Help with Dual Wield Cleric of Talos

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I really thank the poster who gave me this idea for my spellsword. Its great for RP to because its like a lighting fast warrior who can use (you guessed it) lighting.


I am pretty sure on the spells. Buffs and lighting attacks but how should I do the feats? It seems he needs alot. Combat Casting, Two Weapon Fighting, Small weapon mastery, Ambidexterity, as well as the domain spells.


If anyone has guide or advice I would appreciate it.



The rest of my party is as follows:

Barbarian
Cleric of Lathander
Cleric of Tempus
Cleric of Talos
Rogue1/Wizard X
Sorceror X


Oh yeah! Obviously I want a weapon enchanted with Lighting. Will I be able to find Daggers or Short Swords with this enchantment.




ahhhhh one last thing. Improved Intitiative does not work correct?


(Its the weekend! Where you all at?)

 

One consideration you need to make is what sort of armor you want to wear. A cleric based caster doesn't have to worry about arcane spell failure, and can cast just fine in heavy armor. In 3.0, heavy armor limits the amount of dexterity you can add to your armor class, so for this build dexterity may not be as important (good heavy armors will usally allow a max of +2 to ac, perhaps less). So if you want to wear heavy armor, don't worry about raising your dex above 12 - 14. This frees you up to raise strength, which means that you'll hit harder.

Otherwise, I think you've already listed the primary considerations for such a character.

For your barbarian, I suggest including 4 levels of fighter for extra feats and weapon specialization. I'd also suggest considering using a shield dwarf for the very high CON or a Half Orc for the very high STR (I suggest Dwarf over Half Orc, as Dwarves get a lot of other useful bonuses). Make sure to put skill points into Wilderness Lore with this character. This is a very useful skill for knowing what sort of enemies are in an area before you travel through it. In one part of the game getting through without this skill is a serious pain in the butt.

The cleric of Tempus could be good as a dwarf also, for another high CON character in the group.

For the rogue 1/wizard you might consider using a tiefling or even a drow for the attribute and other racial bonuses. You can conceivably get away with the +2 ECL (effective character level) you incur as a drow since, as has been mentioned, you otherwise will be obtaining access to higher spell levels before you have any spells available to add to your spellbook. The +2 DEX, +2 INT are perfect for a rogue/wizard, and the innate spell resistance is really great too. They incur "light blindess" in daylight (-1 to a bunch of their rolls) which isn't a lot, but considering that they don't incur this penalty at night, or in any of the numerous dungeons in the game, it tends to have very little impact on your game.

Your sorcerer will be gaining levels quickly, so you can rely on him/her for earlier access to spells. Strongly consider spell focus: evocation for your sorcerer, and be sure to load up on plenty of evocation/nuke spells. This will make these spells more potent, and harder to resist. You want your sorcerer to essentially be a glass cannon. You might consider giving her a lawful good alignment, and splashing in a level of paladin later on (this will give her huge bonuses to saving throws, based on your CHA, and allow her to wield the holy avenger longsword).

The sorcerer should be a human (Aasimar is another consideration, however you have a +1 ECL slowing you down). This seems like your likely diplomat, so make sure you have enough INT to raise concentration, knowledge arcana, and diplomacy (if you can afford bluff, so much the better).

The other characters are probably best as humans.

A few thoughts. Certainly this isn't everything that needs to be considered, but it's a good start.

EDIT: Oh, and you might consider making your cleric of Lathander lawful good, and perhaps giving her a level of paladin. She would put the Holy Avenger sword to better use than the sorcerer would.

Avoid improved initiative, yes. It's bugged.

 

This is why I love you. Taking one level of Paladin is genius and now I know what I have to do to use Holy Avenger. (Always wanted to use it in BG2)


You pretty much filled me in on all the basics I need to know to get started. Only problem I see with my party is the lack of a "diplomat". Although, it does not seem as important as in BG. I think my sorcerer will have to give up Arcane Knowledge or SpellCraft in order to take the diplomat skill. Other then that I think my party is set up to be very fun and powerful.

 

By the way, I mispoke in my earlier post about "knowledge arcana" - it's spellcraft that is more important to the sorcerer (by a longshot).

If you want to be able to identify magic items, you do want a character with knowledge arcana. This should be your rogue/wizard though, since his high INT will give bonuses to this ability. Alchemy is useful for IDing potions, so try to fit that in somewhere if you can. Otherwise you'll be paying to ID potions and/or burning Identify spells.

 

Hmmmmm thanks for clearing that up. It seems to me then that my Sorcerer should take the Skill that gives plus 2 to both Spellcraft and Diplomat. Seems perfect.


If anyone wants to expand on the most important feats and skills for a Cleric of Talos. It would be a great help.


P.S I am making my Drow Evil for RP reasons and fun hope this will not be a problem!

 

Your dual-weilding cleric needs a DEX of 15 or higher. Otherwise he can't take the feat, Two-Weapon Fighting. I think you can take Ambidexterity without it a high DEX.

If you use Crucis' Light of Selune mod (I highly recommend it) all characters automatically have Ambidexterity as a "bonus" feat, so there is no need to waste time on that feat.

You need to be careful when considering classes with ECL penalties. I have found it is better to build a party that has almost all ECL penalty classes (I played a party with a half-orc, 3 drow, a tiefling, and a duergar once. It was fun). If it is a heavy ECL penalty party, they gain bonus experience (for executing the combats at a relative level which is lower than the combats were designed for) which keeps them relatively close to a non-ECL party in terms of over-all experience (I think my heavy ECL-penalty-party guys were 15th level in their classes at the end of the game, when normally my non-ECL parties finish at 16th level).

Or the party needs to have no ECL penalties or very few. It is very frustrating with only 1 or 2 characters who have ECL penalties, because they rapidly lag behind in terms of overall power your other characters. (That is, a 1st-level drow rogue or wizard is way better than a 1st-level human wizard or rogue, but by the time the human has reached 5th level, the drow is only 2nd or 3rd level, and is outmatched in terms of his relative contribution to the party. If for no other reason, he hardly has enough hit points as a 2nd or 3rd level character to truly contribute in the combat-heavy portions of the early game--say, in the Horde Fortress). If you are going to have a party with mostly non-ECL-penatly characters, I would not recommend making your ECL-penalty-characters into primary spell-casters, for instance, because you'll be continually behind in terms of their levels, and those high-level spells make a lot of difference. Arcane spells like Fireball or Mass Haste, for instance, change the game when your arcane casters get access to them, as do divine spells like Raise Dead and Heal.

 

I had forgotten about the dex requirement for TWF. In that case, perhaps it makes sense to have this guy be more of a finesse fighter, with higher dex and lighter armor.

Decisions, decisions.

 

In reference to diplomats, I typically take a human sorceror and give him a maxed-out CHA with a relatively high INT (I find 14 is pretty good). As far as skills go, I give him Spellcraft until he has enough ranks to get the best feats a little later one, and spread the rest of his ranks in Concentration, Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate. When he has enough in Spellcraft, there is no point in putting any more ranks in it (about the time he has 10 ranks in it, plus INT bonus, I think), so I put all 4 of his ranks at each level into Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, and Intimidate.

I've done the same thing with a few bards. I've also tried to have rogues be the main talker for my party before, who are okay, but I always struggle with allocating their skills in the proper manner (because a rogue also needs to max out, as much as possible, Disable Device, Search, and Open Locks), especially because I haven't played a single-class rogue...well, ever. I rarely take more than 3 levels in rogue, unless I'm playing through HoF mode, and even then, I'll only take maybe 2 or 3 more levels in rogue.

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One of my favorite cleric builds has been a Ftr 4/Rgr 4/ Cleric X, whom I build into an archer (WF/WS [bows], all the archery feats, etc). They can only wear middling armor, but that's okay, especially since I try to have them move around anyway, and not get stuck in one place having to fight. And since they have ranger levels, they are natural dual-weilders. Their predominant role in the party is not to act as the primary healer, but the secondary healer, as well as the best long-range combatant and back-up melee combatant.

Again, another plug for Light of Selune--there are way better armors, especially leather and studded leathers, plus some elvish chain, available in this modified version of the game than in the regular, un-modded game. Plus some great bows and a couple of excellent archer-related items. You have to pay for them, of course, and most of them only work for characters with ranger levels (hint, hint) but they are worth it.

 

Since you have three clerics, you might want to diversify a bit (interesting alignment mix though). The clerics of Lathander and Talos are essentially the same, they're nukers. You might want to swap a cleric of Bane (debuffer) for one of these two.

This is one party where the sorcerer doesn't actually need to level fast. He has 4 other casters (3 clerics and a wizard, no less). Both the wizard and the sorcerer will reach Fireball at the same level, and by that time the clerics will be able to hold their own anyway. The sorcerer can be a deep gnome for all we care and the party will still have more than enough summons, buff, debuff and even nuke spells late game.

 

A cleric of Lathander can make good use of SF: Evocation. If you will choose the dual wielding feats, then you have a lot of feats on your shopping cart.
The DEX issue was mentioned already. If you use weapons that utilize the STR bonus instead, you will be fine. Remember that there is still some small penalty if the off-hand weapon weighs over 2lbs. and the dual wielding feats can't negate that - but that doesn't mean it has to be a dagger. The moonblade & golden heard are good longswords that weigh just 2lbs. Mods also include crazy stuff like lightweight hammers too. Clerics, especially used in battle, do best with maxed STR, CON & WIS, and the rest can go to DEX. If you are doing battlecleric builds (and since you have 3 clerics, there is no shortage of spells anyway) you're better off improving CON, which will be useful no matter if you're fighting or casting.

 

I am really like my party so far. Here it is.


1. Rhakasha (Fighter 4/Barb x) This is my main source of melee damage. Great Sword.

2. Nymeria (Cleric of Tempus) I think I want her to be my main tank. Axes.

3. Davos (Cleric of Talos) My utility guy for melee and magic damage. Daggers or Short Swords?

4. Rasputin (Rogue 1/ Wizard X) My thief and buffer utility mage. Crossbow

5. Rheagar ( Cleric of Lathander) I picked him to use maces and heal the party.

6. Ariella (Sorcerer X) My sit back and nuke everything character.


I think its a pretty strong party for both RP and power. Davos my (MC) has 16 Dex and 18 Str with almost no IQ and Charisma. I still would like to know which weapon you suggest as the focus. Right now I have 2 in Small Blades. I need both dual Wield feats as well as some of the spell mastery feats. I assume Evocation is best? What other school would be second best?


Ariella will do the talking and ill figure a way to get her the feat that gives you plus 2 spellcraft and diplomat. What weapon should she use? Bows? Daggers? Quarterstaff? Wish the game had a good weapon class for mages.


Almost forgot! How the heck do you change a regular cleric spell to a healing spell? I am the aligenment that allows you to do this I just have no idea how.

 

Nice party. What races did you pick for your characters? Crossbow is a nice, safe weapon for your sorcerer. Quarterstaff is good when melee is needed (which should basically be never for this character).

To spontaneously cast cure spells, hold down the shift key before you select the spell. That will convert it.

 

Races are as followed.


1. Shield Dwarf Male

2. Shield Dwar Female

3. Human (Davos)

4. Drow (Rasputin)

5. Human (Rheagar)

6. Human (Ariella)


I even have a background story. The 3 Clerics had captured the Drow and were taking him back to be punished. On the way the Drow saved the clerics as well as Ariella from certain death. The 3 wise men realized the Drow was a much more complex character than at first thought. The party seeks answers and hired Rhakasha a Barbarian as both a protector and guide.


Thanks for shift key info!

 

Cool. I enjoy creating back stories for my parties as well.

I have a couple of them posted here:
Order of the Radiant Heart
Triumphantine's March

I find that this very much enhances the experience when you have some context for who your character's are beyond tank, healer, mage, etc.

 

Wow, you really put my "background info" to shame. I love how you used characters from BG2. Makes it almost like a sequel. Could you actually use their portraits in the game?

 

Supposedly you can download BG2 portraits (all kinds of portraits, actually) from a variety of sites.

I have downloaded them, and installed them, but they still don't open up in my game, however. No idea what the problem is with my game, but lots of people use custom portraits.

 

I have used the BG portaits in Icewind Dale 2 before. It works okay, but to my eye they appear too colorful for the dreary setting that is Icewind Dale. I purposely did not use any BG2 portaits for that party because of that, and because 20 years had passed, so they should look a good deal older. Anomen's portrait shows a man with a full helm, so you can't see his face anyway. It's strangely appropriate for an older Anomen who is now much wiser and a leader of men.