What is your favorite cleric build?

So, I really like clerics despite only having played one and was curious, What is everyones favorite cleric builds?

My favorite cleric is a summoning herald caller. This is pretty different than a standard cleric though. It focuses a lot more on the spell casting than the usual martial side of the class.

I think I mainly like the versatility of the herald caller. You get more skills per level than a cleric, but without the skill taxes of most monster summoners. Being able to magically communicate to your summoned monsters means you don't really need maxed linguistics and maxed handle animal. So, you get more skills while needing less skills. Besides skills, your ability to spontaneously cast both cure spells and summon monster spells means you almost never have to stress over what spells to prepare each day.

It can be especially fun to combine this with the versatile summon monster feat. Summon an aerial dolphin and tell it go and grab something high up or push a button. Whatever you need done really. Summon an aerial octopus and instead of having it attack your enemies tell it to just make a grapple with it's nice grappling bonuses.

Obviously Sacred Summons will be a popular choice for this build. And you'll want to take some feats to give you more options for that feat, like summon good monster or expanded summon monster.

The only real downside of the archetype is that it strongly favors a half neutral alignment, so neutral good or lawful neutral, etc.

Divine Paragon 5/Evangelist 10

You end up with 14 effective Cleric levels, BAB +10, +7/+6/+7 base saves, CL 14, 7th-level spells, 7D6 Channel, and six (yes, SIX) deific boons. It is all things Cleric in my opinion. The uber-Cleric. A true, dare I say, Paragon.

Second favorite Cleric build would be the Evangelist archetype, go full Bard build with a Longspear, Flagbearer, Banner of Ancient Kings, Dervish Sikke, Discordant Voice, etc. and pick up as much Summoning stuffs you can squeeze into the build. Starting with any of the races that allow one to start with Spell Focus Conjuration goes a long way in this build. Sacred Summons is a must-have so you can start a Performance and Summon in the same round.

Belafon

Dec 10, 2021, 07:16 am

Voodist Monk is of the opinion that you can get one set of boons from the Divine Paragon cleric archetype, then another from the Evangelist prestige class despite what the text of Deific Obedience says:

If you later take levels in sentinel or evangelist, you lose access to the exalted boons and gain access to the new boons appropriate to your class.

It's perfectly fine for the GM to allow you to get more boons than this would allow, just make sure you clear it with your GM first.

Meh, just choose to take Sentinel boons as a Divine Paragon. it says you lose access to "Exalted" boons, but we don't have any of those. Lol.

Divine Paragon does, in fact, allow one to choose which boons they access. and if people want get down and dirty with what is and is not allowed, then they can go to AoN and see it written in stone. Or. or, we can just say it works without arguing.

It's not like it actually does anything except make a flavorful character. There might be half a dozen combinations out there that are super powerful, but most of us are too lazy to sort through all the fully fleshed out boons to find exactly what can break the game. It's still just a Cleric.

Wow. VM, as always, your builds completely eclipse anything I could add in. I was jumping into this thread to say I like short-ranged clerics using a Dex build and ranged weapons, like a halfling using a sling, Magic Stone and so on. but I don't have any fancy archetypes, gestalts, VMC suggestions etc.

Also, I've never played a Herald Caller or even a cleric focused on summoning in general. In the past I've played Small sized clerics with ranged weapons and the Animal domain to eventually get an AC as a mount, or I've added cleric levels to other classes that create such a build.

The thing I've always liked about clerics is just that they get access to every spell on their list when a level of spells unlocks, period. I like that b/c 1. I always have a fellow PC in the party who at least has Scribe Scroll if not other Item Creation feats and 2. many of the cleric spells are good buff spells.

I LOVE being helpful to the rest of my party. All of my characters have some focus around this. Cleric to me is just a natural extension of that; thanks to the other PC writing scrolls I've got an accordion file full of buffs and healing, I've got a longspear for reach Aid Another, but building as a dex build with medium armor I'm ok to tank and deliver short ranged attacks as well, when needed.

So, I never really looked at Deific Obedience before but this has now become one of my favorite feats. If I worship Nethys for example, that's a 24 hour period of +4 on Concentration checks for the price of an hour's worth of daily prep and casting an orison. I'd likely be playing a Good cleric, so that's a Sacred bonus, meaning that could be stacked with traits and a feat if I really want to ensure I make all of said checks.

But then, if VM is right and between those two archetypes you get 6 boons, this character could get pretty fun. Evangelist gives me

1: Arcane Essence (Sp) mage armor 3/day, mirror image 2/day, or fly 1/day

2: Arcane Eye (Sp) You can use arcane eye three times per day as a spell-like ability. The arcane eye you summon functions as if you had cast arcane sight and were able to view its information through the arcane eye. This allows you to see magical auras through the arcane eye, and potentially identify the schools of magic involved. You can also potentially determine the spellcasting or spell-like abilities of viewed creatures, as noted in the spell description.
3: Robes of Nethys (Su) You can manifest an illusory robe that absorbs hostile spells for a number of rounds per day equal to 1 + 1 for every 4 Hit Dice you possess (maximum 6 rounds). These rounds don’t need to be consecutive, and you can activate or deactivate the robe as a free action. The robe functions as a lesser globe of invulnerability except that it only excludes hostile spell effects of 3rd level or lower. Any spell that would force you to attempt a saving throw; cause you to take hit point damage, negative levels, ability drain, or ability damage; or end your life is considered hostile for the purposes of this effect. Unlike a lesser globe of invulnerability, you can move normally while cloaked in the robes.

Then Exalted gives me

1: Magical Essences (Sp) magic aura 3/day, misdirection 2/day, or arcane sight 1/day

2: Staff Channel (Su) You can deliver touch spells with a casting time of one standard action or longer through a quarterstaff. Using this ability doesn’t change the casting time or other qualities of the spell, but you must make a melee attack with your quarterstaff against the target’s AC rather than a touch attack against its touch AC. If you hit the target, you deal quarterstaff damage as well as discharge the spell effect. You can hold the charge as normal when delivering a touch spell through a quarterstaff.
3: Pure Magic Aura (Su) You radiate an aura of the pure essence of magic. You can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to 1 + 1 for every 4 Hit Dice you possess (maximum 6 rounds). These rounds don’t need to be consecutive, and you can activate and deactivate your aura as a free action. You and any allies within 20 feet of you increase your caster levels by 1d4. Roll this die when you activate this ability and use the same value for all who gain this benefit. The increase affects spell qualities (such as duration and number of targets) that rely on caster level, as well as caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance. The bonus caster levels don’t grant higher-level spell slots or cause the recipients to learn new spells.

Now, I don't know if, as a Cleric I'm ever gonna have a lot of Touch spells to deliver through a quarterstaff, but having a minor, minor globe of invulnerability on myself while also boosting mine and the other spellcasters' caster level by 1-4 levels for a single fight/day could come in PRETTY darn handy!