Pathfinder Cleric help

[KnightoftheWhiteSun]

I am starting a game where I will be playing a cleric but want to do something fun with it and not be a heal bot.
I have 2 ideas currently:

Idea 1: straight NG Cleric of Horus,
Domains: Animal Domain [Hawk], Lightning domain
The ultimate goal would be to take the feats to allow me to gain a Gryphon companion.
This would require me to take the Boon Companion Feat: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/boon-companion
And take the feats: Monstrous Mount https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/monstrous-mount/
and Monstrous Mount Mastery to make it really good: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/monstrous-mount-mastery/
to get a Gryphon animal companion and rain down lightning and spells from my noble steed.

Idea 2: Neutral Cleric prestiging into Grey Gardiner prestige class
Take Prestigious Caster Feat: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/prestigious-spellcaster/
to make up for missing spell casting and just focus down fools with Channel Smite, Sneak attack, and spells

I would love to combine these two ideas but unfortunately I can't seem to find a way to continue gaining Domains while taking a prestige class.

Any advice on these would be great.

[Nanashi]

What content is allowed? WotC 3E content? Paizo's pre-PF 3E content (most of the stuff has been updated or was super specific, but there's still really useful gems like Curnogen Smash, which got included in the Kingmaker video game unaltered)? Any third party content?

Don't take animal domain ever. Take the Feather Subdomain instead. It's better in every way than the base domain.

Why Hawk instead of Roc? Rocs are explicitly able to serve as mounts. Monstrous Mount is intended for Cavaliers and the like that have limited AC options (and is a bad feat for them anyways), which Animal/Feather domain doesn't have to deal with.

You can only prepare domain spells in domain spell slots, and there simply isn't enough electricity blasts on the cleric lists to expect to use them all the time. There are a few ways to cheat around this restriction, but blasting in PF generally isn't worth it unless you use a few very specific build options from non-cleric classes. Buffing your animal companion (remember that Share Spells lets you apply Personal spells to an Animal Companion) and letting them rip and tear for you is generally way more efficient than trying to blast from atop them

As for Grey Gardiner, it looks like it wants you to multiclass two of rogue/cleric/inquisitor even if it's strictly possible to enter cleric only. I wouldn't try combining it with an AC based build or blasting build.

[Power]

Monstrous Mount does not work with a regular animal companion feature. It has to be either a Ranger companion, a mount class feature, or a Paladin mount. Feather subdomain is just an animal companion, not any of these. What you can do is get the Mount inquisition as one of your two Cleric domains, and use Monstrous Mount to obtain a griffon companion that way. In that case you could probably go for both the Feather subdomain and the Chivalry inquisition and avail yourself of both a mount and an animal companion. Of course, you can always just pay 8k gp for a combat-trained Griffon and get a Griffon that way, but it won't have animal companion advancement if you do this.

As for advancing Cleric domains with a prestige class, the only prestige classes that do this are Dawnflower Anchorite (Sarenrae worshipers only), Stargazer (Pulura worshipers only), Hellknight Signifier (which works for a Cleric of Horus, but Hellknights are essentially extreme enforcers of the law), and of course Evangelist, but Horus does not have a Deific Obedience and not every GM will permit you to use Prestigious Spellcaster with Evangelist (since strictly speaking it doesn't have a spells per day class feature).

Gray Gardener prestige class seems fine for Clerics provided you use Prestigious Spellcaster feats but indeed not when you have to advance domain levels. There is no good way to advance domain levels with the Grey Gardener prestige class, although there are ways to get animal companions that scale with character level instead of class level (Animal Ally and Exotic Heritage (Sylvan) mostly), but these will not enable you to get a Griffon companion. It is possible to use Boon Companion to advance a Griffon mount for another 4 levels as you prestige into your class of choice, but this feat can only be taken once per animal companion class feature.

If all you're after is for your Cleric to not be a healbot though, there are plenty of ways to achieve that. Bear in mind that you can use Preferred Spell or Greater Spell Specialization in order to spontaneously cast a domain spell with your class slots, so if you have domain spells in mind, your options are quite good. Perhaps the laziest way to be a potent Cleric is to take the Evangelist archetype and specialize in Summon Monster spells with Sacred Summons.

Really though, Clerics can fill every party role (including all of them at the same time), so feel free to mention what kind of Cleric you'd prefer to play if you're looking for a way to make a particular playstyle viable.

[KnightoftheWhiteSun]

I mistakenly substituted Hawk for Feather in my initial post, I meant [Feather] and would select a Roc to start but Mechanically speaking, Gryphons are better stat wise so I did not even mention the Roc which would soon be replaced by a Gryphon.

I am playing an Aasimar
Stats are set to: 17,16,15,14,13,12 before racial adjustments.

As to what is allowed:
Per DM, only Pathfinder 1E, no D&D 3.5, no Pathfinder 3rd party without express permission.

As for what I want to do with my character:
I plan on making him a military leader, going for leadership at lvl 7. (think the Templars)
Combat wise, I plan to go back and forth between spells and melee.
I wanted to have an animal companion and a cohort to be able to have my own personal little army when I roll into battle so I can back up my party in whatever way they need.

It has been suggested to me that I should go Evangelist as a prestige as there really is no reason not to considering the boost in skills and progression of cleric class features, the problem is finding the right deity which offers the most bang for the buck.
Right now I'm heavily leaning towards Sarenrae just due to the plethora of content designed towards her and the power of Way of the Merciful: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/divine-fighting-technique-combat/ (being able to smack people to heal is amazing!)

I would ideally like to be able to shoot lightning (my preferred elemental flavor) and have an animal companion along with a weapon that doesn't suck, hence my love of Horus. Alas, Bird Daddy does not have any deific obedience.

I am firm about staying Cleric as the base class but want animal companion(s).
The Feather Subdomain would be what I would take if I have he Animal Domain and would be selecting a Roc as an animal companion.

I find the idea of using the Animal Domain and Chivalry Inquisition to have 2 mounts utterly hilarious, though that would take away any and all blasting capability with domain spells so I would probably want to avoid that.

The plan currently is:
Cleric (Divine Paragon) (Choose Sentinel or Exalted boons)
Choose 1 actual domain, choose 1 sacrificial domain with good spells.
Prestige into Evangelist (double the boons, double the fun!)



An idea I had using the feedback here:
Cleric of Sarenrae (Divine Paragon)
Domains: Fire, Healing Domain (Sacrifice features of one of these for Exhalted/Sentinal Boons)
Feats: Nature Soul, Animal Ally (Wolf), Boon Companion, Way of the Merciful.
Prestige into Evangelist

Or

Cleric of Sarenrae (Divine Paragon)
Domains: Fire, Chivalry Inquisition (Sacrifice features of Fire Domain for Exalted or Sentinel Boons)
Feats: Way of the Merciful, Monstrous Mount. Monstrous Mount Mastery.
Prestige into Evangelist

I am completely open to any way to make this build better or completely changing it so long as I can melee, spell cast, and have an flying animal companion.

[Power]

Evangelist prestige class is pretty bad for most classes and especially for full casters. It puts you 1 level behind on all your class features. The worst part of this is the loss of spellcasting levels. It basically means that 50% of the time, you do not have access to your highest level of spells. You think you won't notice being one level behind, but you will. It's painfully obvious whenever you're missing an entire level's worth of spells. If your GM allows you to use Prestigious Spellcaster with Evangelist you can do it, but otherwise I recommend against it. Even with Prestigious Spellcaster, it makes going Evangelist a 3 feat investment and this build already seems to be rather demanding when it comes to feats. Furthermore, unless your GM uses fractional BAB advancement, it also means you lose a point of BAB unless you enter the prestige class at level 9 instead of level 6.

Aasimar is not the best race if you want to melee because you'll want +2 Wis and +2 Str and Aasimars do not offer that. Still, you can take Garuda-blooded and try for a dex-based build but your build will want feats for melee, feats for blaster casting, feat(s) for animal companion, and another feat for Leadership. Clerics tend not to make good blaster casters but with enough bonus caster levels anything is a deadly blaster.

I can think of the following build:

Deity: Gozreh (Domains: Animal domain + Lightning subdomain)

1 Spell Focus (Evocation)
3 Spell Specialization (Shocking Grasp -> later Lightning Bolt)
5 Boon Companion
7 Leadership
9 Greater Spell Specialization

You're going to want Acolyte of Apocrypha as your faith trait, and the downside here is that your melee prowess tends to suffer considerably. If you take Oni-spawn Tiefling or Oread as your race it is possible to simply use a Longspear and hurt people with regular attacks or AoOs. If you pre-buff yourself with Resist Energy you can mitigate the bonus damage from the Lightning domain easily.

Hmmm... If we tweak things a bit (and don't grab Lightning domain, because it cripples our ability to take Fate's Favored), we can probably go down this route:

Evangelist Cleric (Hei Feng, Storms subdomain) - Garuda-blooded Aasimar

1 Weapon Finesse
3 Exotic Heritage (Sylvan)
5 Eldritch Heritage
7 Leadership
9 Boon Companion

Stat array: 15 str, 16+2 dex, 14 con, 12 int, 17+2 wis, 13 cha

Traits: Adopted->Arms Master, Quick Learner, Fate's Favored, and pick a Drawback

The perk of Hei Feng is being able to prepare Lightning Bolt like a normal Cleric spell and the Weather subdomain is full of useful spells. Storms does cause you to lose Ice Storm and Control Winds, but Sirocco is a good spell and you seem to like the blasting Cleric spells. If you use an Icon of Aspects, you can take Destruction (or its Catastrophe subdomain) for Destructive Smite.

For melee combat, you're going to want to use a +1 agile Elven Branched Spear, I suppose. Your sources of attack and damage will be Divine Favor and Inspire Courage (which will also affect your party, cohort, and animal companion) for the most part.

Frankly, ranged combat tends to be a better pick than melee for clerics, and if you are not too much into blaster casting I can come up with better builds that have potent spellcasting. I'm also guessing you're not interested in worshiping Lovecraftian horrors (there are some good options there). Also, it would help to know your starting level, wealth, and to what level the campaign is expected to go.

[KnightoftheWhiteSun]

I don't see why evangelist is bad for full casters aside from the Spell progression, which the DM has ruled prestigious caster can work itself around. Its a 2 feat tax though so I know that can get a bit much.

My ideal here would be Sword and Shield Cleric with an animal companion. Focusing on lightning as a favored element for blasting but otherwise going to town in melee.

The current level is 3 with standard wealth but DM doesn't plan on capping the game at a certain level, we will play until were all dead, its no longer fun, or covid is over and we can move onto our Abberant game.

Things I am married to, in order of importance:
Cleric Class
Aasimar race
None-evil alignment (required for the campaign).
Leadership
An Animal Companion
Shield and weapon melee, preferred slashing weapons but piecing is fine too.
Lightning elemental magic.
Channel energy (for healing and/or dmg)

Everything else is up for grabs. Oh and I only have 1 trait open as DM has a variant Noble trait I have to take as an Aasimar in his setting as they all come from a noble house hold.

I like your stuff on the Spell Focus/specialization leaning.
I LOVE the fact that with Hei Feng you can prepare lightning bolt as a 3rd level spell, even if I generally personally prefer more Neutral or lawful deities, mechanics beat fluff.

With your basis of Exotic heritage + Eldritch heritage + Boon companion I see other class options open up. Though, with the way its worded, wouldn't you gain an animal companion at Druid lvl - 5 due to Eldritch Heritage lowering your sorcerer lvl by -2 and the Sylvan Bloodline giving it to you at Sorcerer lvl -3?

What is your opinion on the Grey Warden? https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/e-h/gray-warden/

[Power]

Spell progression is the major one. With Prestigious Caster another factor is that you have to weigh whether or not 3 feats are worth what Evangelist offers you, and if you're trying to do a lot of things, it's possible to be too short on feats to afford this sort of investment. The last issue is that you lose a point of BAB unless either you enter at level 9 or your GM is using the optional fractional BAB rules from Pathfinder Unchained for multiclassing. In your case, 3 feats and losing a point of BAB is a heavy price, so unless the Evangelist boons are that good, you're typically better off skipping the prestige class. Generally speaking it's more of an option if you have feats to burn, but when it comes to Hei Feng you'd sooner want the first two exalted boons and maybe the last sentinel boon (which would require a Diverse Obedience feat), so Evangelist prestige class doesn't really help.

As for traits, if you take a Drawback (a single optional negative trait you can take to get an extra positive trait - see here), you can get another trait at least, but if not you're going to have to pick between the Arms Master + Quick Learner combo (which lets you use all weapons that are not siege weapons without a nonproficiency penalty) or picking say Fate's Favored and something else that's useful. For a melee 1H, my favorite pick is the scorpion whip with a whip proficiency behind it (15 foot reach is good), but that's not an option here (you usually play a Human with Ancestral Arms alternate racial trait for the double proficiencies or otherwise get one proficiency through race/class and invest a feat in another, but you're an Aasimar, short on feats, and not worshiping a deity that gives a relevant proficiency either), so I guess I'd say pick a whip but then you'll need to make it a +1 deadly (later agile) whip to do good damage with it. Normally agile is higher priority but if you go with 15 str you're not going to need it that badly. With Greater Magic Weapon you can raise the enhancement bonus yourself at higher levels. You'll need the Arms Master + Quick Learner combo (no Fate's Favored) though. If you skip using these traits to equip whips like this, you'll want a dagger I suppose. Weapon Finesse is really the way to go as Aasimar imo since the +2 dex +2 wis combo is good.

With regards to Exotic Heritage into an animal companion, yes, you get your animal companion at -5 levels, and it becomes -1 once you use Boon Companion. If you leave this for higher levels it is possible to simply purchase a Robe of Arcane Heritage and skip the Boon Companion feat but that's 16k gp and I tend to consider the robe a bit of a cheesy item since it lets Sorcerers access their bloodline powers and capstones 4 levels early along with a number of silly tricks you can pull with it.

As for the Gray Gardener prestige class (d20pfsrd renamed it), it's similarly expensive in terms of feats as the Evangelist PrC is. The perks are otherwise not bad for what you want, but that does mean you can't really use the Evangelist Cleric archetype for Inspire Courage (which is pretty good when you want to melee and are bringing a melee pet also, maybe a melee cohort, and will likely also have other melee in your party). The real deal-breaker tends to be how many feats it'll set you back, especially if you want to pursue an animal companion through your feats.