Currently:
N Grailwarden Dwarf (The link contains no info needed in order to help suggest spells, but check it out if you like.)
Rgr 6, Machinepriest of Teun 4 (PrC with same spell progression/list as ordinary Clr, but no turn/rebuke and builds from former divine CL)
CL 7
Domains: Protection, Technology (There's no need to suggest spells from this special domain.)
Notable: High Dex, wields a Dragonrifle (w. PBshot, Mshot and Rshot) (Teun's favourite weapon), has a Dire Rat as animal companion
In the party:
CG ogre Fighter (tank in Steam Armor), CG tiny petal Sorcerer (flying ranged, tank-buffer), CN halfling/fiend(incubus) Rogue (flying ranged, skill-monkey), CG half-elf Bard/Musketeer (ranged, superior diplomat/leader)
Note: Ptolus is a lot about intrigue, politics and strategy, and perhaps there's less combat vs many low CR creatures than the average D&D campaign contains.
Any suggestions? Spell lvl 1-5 is priority. Ideas on supporting feats/items can be useful, and so does class suggestions of max 4 lvls (all must be after lvl 10 and before lvl 20).
Please?
Cat's Grace, Divine Favor, Greater Magic Weapon (Get a +1 burst burst burst burst burst rifle :P, GMW will patch you up. Ranged is all about the enhancement-equivs!), possibly Divine Agility?
Machinepriest... is a 10 level PrC like the Ur-Priest? Hmmm.
If it has good class features, stay in it, otherwise, PrC out (again) ASAP. Contemplative, etc. Don't worry about your BAB if you have Divine Power, and an insane dex ;). If you find that you have 4 class levels and no more spell progression, pump up your buff dispel DCs and durations with Hierophant or something. +2 CL per level, I believe (leaving you, providing you took Practiced Spellcaster, with a base CL of 24. Augment with Ioun Stones and Karma beads to taste.). I think there's a better way to do it, but I dunno.
Talking about dex, if you're working on clericing it up with ranged attacks, why not switch Dex and Wis, get Zen Archery, and reduce your MAD? I don't know whether you got Rapid/Many/Point Blank Shot with normal or bonus feats (You should have 2 archery style feats, right?). Greater Manyshot is for characters with precision damage, so bonus damage from enhancements should suffice. Replace Cat's Grace with Owl's Wisdom and Owl's Insight (for insaaaaaane bonuses to hit.) Also pick up a Monk's belt or something. +Wis to armor is less MADdening. You can pick up Bracers of Armor later, if you can afford them.
In terms of items, pack on the bonus damage on the gun, carry around Bane ammo, Brilliant Energy ammo, etc, since it's cheaper to put circumstantial bonuses on ammo.
Your animal companion is going to be a liability in later levels. It only has 3HD, and will die in one shot. Try picking up Distracting Attack instead, any creature you hit is considered flanked. Ergo, the rogue can sneak attack it at range, I think. I'll need rules clarification first.
I'll need more information if I'm to help you further. My advice isn't the best, as I don't usually play clerics x3
Since you're an "archer" cleric, I suggest taking Practiced Spellcaster (Your HD-4 CL is going to kill you in the long run):
I think Dalgar's has a HD-3 CL (3 CLs from Rgr 6, 4 CLs from PrC 4 at current lvl 10), meaning his CL is still gonna kill him (and all of us), just a little bit slower...
So, Practiced Specllcaster is a great piece of advice.Cat's Grace, Divine Favor, Greater Magic Weapon (Get a +1 burst burst burst burst burst rifle :P, GMW will patch you up. Ranged is all about the enhancement-equivs!), possibly Divine Agility?
This also seems like good advice. Later on (lvl 12) these spells could also work really great together with a few of the spells for firearms in the Technology domain, especially Exploding Shot (shoot square for damage to all in 10ft radius) and Heartseaking Shot (ignore shield, natural and armor AC, automatic crits). (Unfortunately though, there are no real burst rifles in Ptolus, at least not that we know of. Dalgar shoots with a renaissance type of musket but has Rapid Reload and Manyshot that can create a similar effect.)
Machinepriest... is a 10 level PrC like the Ur-Priest? Hmmm.
The "Machinepriest of Teun" is 10 lvls of pure homebrew! I made it with the DM as there are no PrC's related to Teun in the Ptolus books, and we wanted a sensible(?) Cleric type of PrC with tons of Ptolus flavor. It's a sort of Steam-Punk cross between a Cleric and a tech-focused Druid (Teun is "The Mother of All Machines", a LN goddess of technology). :P
As a part of the initiation into the PrC (its name is also an in-game title), the character's right arm is replaced by a divine clockwork golem-like metal counterpart (with a few nice built-in options at higher lvls) and instead of turn/rebuke or wild shape, the Machinepriest can turn himself partly into a metal construct (Wis and lvl-dependent benefits to Str, DR, HP, Fort & Will saves etc)! Did that make any sense at all?
Anyhow, spell progression, spell list, BAB, saves etc are exactly as the standard Clr (except Dalgar got a jump start into the spell progression, counting his previous 6 lvls of divine half-caster).
If it has good class features, stay in it, otherwise, PrC out (again) ASAP. Contemplative, etc. Don't worry about your BAB if you have Divine Power, and an insane dex ;). If you find that you have 4 class levels and no more spell progression, pump up your buff dispel DCs and durations with Hierophant or something. +2 CL per level, I believe (leaving you, providing you took Practiced Spellcaster, with a base CL of 24. Augment with Ioun Stones and Karma beads to taste.). I think there's a better way to do it, but I dunno.
Yes, the Machinepriest has good class features (and awesome flavor!) so I think Dalgar should take all 10 lvls. But not necessarily without a few smart dips into maybe Contemplative or, especially, Hierophant. Higher buff dispel DCs is exactly what he and the party needs. Anything of max 4 lvls you (or anyone else) can come up with, besides Hierophant, that raises these DC's would be greatly appreciated.
Talking about dex, if you're working on clericing it up with ranged attacks, why not switch Dex and Wis, get Zen Archery, and reduce your MAD? I don't know whether you got Rapid/Many/Point Blank Shot with normal or bonus feats (You should have 2 archery style feats, right?). Greater Manyshot is for characters with precision damage, so bonus damage from enhancements should suffice. Replace Cat's Grace with Owl's Wisdom and Owl's Insight (for insaaaaaane bonuses to hit.) Also pick up a Monk's belt or something. +Wis to armor is less MADdening. You can pick up Bracers of Armor later, if you can afford them.
You see? I never would have thought of this brilliant combo! Great advice again! I'm not sure how much we can fool around with Dalgar's ability scores (he's been in play since lvl 3), but some modification will probably be ok (we didn't roll the scores in the first place). As he hasn't got the usual Cleric need for a high Cha and/or Str, a high Wis + Zen Archery + Monk's belt will definitely be insaaaaaaane! He'll be virtually without need to boost anything else but Wis and get awesome bonuses to basically everything! AND, by boosting his Wis, the number of turns per day he can use his "Construct-Shape" ability will increase rapidly, which is absolutly cheestastic!
BUT: considering that the PrC is homebrew and Dalgar doesn't exactly suffer from MAD-disease even without Zen Archery etc, this switch needs to be carefully checked with the DM.
In terms of items, pack on the bonus damage on the gun, carry around Bane ammo, Brilliant Energy ammo, etc, since it's cheaper to put circumstantial bonuses on ammo.
Agree. One of the things that also needs to be put together is his rifle - a very wealthy and well connected "client" to our party gave us each a very special item of our choosing. In other words: we can choose any one piece of equipment with a total value of at least 18000 gp but we only have to pay for anything in excess of 18000 gp. I think this should go into a +3 enhancement to Dalgar's Dragonrifle, which leaves (after +1 general enhancement) +2 enhancement scores to play around with. I was thinking of Holy, as most guys we mess with are evil, after all. Maybe add some kind of damage-dealing augment crystal from MIC as well. But maybe you have another suggestion?
Dalgar has about 12000 gp saved at the moment.
Your animal companion is going to be a liability in later levels. It only has 3HD, and will die in one shot. Try picking up Distracting Attack instead, any creature you hit is considered flanked. Ergo, the rogue can sneak attack it at range, I think. I'll need rules clarification first.
Yeah, the rat started turning into a liability somewhere around lvl 5, but there's actually a good solution here: when Dalgar gains a bit more status with the Church of Teun, the rat will receive "Teun's blessing", thus turning it into a useable Living Construct with good AC, HP and plenty of resistances. Distracting Attack could've been a good choice for the future anyway, but I doubt the change can be made now. (I don't think the rogue will be considered flanking unless he has the feat Ranged Threat, even if Distracting Attack makes targets sort of auto-flanked?)
I'll need more information if I'm to help you further. My advice isn't the best, as I don't usually play clerics x3
Your advice was great! I only know my way around Fgr, Rog and perhaps Wiz, so in my eyes, you're practically a cleric CO-guru!
Again, thanks a lot for your help!