good cleric spells

[Baby Gary]

one of my character that I am playing is a cleric, I want some good spells but I don't have the time in my life to find any. My cleric is a custom lesser Aisimar (pretty much the same thing as the original) CG and has 21 wiz, my DM will allow minor optimization. Please tell me all the spells!!!

P.S. my domains are war and protection

[Kelb_Panthera]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...leric-Handbook

Second post, spoiler 10. There's your shortlist for good cleric spells.

[Darrin]

What sourcebooks are available? Online content ok? Dragon Magazine ok? Setting specific spells ok (Eberron/Faerun)? What level is your cleric?

[Baby Gary]

5th level cleric, nothing else. Im pretty sure that I can use anything, even the campaign settings

[Darrin]

Cleric spells I like:

0th:

Amanuensis (Spell Compendium). If you have anybody with the Forgery skill in the party (awesome skill, opposed by Forgery, which pretty much nobody ever has ranks in), this can be used to double their output. Forgery is also exceedingly easy to buff, even if you only have 1 rank: Forger's Paper (10 GP, Complete Scoundrel), Forgery Kit (40 GP, Complete Adventurer), and Wondrous Writing Set (2060 GP, Oriental Adventures) can give you a +14 bonus on your check, on top of guidance, guidance of the avatar (see below), and divine insight. Amanuensis can also be used to copy text protected by sepia snake sigil or explosive runes. It does trigger trap/glyph spells, so explosive runes will still go off and destroy the item, but you can cast it at a safe distance and preserve a copy of the original text.

Candlelight (Ghostwalk Web Enhancement). Not quite as useful as light, as it only has a 5' radius, but it does have a better duration: 1 hour/CL instead of 10 min/CL.

Create Water (Core). Outside the necessities of basic hydration, I like to try and use this spell for battlefield control (BFC) if possible. Invisible opponents that step in a puddle can give away their position, or can leave wet footprints. Puddles can be frozen via spells/alchemical items to create slippery terrain (double movement costs). Frozen water expands, so drip it into cracks and then break stuff apart by freezing it... which the rules don't really cover, but it's probably worth a +2 circumstance bonus on a Strength or Disable Device check.

No Light (Book of Vile Darkness). 20' radius magical darkness can be used to create 20% concealment. Darkvision sees right through it and any light spell counters it, but not every single creature you encounter automatically has darkvision or a way to counter it.

1st:

Blade of Blood (PHBII). Swift-action spell can give you (or any ally within touch range) a +1d6 damage buff, or +3d6 if you take 5 points of damage. Great spell for a Wand Chamber (100 GP, Dungeonscape) in your melee weapon.

Bless (Core). At low levels, it can turn the tide of battles. At higher levels... hey, every +1 helps!

Conjure Ice Beast I (Frostburn). Gives you access to the summon nature's ally list, and some interesting special attacks: frigid touch, ice breath, cold aura, and engulf (more on this one later). Cold aura is particularly nifty: free action every round, 1d6 cold damage in a 10' burst, *no save*. Summon a bunch of beasts at once to do Xd6 damage to a small area with no save. Check with your DM if the phrase, "In all other ways, conjure ice beast I functions like summon monster I" allows you to use Augment Summoning, Golden Desert Honey (Complete Mage), or Ring of the Beast (Complete Champion) with your ice beasts.

Delay Disease (Spell Compendium). Don't clutter up your spell slots with this one, but do have a few scrolls/potions of this stuffed into your pack for emergencies. Diseases are pretty rare, but can be nasty if you're not prepared for them. Delaying it a day gives you a chance to pray for new spells or buy enough time to get to a population center with more resources.

Ebon Eyes (Spell Compendium). Lets you see through magical darkness, which is usually the only darkness that matters. I wish the duration were better, though (10 min/CL).

Guiding Light (Spell Compendium). Long range, 5' burst allows you to "paint" enemies with a +2 circumstance bonus on ranged attacks. Great buff if you have any archers in the party.

Ice Slick (Frostburn). Usually referred to as "grease for healbots" but it's much better than grease: 20' square (four times the area of grease), and you can cast snowshoes (Spell Compendium) on your party members to make them immune to it. Even if a creature makes a successful Balance check to stay on their feat, they are now balancing on a slippery surface, and unless they have 5 ranks in Balance, they are now considered flat-footed, which is going to make the party rogue very happy.

Magic Stone (Core). I like this spell at lower levels because it gives the cleric a ranged attack with decent range (50' increment with a sling), it bypasses DR/magic, and it does double damage against undead.

Protective Interposition (Forge of War). Swift-action teleport that allows you to swap positions with an ally. Your ally gets a +2 AC bonus and you get a +2 attack bonus for your next attack. The touch range is highly annoying, as the best you can do is to get your ally only 5' away from immediate danger, but sometimes that 5' is the difference between life and death. Good spell for a Wand Chamber (100 GP, Dungeonscape).

Ray of Hope (Book of Exalted Deeds). +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, skill checks, and ability checks. Because it's a morale bonus, there's some overlap here with bless and the bard's Inspire Courage, but it's a good low-level buff spell to tag your meatbags with late in the fight when some of your bigger spell slots are already empty.

Ray of Resurgence (Lost Empires of Faerun). Restores Str damage (a common poison effect for certain animals/vermin) and removes fatigue. If there are any barbarians in the party, make sure you have a wand of this handy.

Snowshoes (Spell Compendium). Same effect and duration as longstrider (+10' enhancement bonus to speed), but you also get to ignore the effects of snowy/icy terrain, including ice slick (see above).

Spider Hand (Book of Vile Darkness). This isn't quite the unique spell for clerics as it is for druids, since clerics can get monstrous spiders (and their web abilities) via the summon monster spells, but it does provide some scouting/spying utility. That and it's just a really creepy-cool spell!

2nd:

Alicorn Lance (Silver Marches Web Enhancement). Ranged touch attack, 3d6 [force] damage, and a faerie fire effect (negates concealment).

Body Ward (Complete Champion). Allows you to shrug off ability damage from Sanctified spells.

Conjure Ice Beast II (Frostburn). The Engulf attack is the same as "Swallow Whole", but what you can eat is limited by your size. Fortunately, monstrous centipedes are larger than most other summonable creatures. At 2nd level, large monstrous centipede can engulf medium-sized enemies, or you can bring in two wolves for 2x cold aura.

Close Wounds (Spell Compendium). Immediate action healing, and while it's not all that good at healing (1d4 + 1/CL, max +5), the fact that you can cast it immediately when an ally gets hit with a bad crit to keep them in the world of the living can make this spell a lifesaver in a very literal sense.

Cloud of Knives (PHBII). Free action ranged attack every round. If you're going the DMM route, this is a popular spell to Persist.

Dark Way (Spell Compendium). At first glance this looks like a "bridge" spell, but you can also anchor it vertically as a "wall" spell. Good for blocking off hallways, dividing a room in half, or otherwise cutting off your opponents into more easily murderable portions.

Frost Weapon (Frostburn). Damage buff +1d6 cold damage, works on both melee and ranged weapons.

Guidance of the Avatar (Spellbook Archive). +20 competence bonus on your next skill check. Great for nailing those higher-DC UMD checks. Also a good idea to have a few potions of this on hand (300 GP each) for emergencies. If +20 isn't enough, also stacks with divine insight (Spell Compendium).

Obscuring Snow (Frostburn). Creates a 30' globe of whiteout conditions that moves with your healbot and lasts 1 hour/CL. This is one half of the Snowglobe of Murder, but unfortunately you'll need a treehugger (druid) or amateur treehugger (ranger) for the other half: snowsight (Frostburn) cast on the rest of the party (only 750 GP for a wand) so they can see through the snow.

Spiritual Weapon (Core). This is my favorite 2nd level spell. It's a fire-and-forget attack that lasts several rounds, it bypasses DR, and it's a [force] effect so it can hit incorporeal/ethereal opponents.

3rd:

Bladebane (Unapproachable East). Turns any slashing weapon into a Bane weapon a la carte.

Conjure Ice Beast III (Frostburn). Huge monstrous centipede now available, which can engulf large-sized creatures, or four wolves for 4d6 cold aura.

Dispel Magic (Core). Bread-and-butter debuffer. If you're ever in doubt about filling a 3rd level slot, it's hard to go wrong with this one.

Laogzed's Breath (Serpent Kingdoms). Same as stinking cloud, except it's cone-shaped and the vapors last 10 rounds. Nauseating breath (Spell Compendium) is similar, but has a 30' maximum range, while Laogzed's breath has no explicit range limit.

Mace of Odo (Magic of Faerun). Melee touch attack that does 1d6/CL [force] damage (10d6 max), plus a little extra if the target is undead. You can also use the mace to absorb any one spell that targets you, negating both the spell and the mace.

Revelation (Dragons of Faerun). Only lasts one round, but gives you early access to true seeing.

Searing Light (Core). This is not a very good blasting spell, but it's your best blasting spell at lower levels.

Shivering Touch (Frostburn). This is a controversial spell, as it can allow you to one-shot some very nasty creatures with just a melee touch attack (including most dragons), particularly if you maximize it. The spell itself is something of a hodge-podge, as it does ability damage (which is not a penalty) but carries a duration (usually associated with penalties). If your DM allows this spell (many outright ban it), then use it sparingly.

Sticks and Stones (Shining South). This spell creates an animated skeleton-like creature (essentially a 2HD skeleton) that attacks a designated target. While other conjuration/summoning spells at this level offer much sturdier combatants, this spell has some notable differences. First, casting time is only a standard action, so your skeleton-thing can attack on the same round you cast it. Second, it has an Energy Drain (Su) attack as if it were a Wight, which is not something you usually see out of a 3rd-level spell slot. It's also a Necromancy spell, but it doesn't create a summoned creature or animate a corpse, so that may allow it to bypass certain wards/effects that target summoned creatures or undead (protection from evil, turn undead, etc.).

4th:

Celestial Fortress (Champions of Valor). This is similar to Leomund's secure shelter, but includes a consecrate effect and a magic circle against evil. It's a Sanctified spell, so it will cost you 1d2 Constitution to cast, but body ward can prevent that. Or just sleep it off. It's not quite as secure as rope trick or rod of security, but can provide a safe easy-to-defend place to rest in an emergency.

Divine Powah! (Core). Make the fighter feel (more) useless.

Freedom of Movement (Core). YES, HAVE SOME!

Lesser Planar Ally (Core). Good utility spell for bringing in a specialist or utility pinch-hitter "off the bench", mostly for SLAs. You have to pay for it, but if you do some book-diving you can get "early access" to some spells this way: plane shift from Janni (MM), dominate monster from Formian Taskmaster (MM), simulacrum from Mirror Mephit (Expedition to the Demonweb Pits), raise dead from Hollyphant (Book of Exalted Deeds), etc. Movanic Deva (Fiend Folio) has a bunch of SLAs: atonement, ethereal jaunt, plane shift, raise dead to name a few.

Moon Bolt (Spell Compendium). Autohits for 1d4 Str damage, up to 5 bolts for 5d4 Str damage. Against undead, renders them helpless for 1d4 rounds on a failed Fort save.

Sheltered Vitality (Spell Compendium). Usually towards the top of most "What spells should I Persist?" lists. Immunity to fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage, and ability drain.

Wall of $alt (Sandstorm). AKA "Free Money". Salt is a trade good with a fixed price, so a 7th level caster can create about 102 cubic feet of salt. Rock salt weighs about 80 lbs per cubic foot, so 102 cubic feet = 8160 lbs of salt. At 5 GP per pound, that's 40,800 GP of trade goods.

Wall of Sand (Spell Compendium). Clerics don't get solid fog, but they do get this excellent shutdown spell. There's actually two versions of this spell, the first one appeared in Sandstorm, but another version was printed in the Spell Compendium several months later. The Spell Compendium version is better: you can trap creatures inside the wall when you cast it, and there's no save to avoid the blindness/deafness.

5th:

Break Enchantment (Core). Good NOPE! card for several conditions that are usually a "GAME OVER" situation.

Darts of Life (Complete Champion). Creates 10 darts that heal 1d8 HP, launch 1 dart every round as a free action, 3 darts as a standard action, or all remaining darts as a full round action.

Flame Strike (Core). Your primary blasting spell up to about 15th level. Although blasting probably isn't the most effective use of your spell slots, casting this spell can be immensely satisfying. The biggest downside is the Ref save for half. If suddenly all your enemies have evasion, then switch to earth reaver.

Earth Reaver (Spell Compendium). This is a solid blasting spell in the mid-level ranges, but unfortunately the 7d6 damage doesn't scale up. Fortunately, the Ref save only applies to being knocked prone, so you usually get every point of that 7d6 damage to stick. Stays relevant up to 14th-15th level.

Necrotic Skull Bomb (Champions of Ruin). The idea behind this spell appears to be "What if enervation was an area effect?", which is an interesting idea, but the spell itself is kind of terrible, since now a Fort save negates the effect. However, it's on this list because it's only a swift action to cast, throwing glowing skulls at your enemies is freakin' awesome, and it has the best spell name ever.

Revivify (Spell Compendium). A big "OOPS" button. Brings an ally back to life if you can get to them in 1 round. If you're short on diamonds, you can create some in a pinch with a Chaos Flask (100 GP, Planar Handbook).

Righteous Might (Core). Make the fighter feel (more) useless (again).

6th:

Animate Objects (Core). Beat your enemies to death with furniture. While this isn't really the most effective way to bludgeon your enemies to death, wizards/sorcerers don't get this spell (why not?!?!), so you might as well enjoy it.

Valiant Steed (Book of Exalted Deeds). Sanctified spell, so make sure you cast sheltered vitality first. Calls a pegasus or unicorn to serve you for 1 year. A YEAR!

Call Faithful Servants (Book of Exalted Deeds). Calls a gaggle of lantern archons, coure eladrins, or musteval guardinals to serve you for one year: you can haz MINIONS!

Greater Dispel Magic (Core). Make dispel magic great again.

Harm/Heal (Core). Good core spells.

Mummify (Sandstorm). Save-or-die spell, which is somewhat similar to disintegrate in that it does 6d6 desiccation damage on a successful save. However, it's not a "death effect" spell, so death ward and other defenses that guard against death effects don't apply to it.

Planar Ally (Core). All the shenanigans of lesser planar ally, but now goes up to 12 HD.

7th:

Control Weather (Core). For flattening small villages or collapsing castles.

Holy Word (Core). No save smackdown for evildoers.

Fey Ring (Far Corners of the World: Spells of the Woodlands). Sorta like planar ally but for fey creatures. Make sure you prep guidance of the avatar for your Diplomacy check.

8th:

Antimagic Field (Core). Wizards got this way back at 11th level, but now you've finally got it. Wow, these things are really, really hard to counter.

Firestorm (Core). The best blasting spell on your list. The [fire] damage isn't so great, but Energy Substitution can fix that.

Stormrage (Spell Compendium). Fly 40', immune to most ranged weapons, and you shoot no-save 10d6 lightning bolts out of your eyes. At the very least, looks freakin' awesome.

9th:

Astral Projection (Core). Create duplicates of yourself (including equipment) so you can send them off adventuring without risking your own precious little self.

Gate (Core). One solar shows up, and they *all* show up.

Miracle (Core). If you should ever get attacked by the Russian hockey team...

[Eldariel]

For Darrin's list, I'd like to add some great 2nd level spells:

Divine Insight (Spell Compendium): Lesser skill bonus than Guidance of the Avatar, but it's Insight, not Competence (so they stack) and it's hours/level allowing you to keep it up and use it reactively in case you should need any given skill check. Both are definitely worth being aware of.

Silence (Core): This spell is incredible against spellcasters. It can also be used for stealth purposes - but it's a 20' radius area that blocks spellcasting for characters that require verbal components. And it can be moved if you anchor it to a rock or whatever. And it can be readied to stop a target's casting attempts. It can even be cast as a targeted spell on an enemy but as that allows a save, it's less amazing.

Shatter (Core): There's a lot of utility to being able to break things. While you should be careful with loot, many monsters use nonmagical weapons and those are worth nothing but they can be quite dangerous particularly in the hands of larger foes. Obviously you can also use it to break targets of importance from a distance in a variety of circumstances but destroying nonmagical weapons in particular keeps this useful in the long haul.