Building a Cloistered Cleric

[Telonius]

Hello, fellow gamers! I've agreed to be the Cleric for an upcoming Eberron campaign, and have put together what I think will be a pretty decent build. We'll have all the rest of our core roles covered in the group (tank, arcane caster, skillmonkey, psionic); there will very likely be a warforged in the group.

Anyway, my idea is to make him a mixture of item manufacturer and healbot, rather than take away from the tank's fun and go CoDzilla. I don't have ability scores yet, but I'm probably going to focus on Wis, Int, and Dex, in that order. Character concept is a know-it-all gnome cloistered cleric who's just too interested in gizmos to stay in the monastery. (Probably was asked to leave when one of his "labor-saving-devices" blew up, or something like that).

Anyway, here's the build. I'm having a little difficulty trying to figure out what to take for Level 19-20. Should I just take more levels in Cleric, or is there some other PrC that would fit in really well? Does the feat selection look good, or is there some other golden feat that I'm missing? And what about that Level 18 slot? Most of the books are fair game, but the DM will bar anything super-cheesy. Flaws are acceptable if there's some feat that I really, really need to take ASAP.

Gnome
Cloistered Cleric/Artificer/Loremaster
Deity: Sovereign Host; Domains: Knowledge, Magic, Artifice
Progression: CC5; CC5/Artificer 3; CC5/Artificer3/Loremaster10; CC5/Artificer3/Loremaster10/?

Feats:
Level 1: Combat Casting.
Level 3: Skill Focus: Knowledge Architecture/Engineering (to qualify for Loremaster).
Level 6: Scribe Scroll (from Artificer), Craft Wand (normal 6th level).
Level 7: Brew Potion (from Artificer).
Level 8: Craft Wondrous (from Artificer).
Level 9: Craft Magic Arms/Armor.
Level 12: Legendary Artisan (-25% XP).
Level 14 (or so): Attune Magic Weapon, From Loremaster (Applicable Knowledge)
Level 15: Extraordinary Artisan (-25% base cost).
Level 18: ?

[Morty]

From what I've heard, Combat Casting is rather weak feat, but I'll leave it to someone else to explain.
EDIT: Yeah, it's probably better to just take Skill Focus(Concentration).

[Tengu]

Take skill focus:concentration instead of combat casting. +3 to concentration in all situations is better than +4 in a very specific one.

[Telonius]

Well, it generally is for arcane casters. I'm supposed to be the healbot, though, so that means I'll be running up and putting myself in harm's way fairly regularly. And since I'll be a Cloistered Cleric (less HP and lighter armor), not getting hit is going to be a larger concern, especially at low levels. I'm not sure what feat would be better for my character's focus, either.

EDIT: It's concentration, though. I don't think I've ever seen a Concentration check required, except to cast defensively.

[clericwithnogod]

Anyway, my idea is to make him a mixture of item manufacturer and healbot, rather than take away from the tank's fun and go CoDzilla.


The idea that you playing a character that can fight takes away from the fun of another character that can fight is just silly (barring extreme pettiness on the part of the other player). Plenty of parties have 2 or 3 or 4 frontline combatants without it taking away from anyone's fun. As the party's only cleric, you're going to be losing actions in combat to emergency heals/removes and you're going to be using your spells out of combat to heal damage and remove conditions as well, so it's not like you have all the spells you want to buff yourself to the ceiling for every combat. The pure melee character is going to get to do what he wants to be doing pretty much whenever he wants.

[Telonius]

Well, there is the other issue. The tank's player is, to be blunt, a very novice gamer in a group of much more experienced gamers. Even with the rest of us helping him with feat choice, etc., he has some trouble contributing effectively. So the rest of the players are going to make a real effort not to step on his toes in the melee department. Otherwise, he won't be having fun (everybody else will be stealing his spotlight), and he won't even really know why that's happening. It's not really a matter of pettiness on his part, it's just flat-out inexperience. After this campaign he'll probably have learned enough that it won't be as much of a problem.

Anyway, other than the Skill Focus suggestion, any others for this build?

[ReluctantDragon]

Alright, I'll toss in.

I agree wholeheartedly with the others in stating that Combat Casting is a wasted slot. If you're wanting to boost casting during combat, go skill focus. It's just plainly a better choice.

To be honest, You're choosing feats that are not related to combat, hence the reason you're not getting that many suggestions(atleast I would surmise such).

Definitely a character built with flavor in mind. I like the gnome aspect, and running into cloistered cleric is a neat idea. However, in order to do what you wish to do, would Artificer just not be a better choice? In terms of healing, you can find ways to mimic everything via wands, staves, etc. I doubt it would take anything away from your characters flavor, in fact, it would probably free up a bunch of your feat selection.

That's my suggestion, take it for what you will.

[Jayabalard]

I'll agree, skill focus might be slightly more effective in the overall...but it does make perfect sense to me that the gnome you've described can only concentrate really well under certain circumstances rather than all the time. I say go for it if you like it better.

[daggaz]

Yeah, artificer is definitely what you want, for optimization of this character in an eberron setting. Especially if there is a warforged in the party as well. Unless you are totally stuck on the concept posted, I would go for that instead.

As for not wanting to steal his limelight, with such a big group, its certain you will be facing some big groups of enemies more often than not. Another tank isnt going to steal anything. He will instead help the newbie learn by example, help the newbie to survive (both by teaching him and by physically aiding him in battle), and he will helpt the whole party to survive. Even a skilled fighter can't control the whole battle. Hell, he can't control more than a few opponents at a time, normally.

But you can't go melee artificer anyways...but I that is what the warforged is for. Go artificer for optimization, or use your cloistered guy cuz he is cool.¨

EDIT: laugh, I didnt notice the artificer parts in your build already... but more artificer never hurts, does it?