Battle Cleric Build Opinions, please?

[reelroleplayer]

After finally obtaining Fallen Angel, I've made a variation of Yue's Battle cleric (which is a very strong build so far, btw--thanks, Yue).

My question is this: my naked AB at lvl 40 will be 38, which I believe translates to a max of 72 at lvl 60 if I take 6 great str's and one other feat in LL's (maybe LL Ench, or extend/max). I'm taking instruments of faith (+16GMW) and girding of the faithful (+4 shield/armor AC) cleric epics for sure. I currently have silent spell and empower spell.

I was seriously considering sacrificing four LL Great Str's to get max / extend spell (resulting in a total of four metamagics), and using three LL feats to get another epic spell (probably Aegis for 30/- v. exotics). That would still get me a 70 max AB with two Great Str's and +10 from LL's. Would that be sufficient in most places, or will those two points make a big difference in the toughest zones? Would 30/- exotic immunity + a 4th metamagic feat be worth sacrificing a couple of points of AB?

I've not done Illithids, Beholders, or Pyramid, but everywhere else it seems like 70 would be enough, seeing as in another post Funky mentioned the highest boss AC wasn't much higher than that. I was hoping to get some confirmation that this isn't a bad move. I realize that I won't hit every time with my non-maxed AB attacks, but I think that is fine considering I've got plenty of other methods of doing damage.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[tyranlthixis]

Hmmm....I did great strength 8 with my battle cleric and his max AB at 60 will be 79 buffed. Which means if you did all the feats you could go to 80 and higher if you had a bard around. I would say that 75 is a comfortable AB, but more is definately more. I can feel the difference.

Having said that here's my opinion on the meta magic feats (I did silent, and extend + 8 great strength)

Extend - saves on spell slots (you have to rebuff less often) and allows you to live at max AB almost continuously. Prayer and divine power last a good long time extended which means I only have to worry about recasting divine favor most of the time.

Silent - Does two things. Firstly, it allows you to have an extra tier of Earthquakes (one of the few spells you can damage with given your crap wisdom and poor SR). Secondly, it takes pressure off of level 6 as your sole source of harms. While your harm is nerfed compared to a caster cleric, it is good enough to take out annoying things like living sands and other problematic touch attack monsters that prey on your wimpy conceal. Thought it was a gamble to take this feat originally but it was definately a good choice.

Empower and Maximize just didn't make sense to me. Your spells are nerfed in terms of power and SR....why take feats to expand your selection of those nerfed spells.

Tyran

[tyranlthixis]

Aegis rocks btw. Can be a bit of a nightmare in terms of ring rests because its duration is short. But, when is Aegis on it can be very beneficial to you and your party. Not sure how far you are in your build, but you should be able to fit in 3 epics (one by book) and be able to go all the way to great strength 8-10. If you had to pick two I would do Girding of the faithful and Aegis. I also did Visage, but I think Miracle would have been a better choice as my third now that I've tasted both spells.

[edit]
Another note. You should not take both girding of the faithful and instruments of faith. With the epic enchant focus you already get +13 gmw and you can up that with a single legendary feat to +14. An extra 2-3 modifier is not worth 3 feats....plus the duration on instruments is really short (to the point where its annoying). Not even long enough to finish a boss battle.


Tyran

[FunkySwerve]

tyranlthixis said:

Hmmm....I did great strength 8 with my battle cleric and his max AB at 60 will be 79 buffed.

In the combat log or on the character sheet? Sounds a bit high.
Funky