Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

chad878262 wrote:Heirophant has full caster progression. With spell power 3 you could actually have CL 33.

I think this will be a key thing, and a really wonderful thing for druid or cleric caster types. These are both neglected characters, and like the archmage vs the gish on the arcane side of things, it really helps to set them apart on their casting prowess.

3 CL doesn't sound like much, and it's certainly less powerful than it is for arcanes which is why it doesn't have the strings attached that arcanes get. However, besides the +1 DC or longer lasting spells, what it does is mostly to separate them from others when it comes to dispelling. Dragon druids, Favored Soul, EDM Clerics etc., tend to end up with a CL of 27-30. With the PSC fix and the Dispel fix, arcane dispelling power is slightly diminished because of the restrictions in aquiring a CL higher than 30. So, hierophants get the benefit of being much harder to dispel.

How much? Well, as an arcane caster you have the following chances at dispelling a CL33 Hierophant with mordekainen:
[th]Mordekainen CL[/th][th]Dispel chance[/th][tr][td]27[/td][td]20%[/td][/tr][tr][td]28[/td][td]25%[/td][/tr][tr][td]29[/td][td]30%[/td][/tr][tr][td]30[/td][td]35%[/td][/tr][tr][td]31[/td][td]40%[/td][/tr][tr][td]32[/td][td]45%[/td][/tr][tr][td]33[/td][td]50%[/td][/tr][tr][td]34[/td][td]55%[/td][/tr][tr][td]35[/td][td]60%[/td][/tr] Almost all spawns hover around the 25-30 CL mark with mordekainen, and PCs are unlikely to get a higher CL than 35 without really gimping themselves. So, while the hierophant gets more difficult to dispel, some of these other characters find themselves more easily dispelled in turn. A nice trade-off for lacking the immense power these characters get, thus making caster druids or clerics a bit more attractive and useful in a party.

It's definitely something the OP should check out if the itch to be a caster comes into play (even casters are decent meleers if they're clerics)

Currently there are no dwarven caster clerics. Honestly there is only two players who have dwarves as their main character (Keldri and myself). I do have a dwarven gish cleric however it is not powerbuilt or anything. You of course will be most welcome to join us in KH if you wish.

In my own personal opinion, people who want to play a cleric should stray away from any offensive caster builds. Concentrate on buffing and healing. A cleric can go most places on this server solo, and enhances any group. With that said, the reason I would stray away from any offensive spells, save epic spells, is that a clerics offensive spellbook has been neutered. ( That is unless you plan to play an evil cleric) Word of Faith, dont even bother with, a spell that should strike fear in the hearts of any that would be confronted by it, is pretty much a joke now. To me it is pretty much disheartening to see how the devout divine classes have been gutted from power(with the exception of Favoured Souls and Druids). When I see how powerful caster classes that have lost their souls by bargaining with devils have become, it can make one wonder, why? But oh well it is the nature of the beast here. And either you accept it and make due, or you dont and play somewheres else.

So to wrap up, I applaud you for wanting to make a cleric, Just make sure you write a ceremony for Ressurection for him and collect plenty of Diamonds and Holy waters, cause some of the DM's will insist on this if you want to Raise someone during an event.