Hammer and Prayer: The w:st="on">Battle Cleric

style="">By Zed


How many times, in
MMO's have you thought, I'm not playing the healer because they're
wimps?  The first time your little healer
enters
battle or gets aggro you end up as a smear on the ground facing a trip
from
your resurrection point to your body, only to find it camped by the
monster that killed you,
right?

In my href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=76">previous
article
we looked at the cleric class and talked, in passing, about the battle
cleric. This
article takes a look at the battle cleric, offering tips and strategies
for
building and playing one.

What is a Battle Cleric?

The battle cleric joins the front rank fighters in the thick of battle. His spells focus on self and party combat buffs. For all accounts, he would be as armed and armored as any fighter--heavy weapons, shields, full plate. Healing is secondary to the battle cleric, only being used when group members drop dangerously low in health. 

Is that it? Simply put,
yes. However, sacrifices need to be made in the process of building a
battle
cleric. The focus is placed on offensive ability scores, enhancement
selections
and spell selections. We shall review these next.

Ability Scores

style="">With only 28 points
to
spend it's critical that the selection be right for your concept of a
battle
cleric. There are, however, a number of easy decisions that can be
made. Let's
cover each ability score in turn.

style="">Strength: A cleric's Base Attack
Bonus (BAB) follows a medium progression. At
level 1 it's +0.  If you want to be
effective in melee then your strength needs to be giving a +2 or higher
bonus. 

style="">Dexterity: Since the cleric can
wear full plate armor, a high dexterity is not
needed.  A 12 in dexterity would give you
a small boost--the maximum full plate can bestow +1. 

style="">Constitution: A negative
constitution is a bad thing; for a
battle cleric the argument could be the more hitpoints the better.
However,
bear in mind that you have the ability to heal yourself. A 10 in
constitution at a
cost of 2 skill points gives you 10 hitpoints less than spending 4
skill points to get a
12. That's the cost of a single cure light wounds spell.

style="">Intelligence: Dump stat--you don't
need it. Clerics have a
low number of class skills to begin with, so extra skill points are not
advantageous. The main skills you need to focus on are concentration
and
healing. During the European beta I never once used the heal skill
after level
2. In my opinion, leaving intelligence at the base score of 8 is a
valid
option.

Wisdom: style="">Here is where it gets interesting. Wisdom is the key ability
score for
spell casting for clerics, requiring a wisdom score of 10 + spell
level. At
launch, this means you really only need a 15 in wisdom at level 10. style="">  However, wisdom dictates the number of spell
points available to you. If you're considering long-term goals,
remember that if/when
the level cap is increased to 20 you will need a 19 minimum wisdom to
cast
spells. I personally would set wisdom to 16, but 14 or 15 would be
acceptable
if you are prepared to have less spell points and use both enhancements
and
ability score increases to boost your wisdom.

style="">Charisma: Charisma affects turn
undead abilities. However, since the reduction in
turn undead power it's generally felt that Turn Undead is a waste for
anything
but Divine Vitality after level 5. Indeed, my experiences suggested
that high
level undead were not affected. Since were focusing on a battle cleric
setting
this to 10 or 12 will give you a little flexibility in turn undead.

style="">How the Scores Might Look

style="">The following table
provides 3 possible options for ability score allocation; the values
are based
on selecting human as the race:

style="">

 

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style="">

 

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style="">Build 1

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style="">Build 2

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valign="top" width="84">

style="">Build 3

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valign="top" width="100">

style="">Strength

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valign="top" width="99">

style="">16 (10) +3

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valign="top" width="96">

style="">14 (6) +2

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valign="top" width="84">

style="">14 (6) +2

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valign="top" width="100">

style="">Dexterity

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valign="top" width="99">

style="">12 (4) +1

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valign="top" width="96">

style="">12 (4) +1

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valign="top" width="84">

style="">12 (4) +1

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valign="top" width="100">

style="">Constitution

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valign="top" width="99">

style="">10 (2) +0

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valign="top" width="96">

style="">10 (2) +0

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valign="top" width="84">

style="">14 (6) +2

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valign="top" width="100">

style="">Intelligence

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valign="top" width="99">

style="">8 (0) -1

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valign="top" width="96">

style="">8 (0) -1

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valign="top" width="84">

style="">8 (0) -1

style="border-style: none solid solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 74.85pt;"
valign="top" width="100">

style="">Wisdom

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valign="top" width="99">

style="">16 (10) +3

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valign="top" width="96">

style="">16 (10) +3

style="border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext -moz-use-text-color; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt medium; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 63pt;"
valign="top" width="84">

style="">16 (10) +3

style="border-style: none solid solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color windowtext windowtext; border-width: medium 1pt 1pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 74.85pt;"
valign="top" width="100">

style="">Charisma

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valign="top" width="99">

style="">10 (2) +0

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valign="top" width="96">

style="">14 (6) +2

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valign="top" width="84">

style="">10 (2) +0



Even from these three
options you can see a number of other ways to change the character. style=""> 

Feat Selection

The Cleric is
proficient with all types of armor, but only simple weapons. style=""> 
Since we are talking about a battle cleric,
any feat choices should augment combat first, enhance spell casting
second.

Damage Output style="">: The best damage weapon available to a cleric as standard is
the heavy
mace or morningstar and the heavy crossbow. The heavy mace offers the
same
damage range as a longsword (1D8). w:st="on">Battle
clerics are better served hiding behind their shields in battle than
wielding a
great sword or axe, however if you want a full on damage dealing battle
cleric
then a Martial weapon proficiency might be in order.

Where does that put
us?

The following reflect
a number of options you could consider at level 1:

Toughness style="">: would increase the hitpoints the cleric has. However, this
would be of
limited value if you chose a constitution score of 10. 

Mental Toughness: style=""> A boost to spell points; nice even for a
battle cleric. If you're playing a human I would seriously consider
this feat
as one of the two available to you.

Martial Weapon
Proficiency
: If you want to be different than
the usual cleric,
wielding a longword or battleaxe, or if you want to go for high damage
through
using two-handed weapons, then choose a relevant proficiency.

Combat Casting style="">: If you're going to be facing monsters in
battle and need to be able to get that critical heal spell off, then
combat
casting would be a good option for you for that boost to concentration.

Extend Spell style="">: An odd choice; however, for duration-based combat buffs
such as Bless
or Divine Favor you get twice the duration for 11/2 times the cost,
making
Extend Spell a very useful feat for the self-buffing combat cleric.

Beyond level 1: style="">Selecting feats such
as Weapon Focus (weapon of choice) or Weapon Alacrity (weapon of
choice) all
help the cleric in becoming a more competent fighter. Other metamagic
feats
such as Empower Healing, Empower Spell or Heighten Spell can aid the
cleric
either when they choose to heal comrades, or deliver an offensive spell
such as
Searing Light, or try to debuff a boss with Blindness or Bestow Curse.

A Brief Word on
Enhancements

style="">The enhancement
choices really come down to the individual player's style. 
However, even a battle cleric will be
expected to provide a good level of healing to the group, and so the
Energy of
the Zealot line of enhancements, which provide the boost to spell
points, are
desirable. Beyond that, devotion-based enhancements improve your
healing powers;
useful both for yourself and your comrades. Finally, depending on your
race,
any strength or wisdom improving enhancements would augment either your
total
spell points and your save DC or your offensive capabilities. style=""> 

 

Spell Selection

Spell choice is fairly
straight forward--anything that increases your capability to attack and
deliver
damage is a must, followed by anything that lowers the abilities of
your
opponents. Bless, Divine Favor, Bane, Command, Bulls Strength, Divine
Power, Shield
of Faith, Bears Endurance, Blindness, Bestow Curse, Sound Burst...all
help the
cleric control the battle field.

 

Summary

You can be forgiven
for thinking that the battle cleric is simply a paladin. Paladins (see
the
paladin class description) have a much better offensive capability than
a
standard cleric, and because of that there may even be merit to the
idea of a
multi-class paladin/cleric in order to gain those extra weapon
proficiencies;
however, this will impact the number of high level spells available to
you at a
later point in your cleric's career. 

Instead the cleric
offers an excellent middle ground between an out and out fighter and a
character that can both heal themselves and their comrades during easy
fights,
where they can also provide a wall between the more vulnerable wizards
and
sorcerers as well as being able to lend an extra weapon in hand to hand
combat
with more difficult opponents.

A departing thought to
leave you: why is the title of this article misleading?


[ style="font-weight: bold;"
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=1189#1189">Figure
out why the title is misleading?

href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=1189#1189">Want
to share comments, criticisms, or kudos? Post here! style="font-weight: bold;">]






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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.

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