Cleric Characters: What can they do?

[djgizmoe]

There have been several threads about Mages and what their spells do, but it's damned hard to find any thing substantial on clerics.  I mean I understand that spells can be opened with (N), don't need to be learned and I can get more by increasing faith, but what exactly do the spells do?  I mean "Heal", does that "Heal" me or can I heal party members?  A basic rundown would be nice, and would certainly make my cleric playthrough more enjoyable.

 

[SmurfInHell]

*Cracks knuckles* Let's get dis started.

Spiritual Hammer: This spell will summon a magical hammer to be either thrown or used in melee. The melee and thrown modes are switched by the usual "X" key. Please note that if you only can afford one hammer, you won't be able to throw it, so you'll need at least 30 faith points. Once you throw a hammer another 15 faith points will be subtracted from your faith points bar.

Harm: The reversed heal spell will cause damage based on the faith skill to enemies around the caster in a 3 meter radius.

Bless: Will increase the melee damage by a percentage (e.g. 150%) based on the faith skill of the caster.

Curse: The reversed Bless spell will cause enemies around the caster to decrease their attack damage by a percentage (e.g 50%). The spell's power depends on the faith skill of the caster.

Bravery: Will render every allied troop around the caster immune to fear effects.

Terror: Will attempt to make nearby enemy troops run away. Undead and constructs are immune to the effect. Resistance to fear is calculated using the victim's level, thus a higher level victim will be much harder to frighten than a lower one.

Heal: Heal is an AoE effect. It affects yourself and the others around you within a smallish radius. Just remember, when using spells like heal, flamestrike, and etc, you will wave your arms in the air to "cast". This will leave you open to an attack if you're not careful!

Turn Undead: Extremely powerful once a day cast. *it will be reduced in damage soon* Right now you can cast it and kill a ton of undead with it even at level 3-4 of faith. It's an AoE effect as well.

EDIT: Paladins also get Lay on Hands, a very powerful heal with some special parameters, but you said cleric so

 

[djgizmoe]

That's what I'm talking about!  Many thanks!

 

[Arctic_Howler]

*Cracks knuckles* Let's get dis started.

Spiritual Hammer: This spell will summon a magical hammer to be either thrown or used in melee. The melee and thrown modes are switched by the usual "X" key. Please note that if you only can afford one hammer, you won't be able to throw it, so you'll need at least 30 faith points. Once you throw a hammer another 15 faith points will be subtracted from your faith points bar.

Harm: The reversed heal spell will cause damage based on the faith skill to enemies around the caster in a 3 meter radius.

Bless: Will increase the melee damage by a percentage (e.g. 150%) based on the faith skill of the caster.

Curse: The reversed Bless spell will cause enemies around the caster to decrease their attack damage by a percentage (e.g 50%). The spell's power depends on the faith skill of the caster.

Bravery: Will render every allied troop around the caster immune to fear effects.

Terror: Will attempt to make nearby enemy troops run away. Undead and constructs are immune to the effect. Resistance to fear is calculated using the victim's level, thus a higher level victim will be much harder to frighten than a lower one.

Heal: Heal is an AoE effect. It affects yourself and the others around you within a smallish radius. Just remember, when using spells like heal, flamestrike, and etc, you will wave your arms in the air to "cast". This will leave you open to an attack if you're not careful!

Turn Undead: Extremely powerful once a day cast. *it will be reduced in damage soon* Right now you can cast it and kill a ton of undead with it even at level 3-4 of faith. It's an AoE effect as well.

EDIT: Paladins also get Lay on Hands, a very powerful heal with some special parameters, but you said cleric so

You'd think Bravery would remove fear effects as well as make them fully immune, sadly on my Paladin, I tried to break a fear effect because it hit right after I cast Bravery and still affected my guys, so I used Bravery again to see if it would remove it, nope.... Also, Lay on Hands is weaker than heal, no noticeable secondary effects... 7 Faith Paladin...

 

[guspav]

Lay on hands is honor dependant, heal is faith dependant. Lay on hands will recover exactly the honor to the main character, thus it won't be very powerful at first, but once you get it to say 40, you'll easily recover fully.

 

[Arctic_Howler]

Lay on hands is honor dependant, heal is faith dependant. Lay on hands will recover exactly the honor to the main character, thus it won't be very powerful at first, but once you get it to say 40, you'll easily recover fully.

hm... interesting.

 

[Teggs]

You'd think Bravery would remove fear effects as well as make them fully immune...

"Brave Sir Robin ran away, bravely ran away..."

 

[Arctic_Howler]

You'd think Bravery would remove fear effects as well as make them fully immune...

"Brave Sir Robin ran away, bravely ran away..."

lol indeed he did xD

 

[Jazzwind]

I read somewhere on this board - oh, in the troop trees - that Drow females could become clerics, however when recruiting, I only ever see males.  Why is this?

 

[Suminagashi]

I believe you need a certain amount of relation with a faction in order to recruit varying troop types, such as 10+ or 20+.

 

[Azarlgor]

I read somewhere on this board - oh, in the troop trees - that Drow females could become clerics, however when recruiting, I only ever see males.  Why is this?

Each faction has some troops, that can only be recruited from cities. This requires certain amount of relation with the faction owning the city. Drow female units require 10 relation with the city owning faction and also the town needs to be drow culture.(Shin'Zaluk's Ladder starts with drow culture. You can change culture of any fief you have ownership of, that isn't under siege or being raided)

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

Sounds like Paladin is a better choice. Basically they are the same but Paladin has the Lay on Hands ability as well as a turn undead that is also Honor based.

Are there any other differences?  It seems like the Cleric is supposed to use a blunt weapon. Is this so or will any weapon be okay?

Also, I kind of think that if I buy a spell book I can make a Cleric Mage hybrid. Of course I will be investing heavily in charisma and intelligence. Does anyone have any experience with this? Or do I have to start a mage to be a mage? The necromancer can just by a spell book and start learning spells.

Also, I'm playing a cleric now but none of the ransom brokers will by my prisoners. Is this intentional or a bug?

Edit: Nope. Can't just buy a spell book and get those spells on a cleric or paladin.

 

[Torrential]

Seems like there are some genuine differences in playstyles for a paladin, it's not just a generic label on regular play, great stuff!

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

Seems like there are some genuine differences in playstyles for a paladin, it's not just a generic label on regular play, great stuff!

Could you explain those differences? I can see how Cleric might be more support and Paladin might be more hands on but aside from Lay on Hands I don't see much differences other than the debuffs that cleric has. (which never seem to work very well btw) I don't think harm does anything and I can't tell if curse does anything or not.

Terror might be nice but you have to be close to use it and all that waving your hands around just gets you killed.

And of course to use any spell you have to open a menu that takes up half the screen. On a mage that's not so bad because you usually aren't in melee but with either Cleric or Paladin your best spells on on foot and that makes you vulnerable. Even more when you can't see half the screen and the menu makes you drop your shield and just stand there.

Also, is turn undead always powerful or only when you level up faith?

I'll also add about Spiritual Hammer that it will not parry a blow. So if you don't have a shield you are vulnerable in melee from anyone who tries to hit you.

 

[Torrential]

There have been several threads about Mages and what their spells do, but it's damned hard to find any thing substantial on clerics.  I mean I understand that spells can be opened with (N), don't need to be learned and I can get more by increasing faith, but what exactly do the spells do?  I mean "Heal", does that "Heal" me or can I heal party members?  A basic rundown would be nice, and would certainly make my cleric playthrough more enjoyable.

After some playtime I can now answer this.

Move in with your troops. Use bless on your men, curse on theirs, spam heal, watch as you roll over your opponents.  Now add haste to that too on elite units, and you have the most overpowered combo in the game .

Other times, I sit back with the ranged dwarven arbalest and mages, peppering sieges with fire and shot, keeping everyone alive. Makes sieges completely different to vanilla, for extra fun bring along a balrog or 3 which I am now running along side my shadow mages and companions armed with those nasty dwarf rifles and thus clerics (mixed with mage companions I am trying to find the right ratio at the moment its 50/50). The siege is over most of the time before I ever have to get into melee.

I'll put up a guide about how i've run demon troops successfully possibly but essentially use a fief to store them till sieges, or keep within your leadership bonus to keep morale up. I use 100 men at leadership 6 and fight a lot, and run 3 balrogs all the time with , but I am going off topic. Demons and golems are far from needed for this strategy, I just love overkill (ps the balrogs need to cost 1k a week not 100 ). In sieges sitting golems out in the front is great with a companion cleric or two among them, as they tank plenty of health while you are destroying the enemy from behind.

If I was the developer how would I counter this, elementals or summons who regenerate when hit with spells would be good, there are various d and d creatures you could pick, thusly you are forced to melee them, even then my dwarven rifles would take them out so they'd need decent shields.

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

When does Cleric get haste?

 

[guspav]

When does Cleric get haste?

So far, haste is a mage-only spell, so never. In the next version certain specialty clerics might get it (maybe a wind cleric?).

 

[Torrential]

When does Cleric get haste?

Apologies I wasn't clear on that, I am unclear how much magic power you'd need to make it effective however if you were just going for the combo. Even without haste it's a decent combo, but haste makes the bonuses count for even more, as you get more swings in before they run out, in short elite units become super, super elite Plus it runs on its own mana pool separate to faith, so you don't need much power or points spent there.

 

[Uhtred of Bebbanburg]

When does Cleric get haste?

Apologies I wasn't clear on that, I am unclear how much magic power you'd need to make it effective however if you were just going for the combo. Even without haste it's a decent combo, but haste makes the bonuses count for even more, as you get more swings in before they run out, in short elite units become super, super elite Plus it runs on its own mana pool separate to faith, so you don't need much power or points spent there.

I've made a battlemage and have all infantry band and I use haste on them. It's a lot of fun and I rarely have casualties except when I go up against shadows.

I had to choose between haste and the Cleric buffs, debuffs, and heal. I opted for the haste and added clerics into my infantry for healing.  I think haste is better than all 3 of those combined. Plus I don't get killed in battle so much because I can get out  of the way quick.

 

[Morrowind Mod Man]

Well, faith is so powerful because in a normal game, you're going to have to raise CHA and leadership to be able to command an army. So an extra 3 or 4 points into faith gives you a refillable source of healing +damage buffing.

The investment is really small compared to what it takes to be a good mage. I use haste a lot on my necromancer to make undead run faster. It's one of the best spells in the game.