So the STR Cleric is pretty much dead if the Warpriest is any indication. Thing is I still like my old Strength primary/Charisma secondary Cleric (and the Charisma part is what I really like) but it has a lot of problem. I considered submitting a class act article for Dragon but considering how they've shifted to a 'three pages of fluff for 3 horrible pieces of crunch' format I decided not to bother (not to mention I don't have that much confidence on me being picked) and instead share and develop my various ideas here on the board.
Hopefully get other people's input and improve my idea as well as help others improve theirs. Maybe if this thing get rolling and are popular enough put it up in a wiki format or something, we do have those around here and I never use 'em.
I'll post powers and eventual Paragon path to offer options to what I consider the most option-starved build of the PHB1. Not all powers will have Charisma riders so they could theoritically be useful for STR/WIS Battle Cleric as well. Some of my goals here:
-Make Strength -primary Clerics more varied and just as good as any other Cleric.
-Make Charisma a viable secondary stat choice and not just a distant third.
-Make powers loosely based on the 'Fire and forget' principle with Recovery Strike as a benchmark. Fervent Clerics inspire others by displaying the strength of their faith and trust their allies will follow in their footstep. When you use your powers you can let your allies decide who need its help the most when their turn come up.
-Make the Fervent cleric a secondary defender by granting it a few more power that marks in the vein of Healing Strike.
-Since Clerics are stuck in Chainmail, and a STR cleric will surely go for a Superior weapon before upgrading his armor I want to make Chainmail the iconic armor of Clerics and make it an attractive choice through various incentives.
Now that those goals are laid out let's get to work! I'm not going to try to make neat power boxes because I always fail at those and end up making a mess.
----------
New Class Features
When you make your Cleric you can replace your Healer's Lore class feature with the Healer's Fervor class feature and your Ritual Caster class feature with the Frontline Cleric feature, both described below.
Healer's Fervor: When you use a Cleric power with the Healing keyword to allow an ally to spend a healing surge, that ally gains a power bonus to his or her next damage roll before the end of their next turn equal to your Charisma modifier.
Frontline Cleric : You gain proficiency in 1 martial weapon of your choice. You gain your choice of either Scale Armor proficiency or Light Shield proficiency. When you roll for initiative you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier.
When you make your Cleric you can select the Channel Divinity power smite elementals in place of turn undead
Channel Divinity: Smite Elementals Cleric Feature
The Primordials are the enemies of all the gods, and you can bring divine punishment to them and their kin with the same zeal as your deity. Your passionate strike shakes these creatures down to their very core.
Encounter * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Elemental creature
Attack: Strength or Wisdom vs. Reflex
Hit: 2[W] + Strength or Wisdom modifer + Charisma modifier damage and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn. The target also looses all immunity and resistance until the end of your next turn.
Miss: Charisma modifier damage and the target grants combat advantage until the start of your next turn.
New Cleric Powers
Level 1 At-Will Prayers
Radiant Rescue cleric attack 1
You launch a shining assault on a foe, showing a troubled friend that you and your god are on their side The bright light of your attack helps them shake a debilitating effect or find a way out of a bad position.
At-Will * Divine, Radiant, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier radiant damage and one ally within 5 squares of you can choose to either make a saving throw or shift a number of squares equal to your Charisma modifier.
Level 21: 2[W] + Strength modifier radiant damage
Special: When charging you can use this power in place of a melee basic attack.
Passionate Charge cleric attack 1
You utter a short prayer to your god to strengthen your heart and arm as you show your allies the way to victory is forward.
At-Will * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage and you push the target 1 square. Until the end of your next turn the next time an ally charges an enemy within 5 squares of you, that ally gains a bonus to their damage roll equal to your Charisma modifier.
Level 21: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage
Special: When charging you can use this power in place of a melee basic attack, if you do so you push the target an additional square.
Priest Flare cleric attack 1
In a flash of divine inspiration you can spot the weak point an ally needs to exploit in your common foe, you strike to indicate the spot with a burning sigil.
At-Will * Divine, Fire, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier fire damage and the next attack made against the target by one of your ally also knocks prone on a hit.
Level 21: 2[W] + Strength modifier fire damage.
Level 1 Encounter Prayer
No idea for that one, frankly there is plenty of good choices here for now.
Level 1 Daily Prayer
Armor of the Platinum Exalted Cleric Attack 1
On Celestia the Exalted of Bahamuts who take part in the Game of Mountains use great gleaming armor of draconic design to aid them and their allies during the grueling competition. With a few words you reshape your chainmail into a facsimile of those armors to aid you in your fight.
*snipped*
Burning Faith cleric attack 1
Your absolute faith in the power bestowed upon you by your god emflames your weapon, its fire sears at your foes but make your ally understand the strength of your devotion, inspiring their assaults.
Daily * Divine, Fire, Weapon, Zone
Standard Action Close Blast 3
Target: Each enemy in Blast
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier fire damage and you push the target a number of square equal to your Charisma modifier.
Miss: Half damage and you push the target one square.
Effect: The blast creates of zone of mild flame until the end of the encounter. An enemy who ends its turn in the zone takes fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier. An ally who ends his or her turn in the zone gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls until the end of their next turn.
Level 2 Utility Prayers
Honestly there is nothing really needed here.
Level 3 Encounter Prayers
Priest Justice cleric attack 3
Paladins aren't the only one who can defend the faithful and the weak. Your strike show you are quite willing to step into that role.
Encounter * Divine, Weapon, Fear
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs Will
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage, the target cannot make opportunity attacks until the end of your next turn and you mark the target until the end of your next turn. In addition any ally who hits the target before the start of your next turn gains temporary hit points equal to twice your Charisma modifier.
Special: When charging you can use this power in place of a melee basic attack.
Well that's all I got for now and its getting late! Let's work together everybody to make a better Cleric!
I envisage this sort of cleric giving alot of bonuses to charging, enabling charging and having quite a few powers usable with charging. As for role I would pick Primary: Leader Secondary: Striker. So dont be afraid to put in some damage.
Good idea on the charge thing. I decided to make Priest Justice usable on a charge as a result and will probably make a Charge boosting level 1 encounter power once I can figure out a decent wording. Not sure on the Secondary Striker but making both it and Secondary Defender being possible by various feat support could be interesting. One thing I wonder is if Priest Justice should do 2[W]. Do you think my Armor of the Platinum Exalted is good enough or should I boost it up a bit with an additional effect? Or maybe make it a Burst 1 Attack standard action to initiate it?
I intend to have various Armor of the __ powers at various levels too. Its the kind of power I find lots of fun.
Radiant Rescue - the shift or save portion should be made into an effect so it occurs wether power hits or misses.
Burning Faith - The zone does too much damage, cha mod would be enough.
I would like to also have available something Like:
Warrior of the faith:
Replace Channel divinity
Gain prof with Scale armour, Light Shield and 1 martial weapon. When Initiative is rolled the character or one ally within 5 can shift equal to the character's Cha mod.
Passionate Charge Cleric Attack 1
At Will * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Enemy
Attack: Str Vs AC
Damage: 1[W] + Str mod. Push 1
Level 21: 2[W] + Str Mod. Push 2
Effect: Any ally that charges before the character's next turn gain Cha mod damage.
Special: This attack can be used in place of a melee basic attack when charging.
I chose secondary striker to differntriate it from other cleric builds. I have several changes to suggest to your above powers:
Radiant Rescue - the shift or save portion should be made into an effect so it occurs wether power hits or misses.
Burning Faith - The zone does too much damage, cha mod would be enough.
I would like to also have available something Like:
Warrior of the faith:
Replace Channel divinity
Gain prof with Scale armour, Light Shield and 1 martial weapon. When Initiative is rolled the character or one ally within 5 can shift equal to the character's Cha mod.
Passionate Charge Cleric Attack 1
At Will * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Enemy
Attack: Str Vs AC
Damage: 1[W] + Str mod. Push 1
Level 21: 2[W] + Str Mod. Push 2
Effect: Any ally that charges before the character's next turn gain Cha mod damage.
Special: This attack can be used in place of a melee basic attack when charging.
I went and modified Burning Faith and I also put an actual close burst 1 attack into Armor of the Platinum Exalted but I'm wondering if its balanced.
As for Radiant Rescue being an effect line I fear it would make it way too good.
Your proposed class feature is decent but I would rather see it replace Ritual Caster, Channel Divinity is the common thread of all pre-Runepriest Divine class and I have to find SOMETHING to keep in comon between all Cleric builds. Or maybe rework it as a replacement for Healer's Lore... I would still like to make Chainmail an attractive option but I'm not sure what kind of feat would make it good without just being a simple boost to AC. Maybe a conditional boost to AC that makes it superior to scale on certan occasions?
As for your power idea how about we word it:
Passionate Charge cleric attack 1
At-Will * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage and you push the target 1 square. Until the end of your next turn the next time an ally charges an enemy within 5 squares of you, that ally gains a bonus to their damage roll equal to your Charisma modifier.
Level 21: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage
Special: This power can be used on a charge instead of a melee basic attack, if you do so you push the target an additional square.
Note that I've made the bonus to damage an untyped bonus so it can stack with pretty much anything else.
Fervent. It is spelled "fervent." Other than that, I have no complaints to speak of.
Oops. Well I edited the mistakes in the body of the post but I can't change the title. You got no complains but do you have any suggestions? Ideas? I mean would you pick some of those options when playing such a Cleric? Would you consider them balanced with the other possibilities?
I am starting to get a feel for this build now, I can see the Fear keyword popping up quite a bit in attack powers.
Reminds me of how my Dragonborn Cleric only had Intimidate as a decent trained skill :p every other one of his trained skill was outmatched by other members of the party so once we got into a skill challenge I would often employ the 'if all you got is a hammer all problems look like nail' philosophy and try to figure out how to use Intimidate :p I really should have trained Diplomacy...
If you look how Charisma riders are used in Cleric powers its usually either with Fear powers or by being added to healing.
Fervent Call cleric attack 1
At-Will * Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength modifier damage
Effect: One ally within 5 can Shift 1
Special: This power can be used as a melee basic attack.
Furthermore as a STR class the Cleric already has a decent Basic Attack. I think a feat might be more appropriate. With a benefit like 'when you make a melee basic attack, one ally adjacent to you can shift 1 square'.
How about this for replacement for Ritual Caster:
Frontline Cleric : You gain proficiency in 1 martial weapon of your choice. You gain your choice of either Scale Armor proficiency or Light Shield proficiency. When you roll for initiative you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier.
I know Tieflings can gain a +1 bonus to attack with Fear power... and I know the Abberant Mark of Terror works with Daily Fear powers.
With the three At-Will we got here, Righteous Brand and Recovery Strike I think there's enough choices for now.
Another Feat I dea I had was to let Cleric add their CHA mode to their healing surge value. Like how Dragonborn can add their CON mod. So whe nyou spend some ressources on healing yourself you don't need as much.
Edit: Battle Healer - When character uses healing word the character gains Str mod hp.
There already is a battle cleric feat that adds to their healing in complete divine I believe.
Edit: Battle Healer - When character uses healing word the character gains Str mod hp.
I don't mean when you use Healing Word, I mean your surge value in general. If my Cleric got 40 HP and a +3 CHA mod, instead of a surge value of 10 I got a surge value of 13.
Use Second Wind? Quarter HP + CHA mod. You spend a surge during a short rest? Its 1/4 HP plus CHA mod.
Dragonborns have a racial trait where their Surge value gets boosted by their CON mod.
Help to make the Fervent Cleric able to take more punishment ya know?
Here is an idea for a class feature to swap out for healers lore: +2 move with charging and gain temp hp equal to cha mod when hit enemy with encounter or daily power that has damaged an ally since your character's last turn.