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NEVERWINTER NIGHTS - Cleric Guide v1.3
Copyright (c) Silverforce, 2002
hueyap@optushome.com.au


1. Introduction
- Class Summary
- Abilties
- Skills Indepth
- Feats (guideline)
2. Cleric Domains
3. Cleric Spells
4. Variant Focus
- Melee
- Range
- Pure Spell Caster
5. Multiplayer Clerics
- Team Orientated
- Solo Adventurer
- PvP or Duelist
6. Miscellaneous Tactics
7. Persistant World Related
8. Summary

Updates:
1.3 - (21/6/03) error correction, added new information for Divine Power in
the Varian Focus section under Melee. Also changed a bunch of variants.
1.2 - (11/2/03) added spells section, and other minor details including error
correction also added a special persistant world section.
1.1 - (24/8/02) initial release

1. INTRODUCTION

SUMMARY:

Clerics can be summed up as a powerful class that has often been looked
down upon, because people have stereotyped them to being a "walking bandaid", or
"religious zealot". The truth however, is far from that. They are a very unique
class, along with druids, in that they are a mix of the best aspects of several
classes rolled into one. Due to being so versatile, they have many roles, from
the battlefield medic/healer, front line fighter, to temple guardians who can
unleash great magical forces against the unbelievers.

This guide is designed to help others how to ultilize the cleric's
potential to its fullest in all aspects of the path he/she/unknown has chosen.
It could be expanded in the future, when and if people submit their own variant
type, so it may be a work in progress. I for one won't ever say that this will
be the "end all" of cleric guides.. as that would be arrogant, but i do have a
bit (tiny bit!) of experience to share.. so let's get started! :)

ABILITIES:

- Divine Spell casting (wisdom based, no impact from wearing heavy armors)
- Decent hit dice: 1D8
- Good attack bonuses: 15/10/5 @ lvl 20
- Spontaneous Cast @ lvl 1 (can cast healing spells without prior memorization)
- Turn Undead @ lvl 1 (run undead, run!)
- All armors and shields, all simple weapons.
- 2 skill point + intelligence bonus per level.
- 2 Domain that gives additional abilities

SKILLS INDEPTH: (cleric focused, but also applies generally to other classes)
* Just an outline for you to understand the way the skills work, if you need it
then by all means take skills in it, this is especially true for persistent
servers.

Concentration -
Ability to cast spells without interruption. The DC (difficulty check) is 10 +
damage received + spell lvl. So a cleric whom is trying to cast a lvl 3 spell, but
is hit for 5 damage while she is casting, will have a DC roll required to cast
succesfully of 10 + 5 + 3 = 18. She rolls (the pc rolls, but all intent & purposes,
she rolls. heh), a 1D20, and any skill in concentration is added onto that result.
If she rolls a 10, she must have 8 points in concentration to be able to cast the
spell, otherwise she failed and the spell fizzles wastefully. This skill is a must
for clerics who plans to cast spells. You like casting spells? Then take it as
high as possible, simple as that.

Disable Trap -
Not entirely useless, but not very usefull either. Why? Because the difficult
traps that you want to disable, you can't, since the DC check is way too high.
While the low end traps, aren't powerful enough to really hurt you. All in all,
if you really want to discard of a pesky floor trap, summon a creature, and move
so it triggers the trap for you. If it's a trapped chest, destroy it with a
spell or range weapon.

Discipline -
While the description may sound as though you need it, you shoudn't bother
wasting points in here. Yes, you do need it, but, here's the big BUT.. it isn't
a cleric skill, so you can't raise it high enough where it can help. The DC is
the modified attack roll of the enemy, and tough enemies have a very high attack
bonus, so you'll never be able to resist their attempts anyway. The real solution
against knockdown, disarm, called shot is not to be hit in the first place, or
get items which grant you immunity to it.

*(21/7/03) However, if you play on a server where there are no such items, and
you are a melee cleric, you will need to put points into this skill. Skills in
discipline and wearing gloves such as Greater Discipline (+6), and taking the
feat Skill Focus (Discipline) will give you a very high score, enough to resist
the majority of knockdown/disarm attempts.

Heal -
It is relatively useful, at maxed lvl, it's 23 + wisdom bonus (+5 usually), it's
28. So you can heal 1D20 + 28 + medikit bonus during battles, or 20 + 28 + medikit
bonus outside battles. All in all, it is a lot cheaper than potions. This skill
however, isn't needed if you play in Normal Mode, but if you play Hardcore Rules,
you will need it. Hardcore Rules will allow an attack of opportunity against you
if you drink potions, whereas Heal with medikits won't. It's up to you, though
myself, i don't take it, since gold is plenty so i never run out of potions, and
therefore, it's wasted skill points.

Hide/Move Silently/Set Trap/Open Lock/Listen/Search/Pick Pocket/Spot -
Wow, that's a lot of skills rolled into one big lumpy group. ;) The reason they
are all here is because they are either a) non class skill that is useless, or b)
class skill (hide) that is useless.

Hide could be useful if you plan on playing a lightly armored range attack, or
battlefield medic, but if you plan on being a person of action then it isn't
useful. Hide without Move Silently basically makes you on sitting duck. The other
skills are usefull, but they are limited to how high they can get, so their use
will be obsolete as you face enemies that are worthy of standing before you and
not die due to one poke. Example: Spot at lvl 12 won't help you against a good
rogue who is trying to stealth and sneak attack you, since his steath skill will
be much higher than yours.

Lore -
Skill points spent so you can save a hundred gold per identify, do you think it's
worth it? I don't. Gold is a plenty beyond the early stages of the game. Spending
all your precious skill points to save gold isn't a good idea.

Parry -
It is useful if you base your character solely on using this skill. It's a
different play style, since battles take longer, it feels more like an epic. Parry
isn't totally crap, if you get it beyond 30, and have plenty of attacks, backed up
with a high AC it is decent. I won't however, go into the full details of making
a parrying cleric, i prefer a parrying monk.. for reasons i won't go into further
details, as it could end up a very long essay. heh. Ultimately, unless you are
focusing everything (feats, skills, ability points, weapon choice, armor choice,
spell choices) towards making parry effective, then don't bother.

Persuade -
Good in singleplayer mode, or player designed campaign that relies on role playing,
and talking to get things your way. With a high skill, you can often get bonus
rewards, deeper conversation topics, and a general feeling that "hey, NWN isn't
just a hack & slash".. :) I would take points towards this, if it weren't for one
other skill..

Spellcraft -
Incredibly useful. Far from all the other skills. That's how good this skill is.
The thing that makes this skill great isn't because it allows you to identify the
spells casted by others, but it's due to the extra bonus. Every 5 points you have
in this skill, you gain a +1 bonus towards all your saves against magic. It won't
show up in your character sheet, but it does indeed show up behind the scenes where
the computer calculates all your rolls, you can see it working during the feedback
from a save against spells. Say you had a reflex save of 8, and had 10 in spell
craft, you saved the fireball at a +10, not +8. This skill is also a cleric skill,
so you can get up to 23 in it. If you buff up intelligence, you can gain a bonus
and end up with 25 in spellcraft. That is a +5 bonus to all magic saves. Basically
it's a Ring of Resistance +5, just not on your fingers. ;)

Taunt -
Another skill i would invest in if it werent for the fact that spellcraft is more
useful. Good gainst melee classes, who don't often have a high skill in concentration
to resist it. It lowers their AC up to -6 for 5 rounds, so it might offer some help
for melee clerics. Though, since clerics only get 2 skills per lvl, there just
isnt enough skills for Taunt.. perhaps a different cleric variant, with higher
intelligence to have plenty of skill points could make use of this, otherwise,
don't bother. Though humans do gain +skills, so you can use taunt with them.


FEATS GUIDELINE:
It is up to you to read the game manual to decide which feats help your character
the best, since different variants will obviously rely on different feats.

A few things i want to point out: Sap isnt for the PC, it's only used by the NPCs
against you. Called Shot won't work with range weapon, yes, incredibly dumb on
bioware's part, but apparently the engine forgot to apply skills to missile
ammunitions.

These feats: Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflex, Iron Will, & Toughness are good
enough to deserve a selection. BUT, only take them if you don't have a better feat
to take for your particular character design.

If you plan to cast spells, especially ones that harm or enchant your enemies, it
is wise to select Spell Focus and select Evocation or Enchantment. If you plan on
casting spells at all against enemies, Spell Penetration is a must since clerics
do not have wizard spells to lower an enemy's Spell Resistance.

Also when i suggest feats for the different variants, i will list them from the
order you should try to get them, since certain feats aren't needed or available
until you are high level.

2. CLERIC DOMAINS

I will assume you have already READ THE MANUAL and understand what these domains
give you, so i won't be copying tables or menus from the manual. I also personally
dislike guides that do that. :) However, i will extrapolate their in game usage
and how effective they are at helping you out.

AIR - The only real advantage from this domain is to gain call lightning @ lvl 3
spell slot. Clerics lack an offensive spell at level 3 (besides searing light), so
this really contributes to make them a very potent spell caster. Unless you are
walking around naked, Elementals won't ever pose a threat to you, so turning them
is moot since they are easily disposed of. Chain Lightning is a good spell for
wizards, but since Clerics gain one of the strongest spell in the game at level 6,
Blade Barrier, which is superior in all ways compared to Chain Lightning, it's
pointless to take AIR because of it. If you do pick it, consider taking the feat
spell focus (evocation) to make it more worthwhile.

ANIMAL - Every summon you call in will be 1 level higher than normal. So a Summon
Creature IV would normally be a Dire Spider, would now be a Dire Bear. This goes
all the way up to VIII, where you can summon the most powerful elemental, and save
a 9th spell slot for something else. Turning animals, well, again, i can't think
of an animal that really poses a threat to a cleric.. so to me, turning them isn't
that important. This domain is great for those who want to hang back and cast spell
or use range weapons.

DEATH - Phantasmal Killer is an ok spell for mid level, but later on it is easily
saved against. Enervation is useless, and a waste of a 5th spell slot, since two
very important Cleric spell occur at 5th level, Slay Living and Spell Resistance.
The Shadow you get for picking this domain is UTTERLY useless besides looking mean
and nasty. Your summons will be stronger than it, & you can't summon an animal AND
have a shadow at the same time, so this makes DEATH one of the worser domains to pick.

DESTRUCTION - Acid fog deals negligible damage, it's basically a melf's acid arrow
with a big radius. It's a 6th level spell as well. Turning constructs would be
good, but the ones you can turn are so weak you can destroy them easily, but the
tougher ones you can't destroy via turning since your level isn't doubled theirs
makes it useless. Anything to scatter your foes does more harm than good, since
you have a lot of area effect spells. You want them all bunched up nice and tight.
Get my drift? Don't take this domain.

EARTH - Nice for 4th level stoneskin, but the domain MAGIC offers the same and
extras. Turning elemental, well, i've been through this already, haven't i? :)

EVIL - Gives you 3 necromancy spells, that allows a saving throw to avoid the
effects. They are low level as well, so their DC will never be high enough to
really hurt tough creatures. Turning outsiders would have been good if it works
against lvl 20 monks, but since you need to be a level 40 cleric to instant kill a
monk it isn't going to happen. Also lvl 20 trying to turn lvl 20 isn't going to do
squat. I guess NWN doesn't want people to be evil does it? heh

GOOD - Nothing special here, stoneskin is available via EARTH or MAGIC domains, and
them both are better than this.

HEALING - All healing spells are 50% more effective. Great, huh? Not really. Why?
Potions are cheap, medikits are even cheaper. Resting is free. Could be useful IF
you played in a module that restricts resting, and makes potions more expensive,
as they should be.. or make gold harder to find. BUT currently, healing via spells
is a waste of a spell slot that can be used to attack or disable enemies, and boost
allies. If you want to heal someone, run around with medikits.