A couple Hierophant clarifications

[sir_blacksoutalot]

Hi all. I have a couple very basic questions regarding the Hierophant custom PRC. First, how does Hierophant differ from the standard Cleric class? I know the Hierophant picks up "special abilities," but what is the drawback for taking this PRC? It seems like there should be some tradeoff for not going pure Cleric, but I'm not understanding how that works.

And second, does anyone know of any issues with the special ability Blast Infidel? I've played around with it in the JEGS module but can't tell if it's applying the extra damage. Anyone know if this feat has been tested out?

Class Features:
- Hit Die: d8
- Base Attack Bonus: Medium
- High Saves: Fortitude, Will
- Weapon Proficiencies: A hierophant gains no weapon proficiencies.
- Armor Proficiencies: a hierophant gains no armor proficiencies.
- Skill Points: 2 + Int Modifier.
- Class Skills: Concentration, Craft Armor, Craft Weapon, Craft Alchemy, Heal, Spellcraft, Lore: Arcana, Lore: History, Lore: Local, Lore: Religion
- Spells per Day/Spells Known: At every level except the Hierophant gains more spells per day. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a hierophant, he must decide which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day

- Class Feats:
1:
2: Special Ability
3:
4: Special Ability
5:
6: Special Ability
7:
8: Special Ability
9:
10: Special Ability

No bonus feats.

Abilities
Blast Infidel
Type of Feat: Class Ability
Prerequisites: Hierophant 1
Specifics: The Hierophant now deals double the damage for any negative energy spells that he casts (inflict wounds series, death knell, harm, slay living and negative energy ray). This does not apply to Vampiric Feast or Spell-like abilities.
Use: Automatic

[Steve]

Hierophant is all positives and to not take it would be...not smart.

[RamenKing]

Hierophant is all positives and to not take it would be...not smart.

Extremely easy to obtain as well.

[Valefort]

The only negative is not getting bonus feats from pure cleric in epic levels.

[Tsidkenu]

And to answer the second question, the last time I tested Blast Infidel it was not working consistently with all cleric/harming spells. It was working with Negative Energy Ray, Death Knell, Slay Living and Harm. It was not working with any of the Mass Cause Wounds or some of the lesser, single target Cause Wounds.

The PnP drawback not implemented with BGTSCC's hierophant is the paused spellcasting. Hierophants improve in Caster Level & Turn Undead, but -not- spells per day.

A Cleric 13/ Hierophant 10 in PnP would only have up to 7th tier divine spells, for example, but cast them as a 23rd level cleric.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

The only negative is not getting bonus feats from pure cleric in epic levels.

So hierophant levels don't count toward epic spell levels? Meaning I'd have to do something like a Cleric-26/Hierophant-4 (just an example) if I wanted to try and grab an epic spell feat or two.

[Ariella]

Epic spells are based on spellcraft and highest level of spells you can cast, Nothing to do with Hierophant at all. However if you have more then 20 levels in a base class, You get bonus feats in your epic levels on-top of the standard 5.

[chad878262]

The only negative is not getting bonus feats from pure cleric in epic levels.

So hierophant levels don't count toward epic spell levels? Meaning I'd have to do something like a Cleric-26/Hierophant-4 (just an example) if I wanted to try and grab an epic spell feat or two.

Specifically, If you take all levels in Cleric you gain a bonus feat at levels 23, 26 and 29. So taking Hierophant (or any other class) for 4 levels loses 1 epic bonus feat, 5-7 levels in another class loses the second bonus feat and 8 or more loses all three. This is similar for other classes as well when multi-classing.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

Thanks everyone, that's all great feedback. I just have a couple more follow-up questions:

1) Would a Cleric/Hierophant mix benefit from taking the Practiced Spellcaster Feat? Since both gain caster levels I would imagine PSC would not be helpful...or would it?

2) There appears to be an error in the Hierophant description, as follows: At every level except ___ the Hierophant gains more spells per day. Can someone please help fill in the blank?

- Spells per Day/Spells Known: At every level except the Hierophant gains more spells per day. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a hierophant, he must decide which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day

[chad878262]

Thanks everyone, that's all great feedback. I just have a couple more follow-up questions:

1) Would a Cleric/Hierophant mix benefit from taking the Practiced Spellcaster Feat? Since both gain caster levels I would imagine PSC would not be helpful...or would it?

2) There appears to be an error in the Hierophant description, as follows: At every level except ___ the Hierophant gains more spells per day. Can someone please help fill in the blank?

- Spells per Day/Spells Known: At every level except the Hierophant gains more spells per day. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a hierophant, he must decide which class he adds the new level for purposes of determining spells per day

1. No benefit... In stock NWN2 there was a bug where PSC added a flat +4 CL so it was always taken. BG used to have a rule that you could only take it if you lost at least one CL, leading to many casters taking classes that didn't gain progression on all levels so they could, ideally lose 1 CL, take PSC and end up at CL33 then use other PRC's to reach CL 35 or 38. However, PSC was fixed back in the March update so now it only benefits you for lost caster levels. Since Hierophant gains full caster progression the feat would be of no benefit to you at all.

2. I tested this and found no levels where Hierophant does not gain progression if I recall correctly. I believe this was a holdover that was removed, but that the description wasn't updated.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

I was just brushing up on how DC checks work for spells and came across this on NWN2Wiki (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Difficulty_class):

Epic Bonus: All spellcasters receive a +1 bonus to their DC's for every 3 caster levels over 20 (i.e. +1 at level 23, +2 at level 26, etc.). The source of these caster levels does not matter. Caster levels obtained from a Prestige Class or from Practiced Spellcaster both contribute to the total caster level used for the Epic Bonus.

This leaves me scratching my head. Let's take a pure Cleric as an example. At level 29, and assuming the above is correct, that cleric would receive a +3 to DC's due to pure Cleric in epic levels.

Let's compare to a Cleric-20/Hierophant-9, just for example. If that character takes the Hierophant "Spellpower" feat three times, it would boost CL and DCs by +3. This is basically the same as the pure Cleric example above, except this PRC Hierophant would miss out on epic spells as well as better turning ability.

I feel like I must be missing something here. Can someone please help set me straight on how this all works?

[Steve]

The Cleric/Hierphant with 3 Spellpowrs would have 32 CL, which is +1 DC to a straight Cleric. It would not get the bonus Epic feats, but Hierophant 10 would give you 2 feats left from the PrC specific fears list, which depending on the flavor of the Character, can be very helpful.

At least those Hierophant fears that are working!

[ARHicks00]

Does Healing Domain stack with the PrCs empowered healing feat?

[Nomster]

Does Healing Domain stack with the PrCs empowered healing feat?

Kleomenes tried this and it did not, unless it was changed in recent times. Those Ilmateri, always looking for maximum healing...

[ARHicks00]

Does Healing Domain stack with the PrCs empowered healing feat?

Kleomenes tried this and it did not, unless it was changed in recent times. Those Ilmateri, always looking for maximum healing...

So my guess is that feat is the same empowered healing?