Quick advice: Evil Cleric tactics

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Gonzoron of the FoS
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Quick advice: Evil Cleric tactics

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Should've asked earlier, but I need to know by saturday...

Am I missing any obvious tactics for a 12th level evil cleric? (the game is 3.0, with a few 3.5 additions here and there).

The scenario: Said cleric will be alone, on the 3rd floor of a tower. 1st floor is a chapel. 2nd floor is a balcony over the chapel. 3rd floor is said cleric's apartment. he will have warning of the PC's arrival, as there is an unhallow/detect good centered on the chapel. This will be a battle to the "death," as the PC's want him dead and vice-versa. He has the sun and destruction domains and access to 3.0 haste via an undisclosed source. (yes, the old-fashioned broken kind that lets you cast twice a round.)

I suppose he will buff with haste, owl's wisdom, shield of faith, and spell resistance as soon as the "Good detector" goes off. (the PCs will likely be pretty buffed as well.)

his best offense is probably Harm up close and Flame Strike at range. He's got divine metamagic and fell drain, so some of those will come with negative levels attached too. Blade Barrier can be used to block while he flings flame strikes, and mobile spellcasting will keep him out of dangerous melee.



But I haven't actually played a mid-level cleric in 3e, so I don't know if there are some no-brainers that I'm missing. Any advice?
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Re: Quick advice: Evil Cleric tactics

Post by brass »

Divine Favour is a good one for most clerics.

Shatter is good since he's on a second floor, it means he can change the enviroment a bit, from caving in the room to breaking floors underneath people.

Bestow curse is just nasty if he gets it off and can be imaginative.

Symbol of pain is a great if the villain has time to set things up, and is pretty much -4 to most rolls.

Divine Power has some of the effects of haste and other buffs.
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Re: Quick advice: Evil Cleric tactics

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

thanks for the ideas!

Might as well use divine favor. can't really hurt, though he's going to be spell-slinging more than attacking, so the damage bonus is useless, but the attack bonus will help with touch spells.

Similar for divine power... will help with touch attacks, and the hp is welcome, but doesn't help with flame strike and the like...

From the spell description, shatter isn't powerful enough to bring down a floor. Would be a fun and exciting move though, so I might just allow it. Is there anything similar somewhere between shatter (2nd level) and disintegrate (7th level - too high)?

symbol of pain is tempting, but the casting time is longer than the warning he'll have and I doubt he'd have one permanently on his quarters. He's not supposed to be evil, you see.

Bestow curse is nasty.. but he's out to kill, not maim. so something a little more flashy and less permanent, maybe.


Looking to make this a challenging and memorable combat, but not with too many lingering consequences, since there will be more fights soon after...
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Re: Quick advice: Evil Cleric tactics

Post by alhoon »

Conviction is pretty good too. +5 to saves, as is divine shield, +5 to deflection. If you go for divine favor (which I agree with), instead of this pesky flame strike, throw in the 5th lvl spell (don't recall the name) that doubles the size of the cleric and the size of his weapon + size bonus to strength.
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Re: Quick advice: Evil Cleric tactics

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Thanks for the tips, folks! I took the shatter idea and ran with it, adding a glass floor to one level of the tower for the express purpose of shattering it. :) made for a memorable scene, even though the PC's were the ones to end up shattering it.

MVP for the battle: Blade Barrier came as close as one can get to killing a PC without actually doing so. :)

2nd MVP: Wrack from BoVD... soooo.. broken.... I had to nerf it on the fly.
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