Maces and Flails and Clerics, oh my!

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Newbie questions alert. I'm buying equipment for my party's Silverstar of Selune, Antigone, and I notice that the Mace and the Flail in Deirdre's store both apparently deal 1d8 damage. Of course, the former requires a Simple Weapon feat and the latter a Martial Weapon feat. How much difference is there in combat? Are Martial Weapons better than Simple Weapons? And what sort of armor does one usually put on a cleric? I'm thinking nothing more than Studded Leather, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

While the more powerful martial weapons (e.g., greataxes, greatswords, etc.) are definitely better than any simple weapon, the only real difference is the damage range, and the type of damage dealt (slashing vs. blunt, for example). But in this case, since both the mace and the flail deal the same amount of blunt damage, there is no difference other than the fact that one is martial and the other is simple. Therefore you can go ahead with the mace, as that's what the cleric comes proficient with. BTW, there are some pretty nice magical maces in IWD2, so you needn't worry about that either. As for armor, clerics are allowed to wear anything that a fighter can. Since priest spells aren't affected by armor penalties, go ahead and dump the heaviest armor you can find on your cleric.

 

Depends on what sort of cleric you have. I often use an elven cleric with low strength but high dex who uses a longbow and Emma's moonblade. She is a great healer, buffer and summoner with decent bow skills to back it up, thanks to the elven bow proficency. There's no point giving that cleric plate armour as a) she wouldnt be able to move and b) she gets just as much benefit from leather thanks to her dex, which takes the stat into account more. I personally like a combination of abishai leather and the expertise/dodge feats. Of course, if yours is a buff field medic/combat type of cleric then you'll probably have lower dex to allow for more strength and con, and as such you might as well give him/her chunky arsed platemail. Doesnt affect spellcasting whatsoever, which is partly why clerics rule so much in IWD2.

Theres loads you can do with clerics as they're so versatile and come in so many fruity flavours. My latest build is a Tiefling Rogue 2/Demarche of Mask x (possibly with more rogue levels later). She's shaping up nicely, but I'm planning for her to come into her own when she gets shadow/undead summons and circle of blades. Should be a sweet little covert operative for my party.