Cleric Guardians or Spells?

[Pabo]

I have noticed that it can be quite frustrating as a cleric (even at level 30!) to adventure and explore the world without a group. Sometimes I just like to walk around solo and explore, and when I run into an aggro mob that even con's fairly easy, it takes me about 5 min just to kill it! This is an idea that will prolly never even be considered, and please is not meant to offend anyone (this idea encroches on shamans).

Class: Cleric
Level 30: Summon Guardian

A level 30 cleric may quest for a Guardian pet that they may summon with a holy/unholy/spiritual symbol. Good clerics may summon Guardian Angels, Evil: Guardian Demons, Neutral: Guardian Spirit.

At least with some sort of pet, a cleric has a chance to do some kind of offense besides a few weak spells (being a human evil cleric, I am quite limited in using unholy word..) Similar to shamans, the symbols will be like totems and need to be quested for. Guardians may be summoned by using the symbol for a limited amount of times per day(s) or what have you, and lasts until it gets killed or user logs. Like totems, the cleric needs the symbol to summon and can only have 1 symbol. If the cleric loses the symbol, then they can't summon and can't be replaced. (Also helps in an RP sense that the cleric actually has some sort of symbol that they carry around and use). Otherwise most people just 'assume' they have one. I carry an unholy symbol that I bought at my evil guild and keep it in my inventory, it's also a backup lightsource :lol:

Otherwise please, please beef up some clerical offensive spells or add some in. Not all clerics are the same. We worship different deities and have different views on life in Faerun. You would think that evil clerics are out for death and destruction, why not give us something to choose from? If you're a good cleric, then just choose healing spells instead or however you see it, but it would be nice to have a choice!

Clerics have only one invocation spell, flamestrike, which becomes quite useless. I have a spellcast invocation of 50 and now that flamestrike is totally weak (well it was weak to begin with!!), what's the point of having my invocation that high anyways? In D&D games, flamestrike is supposed to be one of the more powerful cleric offensive spells. Either that or give us a higher level version of the spell that will deal more damage or something totally new. I heard full harm is quite decent, but it's so high level, we need something for mid-level to lower-level. Cause crit, serious, and light are feeble and take forever to cast. I only resort to cause lights for emergencies. Harm is better, but it's in a circle with other utility spells i.e. silence person, curse, and a lot of times, those slots are used for utility than offense.

I overall enjoy playing a cleric, that's why I didn't choose shaman, but it just gets frustrating to know that it takes me minutes to kill something that some other class could just squish with couple of spells or few swings of a weapon. I *try* to be a battle cleric, but apparently the way it is, it's very difficult to accomplish that goal. Especially being a newbie to the mud, I do not have uber eq like just about everyone else.

:cry:

[amolol]

i have a very simple solution for you...play a damage class

clerics arent ment for damage they are ment to help prevent damage from happening and heal it when it does

[Ashemiem]

I can sympathize with your frustration. I too play a melee focused cleric, and simply do not do much damage. The power of the cleric class is our ability to deal with massive amounts of damage. Ultimately, provided the mob doesn't track you and doesn't self-heal, a cleric can solo anything given time.

The cleric class isn't a pet class. From a conceptual standpoint, the cleric class is based on faith in one's deity, and not reliant upon physical manifestation of that faith. There is no reason for gods to grant their cleric followers pets; they are with them in every spell they cast so why bother with a proxy?

It's not a bad idea, but it doesn't suit the class. Don't lose heart though, and don't accept 'the way things are meant to be' as a valid excuse. I am an elf cleric with 646 hitpoints and I melee happily. :)

Ashemiem Autumnmoon
Warrior-Priest of Corellon

[old depok]

I can attest by the As@ whipping that Ashemiem gave me in the arena that Clerics > Shaman when it comes to melee (of course ashemiem had a rock crusher and i didn't but who's counting?).

Keep trying different strategies. I know plenty of Clerics that can solo things effectively.

And speaking for the shaman brotherhood (this was required by our attorneys) "yes it would infringe upon the shaman union to give Cleircs pets, and yes, we would stage a strike and work stopage should such an idea come to fruition"

Keep the ideas coming. And keep working on that experience. There are too few high level clerics on the mud right now on the goodie side so we need you to get the show on the road and come zone with us!

Depok
Member, Shaman Union, local 213

[thanuk]

And speaking for the shaman brotherhood (this was required by our attorneys) "yes it would infringe upon the shaman union to give Cleircs pets, and yes, we would stage a strike and work stopage should such an idea come to fruition"

We the warrior brotherhood have found the shaman spirit pets to infringe upon our union, and demand immediate action by the shaman union to rectify said infringement. If no action is taken, then pre-determined delegates of the shaman union shall be kicked in the face repeatedly, until our demands are met. Should such action prove ineffective after 48 hours, we shall resort to the firing of shaman from cannons into brick walls.

[rylan]

... There are too few high level clerics on the mud right now on the goodie side so we need you to get the show on the road and come zone with us!

Depok
Member, Shaman Union, local 213

Us members of the global Cleric's Union, we only hand out a certain number of permits per month to people wanting to be a cleric. Too much competition means less groups and less control over you all! :P

[Mitharx]

I can actually relate to this problem. I remember soloing the druid in DS. I had to fight it then flee out. Run back to Waterdeep and find a cleric to heal me. Then rest up, run back over and attack. Overall I thought twenty minutes per kill wasn't too bad at this rate. I also found my endurance equipment to be very helpfull in these cases. You should definately bring some damage with you when you kill things tho. I got a rogue to start doing this with me and things when a ton faster!
I'm not against the clerics getting to sumon a deva or something (less deva of course), but I want warriors to get some minor healing spells too.
Downgrade spirits!
That is all.

[Pabo]

I'm not against the clerics getting to sumon a deva or something (less deva of course), but I want warriors to get some minor healing spells too.

Perhaps give warriors an upgrade to bandaging, like field dressing or the sorts, will be like a minor heal but based on skill :wink:

From a conceptual standpoint, the cleric class is based on faith in one's deity, and not reliant upon physical manifestation of that faith.

Perhaps that the cleric has gained great favor from their deity :P And thus is rewarded with a guardian of sorts. Kinda like a magical item from the deity for doing something 'monumental' for the god(ess). That's what the quest is for. Anyways, it would be an optional quest. If it doesn't fit into someones RP style, they don't have to do it. But more power to melee happy clerics! We're an elite breed! :twisted:

[Mitharx]

I agree with the healing thing. Give warriors regen because we know just how to lay to get comfortable when hurt and heal fastest and we've been hurt so many times we know just how to heal. Then again this would probably be a bad idea because realistically if I'm sitting there half-dead I should be bleeding to death and fortunately I don't. Oh well, warriors are gonna have to stick how they are for now. To bad though. Would be kick ass to get some serious heal action going like trolls.

[rylan]

Search the forums for my many suggestions to making the bandage skill heal some hps when the person is at awful and actually make it do more with high skill. ;)

[old depok]

And speaking for the shaman brotherhood (this was required by our attorneys) "yes it would infringe upon the shaman union to give Cleircs pets, and yes, we would stage a strike and work stopage should such an idea come to fruition"

We the warrior brotherhood have found the shaman spirit pets to infringe upon our union, and demand immediate action by the shaman union to rectify said infringement. If no action is taken, then pre-determined delegates of the shaman union shall be kicked in the face repeatedly, until our demands are met. Should such action prove ineffective after 48 hours, we shall resort to the firing of shaman from cannons into brick walls.

The Shaman Union is respectful of the warrior brotherhoods position in our groups and plans to work with said brotherhood to resolve our differences (with the additional benefit of not getting kicked in the face). That said, if the Brotherhood would insure that all Junior members of your union would be schooled in the fine arts of rescue, the problem would probably take care of itself.

[Emarin]

This really just sounds like a post for clerics to do more damage, like a druid creeping doom, or a shaman ancestral fury. If you were to consider any part of mitharx's summon idea... aren't clerics (in other fantasia like stories) able to summon avatars? No this wouldn't be a tank, you'd summon an avatar; it blasts the crap out of the mob, does instantaneous damage, but then again it would be exacltly like ancestral fury. Hrmm.... BTW if you like to go solo around and have some healing ability, i've heard many stories of one particular druid having her way with mobs. Maybe consider that! :D Yet from a group standpoint, I never see a cleric with "nothing to do"

[Dalar]

For Bandage, why not make it so after any fight you can be bandaged for a certain percentage of health from what you lost that fight? Possibly 20% or something. It's not much but it would help w/ down time