use summons to provide more distractions in battle to help you and your allies survive. The undead summons and the elementals have some nice immunities, notably crit immunity. You will need to have some form of protection from alignment spell casted to be able to use Gate without the summoned Balor targeting YOU for destruction.
The Animal domain turns the Summon Creature I spell into a Summon Creature II spell when it’s cast etc. until Summon Creature VIII but doesn’t affect the stats of the summoned creatures.
Dispels – have a few memorized in case you encounter casters for counterspelling (try NOT to get dispelled yourself is you’re not Cleric 25 or above!) or if you meet with nasty AoE spells.
The sanctuary spells will help you escape death in tight situations making monsters ignore you while you make a break for safer areas to rest and recover.
Dismissal and Banishment are useful against other casters who summon and/or have a familiar or animal companion (Druids) with them. The familiars/companions (especially the Panther with its massive-damage sneaks) can tear you to shreds if you’re not careful but they can only be summoned once per day so two of these are sufficient for dealing with one caster’s familiar/companion (familiars and companions are not unsummoned when you rest and remain summoned until they’re unsummoned or die) if your casterlevel is high enough. Word of Faith also has this effect but has no save.
Find Traps disables all traps in an area which is great if the area if heavily trapped (hint: get someone to make a wand of this for you).
Cast Silence on yourself or someone else and get them to run up to that dangerous caster to shut them up.
You can use Continual Flame to add light to items so they sell for more.
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Endnote: Although the Cleric’s buffs are very powerful, they are still spells and until the Cleric reaches high casterlevel (25 or so), they are vulnerable to dispels which can strip away all the magical defenses and extra attacking power the spells can grant.
Edited By Jennalee on 09/23/05 13:41
This was really tiring so I hope you like it. It didn't seem like Lockindal was going to post one, ever, so I put one together. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of the parts and bug the mods to fix it
Alltough its posted a long time ago: congrats on this nice breakdown of the cleric!
Zip it Rygar O.o
. 1 turn/lvl.
Alltough its posted a long time ago: congrats on this nice breakdown of the cleric!
Zip it Rygar O.o