High DC Casting Cleric

[calvinus]

Hey all! Any recommended builds for a high DC casting cleric? More used to a melee cleric or a turning heavy cleric, so this is new ground for me! I have an RP template that should fit well with this once I have a build! Thanks for your help!

[ZestyDragon]

Evil or good? Do you have a faith in mind?.

[calvinus]

Evil or good? Do you have a faith in mind?.

Faith must be Waukeen. Alignment must be neutral evil, neutral, or lawful neutral or the RP won’t fit.

[ZestyDragon]

Evocation spell focus to epic, Thaumaturge is not needed but will make life easier, Hierophant for +2 CL and smite infidel. Max wisdom and pick what ever domains you like, make it a Human or Aasimar. Good or evil won't matter with the deity choice.

[Deathgrowl]

Cleric12/hierophant8/hospitaler10 with full plate. Use all epic feats for wisdom and make sure to get hospitaler 5 and beyond in epic levels.

Or my own personal preference monk4/cleric26. Again, all wisdom. http://nwn2db.com/build/?269039
Means you don't have to wear armour. Also you can flurry with a staff! Wooo!

[chad878262]

go max wisdom, Epic Spell Focus Evocation

Cleric 12/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 8 with spell power II or III and Advanced Divine Spell Power (as Deathgrowl suggested).

WIS 20 + 7 (level ups) + 7 (feats, 5 normal, 2 bonus from Hospitaler) = 34, 38 with owl's WIS

Implosion DC 10 + 14 (WIS) + 1 (Prodigy) + 4 (CL32) =29 + 3 (ESF Evocation) = 32 for evocation + 9 (spell level) = DC 41.

Using Hierophant Advanced Divine Spell Power could end up with DC 42 or 43 sometimes, depending on Turn Undead roll.

[ZestyDragon]

Waukeen has an order of merchant monks. So that monk build could add a bit of flavour.

[Tsidkenu]

Advanced Divine Spell Power is only of use to CHA based clerics. If you've only got 14-16 base CHA and arent going to improve it I would not opt for ADSP. DSP is all you need; spend your extra hiero feat on Master of Energy. Permanent +4 to your turning check is better in this case. I'd also recommend spell power III as it means a roll of 4 or higher on your DSP check will get you a CL of 35 as a minimum.

[Tsidkenu]

If you want the math as to why it's below.

Hidden: show

ADSP Turning check (assuming 14 base CHA + Eagle's)

1d20 +3 (innate DSP Bonus) +4 (CHA) = 8-27.

10% chance of -1 CL (Total roll 8-9)
15% chance of +0 CL (Total roll 10-12)
15% chance of +1 CL (Total roll 13-15)
15% chance of +2 CL (Total roll 16-18)
15% chance of +3 CL (Total roll 19-21)
15% chance of +4 CL (Total roll 22-24)
15% chance of +5 CL (Total roll 25-27)

=60% chance of CL 35 with Hiero Spellpower III and 15% chance of CL 38.

With 16 base CHA + Eagle's (thus 1d20 +3 +5 = 9-28) you get a max CL of +6

5% chance of -1 CL (Total roll 9)
15% chance of +0 CL (Total roll 10-12)
15% chance of +1 CL (Total roll 13-15)
15% chance of +2 CL (Total roll 16-18)
15% chance of +3 CL (Total roll 19-21)
15% chance of +4 CL (Total roll 22-24)
15% chance of +5 CL (Total roll 25-27)
5% chance of +6 CL (Total roll 28)

65% chance of CL 35+ and 20% chance of CL 38.

DSP Turning Check with Master of Energy (assuming 14 base CHA + Eagle's)

1d20 +3 (Innate DSP bonus) +4 (CHA) +4 (MoE)

5% chance of +0 CL (Total roll 12)
15% chance of +1 CL (Total roll 13-15)
15% chance of +2 CL (Total roll 16-18)
15% chance of +3 CL (Total roll 19-21)
50% chance of +4 CL (Total roll 22-31*)

*DSP cannot exceed a total bonus of +4 CL.
The above allocation in addition to Hierophant Spell Power III will give you a reasonable 80% chance of getting a min CL of 35 for an epic DC point but 0% chance of reaching CL 38 (no ADSP).

If you have ADSP + MoE it is as follows:

5% chance of +0 CL (Total roll 12)
15% chance of +1 CL (Total roll 13-15)
15% chance of +2 CL (Total roll 16-18)
15% chance of +3 CL (Total roll 19-21)
15% chance of +4 CL (Total roll 22-24)
15% chance of +5 CL (Total roll 25-27)
15% chance of +6 CL (Total roll 28-30)
5% chance of +7 CL (Total roll 31)

Meaning you have a 35% chance of reaching the sweet spot of CL 38 for another DC point (in combination with Spell Power III) and an 80% chance of consistently reaching at least CL 35

Of course a full CHA aasimar cleric with MoE takes full advantage of ADSP.

1d20 +3 (Innate DSP Bonus) +14 (CHA) +4 (MoE) = 22-41

15% chance of +4 CL (Total roll 22-24)
15% chance of +5 CL (Total roll 25-27)
15% chance of +6 CL (Total roll 28-30)
15% chance of +7 CL (Total roll 31-33)
15% chance of +8 CL (Total roll 34-36)
15% chance of +9 CL (Total roll 37-39)
10% chance of +10 CL (Total roll 40-41)

A CHA cleric will have poor DCs despite the caster level increase because of its consequentially low Wisdom scores, so it's use is primarily to extend buff duration and spell resistance granted by the 5th level spell for a juicy 55 SR with hierophant Spell Power III.

[calvinus]

Advanced Divine Spell Power is only of use to CHA based clerics. If you've only got 14-16 base CHA and arent going to improve it I would not opt for ADSP. DSP is all you need; spend your extra hiero feat on Master of Energy. Permanent +4 to your turning check is better in this case. I'd also recommend spell power III as it means a roll of 4 or higher on your DSP check will get you a CL of 35 as a minimum.

Waukeen has an order of merchant monks. So that monk build could add a bit of flavour.

go max wisdom, Epic Spell Focus Evocation

Cleric 12/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 8 with spell power II or III and Advanced Divine Spell Power (as Deathgrowl suggested).

WIS 20 + 7 (level ups) + 7 (feats, 5 normal, 2 bonus from Hospitaler) = 34, 38 with owl's WIS

Implosion DC 10 + 14 (WIS) + 1 (Prodigy) + 4 (CL32) =29 + 3 (ESF Evocation) = 32 for evocation + 9 (spell level) = DC 41.

Using Hierophant Advanced Divine Spell Power could end up with DC 42 or 43 sometimes, depending on Turn Undead roll.

Cleric12/hierophant8/hospitaler10 with full plate. Use all epic feats for wisdom and make sure to get hospitaler 5 and beyond in epic levels.

Or my own personal preference monk4/cleric26. Again, all wisdom. http://nwn2db.com/build/?269039
Means you don't have to wear armour. Also you can flurry with a staff! Wooo!

Evocation spell focus to epic, Thaumaturge is not needed but will make life easier, Hierophant for +2 CL and smite infidel. Max wisdom and pick what ever domains you like, make it a Human or Aasimar. Good or evil won't matter with the deity choice.

Everyone! Thank you all for the feedback! DG, as much fun as the monk build would be and as badly as I want to play that build some day, it would not fit the RP concept here that great, unfortunately, so going to be going more the Cleric 12/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 8 route here.

Given that all, is there a build sample on NWN2DB of a Cleric 12/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 8 ish build to play around with? Also, is this sort of build likely mostly up to date in JEGS or no?

[Deathgrowl]

http://nwn2db.com/build/?297262

Pick what domains you want, but Luck is cool. I don't know if trade is good on BG, but it is so Waukeen.

Fill out skills as you see fit.

You can probably remove able learner if you don't want all the cross class skill benefits. And Craft Wand is also replacable.

[mrm3ntalist]

Everyone! Thank you all for the feedback! DG, as much fun as the monk build would be and as badly as I want to play that build some day, it would not fit the RP concept here that great, unfortunately, so going to be going more the Cleric 12/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 8 route here.

Given that all, is there a build sample on NWN2DB of a Cleric 12/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 8 ish build to play around with? Also, is this sort of build likely mostly up to date in JEGS or no?

One thing to consider is to ditch Hospitaler for Warpriest.
- The Aura will lower the opponent's saves which cannot be resisted acting like a bonus DC.
- Opens a detection skill (spot) which has great synergy with a caster cleric and high WIS
- Some bonus spells from WP
- You get TU progression. Coupled with Mastery of Energy you can turn HD30+mobs even with a CHA as lowas 14
- EDIT: I always forget the Taunt skill, which is very useful for low AB builds, such as a caster cleric.

[calvinus]

Thanks DG and mrm3ntalist! Trying to merge these final ideas, I came up with this:

http://nwn2db.com/build/?297397

Is there a way to optimize this build better in terms of DCs for evocation? Am I trying to do too much here? Also, thoughts on exchanging the 8 charisma for 8 strength? I don't mind this RP wise, but mechanically will it be particular a bad move?

[mrm3ntalist]

You cannot take both warpriest and hospitaler with hierophant because of the 3b20 rule

[chad878262]

and for a DC Cleric you don't want hospitaler and war priest as it takes away too many caster levels. Pick one.