[3.5 Core + Complete Books] Melee Cleric Advice Welcomed

[Newsman77]

Hello Fellow Gamers,

You were most helpful in shaping my druid, but unfortunately, that campaign has come to an end. Now I need your help once more. A new campaign has arisen: we're limited to Core + all the Complete Books, nothing else outside. We are starting at level 4, with half the starting money you're allowed in DMG.

My plan is to go melee focused cleric, with DMM: Persist and a greatsword. The plan would be to take Divine Oracle and Contemplative at some point. I wanted to play a Half Giant, but Human sounds like the best bet. Could you please advise on any changes, direction I should take? Here's what we have so far:

Str: 17
Dex:13
Con:16
Wis:18
Int:13
Cha:14

Race: Human
Feats: Extend Spell, Extra Turning, Persist. (at 6th DMM: Persist Spell)
Skills: Concentration, Spell Craft, Knowledge (Religion), Heal
Deity: Homemade with War (for greatsword) and Travel domains.

What do you think? I know I need to pick up power attack at some point and was thinking of a fighter level dip.

[Jackinthegreen]

DMM Persist might be a problem depending on how fond your DM is of dispelling and whether you have access to enough uses of Turn Undead to fuel it.

Yes, you'll probably want to get Power Attack eventually, and perhaps go up to Shock Trooper.

[Newsman77]

Good point. What if I went DMM: Extend Spell instead? I could still get more time out of Divine Power and not have to worry about dispel as much, plus I could grab power attack.

[phaedrusxy]

Extend won't help at all with 1 round/level spells. With or without Extend, they will last through one combat but not long enough to get through a second one almost 100% of the time. Persist lets you cast a spell once per day, instead of every encounter, saving you both spell slots and in-combat actions. The actions are actually what are worth the most.

Extend is best for long duration spells (1 hr/lvl), because often it will let them last all day instead of half the day. It's not worth getting DMM for Extend, though. You don't typically cast these long duration spells in combat. So there is no "combat action" cost. So it's just a matter of another spell slot for the day, which isn't as big of a deal.

[muktidata]

Persist is still really good especially once you can pick up your first Lesser Rod of Extend (making your 24 hour persisted spells 48 hours instead) and if the MIC ever becomes a source you can use there's is the amulet in that book that gives like 3/day attempts. I think the War Domain is wasted here mostly because you want a reach weapon. I'd rather see Knowledge Devotion, I think.

[Iainuki]

Your first problem as a melee cleric is damage.  DMM (Persistent) abuse can solve this problem eventually but doesn't get really effective until you can persist divine favor and divine power, and eventually righteous might.  Power Attack is not useful if you go this route since with a two-handed weapon you'll get enough damage from your buffs that Power Attack won't add much damage unless you're pushing your enemies off the RNG.  Other things you may want to look into are Holy Warrior (CC) and Knowledge Devotion (CC).   Power Attack into Shock Trooper is a viable means of damage for all characters, but that's feat-intensive and doing it on top of DMM (Persistent) will be hard to say the least.  The biggest problem with Power Attack+Shock Trooper for a cleric is that it's reasonably challenging to get pounce.  In the Complete books, I'm going to guess the most cost-efficient way to do it is a one-level barb dip (lion totem, CC), which of course costs casting.

Like muktidata says, you want to use a reach weapon, not a greatsword.  Having to eat an AoO to attack Large bipeds and Huge anything sucks, and better reach is tactically useful in other ways, too.  Get the War domain for one of the martial reach weapons or use a longspear.

What domains are you planning to get with divine oracle and contemplative?  What are they going to do for you?

[jameswilliamogle]

Extend your DMM persist spells too.

[Newsman77]

I was looking more at Divine Oracle and Contemplative for their class abilities mainly, like Prescient Sense, Divine Health, etc. and still keep full casting.

Am I trying for too much?

I'll be honest, I typically like to play the melee types that like to hit things with a big sword. I recently played the druid and really enjoyed it. A friend recommended the cleric as something to try next.