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I always used Fighter or Barbarian. I want to play as a cleric this time, but I need some tips how to effectively play as cleric. After using spells, the spell just goes passive and I can't use it again because I need resting. Please help me
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In party play clerics are often support characters, mainly using buffing and healing spells to help out the party. For solo play (which is what most of NWN will be) the cleric is probably best played like a fighter, using extended buffs to give them combat abilities which can actually surpass those of a fighter, with the occasional healing or offensive spell to help out as well. Focus on memorizing buffing spells, and extending the duration of those buffs (via things like the Extend Spell feat). As there aren't many restrictions on resting in NWN you don't have to be particularly careful with the use of spells, so you can basically just buff yourself whenever you feel any significant fight is coming then rest afterwards if necessary.

I've personally never been much of a fan of clerics for solo play (too much time spent buffing), but they can certainly be quite effective once empowered with enough buffs.
Yeah. Buffs are great, especially those with duration of 1hr/level.
Summon spells are also a big help, even the lowly Summon Creature 1 is a godsend at low levels.

Level 1: Protection from Alignment (evil), Summon Creature 1, Magic Weapon, you're all set for an hour of goblin bashing.

Note that you can select the same favorite spells multiple times, like just take several summon creature 1's in first level. Helps to keep you with a steady supply of those badgers.

...and then you rest. You'll be resting a whole lot, as with all spellcasters. That's why I tend to prefer a melee class. Like a monk with a ring of regeneration, pretty well proofed against all poisons and debilitating effects, never needs to rest or take a break.

The great thing about Clerics is how they don't really need spells against lesser opponents. Pretty good fighting skills and ability to wear heavy armor is enough. Whenever I play cleric, I usually use a few long duration buffs and mostly just whack the heck out of everything with a morningstar.

I like to make things easier for me though, and multiclass to a fighter (or paladin, which is even better in many ways). Thus getting the martial weapon proficiencies "for free". Lose a bit on spell levels, but IMO makes it up in improved fighting ability.

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Oh yeah, place your favorite spells in the quick slots. You'll save a lot of time and make everything much smoother. Note the secondary quicks lots though.. what was it.. ctrl or shift or both?

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And remember the "Turn Undead" ability. That's one of the main selling points of a cleric.
Post edited December 30, 2010 by Jarmo
Thank you, I will try using your tips. But could you recommend me a class to play, which class do you recommend for maximum gameplay and fun, because I don't really like cleric.
Smack 'em with the hammer!

$100 CDN to anyone who can identify where that comes from.
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ZzzZombi: But could you recommend me a class to play, which class do you recommend for maximum gameplay and fun, because I don't really like cleric.
Well... no I couldn't, not really.
Very much depends on which kinds of characters *you* find fun.
So I'd rather recommend trying out a few builds and seeing what they feel like.

But here are a few *I* found fun to play with:

First, I almost always cheat a bit with character creation. See cheats.
I just like my fighters to have some int and cha, and my mages to be able to carry stuff. I'm not into boosting the starting strength to 30 or anything like that, just want things to roll a bit smoother...

My base favorite character would be a multiclassed Fighter/Rogue, with more fighter than rogue. Capable of fighting *and* picking locks, disarming traps and talking a bit, comes with a high survivability through high AC (by tossing points into tumble) and Evasion. Basically a Jack of All Trades, and a Lovable Scoundrel. Variations would include taking Bard instead of Rogue, or Ranger or Barbarian instead of Fighter. Had lots of fun with one Rogue Barbarian modeled after Conan (but that took a lot of cheating, seeing as that's high strength, high dex, high... everything is high).

Second *very* fun build is aiming for prestige class Shadowdancer, maybe with a rogue/ranger base build. "Hide in Plain Sight" is a killer skill, sneak attack, hide, sneak attack, hide, and so on.. But that build comes with a caveat, pretty low fighting skills and not much armor, means real trouble if opponents have true seeing and/or immunity to sneak attacks.

Monk is always fun. Not least for "monk speed", which makes running around a lot less frustrating. High saving throws and (at later levels) immunity to a whole lot of stuff and spell resistance. But you'll be just hitting and kicking everything throughout the game, not much variety there.
In 3e (the AD&D rules that the NWN engine uses; BG1 +2, PS:T and IWD1 all use 2e, while NWN1 and IWD2 use 3e, and NWN2 uses 3.5), clerics can be very powerful at higher levels. I played a bard w/a few levels in a warrior class in my last NWN1 playthrough, and I think it's kind of like playing a cleric, as they both have good buff spells.

I figure these oughta be the the attributes you should start out with:

STR: 14 (to go w/your experience in using fighter classes)
DEX: 14 (for +2 AC bonus)
CON: 10 (nothing below, so you'd have no health penalties, and can get 6-8 hp/level up)
INT: 12 (so that you'd have not 2, but 3 skill points at each level up; this to effectively put 1 skill point each in Concentration for spellcasting, Parry for defense, and Spellcraft for saving throws at each level up)
WIS: 14 (the primary ability for clerics)
CHA: 14 (for quality undead turning)

As far as your domains are concerned, I'd take 2 of Magic, Plant, Strength or Sun. Magic and Plant are the best, IMHO.

All of that would make you versatile enough for melee combat, ranged combat, defensive spells, buff spells, and wear any armor you like as you roleplay, to start your game off.

You get some really good Area of Effect spells as your character grows in levels.
Post edited January 03, 2011 by bladeofBG
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bladeofBG: In 3e (the AD&D rules that the NWN engine uses; BG1 +2, PS:T and IWD1 all use 2e, while NWN1 and IWD2 use 3e, and NWN2 uses 3.5), clerics can be very powerful at higher levels. I played a bard w/a few levels in a warrior class in my last NWN1 playthrough, and I think it's kind of like playing a cleric, as they both have good buff spells.

I figure these oughta be the the attributes you should start out with:

STR: 14 (to go w/your experience in using fighter classes)
DEX: 14 (for +2 AC bonus)
CON: 10 (nothing below, so you'd have no health penalties, and can get 6-8 hp/level up)
INT: 12 (so that you'd have not 2, but 3 skill points at each level up; this to effectively put 1 skill point each in Concentration for spellcasting, Parry for defense, and Spellcraft for saving throws at each level up)
WIS: 14 (the primary ability for clerics)
CHA: 14 (for quality undead turning)

As far as your domains are concerned, I'd take 2 of Magic, Plant, Strength or Sun. Magic and Plant are the best, IMHO.

All of that would make you versatile enough for melee combat, ranged combat, defensive spells, buff spells, and wear any armor you like as you roleplay, to start your game off.

You get some really good Area of Effect spells as your character grows in levels.
A couple of suggestions on this (referring to the OC)
If you feel like taking some Dex, I believe you should only take 12, as plate mail only allows +1 Dex bonus max.
I never use parry, as you can't attack while using it. If you want the extra skill point, be human, and put it in Persuade.
With that Wis, you'll only get access to level 9 spells at the end of the OC, if you even make it to level 20.
Also, you don't really need Turn Undead that much. I find that three uses per day is enough, as long as you only use them on a large group that you can't take out with persistence or a good AoE spell.
I haven't experimented much with domains, but I'd recommend Air as one of them, because Call Lightning and Chain Lightning rock.
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ZzzZombi: Thank you, I will try using your tips. But could you recommend me a class to play, which class do you recommend for maximum gameplay and fun, because I don't really like cleric.
Could try Paladin. Sort of hybrid of a warrior type and a cleric. Fewer buffs (and perhaps fewer buffs to rely on might be refreshing), but, you get the full base attack bonus that fighters and barbarians enjoy.

Druid is fun too. You get a strong animal companion (buff him with awaken, protective buffs, and greater magic fang) and access to strong summoning spells. Buff yourself too and when the nuke spells run out, shapeshift and engage in melee. Quite a few options to enjoy with this class.
Clerics: Arguably the strongest class in the game (with the exception of mages). Definitely the strongest until lvl 16-ish.

Domains: Don't bother with ones that give you extra turning power or mage offensive spells, unless you really want them for RP.
Trickery is most important for improved invisiibility, the best buff spell in the game. Travel is good to get haste, but only if you can't get it as an item property, which you very often can outside of some PWs.
Plant is good, especially for OCs, as you don't lose natural (amulet type) armour by wearing a wis enhancing item.
Strength gets you divine power at an extra level which can be very useful.
Animal can be very effectively used in certain multiclass builds.

Feats: extend spell and weapon type feats.

Skills: multiclass to get tumble dumps and discipline dumps.

levelling: Get wis to 19 and everything else into str. Normally you would take 4 or more ftr type (1/1 BAB) to get an extra attack per round but with cleric you aim to have 15 BAB @ lvl 20. Divine Power gives you a ftr type's BAB anyway, and you then get the extra attack at full AB, rather than -15. This makes clerics better at hitting things than ftr types, despite their slightly lower str score.

PLaystyle: Melee buffer. Apart from harm, storm of vengence, heal and word of faith, concentrate most every spell on buffing or healing. Extend everything that is not hr/llvl duration and go hit things. If they are tough, harm or WoF them. For mobs, SoV or WoF will make life very easy.

Useful downloads: Extended rod of fast buffing (iir the name), from NWVault. One click buffing... nice :) (may need to alter some modules in the toolset to get it to work, but there's lots of people who can tell you how on BSN if you are unsure. With more recent modules it should work as is.) Alternatively, don't forget the numberpad is a way to buff yourself without the mouse. Much faster and easier. "0" to target yourself.

Multiclassing: rogue or bard get you UMD, which is useful to anyone, and tumble, which you need to boost your AC. cleric26/bard4/RDD10 is about as nasty as it gets for a melee str based character.

Alternatively, play a sorcerer and get one level of cleric with animal domain for the divine might feat. You still won't hit that often (tho you have true strike to help with that), but you will do damage when you do hit! Sorc26-29/AA10-13/cleric1 can hit things and is a lot of fun. Focus on conjuaration and use cloud spells, web and grease to keep enemies away from you while you shoot and spell them.

If all that didn't tempt you back to cleric (tho I don't like them so much personally.. they are overpowered imho), paladin has a similar feel with much less buffing. Multiclass with CoT for extra feats and wonderful saves.

Have fun :)