Cloistered Cleric for The Shackled City

[Nachofan99]

Honestly, Crusader 1 helps a lot to keep you alive.  Delayed damage pool and healing strike/aura.  Very useful.  Could lead into Rubyknight later on.

You're right about the traps.  Each one can potentially kill a PC if the DM is playing them as written.

[ImmortalSoul]

That would mean changing the general concept rather drastically imho. And as you will have noticed, I'm hesitant about that. Right now, my character is explicitly _not_ a melee cleric, otherwise I'd have chosen very different stats, but a caster/buffer/healer with the option of beating stuff up as soon as persist really starts to help. Until then? Not so much.
A third melee-guy doesn't seem all that clever to me, anyway.

You're right about the traps.  Each one can potentially kill a PC if the DM is playing them as written.

So you say I should go Divine Oracle as early as possible? Maybe I should try to convice my DM of allowing one flaw for the skill focus (choosing something more drastic, like having only one arm or something   ).

[Nachofan99]

Divine Oracle is great if you can get into it very early and with that whole Skill Focus feat requirement for a minimum expenditure of resources.

If you have to actually burn a feat on it, the entire PrC is still super great and everything, but you're behind another Persisted Spell, more or less. 

I get not wanting to go into Crusader as thematically it doesn't fit, but mechanically it would help you not die.  All I can offer here is, hope bad stuff happens to someone else or that your DM fudges the module.

[PhaedrusXY]

Not started, but written a looong background story (which I rather enjoyed so I feel I should stick to it ). Okay, new question:
Yes, I could delay Extra Turning and get a Nightstick (should be possible, even though my DM is rather sceptical about them, but just one ought to be fine). Or I get both and enter Divine Oracle 3 levels later, which delays Evasion though.

As I expect the adventure to be full of deadly traps after what I read here, the first options looks better. Or is there any class to fill in this 3 levels that really shines as a dip for me?

There are ways to deal with traps other than being/having a rogue. I haven't read or played the adventure, but long duration summoned things can set off most traps. Hell, an Unseen Servant dragging around a "scarecrow" can both be "bait" to draw out hidden opponents, and also set off non-magical traps. For magical traps, there is always Detect Magic... Non-magical traps shouldn't be able to tell the difference between a 100 lb sack of sand and a 100 lb adventurer.

[ImmortalSoul]

Well, we have a rogue, so chances are the "normal" traps are going to get him first. I'm not the heaviest in our party nor the lightest, so that's all fine. If we stick to some sort of plan (like rogue going first, me not going last), we should be fine. After what I read here it's probably not going to be that easy, though, so I might need Evasion once in a while.
Even more so as my summons only last a round/level if I don't miss something entirely there.

Hell, an Unseen Servant dragging around a "scarecrow" can both be "bait" to draw out hidden opponents, and also set off non-magical traps.

I totally love this idea and will come back to it the second I find a way to do it. Looks like it's not a cleric spell, though - any simple way to still acquire it?

Btw, I still appreciate any additional ideas concerning the character!

[MorgenTao]

Not to sound too pessimistic, but... play in an extremely careful way. In Shackled City, almost every encounter is dangerous and can potentially be deadly Play like you are paranoid. That also fits well with Church Inquisitor, treachery is everywhere! 

Other than that.. get Winged Boots, or at least Slippers of Spider Climb, they're extremely useful to save yourself. And if you are relatively safe, the other party members will be a lot safer for sure.

[Hallack]

Hell, an Unseen Servant dragging around a "scarecrow" can both be "bait" to draw out hidden opponents, and also set off non-magical traps.

I totally love this idea and will come back to it the second I find a way to do it. Looks like it's not a cleric spell, though - any simple way to still acquire it?

Actually, Unseen Servant IS added to the Cloistered Cleric spell list.

[ImmortalSoul]

Heck, I absolutely missed that. You're correct of course. Thank you!

[ImmortalSoul]

Casting "Raise Thread"...

Okay guys. I had some more time to think about this character as, sadly, our adventure has not yet begun. In the meantime I considered two options I found interesting after reading the respective handbooks, mechanically as well as for roleplaying them.

The first is getting a familiar, possibly even a celestial or draconic one. That's two feats spent though, and I wonder whether this is worth it. Still, it would get me a way to deliver touch spells and possibly some nice skills, wouldn't it?

The second: As a flaw my GM sort of allowed me a combination of lightweighted and noncombatant (making me a rather small Aasimar without the actual benefits of being small, of course). This would possibly allow me to take a medium sized mount, though. How strong is the feat "Wild Cohort"? I mean, it sounds like a fun option, getting a riding dog companion that improves with me, but I don't quite see the advantage my character gets over simply buying a riding dog that's worth spending a feat on it. Or am I missing something obvious?

Any thoughts appreciated, again

[PhaedrusXY]

The DM is letting you have a familiar?

Wild Cohort is a lot better if you can take the caster PrC that goes along with it, and lets you share spells and stuff with your mount. It is techincally an arcane PrC, but I don't see why it couldn't be adapted directly to a divine one. It basically turns you into a quasi-druid, at least as far as your animal companion is concerned. I don't know where the Mounted Casting feat it refers to is at, though.

[ImmortalSoul]

Oh dammit. It's "arcane caster level". Nevermind, then.  

Okay, forget that I ever came up with that. Still, is there any possibility to acquire a useful mount for The Shackled City? I've heard there's a lot of dungeons. The Prestige Class looks promissing, thanks, but I'm not sure if I want to spend 5 levels on that. How good are the various versions of leadership (including dragon cohort and the like) for getting a mount? My cha score is rather high, but I don't know the feats by heart and don't have my books with me right now...

[PhaedrusXY]

I've never played the Shackled City, but of course Leadership is the most powerful feat in the entire friggin' game, so...

I hear wildshaped druids make excellent mounts.

[Mixster]

When you are going cloistered cleric, remember to grab a level of prestige paladin sooner or later. It gives you armour profiency and weapon profiency and more spells. That way you can survive a bit easier.

A cloistered cleric with divine magician can be a decent god. That will help the other PCs in making them feel cool, but it might frustrate your DM.

[PhaedrusXY]

When you are going cloistered cleric, remember to grab a level of prestige paladin sooner or later. It gives you armour profiency and weapon profiency and more spells. That way you can survive a bit easier.

A cloistered cleric with divine magician can be a decent god. That will help the other PCs in making them feel cool, but it might frustrate your DM.

If you're going to dip PrPal, you might as well go in for two levels and get a decent mount, since it seems you want one. Ask if you can take the Drakkensteed mount alternate class feature, also. It's like a free upgrade to a much better mount. Tack on the Holy Mount feat, and you should be good to go.

[fuinjutsu]

Hm, did someone mention Skill focus: Knowledge (Religion), and not mention it can be bought for 3000 gp from Fane of the Frog God?

BAD DOGGIE!

[ImmortalSoul]

Frog God's Fane is Complete Scoundrel, right?
On hearing it, it does not exactly sound like I'm gonna get it past my DM, but I'll try.

Concerning the idea of going Prestige Paladin:
I'm not sure about that. The concept I have now kinda puts emphasis on my character not being a strong melee combatant and I don't want to change that now, one reason being that the thing our group does not lack are, in fact, tanky melee characters. I'd rather be some sort of divine god, really.
Moreover, going two levels would be at the cost of one spell level. But it would give me divine grace... oh well.

Let me go into some detail on why I thought about getting a mount. One of the points is, obviously mobility. But then I could buy a horse, after all. Second point is: It's way better if it offers me the possibility to fly. Third point, to me most important right now: as it's the Shackled City, it has to be able to follow me into dungeons and still be useful there.
Fact is, it would improve my survivability greatly if I was able to escape my opponents easier that way. Even if it really only helps on the first levels it's good, because I get stronger and a lot less squishy the more turning attempts i can acquire.

[fuinjutsu]

Frog God's Fane is Complete Scoundrel, right?
On hearing it, it does not exactly sound like I'm gonna get it past my DM, but I'll try.

Concerning the idea of going Prestige Paladin:
I'm not sure about that. The concept I have now kinda puts emphasis on my character not being a strong melee combatant and I don't want to change that now, one reason being that the thing our group does not lack are, in fact, tanky melee characters. I'd rather be some sort of divine god, really.
Moreover, going two levels would be at the cost of one spell level. But it would give me divine grace... oh well.

Let me go into some detail on why I thought about getting a mount. One of the points is, obviously mobility. But then I could buy a horse, after all. Second point is: It's way better if it offers me the possibility to fly. Third point, to me most important right now: as it's the Shackled City, it has to be able to follow me into dungeons and still be useful there.
Fact is, it would improve my survivability greatly if I was able to escape my opponents easier that way. Even if it really only helps on the first levels it's good, because I get stronger and a lot less squishy the more turning attempts i can acquire.

Medium sized mount + mighty steed feat?

DotU has options for spider mounts that can cling to walls and stuff.

[Axator]

Hey I'm currently playing in a Shackled City/Age of Worms campaign and recently hit level 14. I'm playing a Dragonblood Sorcerer, Focused Specialist Conjurar, Ultimate Magus and have had a lot of success early on in the campaign with glitterdust and Grease. I'm playing with 3 others (all melee oriented) which means my cloud spells (best available Conjuration spells currently) are often getting in the way (they get miss-chances due to concealment), so I'm relegated to throwing around Orbs and various buff spells - not really optimal. If I could redo my character I'd probably play a Transmuter instead and focus on buffing first and BC next.

In our group we have a Dwarf Fighter Tank, Half-Elf Rogue/Fighter Precision Damage Dealer, a Pelor CoDzilla Radiant Servant and me God Wizard type. The cleric has been invaluable so far, but then we've met a truck-load of undead due to our campaign being a mix of AoW and TSC, TSC normally doesn't have a lot of undead. Also, don't think you can get by with out-of-combat healing (vigor and whatnot), you really need to be able to do in-combat healing. Even if you had a BC God Wizard there are just too many encounters early on (first few dungeons) for him to negate damage consistently, and later on Glitterdust and Grease will have too low DC to be reliable (researching Kelpstrand helps, though ). A melee combat BC-machine (Fighter/Crusader/whatever) would be waaay better early on because he wouldn't be operating with a limited amount of BC-spells. Also, get a trapfinder. You won't regret it. This has been my experience with the campaign so far.

If you're going to play a Cleric don't lock yourself into one role (healing), you really need a lot of bodies taking damage in TSC so being able to take (or negate) and inflict damage is essentiel. Being a Cloistered Cleric is going to hurt you early on (like.. a lot) because of low hit points, bad base attack and only having light armor proficiency, regular cleric would be better until you can get Divine Power and better armor proficiency. Look into DMM persist, Divine Power and maybe even taking Divine Ward to be able to heal from a distance.

[PhaedrusXY]

Being a Cloistered Cleric is going to hurt you early on (like.. a lot) because of low hit points, bad base attack and only having light armor proficiency, regular cleric would be better until you can get Divine Power and better armor proficiency.

It might... if he were wanting to tank. But he's explicitly not.

[Axator]

I know, but having played the campaign with 3 guys to tank for me and having Abrupt Jaunt, I still got beat on. Him standing behind 2 tanks won't help him a lot.