Growing the perfect Priest

[vesselle]

the following is from the brain of merkin

i just wanted it to be posted with his other treatises on
"growing the perfect teammate"

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The Rawulf. Dwarfs make good Priests, they don’t make great priests. The Rawulf has the big jump in starting PIE, and far better SEN than the dwarf, and SEN is vital to the Priest, you always want him going towards the beginning of melee, to heal/restore the party BEFORE their combat turn comes up. So get yourself a nice doggie, and watch him save your party’s bacon over and over again.

At character creation:

15 INT, 17 PIE, 2 VIT, 10 SPD, 6 SEN.

The PIE for the Priest is obvious, the others less so. 2 points in VIT gives you that all important bonus bump, allowing you to safely ignore VIT for the rest of the game. The 10 SPD points while not crucial to your priest, are to your party as a whole. In combat movement, you move at the rate of your slowest character, and anyone under 50 is going to seriously hamper your party. The 6 into SEN, while not much at first, will keep getting added to throughout the game, we’ll start ramping it up faster soon. Now the hotly debated question of INT for a Priest. Yes, it does matter. INT is the prime attribute for increasing in your realms skills. Now, how MUCH it matters is difficult to answer. It seems through play-testing that about 56 is the level that takes you out of the “penalty box”, and lets your realms skills improve much faster. And as 55 is the min. INT for most spellcasters, I feel safe taking it to 56 then stopping for awhile.

So, at creation your Rawulf Priest looks like this:

STR: 40
INT: 45
PIE: 77
VIT: 57
DEX: 40
SPD: 50
SEN: 56

At level ups, go 3 PIE, 2 INT, 1 SEN, until you max PIE and get INT to 56. Then, dump everything into SEN and SPD. You really want, before you hit mid-game, to have your priest faster than everyone in your party, with the exceptions of Samurais, Monks, Rogues, and Ninjas. Once SEN hits 80, back off, and go 3 INT, 1 SEN and 1 SPD.

Now on to the skills:
Just like the Mage, the Priest really should be a pure spellcaster. Wiz Priests do NOT make good Cleric/Warriors like they do in D&D. Just because they CAN wield a weapon, doesn’t mean they SHOULD wield a weapon. Put a sling in his hands just for forms sake, he’ll develop enough skill with it to make him useful as a bomb thrower, ditto with a mace, staff or whip, but all your skill points should be going to magic. The Priest picks up new spells at the same rate as other pure casters.

Spell Priest
Level Level
1 1
2 3
3 5
4 8
5 11
6 14
7 18

Divine, Water, and Mental should be your focus realms, with Air and Earth secondary, and Fire ignored completely. So put 3 points into Divinity, and 2 each into three of your realms, even if you don’t currently have a spell in that realm

These are the spells I’d go with, at different levels. Just like with the Mage, I’m not big on withholding spells, you’ll get them all soon enough, and extra books will be very useful to a Valk.


Level Spells Spells to pick
available
1 1st Heal Wounds
2 1st None
3 2nd Identify, Web, Cure Lesser Condition
4 2nd Guardian Angel
5 3rd Armorplate
6 3rd Magic Screen
7 3rd Silence
8 4th Soul Shield
9 4th Superman
10 4th Remove Curse
11 5th Heal All
12 5th Sane Mind
13 5th Instant Death
14 6th Resurrection
15 6th Banish
16 6th Lifesteal
17 6th ?
18 7th Restoration
19 7th Death Wish
20 7th Falling Stars
21 7th ?

As with the Mage, the “?” levels are places to fill in the gaps with spells you haven’t found/bought/stolen. Also, here again, this does not rely on finding a particular spell, they are bonuses, and duplicates can go to Vi, a Bishop, or a Lord.

Just like with all casters, non-combat/buff spells should be practiced…well, …religiously. Always cast them at max power, don’t worry if they fizzle or not, this is the fastest way to improve.

In terms of strategy, your buff spells should always be in place, so you don’t have to waste time with them in combat. Once combat begins, what you do will depend on the status of your party. Keeping them in fighting trim is mission number one, so if needed, healing, curing status effects, Guardian Angels, etc is your 1st priority. Next comes the debuff/immob spells like Web, and anything else you’ve picked up to slow the enemy down. The one exception is enemy casters, silencing them is ALWAYS your top priority. Because you should be going very early in melee, you should usually be able to neutralize a mage before that nasty Terror or Elemental spell even crosses her lips.

So there you have my version of the perfect Priest. Humble, selfless, willing to let others bask in the limelight; he will keep your party in fighting trim, laughing at silly Rapax (well, ok, not really) and cranking out those kills. A key member of the "perfect" team. Oh Lassie! Timmy is stuck..could you rescue him again? Woof!

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merkin


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re-posted by V***V

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: vesselle ]

[ryu]

nice overview;
well i used to think speed has more to do with initiative than senses, but you must have opened my eyes;
i started a priest, but want to turn her into bishop, just im not sure WHEN do i do that;
and btw, having fearie priest is really WEIRD;
[img]graemlins/lamb.gif[/img]

[Parrp the Karp]

Thank you very much for this, vesselle and merkin! A good read!

It also merges perfectly with a question I need to ask: what to do with a priest after level 21? I just reached that level last night with my kindly Rawulf Priest Palu, and I think he's gotten every spell he's going to get. I'm not even halfway done with the game (I'm a slow goer) so what should I be doing with him now? I think it would be great for him to pick up another spell group, but I'm not sure which one. Anyone have some advice for a lost fish? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[yoodaa]

Can someone explain the "magical" vitality bonus that pops up in messages now and then? Thx.

[MaskedFrog]

Overall I think this is good information for a starting priest. IMHO there are a few things I would do differently.

Speed is more important than Senses for Init because Speed unlocks Snake Speed which improves your initiative.

If you plan on having your priest cast attack spells, you will need 100 Int. This unlocks Power Cast which helps you get through you opponents resistances.

This said there are many differnt ways to develop your characters and you need to choose what is most effective for you particular playing style.

[Merkin]

quote:

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Originally posted by yoodaa:
Can someone explain the "magical" vitality bonus that pops up in messages now and then? Thx.

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If you mean the message that reads something like "Merkin's Divinity has improved to 96", that just means that your magic has just gotten more powerful. Like all other skills, magic grows more effective through use.

RE:SPD vs SEN... I've found out recently that I was mistaken in thinking that SEN contributed more to init than SPD for a caster. In fact they contribute exactly the same. So which one you pump becomes a judgement call. I still lean towards SEN rather than SPD, as my approach remains unchanged. I don't see Snakespeed as being that critical for an priest, and prefer a more balanced character.

Same goes for powercast. The priest has comparatively few offensive spells, and I just don't think ramping INT all the way to 100 is justified, when you consider the other gaping holes in his development that leads to.

[yoodaa]

quote:

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Originally posted by Merkin:

If you mean the message that reads something like "Merkin's Divinity has improved to 96", that just means that your magic has just gotten more powerful. Like all other skills, magic grows more effective through use.

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Sorry, was being incoherent. My question restated bluntly: What's the big deal about getting 61 vitality?

[GetCool]

When you increase your vitality to 61, (in most cases) you will gain a hit point. That may seem like no big deal, but that extra hit point actually represents a percentage bonus to your total HPs, and it will carry with you throughout the game (when you first start out, since you have so few HPs that percentage bonus only yields one HP, but later it will yield more and more).

[Serops]

quote:

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Same goes for powercast. The priest has comparatively few offensive spells, and I just don't think ramping INT all the way to 100 is justified, when you consider the other gaping holes in his development that leads to. - Merkin

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I believe that powercast does more than just reduce enemy resistance and is therefore usefull for most spells, the priest's included. Here's the right click description:

quote:

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Powercast: The ability to cast a spell with such force that it increases the original effectiveness and duration of the spell and makes it more difficult to resist.

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I've noticed that my bishops with powercast get increased duration on most if not all buffing spells. For example, a power level 4 soul or elemental shield should last for 7 turns. I get 10. In many battles this often gives my casters an extra turn or two to do something else aside from renewing the shield. In addition, Armorplate and magic screen last around 40-50 extra turns. The effectiveness of these spells may also be improved, but its difficult to tell at this point. It may also increase the effectivenes of your healing/restoring spells (I haven't paid much attention here since I don't use those spells very often).

This doesn't mean, of course, that powercast is necessary for your priest (that's depends on how you play him/her). I do think that people tend to dismiss powercast as merely reducing enemy resistance when it's actually more.

btw/nice guide to the priest Merkin

[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: Serops ]

[yoodaa]

quote:

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Originally posted by GetCool:
When you increase your vitality to 61, (in most cases) you will gain a hit point. That may seem like no big deal, but that extra hit point actually represents a percentage bonus to your total HPs, and it will carry with you throughout the game (when you first start out, since you have so few HPs that percentage bonus only yields one HP, but later it will yield more and more).

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Let me see if I got this straight...the hp you get at every level up is a percentage of your current HP (geometric growth). So, by getting 61 vitality, you get one point of HP which will become more later on.

hmm, or is it that at 61 vitality, a special bonus is applied at each level up?

On a related note, what other "magic numbers" are there for getting bonuses for vitality?