I was asked to “help”, so this is my contribution.
As many know, I adore the cleric class. I have played just about every class (cept HS), In all my time, I found the cleric to be the most versatile and, for me enjoyable. It is my hope that with this small bit of info, you will gain as I have. And for the record, clerics are strong. If you are only a mod player, most of this will be overkill. I only really played on pw’s that are considered hard, or party servers. The main server I really learned on, was one where builds like the Exalted Sorc, Undead lord, Puff the dragon, or Blade juggernaut were developed. I know, today, there are more elegant ways of achieving the results, but these were the first of their kind, and the server was where they were tested (I briefly (bout 30mins) chatted with cd in a game one time, which was really cool to get his perspective, as short lived as it was).
Now, I wish I could take credit for this, but alas, I cannot. I was taught ingame by a gent, one Stryder Blade. On a server where the final boss requires a forum post for a party time, he did it alone, for the fun of it. So, Stryder, wherever you are, THANKS! I am sure there is a lot to your strategy for the cleric, this by no means is exhaustive. It is just some really good info that makes the cleric the chosen one I have been touting all along!
Concept 1: HERDING
This is a name I came up with to describe what it is that I do. It is a pretty scary idea, especially if you don’t have faith in your cleric, but I assure you, there is a reason.
The cleric has a unique role in nwn. A cleric ISNT a caster. He is a meleer with spell support. There will be many who argue this, that is ok. Clerics do not have the variety of offensive magic that a wiz has, thus, they REQUIRE getting their hands dirty every once and a while. With this in mind, we DO have some offensive magic spells to use, but to use them most efficiently, we need a lot of targets in a relatively small space (I guess wiz/sorcs herd too).
To herd, when you enter an area, you want to spawn the entire area of monsters. The tricky part is to get them all to follow you and not get killed! I DON’T recommend doing this the FIRST time you enter an area. You need to know the layout, and you need to know the monsters before you can herd properly. I say that and laugh, as I am sure dekes, Stryder or Abuck can tell you I rarely listened to my own advice and wound up on the receiving end of a res spell. Thanks guys/gal.
What you are trying to do is get 10-20 or the entire spawn area to come to one location where you will stand in the middle of the bunch and, well, be a cleric. Like I said, this isn’t an easy thing to do. It is a scary process to see 15 umber hulks coming at you, but this is where your faith in the AC and ability of your cleric come in. Practice and you will get the hang of it.
Concept 2: Spell Book Management
This is an area which is missed by a lot of players. I didn’t understand it for the longest time. Basically, with a cleric, you don’t look at the metamagic feats for what they do, but more, what they offer. Yes, extend is a very nice feat, and EVERY cleric should have it, but what does it do vs what does it offer. Extend doubles the duration of your spell (cept for div fav  ) In this case, they are the same. In my very humble opinion, if you are a cleric without extend, EVEN if you are lv 40 pure, you are short changing yourself.
The next important one is Empower. It increases the output of a spell. WHAT it offers is to cast a spell 2 slots higher. Again, if you have the room, it is more desirable than Max spell because you cant maximize the boss killer (I wont give that away yet).
Max spell is good, but if I were to take a 3rd meta feat, it would be either silent or still. WHAT! Why on earth would a cleric look at still? It is for what it offers! While extend offers one slot higher, it is limited to what spells are offered. Still or silent offer ALL the cleric spells one slot higher. I tend to lean toward silent, but if I am a bard/.clerc/rdd or pm, I would go still if charisma was 11 or so. Either is a good 3rd choice. I have done, what I would term a caster cleric (I know what I said), but my intent was to use spells more than melee, I would take max. That was for the necro spell to slaughter undead en-mass.
The idea is to leave yourself options for spells. For example, if I was going to a major undead server, I would take max. That gives me 4 slots of undead to death (normal, silent, empower, max). That is options! Silent gives you 2 slots of heal/harm (normal/ silent). See where I am going?
Edited By Grimnir77 on 01/29/09 20:06
Posted 01/16/09 22:49 (GMT) -- avado
Concept 3: Harm
And for undeads. Heal. This is really a rookie spell. Yes, it is a great way to take out certain things, but, despite what people think, it IS resistable. Many a time, I have cast this spell and had it resisted, even with my cleric/hierophant (prc with +10 to all DC). So, if in the extreme case it can be resisted, it isn’t a good spell to rely on.
We use harm for those areas where the experience is good, but the monsters are long and tedious to take out. You know the 1000 hp + monsters where you have 10 of them ontop of you? I have nightmares of umber hulks all around us on a hill side and missing a harm here and there.. Harm should be used to speed xp, not to rely on for anything else. LOL yes, harm is the lazy man’s leveling tool, and I am a lazy man at times (ask my wife )
Concept 4: IMPLOSION
K, YES, implosion gets +3 to spell DC, innate. Big deal. I originally did my Beest build (the ultimate cleric listed in prc section), and he had a 46 dc with implode. 46 for those who are wondering, with 20 base wisdom is CRAZY! It is higher than you can get in vanilla nwn. I didn’t use the spell but one time to try out. I found my strategies below to be much more effective, though, if you like the spell, use it. Remember its an Evocation spell so spell foci in that.
Concept 5: Cleric’s role
A cleric should be right up front. You are in Full plate (at least you should be) with a tower shield. You have +10 minimum ab boost, ac boosts. Why on earth would you be behind “healing”? When I speak of this, realize I very rarely have higher than 10 in constitution. Clerics can boost con, so why waste the points.
I have played both wisdom clerics and strength clerics, and while I can appreciate a charisma cleric, I have never played one. In my view, going higher than 20 wisdom base is a waste. Yes, having a higher DC is nice, but remember, you are not really a caster. I prefer strength clerics. There is something oh so sexy about a cleric that has level 9 spells AND devastating critical. That is my opinion, but a high strength is best. Why? You are a cleric with ¾ ab. This means we need all the ab we can get (the +10 min goes ONTOP of the ab!).
So you are out in front, first to the scene. Remember to buff first! LOL
Those are really the 4 things that I ingrain in my playing with clerics. If I cut anything short, let me know and I will elaborate the best I can. So, the above is the mindset, how do you play a cleric?
BUFFING
You have to get your own feel for what a cleric can do for you. I have found that I only really use Divine Favor in the level 1 spells. Sometimes, entropic shield, or shield of faith (it ONLY has +5 deflection, so a ring of prot +6 negates it). The lv 2 buffs I usually extend (lv 3). So my spellbook has lv 1 and 2 slots as divine favor (up to as many as 18 at a time – yes its that good).
I have never fallen in love with Bless, aid or prayer. I have used prayer abit cuz its lv 3 iirc (yes I am doing this all from memory). Battletide is another that is decent, especially extended. And of course, darkfire, greater magic weapon, and magic vestment *2 (armor and shield).
Divine Power… the BEST spell in the game. I understand it has been tweaked downward. No matter. It gives you an AB boost which is essential. Stryder, when I pointed this out to him, he actually designed a cleric with 12 bab (cleric rdd) that had +7 to ab when he cast DP! LOL It is THAT good. Today, I tend to lean toward 4 apr, 16 bab cleric where it will add +4 ab. It is up to you.
It is important to look at durations. Extend DP is great cuz it allows you to fight more than one battle before it wears out, where DF has 1 turn regardless, hence the excessive number I carry. The real fun is to try to get the number of DP to match the DF. I always seem to have more DP cuz they last longer. If you are bored, this may be a way to adjust your spell book. DF is cast usually every battle, and I always am watching my buffs cuz sometimes you may need a recast in the middle of a combat!
Edited By Grimnir77 on 01/29/09 20:05
Posted 01/16/09 22:51 (GMT) -- avado
So what are my tactics? Thanks to onion eater, here is a quote from him regarding the strategies.
Quote: Sent 01/16/09 09:21 (GMT) by onion eater
Oh yeah. Totally thrilled ... I've taken out some bosses way outside my level range w/ the spell, but always through gross repetition. Can't wait to put down four or five at a time. Heck, why not get some scrolls involved too? IIRC, they're pretty cheap, and not a totally worthless caster level … soon enough I'll have another cleric ready to take advantage of the tactic. Cool stuff.
I cut out some of the stuff that were irrelevant to the topic (and some spoiler stuff!). thanks buddy.
These are best taught in game, like how Stryder taught me, but I don’t play anymore, so.. i sincerely hope you can glean the jist of what i am saying here...
Mass Kill Strategy
This is the one where you Herd. For this, you need to use Storm of Vengence (SOV) and for non-undeadies, Firestorm. I typically had 6-7 SOV and same firestorms memd before entering an area. The first step is to herd all the baddies to an area where they can see you and continue to move towards you. It takes practice, but it is well worth it. I mastered this strategy in a Golem area on the mountain, and had as many as 20 golems coming at me at one time (they are immune to crits, which is why I took this area to master). In normal gameplay, all crit immune, this area would take some time to clear out, up to 20 mins with a party. In herding, I had them all in one area.
Make a stand (I envision Gandalf in fellowship, “This far and no farther!”) and WAIT. Wait for them to come to you and start swinging. You need to have some AC to make this work, but at any level, a cleric should have no AC problems. Once they are surrounding you, I cast an SOV. Once that is away, I would cast all the rest of my SOV, SOV is a wonderful spell. It does alittle damage, and stuns, but it does alittle damage. Having 6 SOV’s means the monsters in the area have to roll 6 times per damage type to not be stunned. This goes on for 10 rounds. As soon as SOV is done, some near you will be stunned, allowing you to cast Firestorm in rapid succession. All 6! You can hold back firestorms but you should only start this process when they are almost upon you. NEVER WASTE (another cleric motto). After this, you may have a few left, but the entire area is done in under 5 mins.
For undeads, it is alittle different. On the mountain, there is an area called Epic Undead. Most people HATE that area. I kept my port to here for about a month, I loved it so much. I actually went here at lv 28 where most parties go here at lv 33 or more AND STRUGGLE. The strategy is similar. Because Mass Heal doesn’t have the area of effect that Firestorm has, you don’t want to go and collect the entire area. That would be suicide. I typically herded about 10 epic undeads (for those from the mountain they didn’t believe me until they saw it). Now, lay down an SOV. Then maybe 3 more (not as many) you don’t need as much as mass heal is different.. As they surround you, cast a mass heal. Then ATTACK the wounded ones asap. The undeadies I fought had a “heal” so I didnt want to waste 3 mass heals and they simply heal. They will typically have 4 hp, so there shouldn’t be much work to do. Then recast mass and repeat with your mace. It is slower, but they are undeads! I guess you could use firestorm, but mass heal vs undeads is WAY better, imo.
In summary, the whole idea is to get them closing in on you. I always had the feeling that I wasn’t gonna survive! And then I did. I always found that, unless your party knew exactly what you were doing, this strategy works best solo. Now, if something happens and you die… you are stuck! LOL Experiment and have fun. This strategy works well. Like a mentor of mine says, it isn’t the method but the man if the strategy doesn’t work for you
Edited By Grimnir77 on 01/29/09 20:04
Posted 01/16/09 22:54 (GMT) -- avado
THE BOSS KILLER!
Yes, I am here. The boss killer. I thanked Stryder everyday for showing me this one! It is that good. On the mountain, there was this little boss, frost goblin king, who was for the lv 29 quest. If you weren’t a sorc/wiz, you usually waited until 34 or so to do the quest, and then, ONLY with at least one other, and hopefully more. I am not certain what exactly it was about him, all I know is that you couldn’t hit him (even figher.wms had a struggle) and he had heals so it was a LONNNG battle. This is the guy I was taught this strategy on (the one onion brags about above!).
The spell is……….. Blade Barrier! Ta da!
WHAT?? I can see your frustration! This is the big spell avado talks so much about, BB! Are you serious? I know cuz I said the same exact thing, and YES, I am totally serious. BB is the number one boss killer spell in nwn and there is really nothing that can be done to stop it.
But BB does only a pitiful amount of damage? Yes it does. So? What has been my strategy up until now? Mass damage, right? Well, cast a bunch of BB’s at one time! Sure. You can do that. What happens? People do this and they lay a blade here, one here, one there and so on. The target then steps on the blades and does a save. IF he makes it, no damage. Hmm.. not too good. Or is it? What happens if every time the target crosses the blade he does, not 1 but 12 saves? What are the odds NOW that he will save? A LOT less, right? Right and here is where the power lies. It isn’t in the spell itself, but the way you cast the spell. Our mindset is to make the bastards roll as many times per step as you can (no this is NOT a pvp strategy! Lmao. I did it one time for fun and drakkon just laughed!).
Here is the secret: hold the cursor over an area and cast BB. THEN DON’T MOVE THE cursor and cast another bb or another 12! I usually have bb, ext or silent BB and Empowered BB for boss fights, up to 18 or so. You don’t really need more than 8 BB, but you can do more. When you have cast the BB’s, you should see only ONE line of blades. They will look fuller than one line, but it is only ONE line.
Now, get the boss’ attention and have him follow you through the blades. EVERY step he does in the blades he is rollin 8 times! Or however many you put down. This will not kill him (if it does in one pass, shame on you!). The next part is really technical. Keep him running in or through the BB as much as possible (every step he is rolling vs damage). He will die! Like onion says above, he is taking out bosses above his level! There is no AC worry, no AB worries.
There is one danger, spell resistance. I have seen a boss resist BB for a bit, iirc. I know Kail or Finn will correct this for me, as in this I am going entirely by memory. But I do recall seeing a boss resist the BB for a time. If I am wrong that is cool. It is just something to be aware of.
Prefered running patterns.. LOL I like doing S shapes through the blades. It is especially nice to run the lengths of the blades. Side to side is good too. Remember, the whole idea is to make him roll for damage. _____________
So, there it is. .avado’s guide to clerics. I am sure that there are things you can argue against. SO what. I actually LIVED this in game for several years vs some of the hardest areas, solo, and lived. I was taught by the best, and now I pass it on. I really didn’t want to do it! I had shared this with a few in game and none could understand what was doing. I hope this helps clear up their thoughts, as well as brings you some understanding of this versatile class.
Edited By Grimnir77 on 01/29/09 20:03
Nice post, Avado. However, if I were the Mod here, which I note I'm not, I would not put all that text in quotes (Grim). Text is hard enough to read as is, let alone reducing its size by 1/2 when quoting it. There's a lot of information there, and I have to Clint Eastwood-eyes to read it.
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
True, it'd be nicer in full size. You know avado surely wants you to be a moderator grizz, but we have to bear with what we've got.
I never got an answer to my previous question when you posted it on the general forum. How do you get a caster boss to fall for Blade Barrier? since casters don't require to move around following you to hit, but casting BB on top of him wouldn't work too well because you want the huge stacked line ready by the time you see him, or else that's a lot of rounds of you recieving damage. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
You should play a Cleric with Plant Domain and Travel Domain (or team up with another Cleric, Druid or Wizard) and stack up Slow + Creeping Doom, it's a fabulous combination for Capture the Flag. I once played CtF against a team that knew how to handle a combination of Slow + Web + Creeping Doom and we got completely owned.
Thax put this up in another area and i love it! I used creeping doom alot on a server. It is a great AoE spell, especially for clerics I had forgotten this tactic. Thanks buddy.
What about those pesky casters? I was remembering this the other night. We once had this wonderful Dragon boss that we were hunting for a specific drop that he did (the server had a cool random but defined set of items that dropped from each Boss - it was very interesting). THe dragon had a tendency to CAST that nasty Heal (full HP restore) when his life was way down. Being a dragon, iirc, casting a Silence spell on him would be wasted do to SR.
There was a trick we used to do by BUFFING ourselves then cast silence on US. THere's that wonderful aura around you that you make sure to keep the beasty in. Unfortunately, this was YEARS ago in my Amon days (back when truthslayer was still playing), and i havent found the need to use it since (it turned the dragon battle from 30 mins with 3 lv 40s to 10 mins) soi cant be 100% on it still working today. I know it did work then. The one thing to remember though, you are now SILENCED! It makes takin silenc spell useful! Though the actual need of this tactic would be reserved for the really HARD bosses (like a REAL dragon on a server where the owners respect the power of dragons and you arent killin them solo at lv 13, like in the OC!).
enjoy killin
av _________________
Quote: -- Posted by Kail Pendragon
Being hyperbolic is an integral part of Avado's being
I never use Creeping Doom, all my slots are Stoneholds, it's much more effective IMO. Silence on yourself? never thought that would be of some use, cool. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
I never use Creeping Doom, all my slots are Stoneholds, it's much more effective IMO. Silence on yourself? never thought that would be of some use, cool.
This is a CLERIC post! Cleric tactics! The stoner spell is druid only, iirc. lets not turn this into the last bit o nonsense! I agree that CD isnt that great. It is useable IF you take plant and it can be helpful. Would i use it exclusively? NO. Its more of a novelty cleirc spell (being a domain spell). In truth, like i said above, i only ever used it on one server where they flogged it like crazy.
Silence is an area of effect spell. You cast it on YOURSELF. When in melee (cleric) the aura is now around the target. Again, just one of those extra tidbits i used a long time ago to handle certain situations. If you are pvp with a wiz, i am sorta sure IF you get him, it would be only one time! LOL
Nice post, Avado. However, if I were the Mod here, which I note I'm not, I would not put all that text in quotes (Grim). Text is hard enough to read as is, let alone reducing its size by 1/2 when quoting it. There's a lot of information there, and I have to Clint Eastwood-eyes to read it.
Just a suggestion.
And a good one. It felt right to put it in quotes so people would see that it wasn't me who wrote that.
It looks way better now though, so I'll just have to trust that people reads headlines.
Thanks drunken Bearded (beerded?) one.
Quote: by avado
This is a CLERIC post! Cleric tactics! The stoner spell is druid only, iirc. lets not turn this into the last bit o nonsense! I agree that CD isnt that great. It is useable IF you take plant and it can be helpful.
Right, sorry, my bad. I got out of context when you quoted something I said somewhere else.
Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 01/30/09 00:41
lol! I thought it was gonna cause funny things. I wanted to give you credit for triggerin a memory long forgotten... Thanks
) 
and here is where the power lies. It isn’t in the spell itself, but the way you cast the spell. Our mindset is to make the bastards roll as many times per step as you can (no this is NOT a pvp strategy! Lmao. I did it one time for fun and drakkon just laughed!).