Project: Cleirc

[Mortis]

The Cleric / Druid Super caster died before it ever took off.

The Bane Knight Survivalist is at level 32 and doing very well. I know his strength is not all that, but he is a hard one to put down. I will continue with him until he is unable to move forward with efficiency. He is at least a stable way to bring in gold which is very important. Maybe he can get big enough to land me a Pixie, and I can make that whistling pixie build that Funky posted.

This is the current build I am working on so that my brother can catch up to my bane knight build.

Class: Cleric
Align: Lawful Neutral
Race: Human

Plant & Magic

Class progression:
1 – 39 Cleric
40 Monk

Start [] End
Str 14 [] 14
Dex 10 [] 10
Con 14 [] 14
Int 14 [] 14
Wis 15 [] 50 (With gear at 62)
Cha 10 [] 10

Pure Wisdom Build.

Going for a pure evocation combat caster, and maybe looking into transmutation if I get my wisdom all maxed out and still have a few feats to toss around. Nothing fancy here, but I have deviated a bit in taking focus morning star and Improved critical morning star.

So far:
Lvl 1 Luck of Heros, Combat Casting
Lvl 3 Toughness
Lvl 4 +1 Wis (16)
Lvl 6 Focus Morning Star
Lvl 8 +1 Wis (17)
Lvl 9 Extend Spell
Lvl 12 Spell Penetration, +1 Wis (18)
Lvl 15 Focus Evocation
Lvl 16 +1 Wis (19)
Lvl 18 Improved Critical Morning Star
Lvl 20 +1 Wis (20)
Lvl 21 Greater Focus Evocation
Lvl 24 Epic Focus Evocation, Improved Combat Casting, +1 Wis (21)

I want more feedback, if you would all please cut this up and tell me what you think. I have a feeling that a pure class with heavy focus and decent casting ability is never a bad choice but mostly I am looking for a character that I can take to LL and survive. Also, I am looking for information on if I should continue with my Bane knight or not. I want to move the one with the best chance of survival.

Thanks,
mlobriant

P.S. I am looking for a secret race that can allow me to build somthing so that I can learn a bit more. Anyone that would be willing to help me get a pixie or lillithid would be an HUGE help. I'm on my 5th build that I have taken to mid-twenties or beyond only to have it take realistic criticism and die.

[chainlink]

Grab a Paladin level for +6 to saves or they'll suck in an even more huge way then normal for Clerics/Druids, awful reflex will be your biggest problem (say hello to the Drocs for me). Forget initial points in Str, you probably have too much Int as well and the weapon focus feats are pointless as you'll be using a caster staff and not hitting stuff when you get to high levels. If you want to implode stuff you'll want maximum initial Wis of 18. Start with 18 Wis, 16 Con, 10 Int & 10 Cha and you should have enough skill points to max concentration, discipline and dumble (disc and tumble on your monk level at 40). You could always go 12 Cha for +1 on all saves and max your concentration in LL by dropping your Int to 8. Extend spell was something I took on my Uber cleric but I regret doing this now as I can't remember the last time I used it.

[borges]

As a relative newcomer to HG, I can offer you some basic advice regarding both this build and the subrace gold rush that every new player experiences.

Regarding the build, it simply won't work to have a caster cleric who starts out with 15 wisdom. This gives you a max of 45 base (10 points from lvls 1-40, 10 more from 40-60, and 10 Great Wisdom feats) without using the artifact; not sure how you arrived at the 50 in your post. That's a problem for two reasons: (i) it's an odd number, which means you may as well stop at 44 wis, since modifiers only increase on even numbers and (ii) it is 6-8 points lower than the target for a caster cleric, resulting in implosion DCs that are 3-4 points below par (par being a relative term here, since HG is about as juiced a play environment as you are likely to find).

Also, caster clerics don't typically take weapon-related feats. Rather, they try to maximize spell DC while making room for the epic spell foci that unlock the custom epic spells. I can't stress enough how important it is to read about those epic spells and understand their value. For a Hells-bound cleric, you will want *at least* Aegis and either Miracle or Girding. You will get Conversion anyway, based on your evocation foci. If you want to be a battle cleric rather than a caster, forget about imploding anything in the tougher LL areas and just focus on maximizing your AB, defense, and self-buffs.

There are a number of cleric builds posted here: www.hgwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Builds#Cleric. Study them to understand what makes them work. *Then* start building.

Finally, a note on subraces. There is, unfortunately, no optimal non-secret subrace for a caster or battle cleric. Consider investing some gold in a Minotaur book (which you need not be immortal to use). I see them in the auction chest all the time for ~50M. That gives you good STR and WIS for a battle cleric, though your CHA-based cleric abilities will be awful due to the stiff penalty.

I'd recommend getting one of your toons immo ASAP; you can then start unlocking the popular secret subs (pixie, illithid, etc.). Ask around in-game to find out how. This worked well for me. Even though my most advanced immo has serious design flaws--small size (not good for casters) and max saves in the low- to mid-50s--he has generated enough gold and URs to allow me to trade for better gear and subraces.

This is probably longer than the OP, so I'll leave it at that. Find me in-game with any questions about builds, subraces or the like. This is a very demanding world, so take whatever help you can get!

Cheers,
Borges

[khaine]

Do not discuss secrets on the forums.
Thanks,
The management

[dodrudon]

I would highly suggest taking one of the popular builds on the forum and just using it, even though I'll admit I didn't when I first came here. There are a lot of assumptions in the builds about what equipment you'll be using based on what's available in the game, and what you'll encounter, and what makes or breaks a character. At least look at common themes between builds of certain classes, such as nobody takes the built-in epic spells (Hellball, Greater Ruin, Epic Dragon Knight, etc), because quite frankly they suck.

Once you get familiar with the server and start understanding why characters are built a certain way, then you'll be able to design effective builds.