Clerics: How do they play out?

[Leafy]

Gnomes are only cool for that one class; "cleric/illusionist" Give him the Helm of the Trusted Defender, and he can cast spells without ever suffering from fatigue! so haste it up, or give some holy strength to your fighter and don't worry about the lethargy afterwards. Halflings can wear the helm as well, but halflings are kind of useless. There are only a couple "halfling only" items, and like one place for a hafling to act cool (well, in IWD anyways.. not so certain about the Luremaster, and i never found any halflings in HoW?)
But as well as the gnomes and halflings beating the Fatigue with the Helm, Druids will no suffer fatigue in HoW once they reach a high enough level. I tell ya, i Loooove HASTE. but i hate the side-effects of fatigue. But here's 3 characters that never suffer fatigue. Really Helpfull spells like haste, i save for the bard class. Simply because of the spell description; duration is dependent on character level, not spell level. So even though a mage can cast Hast a little sooner, a Bard can cast a much more powerfull version.

[Leafy]

oh yeah; and as a rule, i have 2 clerics in my parties. usually multi classed. cuz there's nothing worse than having your cleric die and not being able to ressurect him. With 2 clerics and a stack of ressurect scrolls, you're all good.

[marco]

my cleric's are the first in fights with the undead. First i turn on the "turn undead" switch and let the creature of evil fall as they may. It also helps that i can create skels to help out.

[Axterix]

Originally posted by Leafy: Evil clerics have a little more offensive spells.. like cause wounds and cloud of pestilence. but all in all, it's not much better than a good cleric.

Hehe, the problem with those offensive spells is that a few are useless (the anti-good one for instance) and most of the others require a touch and/or failed save. On higher levels of difficulty, like HoF, it makes those spells pretty much a waste of time to bother casting. Good in theory, but just not effective. Trust me, all in all, a good cleric is worth 10 evil ones. Resurrection, raise dead, heal, shield of Lathander, greater shield of Lathander, and the ability to destroy undead with turn undead.

[Leafy]

I see your point. However, you're cutting the evil Cleric a bit short. Unholy Blight seems to work on elves in the severd hand.. but that's about all i found
Harm, on the otherhand, is way cool. It lowers a character to 1D4 hp which is invaluable in Heart of Fury mode as most creatures have 100 or 200 hp. Slay living and destruction are cool too.. but yeah, monster saves kind of suck. that's why curses and Malisions must be placed on the enemies first. personally i have two clerics, one good and one evil. Funny, even the evil cleric can read a Raise dead or heal scroll, so it's not so bad as it seems. you just need to spend some dough on scrolls every now and then if you need backup heals and raise deads. Cloud of pestilence is neat, but you need to lay down a lot of webs and greese for it to be effective; but it does weakon strong monsters so they don't kill you as fast; that's a huge advantage in IWD but the spell itself is kinda hard to use
Oh yeah, and the Evil clerics can scare the hell out of the little boy hiding under the stairs in Kuldahur pass.. heheheh

I'm amazed people miss another obvious reason to have Clerics. Bless, Prayer, Protection from Evil 15' rad, etc al.

My party is pretty much always under all of those as well as Emoption: Courage and Emotion: Hope from a Mage. My main fighter's THAC- is usually -3 or better and most saves are at least six or less (for a 9th level party).


Cheers
Craig

[Axterix]

Originally posted by Leafy: I see your point. However, you're cutting the evil Cleric a bit short. Unholy Blight seems to work on elves in the severd hand.. but that's about all i found Harm, on the otherhand, is way cool. It lowers a character to 1D4 hp which is invaluable in Heart of Fury mode as most creatures have 100 or 200 hp. Slay living and destruction are cool too.. but yeah, monster saves kind of suck. that's why curses and Malisions must be placed on the enemies first. personally i have two clerics, one good and one evil. Funny, even the evil cleric can read a Raise dead or heal scroll, so it's not so bad as it seems. you just need to spend some dough on scrolls every now and then if you need backup heals and raise deads. Cloud of pestilence is neat, but you need to lay down a lot of webs and greese for it to be effective; but it does weakon strong monsters so they don't kill you as fast; that's a huge advantage in IWD but the spell itself is kinda hard to use Oh yeah, and the Evil clerics can scare the hell out of the little boy hiding under the stairs in Kuldahur pass.. heheheh

Yah, scaring the boy was fun. However, as opposed to an evil cleric, I'd rather have a druid. A single summoning spell will save more hp's for your party (and do more damage as well)... with 0% chance of being resisted. Not to mention having the ability to shapeshift, ensnare, a few lingering damage type spells, the best summoning spells, alicorn lance (makes things easier to hit), the level 1 sunray spell (great for killing trolls/revenants and it blinds) and all that good stuff. Oh, and they can cast heal, as well as use all cleric scrolls. Mind you, I'm going to have a cleric for their party enhancing spells and cures/dispels. Those are invaluable for the tough fights. But two in a party? I don't need the duplication of spells and other caster classes pack a ton more punch. Just be sure to carry a few remove paralysis scrolls

The biggest thing that annoys me about the evil cleric is the lack of raise dead/ress and heal. These are the abilities I want most out of my cleric, and not having them, well, that's annoying.

[Khanar]

I wouldn't know what to do without my two Dwarven Fighter/Clerics. You cover your party with all sorts of defensive spells in short order, weaken your enemies, and then send those two into the melee as well with your fighter style characters. On the other hand, you can also just send one out to fight hand to hand, and let the other one cast spells, then switch places when one gets too badly injured to stay out front so he can go back to heal himself really quick and cast a few more spells until. That's how I do it. Plus I like to use them to soften up the enemies with slings before I send them out into the fight.

[Albromor]

Khanar, that is why I liked Yeslick in BG1 so much. He was so versatile between using his spells and being able to go into combat. I am like many players with my game approach being 2 clerics in a party.

[Khanar]

OT: I'll have to check that guy out. I've been without a Cleric in BG1 since I started a long time ago. I think I'd like one with me in Durlag's tower since it's getting a bit difficult at times.