The White Mage

Veep

First Post
Originally posted by Nausicaa:


Healic Features and Known Clichès


Fortunately i waited for may errata to write this guide, so we can focus entirely on the class features i prefer for the healic: Control.


Most people think, in fact, that the pacifist healer brings only healing to the battlefield and that the may 2010 nerf nearly destroyed the build viability. This is in my opinion wrong, because the most interesting features were not touched from the nerf and can now be rediscovered inside the "pile of healing" that hid them.


Let's divide the class in the section LDB created for his warlord handbook and that are commonly used in most handbooks:


I use the standard colours to rank the ability of the class:
Gold: Prepare to be considered more than human (mandatory choice)
Sky blue: you are an inspiration for the masses (5/5)
Blue: you are a staple of your church (4/5)
Black: you prayers are weak but your deities listened to you (3/5)
Violet: you will have to atone for the violet sins sometimes (2/5)
Red: if you choose many red options, you have to pray often for mercy (1/5)


Healing: this is the staple of the build, as we know. A level 1 pacifist cleric using healing word heals little more than a 16th level warlord. Your healing word at first level is so powerful that you should use it only when your ally is seriously bloodied. This is a constant for all levels. Your astral seal helps with little damage and then you drop your 2-3 bombs during the encounter healing excess damage. This is without any other feat, power or item.
Before this dreaded "nerf" i could keep up a 6th man party without even allowing the defender using second wind. It was over the top, and the DM actually made monsters stick to me because i was the real dread in the field. Now things should be a little more balanced
Many other healic attack powers heal damage without using a healing surge. No other class can make it, remember, and this is never a bad thing because it adds peculiarity to your build.


Debuffing: This is the other thing you like to do. You make your friends deal more damage to enemies, or you make your enemies dear less damage to your allies. You can do both things together, but usually you follow a predetermined pattern:
- Heroic tier: your powers give -x to defenses or -x to enemy attacks
- Paragon tier: your powers give terrible vulnerabilities to enemies
- Epic tier: your powers seriously cripple your enemies with status effects like stunning, domination or directly remove them from the board.
The question i asked myself was: why should i retrain denunciation if it's so great? Why should i skip moment of peace? This is one of the selling points of this build. You can keep the powers that fit your party better. For example, if your party needs an help to hit enemies, you can keep 1-2 heroic tier attack powers. If your party has 3 strikers is better that you change 1-2 of them to make foes vulnerable to heavy damage. The epic tier powers are more flashy and fun to use but aren't necessarily more powerful for YOUR party (except for healing).
More about this topic in the last post.
There isn't a real "debuffing scaling" as for healing, but you are surely on the podium. The only leader that can compete with you in debuffing is the Bard

Saving throws enabling: one of the best cleric at will, sacred flame, makes ally get a saving throw. Mark of healing makes ally get a saving throws. Healer's mercy gives you AoE saving throws. Many high level powers grant saving throws as candies. You are not better and not worse than any other cleric: this means that you are #1 in this field.


Buffing:
you are better with debuffing, really. Since buffing and debuffing are sides of the same medal, you actually don't need to buff a lot


Movement enabling: very very little, you are not good in this field. Only few powers grant movement to your allies. You are much better in enemy movement denial: prone and blinded are two common effects in your powers.


Action enabling: no. You are not warlord. You don't grant any action, people has to earn them.


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Survivability: you have to work to be tough. Feats for armors or offhand defensive weapons are frankly needed. Your party needs you, and you are a fundamental piece of the chessboard. The Messenger of Peace Paragon Path is an important help for your living, and it brings your chances to live to higher levels. Fortunately you're still a ranged even if you are usually near the defender (more of this in the tactic section).
Your NADs, too, are not the best. Will is ultimately powerful, Fortitude can be decent but reflex will dabble in the 35-36 range at 30th level which means that you will be hit 85-90% of the times.


Secondary Roles
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Controller : yes, you are good. See debuffing section.


Defender : you have to work hard, but you can be heavy armored and grant flanking here and there. Generally you won't exist for moving monsters, they will often give you many Opportunity attacks, since you can't hit them most of the times with your mace. But don't despair: monsters will go for you 99% of the times if they don't attack the defender. So we can say that you are, unfortunately, a VERY good off-defender ^^


Striker : rofl.


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Class and build features:





Armor Proficiencies: chain. Unless you take Battle Cleric's Lore, then you will have scale and +2 shield bonus, all for free. If you want to take healer's lore, instead read the spoiler text, and prepare for some big AC problems.


Healer's Lore choice
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Chain isn't bad but you have the reasons to need scale, expecially if you use the adventurer's vault special armours: high-level scale armours, in fact, add +2 to fortitude and you need that +2. 13 strength and 13 constitution is needed to use it, but if you don't want to invest in strength you can put there a good 11 or 12 and take it later in your chareer.
The same remark is good also for light shields, which, again, need 13 strength: these adds +1 to reflex so you may want to use one in your chareer. How far are the day when clerics could use the best armours and heavy shields...
You need only to invest 2 feats, and trust me, you won't regret this choice.


If you don't want to invest in strength (and then in heavy armors, and keep chain), you can choose to take the feat superior weapon proficiency and use one of the two off hand defensive weapons: the first, the cutting wheel (eberron player's guide), is an horrible rotating thing capable to save your ArCe; the other choice is the more "classical" parrying dagger (adventurer's vault). Both weapon can be enchanted by Rhytm Blade, which adds an additional +1 to ac and reflex.
This is a good choice but has a price: in fact shields have better enchant than bracers for leaders. So you keep leader's chain enchant, but you lose shields, +2 to fortitude and +1 to reflex.
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Weapon proficiency: simple melee, but you don't care. Just wield your healer's mace and try to smack the occasional minion or non-bloodied enemy for a good opportunity attack (yes, you can do this, i did 3-4 times in my entire chareer)


Implement: you gain the best implement, the holy symbol. Why is it the best? Because it doesn't occupy a space. You can wear your divine symbol as a neck, waist, hat, armband, kneelpad: this is not important.


Channel Divinity: this is not one single ability but a set of abilities. As a cleric you have only to make a major choice: the devoted gets Turn Undead, the shielding gets Healer's Mercy. Stop. No other differences, because you are a A class, that is a class with 2 main stats (wisdom and strength) and one secundary (charisma) and each class with these characteristic has a separate build for each main stat.
You also get Favor of the Gods or Divine Fortune. The choice among those 2 powers is quite easy to make. An encounter reroll is pure goodness for your strikers.


There are many, many, many domain feats that add abilities to this features. Many domains are also good, but if you are the only leader in your party i suggest to stick with Healer's Mercy and then check after for feats. Turn Undead is situationally very good but obiously only versus undead.
The only thing you have to remember is that you gain only one use of your "deity" for each encounter. If you use Healer's Mercy you can't use Divine Fortune or your new fresh feat Channel Divinity ability. So, be careful.


Healer's lore: this was changed to affect only surge healing. When you make the target expend an healing surge (and not "heal as if the target spent an healing surge") you add wisdom bonus to the healing done. For example, a pacifist cleric Healing Word at first level will heal for: Surge + (1d6+charisma) + 1d6 + wisdom. Personally i consider Healer's Lore a bad choice at the moment.


Instead of Healer's Lore you can take Battle Cleric's Lore. This is an exceptional choice for all kind of pacifist clerics. +2 free AC, scale, and a +2 to hit bonus on your healing words and some attacks utilities.

Healing word:
your leader feature, better than most except the arteficer, but definitely stronger than any other leader. Think about dropping the bomb only when really needed: 2x encounter, 3x encounter at level 16. Do you think they'll add a feat to make us use 4x as warlords? I don't think so.


Ritual casting: you don't need a wizard in your party, or any other ritual caster. This is often a overlooked ability but it's very good.


Last but not least, i'll put here Pacifist Healer. We got back this feat intact (D399 Templar Article) but the limitations now are harsher. So, i suggest you not to take damage feats at all.


Skills


Skill powers descripted here are in Player's handbook 3


You get Religion as a class skill.. It's useful for good divination rituals (like Speak with Dead and Consult Oracle) and Brew Potion. Religion skill powers are definitely bad for you.


You can choose other 3 skills:
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Arcana is a good skill for all clerics, for the large number of rituals and utility. Its skill powers are bad, except for Insightful warning. This is a pearl, a very good defensive power which can save your party. I would take it as a feat since you have Spirit of healing and stream of life. This is obiouvsly dependant on your DM: if he/she likes controllers and arcane monsters, this may be your best bet.


Your best bet is to be the party face and take Diplomacy, if your party needs. Diplomacy skill powers aren't that bad, expecially Cry for mercy, which is sanctuary on steroids with a dash of free movement, and Noble sacrifice.


Heal skill powers are bad, and you shouldn't need the skill. It's strange to have a shielding cleric without heal, but it can be done (i think ^^). It is blue because the most beautiful "healing themed" rituals are all heal-based.


History skill isn't that great, and you have only one good skill power, strategist epiphany, which causes you to be a mini tactical lord once a day


Insight: this is one skill you want, because it's VERY useful ingame. It also gives a great skill power, the level 10 Prescient Defense: if you know that your DM goes for you often, take this and love it
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Races


I don't have other tips to add to Gelatineous Octahedron's handbook, so follow his advices. Just to point out fast (for the TL:DR fans), the best races are certainly Kalashtar (EPG) and Deva (PHB2). I prefer Deva, but Kalashtar is incredibly good too. These are followed by Dwarf, Human, Elf, Drow, Minotaur, Wilden and both types of shifter.


The Base of Your Power: At Wills


Astral Seal and Sacred Flame are, naturally, the best choices. The first is the only non-damaging at will power in the game. The second is one of the best at will powers in the game, because it offers extra versatility between saving throws and an extra shield (in form of temporary Hit Point) for one of your allies. Heroes of the Fallen Lands added Brand of the Sun as a variant for Sacred Flame.


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Astral Seal (Divine Power): this is your only (for now) at will power designed specifically for the pacifist cleric. As i write there's a quarrel in the leaders forum about its viability. As a pacifist cleric you just need the power, I have no more to say. Fortunately it's still a very good power, because it's accurate (A) it helps your allies to hit your enemy (B), has scaling healing (C) and an extremely good domain support, maybe the best (D). I quote a post of mine in the leader forum "Debuffing an enemy is already enough to be good. The heal should offset for the lack of damage, but the damage you don't deal is dealt by your allies with greater accuracy. So you get double effect, the heal and the dpr accuracy.I'm not even adding domains like knowledge, torment, tyranny and life."
You don't gain Healer's Lore wisdom bonus for this power, but your heal is increased by some items (for example Healer's Weapon from Adventurer's Vault and Healer's Brooch from Adventurer's Vault 2). The healing is approximately 12-15% of your ally's health, more than half of their healing surge.
Domain choices are VERY good for this power:
Note: if you take more than one domain feat, you can apply only one domain per cast
Fate adds +1 to hit with astral seal if you hit a bloodied foe. Nice but not so needed.
Knowledge domain adds a +1 to all defenses when you use the power: this is more than a real feat, so imho it's nearly an autopick.
Life domain add another healing bump, this time in temporary hit points, which is a very rare effect for the cleric.
Torment
domain is in my opinion the best choice. It adds Combat advantage to the healing effect on next hit: nice for adding DPR. It's not hard to justify in game the torment domain: for example Illmater in Forgotten Realm seems a good pick. Also the Silver Flame's eternal struggle can be a symbol of constant torment
Tyranny effect is very nice if your party is full of arcane characters or allies that abuses of save-end effects. Another -2 to saves can change your allies playstyle, freeing a slot from a cunning weapon, for example. Most important, the effect is automatic on the target, whether or not you hit
Vengeance is imho the worse of these domains. If the target attacks you or an ally, it takes damage. You won't be stunned by this damage, but the effect is so negligible that it's not even a deterrent.


Sacred Flame (Player's Handbook) : This is usually your second at will. It deals damage, so pay attention not to hit bloodied enemies. This is generally useful because it clears the board of minions and gives a choice between a save (always nice) or scaling HP. At the end of your chareer this will heal way less than astral surge (but you can choose the target more easily) and it's temporary hit point and not real healing so pay attention because you will waste surges at the end of the encounter. There's no domain support for this power but it's very good.


Brand of the Sun (Heroes of the Fallen Lands) : As a variant of sacred flame you can take this at will. There are a lot of things to say about it. On the negative side it is a melee attack, and it obliges you to engage in melee. Usually Healic defenses are decent (at least if you follow my guide) and this isn't a great issue. On the positive side it doesn't really require you to hit to gain the saving throw... sometimes is even better to miss the attack, especially if you took pacifist healer.


Gaze of defiance (Player's Handbook Heroes): only human healics should take this, it's very similar to lance of faith and it's a static buff. The difference is that it targets will, so it may be situationally useful.


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Veep

First Post
Originally posted by Nausicaa:

Pacifist Cleric Heroic Power List

I will rate only non-damaging powers in this handbook.
Some level choices are not top level. In that case i will refer to the Cleric Handbook.
Near the power i'll write useful keywords. Utility powers are marked as daily (D) or encounter (E)

Level 1 Encounter Prayers

Bane and Prophetic Guidance are the best choices

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Bane (Divine Power): Probably your best bet at this level. Pretty much equals to a stun, Even with so-so charisma (14) this is at least a -3 to all defenses and to all attacks. Yes, he can move, but it won't hit.

Prophetic Guidance (Dragon 386):
enemy grant Combat Advantage and your allies get scaling damage bonus. Definitely better than Exacting Utterance at low level, a little more offensive than Bane but the bonuses are similar. Get a big plus because there's no hit line, so you don't even need to roll to hit, a little minus for the small range.

Exacting Utterance (Divine Power)
: this is definitely the best choice for high-accuracy parties (rogues, avengers& fighters, for example). Generally you're going better with bane, expecially at level 1, but this works for many parties and is definitely better at higher level where you gain accuracy feats.

Cause fear (Player's Handbook): FEAR this was once the best power in the cleric arsenal. Now it's a little outdated and not so easy to use as the other two. I still like it though, expecially when you face a slow but hard hitting solo.

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Level 1 Daily Prayers

Moment of Glory and Beacon of Hope are the best choices

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Moment of Glory (Divine Power): FEAR Very large close blast effect, push away foes from your ranged allies and the party can gain resist 5 until the end of encounter. You can ignore minions and make your encounter a real walk in the park. More Gold than skyblue

Beacon of Hope (Player's Handbook): HEALING The real opponent to moment of glory. Large focus on healing, it becomes better than moment of glory at level 9-10-11 when resist 5 becomes less useful. Each heal you cast gets the bonus, also Astral Seal, and also the initial heal can be augmented by items&feats.

Font of Tears (Divine Power): Dazing (save end) is very good, the burst is quite large, but moment of glory is a superior defensive power. The penalty to defenses becomes very large on an astral sealed enemy.

Guardian of Faith (Player's Handbook): RADIANT the guardian act by himself. Not a gamebreaking power, but you may consider it if you have a summoner wizard or druid or a shaman in your party to team up.

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Level 2 Utility Prayers

The powers choice in this level is quite bad. Most powers are standard action, others are just not so great. Imho the best power of this level is Strategist Epiphany, a History skill power... but the skill is not so useful. Unless you are a human you may want to take Return from the death's door (nice on paper but i've never used it) or Holy Vestment (nice but doesn't scale well). Dragon 384 added Sacrifical Aegis and i like it very much. Maybe it's your best bet.

Finally after the Errata we get Bless viable. Minor action long bonus to hit. Very nice for us!

Heroes of the Fallen Lands added, as a more than viable choice, Resurgent Strength.

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Resurgent Strength (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): D an healing power (you may have a lot of them) with a great damage boosting effect. Overall a nice pick.

Bless
(PHB)
: D The old time bless is now a very nice bonus to hit. Since you don't give other bonus to hit, this becomes probably your best bet for the level.

Sacrifical
Aegis (Dragon 384): D it's not skyblue because it's melee range, but as a minor action you give a load of temporary hit points.

Strategist Epiphany (Player's Handbook 3, History skill power): D this is a very good power, you dabble in the Tactical Warlord's territory. It's a pity that the skill tied to this power is the worst in your arsenal, but a human cleric should not care.

Sanctuary (Player's Handbook):
E i still like this power, in my opinion it's useful to save an ally from impending death

Return from the Death's Door (Divine Power): D on paper is nice, but pre errata i have never used in 30 levels. Maybe this time i'll use it once... It becomes BETTER at higher level, worth of retrain

Life  Transference (Divine Power): D it was a good encounter power. Now  it's a daily. It's not a bad power but in my opinion sacrifical aegis is a bit better for the minor action expense

Shield of faith (Player's Handbook): D another good power of the old times. You don't destroy your character taking it, but it's not gamebreaking. Bumped to Blue for the errata!

Holy Vestments (Divine Power): D some people says this power is great. Imho is nothing more than a decent choice, because it creates movement issues.

Divine Aide (Divine Power): D it's good but you won't probably need it.

Cure Light Wounds (Player's Handbook): D standard action, melee range, no bonuses... It's a pity to give a mediocre rating to an old good spell... but i have to
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Level 3 Encounter Prayers

Hymn of Resurgence is without any doubt your best choice. It's so better than other powers that it in my opinion gets the gold rating.

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Hymn of Resurgence (Divine Power): one of the best power of the level among all leader's powers. -2 to all defenses, the target is knocked prone and any ally in the blast get a choice between healing (temporary hp) and saving throw. I used to nova this with a Bane for -5 to all defenses and prone on hit. Targets fortitude but you should have already a debuff on your main target (2 if you nova)

Command (Player's Handbook): CHARM nice old power, you get the choice for the enemy for reposition or dazing. It hasn't the sheer power of hymn of res.

Astral Flare (Divine Power): nice aoe daze, maybe better than command (but you don't have the choice). I like it but it's absolutely inferior to Hymn of Resurgence

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Level 5 Daily Prayers

There are two good choices at this level: Consecrated Ground is great and get the usual effect of enemy debuff+ ally buff. Iron to Glass is an absurd debuff meant to totally annihilate a solo. If your DM likes putting in your encounters Elite/solo iron to glass is definitely better.

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Consecrated Ground (Player's Handbook): HEALING, RADIANT great aoe effect, enemies are autodamaged and allies gets healing (with the usual buffs) and both effects scale with charisma. You can also move the area with a move action.

Iron to Glass (Divine Power)
: great scaling debuff... at -4 a solo can start to flee from the encounter. Even if you miss the effect is usually deadly.  Choose this power if your DM likes "POWAH" monsters and elites.

Weapon of the Gods (Player's Handbook): RADIANT, WEAPON nice buffing power, but inferior to other choices. A good old power in 3.5 edition ^^

Halo of consequence (Divine Power): RADIANT i don't know why you should take this power when you can use Iron to Glass. A subpar choice.

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Level 6 Utility Prayers

Stream of Life and Spirit of Healing are the superior choices at this level. Remember that you don't have to take all that "sacrifice" powers. If you do, better if you take Life domain so you may want to recover a little those blows to your surges. I also like Mark of Victory, since it boosts a lot your buffing.

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Stream of Life (Divine Power): D you take damage and they heal. Remember that you are never your "ally", so you can't loop with this power. The healing is fixed but scales with your items as usual. 15 hp at 6 level are a defender surge, so it's VERY much. You need to keep up this beautiful power only for 3-4 rounds, never more than 5 rounds (this is taken from my direct experiences)

Spirit of Healing (Divine Power): D it was too good before, it healed for much more than 15 without you having to do anything to keep it up (except a minor and a move here and there). The healing has become not so good (we're talking about 5-6 healing at 6th level) but it can possibly heal more than 1 time/round. It's still a very good power.

Mark of Victory (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): E a nice power to nova an enemy after your debuffs.

Holy Celerity (Divine Power): E this becomes better at higher level. The conditions are bad (not the worse) and it's a minor action encounter. Good range.

Divine Favor (Divine Power): D the good old divine favor power strikes again. Not the best power of this level, but if you have in your group the usual glass-cannon assassin, sorcerer or wizard it can be a very good choice.

Blades of Holy fire (Divine Power): D you are not a lazer cleric, but if you have multiple invokers/paladins/radiant weapon wielders in your group this can be a good choice.

Bastion of Health (Player's Handbook): E another surge healing which wasn't touched by the errata. Stream of Life is simply a superior choice, even as a daily.

Cure serious wounds (Player's Handbook): D again, a wasted power. It's good but offers nothing that Stream of Life or Spirit of Healing can't do better

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Level 7 Encounter Prayers

The choices at this level are few (only 2) but Denunciation is bane on steroids and it's a lovely power.

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Denunciation (Divine Power): it's not gold because it's so good, but because it's so better than your other choice. Practically it's bane on steroids, the target is also dazed. The debuff isn't SO worse than Bane, so you may want to keep both powers. Dazed it's still bad at 7th level, though.

Price of Violence (Divine Power): it's not a bad power but denunciation is superior and this targets fortitude so it's generally less accurate.

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Level 9 Daily Prayers

The best choice in this level is generally Rebuke Violence. If you want to deal a little damage, you can use Blade Barrier.

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Rebuke Violence (Divine Power): the target is removed from the combat nearly totally. This is an effect like a stun, only a little worse because you cannot still pass through the enemy's space. A great effect expecially against synergic elites

Blade Barrier (Player's Handbook): damage is automatic, so you aren't stunned. Nice for that group that abuse forced movement powers or that often fight in little rooms.

Dismissal (Divine Power):

TELEPORTATION not as good as rebuke violence, in my opinion. If you constantly face aberrants, elementals, feys, immortals and shadows, though, this is better than rebuke violence for the aftereffect.

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Level 10 Utility Prayers

Reverent Mettle is your best choice, since it scales well with your level. In the epic tier you will be able to use it 3 times in a standard fight. Not bad, really. Battle Surge is another more than viable choice: surgeless healing + nova. Wall of Shield is the defensive first runner. Prescient defense is nice if you are constantly attacked (as you should be), and Recall Ally is a nice teleport power

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Reverent Mettle (Dragon 379): E a good power that scales with your charisma and your feats, has not movement or placement issues and can be used tactically. I love this power

Battle Surge (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): D AoE surgeless healing + accuracy buff make this power incredible.

Wall of Shields (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): D Huge Wall, immobilization effect and +2 to defenses. Incredible defense/control power.

Prescient Defense (Player's Handbook 3, Insight Skill Power): E a good power if you are constantly attacked by your DM. Totally negates 1 attack, but it's not as good as reverent mettle most of the time

Shielding Word (Player's Handbook): E another +defense power that can negate an attack. Take it if your DM likes to show his/her dice results.

Recall Ally (Divine Power)
: E one of the few movement powers granted for the cleric class. The range is very good.

Word of Vigor (Divine Power): E this is quite similar to healer's mercy but the range is worse. Take it only if you need extra healing (you shouldn't)

Mass Cure Light Wounds (Player's Handbook): D finally an old "cure" power that maintained its dignity. Similar to word of vigor, more powerful but requires a standard action (and it's a daily)

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Noteworthy Heroic Feats

Feats are too many to be summarized in a little guide like mine. Here i'll show only very good picks (blue+ rated). You can pick random choices in this list and you will be sure to build a nice character.
I won't put here domain Channel Divinity Feats and racial feats (hint: Kalashtar is good!). Check Gelatineous Octahedron's guide for these feats. There are a lot of good choice in the Heroic Tier. You can't go wrong if you reserve some feats for the paragon tier.

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Versatile  Expertise (Player's Handbook 3): blah, blah blah... TAKE IT. Mace/Holy symbol.

Improved Defenses (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): i consider this feat a must for each character.

Mark of Healing (Eberron's Player Guide): if you can take it, take it. Not mandatory, though, since you enable a lot of saving throws.

Spirit of Hestavar (Dragon 387, must worship Erathis): +2/4/6 to the target surge value if he's adjacent to you. This is good also for "as if he spent an healing surge" instances. Really really really nice.

Defensive Healing Word (Divine Power): the target becomes unhittable against the next attack. Great choice.

Healer's Implement (Divine Power)
: this starts to be good in later heroic tier. Touched by the may errata but still very good.

Pacifist's Reward (Dragon 379)
: very good to offset minion damage,
stream of life damage, and so on

Coordinated Explosion (Player's Handbook 2): nearly all your encounter and daily powers are areas or blasts.

Superior Implement Training (Player's Handbook 3): the obvious choice is accurate, but also warding is good if you have low strength.

Shield Proficiency (Light) (Player's Handbook): if you have enough strength, take it and love it

Armor Proficiency (Scale) (Player's Handbook): copypaste from shield prof. You gain +2 fortitude from high level scale armors, so it's very good (epic level chain gives +will)

Superior Weapon Proficiency (Cutting Wheel) (EPG):
Superior Weapon Proficiency (Parrying Dagger) (AV)
:
These feats does the same things Shield Proficiency + Armor Proficiency (Scale) does, but don't require stats. At higher level Shield+Armor are better, in my opinion, but these are easier to qualify for in heroic tier.

Distant Advantage (Player's Handbook 2): good feat but mechanically coordinated explosion is better for you. Usually you are very accurate, but if you are a "must-hit" fan you may take both of them

Superior Will (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): this is a feat you should take at least in the late paragon tier. Being able to dismiss dazing or stunning effects is incredible.

Restful Healing (Player's Handbook 2)
: often an underrated feat, it's lovely.

Defensive Grace (Player's Handbook 2): if you use often (at least 2x day) Healer's Mercy this is a good pick

Shielding Word (Dragon 378): defensive healing word is better, but the two stacks.

Toughness (Player's Handbook): if your DM likes to fire-focus you this is an obvious choice

Fortifying Word (Dragon 385): statistically Fortitude is the less targeted defense, but this is really DM dependant.

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Veep

First Post
Originally posted by Nausicaa:

Pacifist Cleric Paragon Power List


Level 13 Encounter Prayers

Remorse is the superior choice at this level. You are starting vulnerability levels, keep sure you don't take too much powers with "vulnerability" since they don't stack. Use them wisely.

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Remorse (Divine Power): HEALING vulnerability 10, aoe, dazing, spend surge as effect. This power is another SUMMA of your skills.

Chains of Blazing Light (Dragon 379): RADIANT nice power, good target selection. It's a pity that the extra damage is a little conditional. This surely makes the rating a little lower, since remorse is definitely superior.

Deadly Lure (Divine Power): CHARM i usually don't like to give red ratings, but this power definitely deserves it. Red=don't take it, ever. The vulnerability is even worse than remorse's one, and the target has to move TOWARDS you? You are making him a gift. Last and not least, many enemies are immune to charm effects.

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Level 15 Daily Prayers

This level has a very good selection. Each power can be good for you character, if you use it wisely. The best, arguably, is Brilliant Censure. Aura of Astral Radiance is a nice power, expecially for messenger of peace. Sacred Armistice and Penance of Blood, though, are workable and not so worse.

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Brilliant Censure (Divine Power)
: RADIANT be sure to position well before dropping this bomb. Blinded is -5 to attacks and CA and not flank, so you can move freely at least for a round.  Each attack deals +2d6 radiant damage (which is usually exploited and less resisted). A great power, and you don't have to do anything to keep it

Aura of Astral Radiance (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): AURA, RADIANT a nice defenses buff, +2 bonus to defenses and damage for nearby enemies. A quite nice power, not at the level of brilliant censure, though.

Sacred Armistice (Dragon 379): FEAR This is a GREAT power, but, alas!, it targets also your allies. This is the best power if you aren't going to be a messenger of peace. The rider to defenses stack with your feats, so it is really nice. But, please, target that blast FAR from your friends.

Penance of Blood (Divine Power): it was my favourite pick. After a discussion with PaladinOnline i changed my mind towards brilliant censure. The combo with Remorse isn't enough to make this power better, and it has crappy range and it targets fortitude.

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Level 16 Utility Prayers

You don't have many good choices. Cloak of Courage, Astral Shield and Hallowed Ground are the best powers, expecially the first two. I prefer Astral Shield, but other powers are very nice too.

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Astral Shield (Player's Handbook): E a great choice if you don't want to focus into healing powers. +2 untyped, movable bonus to AC, encounter long... A great power, in my opinion.

Cloak of Courage (Divine Power)
: E good temporary hit point and good fear +defense boost. Extra useful against undeads and immortals. 

Hallowed Ground (Player's Handbook): D the bonus are lovely but they are power bonus. The area is big but it can't be moved. The power is a daily. This is why this power isn't skyblue as it should be.

Divine Armor (Player's Handbook): D good power, but astral shield can do better and it's an encounter power.

Unexpected Return (Divine Power): E this is the best power in the level if you have a really tremendous DM who loves and starves to kill the party.

Eternal Barrier (Dragon 384)
: AT WILL mmm... can be good, but i can't see why you should skip another power for this.

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Level 17 Encounter Prayers

The best non-damaging power is definitely Sewer the Source which continues the glorious vulnerability tradition of the shielding cleric. A note of merit also goes to Enthrall, even if it is damaging.

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Sever the Source (Divine Power)
: good vulnerability, autohit, cannot regain HP. Useful against solo, useful against bloodied leaders, always great.

Enthrall (Player's Handbook): DAMAGING POWER! CHARM, PSYCHIC The best form of hard control: very large area, great range, treacherous condition. Good for you for opening.

Prescient Boon (Dragon 386): nice rerolling power, like a +3 or +4 to hit. Unless your allies have bad hit ratio, sever the source is better.

Malediction (Divine Power): weakening is good, dazing less at this level. A nice level 7 encounter, not 17.

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Level 19 Daily Prayers

Moment of Peace is usually better, but a tactical player can prefer Miracolous Intervention. Wrathful Judgement can be a worthy choice.

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Moment of Peace (Divine Power): the target can still apply bad conditions even if it doesn't do any damage. This power has better use on melee targets, expecially brutes.

Miraculous Intervention (Divine Power)
: HEALING if you do your job well, people won't die. What i really don't like about this power is the randomness of the burst. However, even if you hit only 1 target, stunned (save end) is still powerful.

Wrathful Judgement (Heroes of the Fallen Lands): a nice choice if you have many combats against Solos or Elites. Remember to couple it decently with your "can't attack powers".

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Pacifist Cleric Paragon Paths

I double checked each possible multiclass possibility: in our case we're restricted to wizard and invoker, the only classes which have non-damaging powers. I've found only one MC paragon path of some utility and this is the Planeshifter (Manual of the Planes). From the wizard you may gain some good utility powers, but you cannot use attack powers because intellect is one of our dumpstats.
MC invoker, which is much more useful for many good powers (like silent malediction) can go for Keeper of the nine (Divine Power): features are a true waste unless you invest heavily on invoker powers (or go hybrid) but powers are really good.

Cleric Paths

Our choices are restricted to two "true" pacifist Paragon Paths, but other paths, like the Divine Oracle and the Miracle Worker are very good too even if they have 1 damaging power. The truthseeker has 1 damaging power too, but it's a generally a bad choice.

First, our real "pacifist" options.

Messenger of Peace (Divine Power)
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This is in my opinion (and not only mine) the best option for you. "You" are the usually targeted, pounded by DM, maimed by enemy controllers, brutes and soldiers. Pacifist Cleric. You need to stay on your toes, you have high armor and you like control as much as you like to heal. You need to be trained in Diplomacy but this isn't usually an issue.
This is one of the best Paragon Paths in d&d, in my opinion.
Features:
Vow of nonviolence: this is a +2 to all defenses most of the time, pure and simple. One of the most helpful features among ALL paragon paths
Peacemaker's Action: +4 to hit with that attack (or attacks, if you use your action point before your standard action. +7 if you are human. No comment)
Aura of Peace: -2 hit aura. Little but big enough. You won't be far from melee, you won't need it. This is a total of +4 to all defenses when coupled with Vow of nonviolence.
Powers:
Pacify: the target can't attack for one round. The encounter power version of Rebuke Violence
Peacemaker Pronouncement: use this on vulnerabilities, pacify, healer's reproof, bane, general debuffs, and buffs cast on you. The effect is identical to the daily use of Symbol of Sustenance. Use these in combo for absurd 3 round stuns or "can't attack" streams.
End to Strife: hilarious. The runepriest gets a power like this, single target, at level 29. Nothing more to say. No questions asked, no saves.
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Compassionate Healer (Divine Power)
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You like to heal, heal much and frenquently. And your DM doesn't like to hit you too much, or you took many feats like Durable or Toughness (or maybe you're a dwarf). This is the Paragon Path for those who like to bring their healing skills to the sky.
A lovely PP but only for those who like the "sacrifice" theme. I don't, and i prefer, if you really want to boost your healing (and many times this isn't necessary) Miracle Worker.
Features:
Compassionate Blessinga really nice feature, which literally copies Pacifist Healer feat. For a little sacrifice (5hp) you gain extra healing and extra defenses. REALLY good. Nerfed in errata to heal only one target.
Selfless Action: you have your 4th use of healing word. Here it is.
Healer Sacrifice: lay on hands on steroids.
Powers:
So Others Might Live: i don't like this power too much, because the target can simply damage you and your ally won't be able to spend the healing surge
Bear the Wounds: a classical sacrifice effect. Be prepare to eat some blows
Martyr's Cry: double weakening is a cool, but not extraordinary effect at level 20
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And these are more general very good cleric paths

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Divine Oracle (PHB): it's one of the best path for all ranged characters. You have only to pay attention to the level 20th daily, which deals damage. It's also good for fluff

Zealous Demagogue (D 377): Wow, i say, wow. A really good PP, with a strange enabling feature (which could be possibly used more than one time per encounter), a lovely daily and great features, especially the level 16 and the AP feature. Not at the level of Messenger of Peace, probably, but quite near.
Miracle Worker (Divine Power): it's very similar to compassionate healer, but without the "sacrifice" theme. In my opinion (and most people agree) is much stronger. A good number of "true healers" use this PP, i've seen many good-themed builds. Pay attention to the damaging power.
Seldarine Dedicate (Divine Power): it has good options but most deal damage. Pay attention.
Anointed Champion (Divine Power): i still like this buffing-focused PP.
Truthseeker (Divine Power): most of the time its features are wasted. It's a pity because the level 20 daily is one of the most powerful powers in d&d. If your DM likes hiding monsters, invisibility and illusion effects and sparkles them in your game like little sugar bars on a cake, this is the best choice you can make
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Noteworthy Paragon Feats


There are many powers that boost Healer's Mercy, if you use it often. Extended Healing and Assured Healing are two good feats, too.

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Assured Healing (Dragon 379): absurd when coupled with Astral Seal. Sometimes you wish you miss. The most devastating combo i've seen it's when this feat is coupled with Salubrious Armor.

Gambler's Word (Dragon 379): a mixed bag. Sometimes you will need it, sometimes you won't. However, feats like this are fun to play.

Invigorating Critical (Divine Power): you often hit many targets... Critical happens and the heal scales very well.

Merciful Power (Divine Power): a very nice feat. Useless if you have mark of healing.

Armored by Faith (Divine Power): A nice benefit for you when you use your CD.

Extended Healing (Divine Power): Maybe it's useful but i've never felt the need of it

Clinging Radiance (Divine Power): you may want to take it, since Sacred Flame has the radiant keyword.

Merciful Shift (Dragon 378): bard-lite for your Healer's Mercy
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Veep

First Post
Originally posted by Nausicaa:

Epic Level Powers and Epic Destinies

Level 22 Utility Prayers

This is a good but not overwhelming level. I love Clarion Call of the Astral Sea. Other good choices are Adjure the Chosen, Purify (sometimes not needed) and finally a good member of the old "cure" family, Mass Cure Serious Wounds.

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Clarion Call of the Astral Seal (Player's Handbook): D it's a great power, and has great fluff. If you use it tactically you can make it a non-cost teleport+total heal. The total heal is good, the teleport is really GOLD for us. You can use it also on yourself.

Adjure the Chosen (Divine Power): E a great utility for novas, +2 hit/dmg/crit range/speed means that your allies will surely want to spend action points in this round. If used carefully it can be of great effect. It's a pity that it's a power bonus (too much cheese with Divine Mastery)

Purify (Player's Handbook): D total reset of bad effects. No question asked. Good if you have a controller-lover DM. Buffed to minor action it's even better.

Mass Cure Serious Wounds (Divine Power): D each target regain half hp (more, really). No melee touch range or other nerfs. This is seriously good.

Ramparts of Light (Divine Power): E i like this power, but Reverent Mettle is often more useful

Revive (Divine Power): D nice if you happen to fail more than you should.

Angel of Eleven Winds (Player's Handbook): D if your party doesn't have any other flying support, this can be good.

Prayers Made Real (Dragon 379): D the defensive version of adjure the chosen (but it's a daily). I like the idea but often you don't have the time to set up the combo. It's a minor action, though.

Spirit of Health (Player's Handbook): D rofl... how to waste surges.

Heal (Divine Power): D mmmm... NO. What this power does, Clarion Call does better.
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Level 23 Encounter Powers

Rebuke the Wrathful  is your best pacifist power, expecially if you have a party with many good basic attacks (usually martial/half-elf/warlocks) . From this level you can think to take some Damage dealing power. There are usually great choices, like Healing Torch.

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Rebuke the Wrathful (Divine Power): a mixed bag. If you use it in the right party, generally it's better than word of deterrence, but check with your players if they have good attacks: even if you have only a warlock with eldritch blast, the punishment is often greater than Word of Deterrence's one.

Healing Torch (Player's Handbook): DAMAGING POWER! HEALING, RADIANT Huge area, unhittable for one round, spend healing surge. This power is a top pick. It's a pity that it deals damage (not much damage, though... you will deal 3d8+5+7 damage approximately)

Word of Deterrence (Divine  Power): RADIANT another power in the "can't attack  line". Some DM can rule that you pay for the damage, but it is actually  auto-damage and should never trigger the stun (no hit line). And it's a  great "punishment for the evil" effect. The slide is icing on the cake. All is good... but the "until the end of your turn" ruins this great power. It should state "until the end of your target's next turn"

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Level 25 Daily Prayers

This level is the worst for "true pacifists". In fact, the usual two non-damaging options are really bad. Divine intervention is worse than miraculous intervention (level 19). Blinding at 25th level isn't truly enough. Life Lanterns is a little better and i like it a quite, but it's not really comparable to Seal of Binding.

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Seal of Binding (Player's Handbook): DAMAGING POWER! RADIANT Again the gold colour come back into my handbook to point out that this is the only power you should look for in this level. Drink health potion or your chosen/demigod regeneration and keep that elite stunned till tomorrow. A great power.

Life Lanterns (Divine Power): HEALING good power, nice targeting ability, nice effect (weakened is one of the best in my opinion). Autodazing and healing are nice, overall a nice power

Divine Intervention (Divine Power): TELEPORTATION mmm, not so great. You take the damage, targets are "only" blinded (i'd take a domination at 25th level...). I don't like this power at all.

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Level 27 Encounter Prayers

Ok, i'll go straight for it: in this level your only pacifist choice is a great power named Healer's Reproof. This power is often underrated because it's a burst 1 power. But i still love it.
The other choices are all damage-dealing. You can take Sunburst or Sublime Light, but be careful with these choices.

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Healer's Reproof (Divine Power): HEALING this power has positioning issues, but AoE encounter stunning + a 4th free use of your Healing Word (healing is the same) is truly devastating. You can't take anything else if you are a Messenger of Peace: abuse of Peacemaker Pronouncement to stun the BBEG for 2 rounds without a single save and a minor action expense.

Sunburst (Player's Handbook): DAMAGING POWER! HEALING, RADIANT Large area, good targeting, large surgeless heal, saving throws attached. For the laser cleric this it an obvious pick. For you, well, you may want to take it but use carefully. I still prefer Healer's Reproof, though. There's always a moment where you're surrounded.

Sublime Light (Divine Power): DAMAGING POWER! RADIANT 2d10+ aoe blind. Large area. A little less problematic to use than sunburst (expecially for the littler damage), comes with a save attached. A nice pick but you shouldn't need it.

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Level 29 Daily Prayers

Enforced Surrender is the very best pick here. Chains of Peacemaker, while have a huge 20 square range, has nothing else to say that a good Denunciation (level 9!) can't do. Instead, Enforced Surrender is not only a great capstone dominate, but also with a good aftereffect.

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Enforced Surrender (Divine Power)
: CHARM dominate + 5 damage/hit bonus as aftereffect for all allies. It's a good leading power. Maybe not as broken as Simulacrum for the Artificer, but still great. Also the miss effect is good.

Chains of Peacemaker (Divine Power): in my opinion iron to glass and denunciation (level 5 and 9) are better than this power.

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Epic Destinies for Healics

There are many good choices: going chosen (demigod) of your deity is pretty standard. Saint or Exalted Angel are my favourite picks (for fluff i prefer E.A., but Saint is probably better) but there are other Avatars that are quite nice

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Saint  (Divine Power): this is the other best ED. I love all  features, expecially Saintly Grace. Sanctified Touch makes you able to  retrain Mark of Healing, and Golden Halo makes you be able to heal +25  with your astral seal. LOL. At the moment remember that this ED doesn't work with Pacifist Healer.

Chosen  (Divine Power/Player's Handbook): the features are  really really good. Divine Miracle was a little nerfed but no one cares  about it. Powers are tied to your deity, and most are really nice: High  Arcana, Anthem of Progress, Unerring Foreknowledge, Horns of the Moon  and Forge of Creation are imho the best.

Exalted  Angel (Divine Power): this is PURE FLUFF. I love this  ED. Great resistances, fly speed (melee? Watch my dust!). With angelic  form you can gain 54 REAL AC, and when you are dropped you get burst 10  AOE BLIND! Last but not least your level 26 feature is Encounter and not  daily (so, with divine mastery and AP you get it again, since it is  Divine). The only problem is that the "kill" feature removes you from  battle and this little ruin this incredible ED.

Avatar  of Hope (Divine Power): nice bonus to wis and cha, nice  features and Hope Remains isn't really a bad entry feat.

Avatar  of Life (Divine Power): quite a bit healing focused,  but features are nice. +Con is good if you make your character in  advance to benefit about it.

Eternal  Seeker (Player's Handbook): For you it is harder to  exploit this really good ED because you have little choice. Check out  some wizards/invoker powers.

Avatar of Justice (Divine Power): a little less good  than avatar of hope, but not really a bad pick

Avatar  of Freedom (Divine Power): nicer, but again not made  for you. This is better for a Ranger|Cleric

Avatar of Death (Divine Power): it needs you to take death knell, a feat that you really can't take. The fluff would quite nice, but you are not there for this

Avatar of Storm (Divine Power): not made for you.

Avatar of War (Divine Power): again.

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Noteworthy Epic Feats

There are two mandatory picks: Supreme Healer and Glorious Channeler. There are many other nice picks.

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Supreme Healer (Divine Power): 6x Healing Words are better than 3x. Pure and simple.

Glorious Channeler (Divine Power): another use of your Channel Domain is enough to make this feat pure gold. If you took Reverent Mettle at level 10 (and you DID, right?) this is even better.

Shared  Healing (Divine Power): at the end of your chareer you finally catch up the artificer for that little surge-pool feature. Restricted to 5 squares but really lovely.

Beatific  Healing (Divine Power): nice effect, nerfed to surge healing. This  is better for classical laser clerics.

Divine Mastery (Divine Power)
: gain back an encounter power when you use your AP. Really nice.

Epic Fortitude
/Reflex (Player's Handbook): epic fortitude may be needed (i took it). Epic reflex a little less, but watch out your non ac-defenses.

Radiant Advantage (Divine Power): remember that Sacred Flame has the radiant keyword. CA is always good.

Reactive Healing (Divine Power): use your Healing Word as interrupt. Really nice, but there are many other good choices.

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Veep

First Post
Originally posted by Nausicaa:

Items of note & strategy tips

I'm not going to put here each piece of equipment and weapon written for the cleric. There are many sources for this, expecially the Cleric Handbook. What i'm going to do is a discussion about some enchants, a readable guide and not only a list of items. I'll put in bold the best choices without having to rate each item.

If you want to take a look to a more complete (and better) Item Handbook you may want to check Soulliard's Let's Accesorize!(x)

Items of Note for Healics

Armor Enchants
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At higher level you may want to take scale armor (or even plate armor) feats. It's an understandable choice, and is what i actually did, but this comes at a price. In fact the best true "leader" armor enchants are on chain and hide. Scale and Plate enchants are usually more defensive, usually made for defenders.

I used, during my chareer, 3 types of armor: in the heroic tier, a classical dwarven (PHB) chainmail and finemail. In the paragon tier, to level 23, a Curseforged (PHB) Stormscale and Wyvernscale armor. Then, from level 23, a +5 and +6 Mind (AV2) Armor. These 3 types are very good defensive enchants. Mind armor is good if you face, like i did, many psychic-damage offenders.  Plus, these superior scale mail gives, at higher levels, +1 or +2 bonus to fortitude, which was really enjoyable and i daresay needed.

Some very good healing-boosting enchant only found on chain are: exalted (PHB), healer's (av2) and expecially these two at higher level: Shared Valor (PHB2) and Shared Health (AV2): the latter is a level 30 enchant, so you won't miss it a lot :D The first instead is very good because it heals you when you heal another character: it goes only with temp hp, though.

Some very good scale enchants (most found also on chain, if you really want them) are: Champion's Hauberk (AV2) is the armor of the champion item set and lets you expend an healing word use for a CD use. This is not always a good choice, but it goes combo with Reverent Mettle.

I also like very much Scales of the Serpent (AV2, expecially in higher tiers), teleporting armor (av2), soulwarding armor (av), deflection armor (av), heartening armor (av), reinforcing armor (av).

Salubrious Armor (AV) is CRAZY when coupled with Assured Healing.

Last but not least i point out Bolstering Armor from Adventurer's Vault: it's high level, but this is the best "true leader effect" enchant for Scale Users.

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Weapon Enchants
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There's not much discussion here. I used a healer's mace and a light (and in epic heavy) shield.

If you don't want to use a shield you can go for 2 superior weapons, the parrying dagger (AV) or the cutting wheel (EPG). The enchant for these two weapons is the same: Rhythm Blade (AV2 page 97).

The differences between the choice of mace of healing + shield or mace of healing + rhythm blade are few. You spend 1 more feat (for heavy shield only) and you have to put a starting 13 (12 or even 11 if you want to go for light shields). But you will have a more decent fortitude (+3 bonus), a +1 bonus to reflex and the access to shield enchants (which are very good)

Your main hand will have always a Mace of Healing (AV). You have no other choices, it's too good. You can possibly wield a holy healer's weapon, but you'll miss the extra healing on astral seal. In the CB you can find it under "Weapon of Healing"

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Holy Symbols
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Mmm, there are too many choices here. I like to go simple when things get complicated: Symbol of Shared Healing (AV2) is lovely, Symbol of Victory (PHB) is even nicer if you have many nova enablers, Symbol of Sustenance (AV) is terrifying for going combo with your vulnerabilities or stun effects. These are my favourites, expecially the latter at higher-paragon and epic levels.

Other good choices: champion's symbol (av2), symbol of divine reach (av), symbol of defense (av2), symbol of hope (phb, if you don't have mark of healing), symbol of reflection (av2), symbol of divinity (av, go combo with Rev.mettle).

The superior implement property will be 99% accurate, but some of you may also like Distant, since you're not made to be in melee constantly.

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Neck Slot
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Do you think YOU have a choice? No. You don't have it. You are in the BIG BROTHER and you will WATCH TV.

Ok, stop pranks. Get that Healer's Brooch (AV) and be grateful of its existance.

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Arms Slot
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This is where the shield choice really shines. While there are really few good bracers available for the healic (we can't obiouvsly use executioner's bracers or iron armbands of power like all other characters) the choices for shield are many and excellent.

The best is in my opinion the Healer's Shield (AV), but also Shield of Fellowship (AV), Battleforged Shield, Shimmerlight and Hypnotic Shield (all in AV) are lovely.

Good bracers are, instead, Bracers of Respite and bracers of bold maneuvering, both from AV. Bracers of Defense (PHB) and Charm Bracelet (AV2) are also workable.

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Feet Slot
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I advise you i'm a little partial towards +speed boots, because they're really really better in gameplay than what they seem on paper.

So, i like Battlestrider Greaves (PHB) and the higher level partner Boots of Speed (AV), and the higher and higher level option Sandals of Avandra (AV). The second are much more stronger (and much more expensive). The third adds at-will shifting and a round of free movement per encounter (and costs 625k).

A very good alternative option are Boots of Quickness (AV) for those who don't really like to have abysmal Reflex defense, and Phantom Chaussures (AV2) for gaining concealment at-will.

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Hands Slot
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Gloves of the Healer (AV) are still a very good choice (they don't work on astral seal, as usual). I like also the Lay on Hands daily effect. If you don't want to boost your healing you have other choices to make: Gloves of the Camaraderie (AV) are nice if you don't have mark of healing. Gloves of Accuracy (AV) are great to hit skirmishers and lurkers. Gloves of the Wandering Star (AV2) add range to your powers.
Finally, if you don't care about gloves but you want to wear 3 rings, you may take Many-Fingered Gloves (AV2)

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Head Slot
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You have many choices in this slot. If you want to grant saves, again, you may want Crown of Equilibrium (AV2). Helm of Battle (PHB) is good because you don't give iniitative bonus. Helm of Ghostly Defense (PHB) is nice if you face many demons/undeads. Iron of Spite (PHB) is a strong disincentive to damage you, but is a bit expensive. Circle of Mental Onslaught (AV) is a daily +1 bonus to wisdom attacks. Eagle Eye Goggles (AV) are good for most higher level powers.
Finally Phrenic Crown (AV), while nerfed, can help you often because you have many Will attacking (save end) effects.

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Rings
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One ring is needed, at least from epic tier: ring of tenacious will (AV) help you to get those 4-5 more surges. I also like Alliance Band (AV2, horde sucks!) expecially with coupled with r. of ten. will to get another Lay on Hands effect. Finally Luminary Ring (AV) again helps your healing.

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Waist slot
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I used Cord of Divine Favor (AV). There's always the classical Belt of Vim (Player's Handbook).

You want that your defender wear a Cincture of Vivacity.

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Wondrous Items
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Solitaires are nice, as tattoo, but are expensive (nice, not mandatory). I like Battle Standard of Healing (AV) to heal better out of combat without taking restful healing. Shining Sundial (AV2) is nice when you have to use Sacred Flame

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General & Strategy Tips for healics

General Healic Features
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The cleric is not an hard class to play. Probably the cleric is the easiest Leader in the game: you have the tools to heal better than anyone else, you have the tool to make people save from bad things and you can buff your allies as few other leaders can do. Furthermore, you don't have to worry about granting movement, and, expecially, actions: action granting means that you have to build the party to be effective with the attacks you are granting.

The healic retains some of these qualities: you have even better healing, and you debuff much better than the classical ranged cleric, because you give up damage for that.
Dealing damage is something you can do, sometimes, if you want. Your save granting at will, sacred flame, deals a bit of damage, and radiant damage to boot (which opens some cool options in the epic tier). Some higher level dailies and encounters deal damage: i thinked a lot before supporting the viability of high level healics (level 25-30) because classical damage dealing powers are usually superior choices. Now, that these questions are out of order, because i actually analyzed all higher level powers, and tried them in game, i found that the only really superior damaging choice is the Enthrall daily at level 25.[/sblock]

Party Composition for Healics
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The healic is one of the best choices for the leader slot when your party is composed in one of these ways:
1) A party with many strikers with no controllers
2) A party with many glass cannons
3) Your players are new to D&d
4) You have a large party which already has a non-healing focused leader (a tactical Warlord, for example)
5) You don't have a defender
6) You don't know what other players will play

The 1) situation is classical: who doesn't like to play a striker? Player 1, Tim, choose the Ranger! Player 2, Josh, choose the rogue. Player 3, Mafalda, choose a monk. Player 4, Christian, who has pity on you (the designated leader player) choose a sturdy warden. You have to fulfill the following roles: a leader that is possibly ranged (because ALL characters are melee), that heals like there's no tomorrow and that possibly has an hint of control. The skirmisher warlord isn't a great healer, the bard neither, the artificer is viable but you fear TPK. So you may want easily to choose the healic.
2) A party with 2-3 fragile strikers is perfect for your skills. The classical party composed of many mobile but fragile strikers (assassin, for example, or a not too smart cha-lock) needs extra healing that only you can offer and when enemies can't attack it's difficult for them to deal damage.
3) If your fellow players are new to d&d, then it's better if you take the leader's role. Since they will probably adopt many "go and charge" strategies, a good font of healing may be needed
4) This was my case. My party was composed by 6 players, and there was an offensive leader (panther shaman). Since there was no chance to make other players MC to leader classes for extra healing, i played for the first time the healic (and i loved it)
5) If your sturdiest character is the rageblood barbarian, you may, again, want some healing to offset the extra damage random people will take
6) This is the usual LFR situation. Going defensive won't ruin other player's day and the healic is universally loved.[/sblock]

Choosing Powers
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As i already said, since your powers won't deal damage, keeping low level powers isn't automatically a bad choice. For example, you can specialize in "deleting" enemy targets, with the choice of many "can't attack" or "banish" powers like Rebuke Violence and Sacred Armistice. You can, instead, keep the low level line -def/-attack Bane-Denunciation-Iron to Glass.

We can outline three (plus one) common power lines:
1) -hit/-defense line is commonly defined by astral seal - bane - denunciation line: these are very good powers at all levels, since these scale with your charisma. You will obiouvsly keep astral seal during all your chareer. Keeping also one between bane and denunciation isn't really a bad choice. Iron to Glass, instead, doesn't cover this section.
2) "you can't attack" power line is defined by Rebuke Violence - Moment of Peace - Word of Deterrence and the general features in Messenger of Peace PP. This is a very strong all around power line, capable of deleting completely one enemy. The real strength of these powers is that you can continue to hit the target enemy, but he can't hit you back. The only real chance to live, for him, is fleeing, which is another lose-lose position (if he flees, he will be found and killed alone).
3) vulnerability power line is the last: its powers are remorse - brilliant censure and sewer the source. All good choices, all great powers. Just remember that vulnerabilities don't stack and use them carefully. Brilliant Censure isn't really a vulnerability power, since it augments damage done by players without actually debuffing enemies, but i've put it here for semplicity.
4) These are the other effects not tied to any of the lines. Powers that are strong di per se without being in combo with any other power: Moment of Glory, Consecrated Ground, and the high level power Seal of Binding, Healer's Reproof and Enforced Surrender. These are general extremely good powers that you may want to fill the lines of your power selection.

You will have 8 powers to choose: a 2/2/2/2 is a common route. However, since you are a leader, the choice is usually dependant from your party: a party composed principally by high chance of hit strikers (Avengers, Rogues, optimized Warlocks) and will-focusing controllers like Illusion Wizards and telepath Psions can use the Vulnerability power line better than a party that uses many bruisers (Battleragers, Rangers and Barbarians) who may need an help to hit.[/sblock]

Know Your Strengths
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Defenses: I didn't hide my personal preference for Messenger of Peace. One of its best features is the -2 hit aura and the +2 to all defenses when you use a non-damaging power (always). You will become a truly defensive character, capable of reaching easily 51-52 (!) "real" AC versus melee attacks at level 30, when coupled with assured healing and salubrious armor OR Vow of Nonviolence. This is defender level AC, or good avenger AC.

Total HP isn't great, standard for leaders. If you took the scale/light shield (or heavy shield) you will have 15-16 Constitution by epic tier. You will have, though, a great number of healing surge, because you will use ring of tenacious will (it was probably made for chaladins, but you are grateful for this item). This ring is rated gold: not using it will gimp your total surges, giving difficulties to your party.
 
Healing word and healer's mercy: 2/encounter, 3/encounter from 16th level, your healing word is the strongest leader healing in the game. As i already said, you may want to use it only when your target is at 25-30% hp. In epic tier you will have Supreme Healer and you will heal 2 targets with a single Word use.
From paragon tier you can take the Gambler's Word feat which enables a 4th use of healing word: it is good, and you crit quite often because you have many multiattack (aoe) powers. With Defensive Healing word and Shielding Word the target becomes unhittable for one round, even if they were nerfed (i add "nerfed to human values").
Healer's Mercy, instead, is the AOE version of Healing Word. It's good but it targets only Bloodied Allies. I used it rarely, but its real use depends from party composition. As an effect, you are weakened. You can exploit this weakening effect to use your damaging powers, if you have them immediately after healer's mercy. Check out "know your weakness" section to know more about damaging powers.

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Know your Weaknesses (and how to circumvent them)
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First of all, check out your at wills: in fact you don't have two non-damaging at wills. If you don't want to deal damage at all (maybe for fluff reasons, or whatever) you can take only astral seal. This will be addressed (hopefully) in future dragon magazines/splat books, since the healic is becoming the most iconic cleric build (even if i think that the classical radiant damage ranged cleric has very little to envy to the healic).

Your ability to give saving throws is directly dependant from the enemies hp. In fact if you don' thit with sacred flame, you won't give a save. There are many solutions for this issue: the best is mark of healing, obviously, but expecially higher level prayers will give out many saves, or the feat Merciful Power for example... and if an enemy can't attack you you can recover easily from the stunning.

Another issue is your movement: you don't have any movement granting power, and you are usually in heavy armor. This means you will probably be very slow, unless you go elf or choose to wear immediately the battlestrider greaves (which costs 13k gold, by the way).
So, you may want to spend your standard action charging a random enemy sometimes: you will charge him and bash him with your mace. Possibly don't charge a bloodied enemy. I did this maneuver sometimes, expecially against minions: it's tactically rewarding and fun, and can help flanking. At higher level you won't miss very much from losing the standard action because there are feats that let you heal as immediate interrupt (like Reactive Healing).

Tied to your movement issue there's the range issue, or positioning issue: most cleric powers will have a crappy 5 square range, and you have a bunch of burst 1-2-3 prayers. These have to be used carefully, since you don't want to stay too much in melee, but you don't want to be far from your defender. The usual choice is to stay exactly behind or adjacent to your defender. This can help him to save you when you're attacked and lowers the chance you will be shifted+charged (which is actually the bane of all defenders except swordmages and hospitalers).  This is also great because both of you can't be flanked. Obiouvsly when you face many ranged-enemies or controllers this can be counter-productive, but you have to use your brain.
Naturally you want to put as many allies as you can in your burst/blast powers: in fact all cleric powers are not only friendly-aoe but also have a positive effect for ally caught in the power's area. If you want to be a good ranged cleric you may want to try and play a wizard: as a wizard you have to avoid to catch allies in your burst/blasts. As a cleric, instead, you have to get all of them: it isn't easy but you will find the best timing to set up your encounter/daily bombs.  
 
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Sample Build
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This is a sample build i created in a little time of rest.

Aeris Gainsborough, level 30
Kalashtar, Cleric, Messenger of Peace, Saint
Shielding Cleric
Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Mace)
Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Holy Symbol)
Divinity: Arawai, Sovereign Host

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 14, Con 14, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 26, Cha 26.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 12, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 18, Cha 18.

HP 169 Surges 15 Surge Value 42

Initiative: 15+1= +19

AC 43 = 10 base +15 levels +12 titanscale armor +1 light shield + 6 enhancement (true ac 47-48 with -2 hit aura and +2 to all defenses from features and/or from Salubrous Armor)

Fortitude 43 = 10 base + 15 levels + 2 mod + 2 titanscale armor + 4 epic fortitude + 2 saint + 6 neck + 2 robust defenses (47 with -2 hit aura and +2 to all defenses from features)

Reflex 37 = 10 base + 15 levels + 1 mod + 1 light shield + 2 saint + 6 neck + 2 robust defenses (41 with -2 hit aura and +2 to all defenses from features)

Will 43 = 10 base + 15 levels + 2 class + 8 mod + 2 saint + 6 neck + 2 robust defenses (47 with -2 hit aura and +2 to all defenses from features, see bastion of mental clarity 1/encounter)

TRAINED SKILLS
Diplomacy +32 Heal +28 Insight +30 Religion +20

LANGUAGES: Common, Telepathy 5

FEATS

1 Pacifist Healer
2 Versatile expertise (Mace/Holy Symbol)
4 Superior Implement Training
6 Defensive Healing Word
8 Arawai's Abundance
10 Pacifist's Reward
11 Healer's Implement
12 Paragon Defenses (Retrained to Robust Defenses at level 21)
14 Assured Healing
16 Armor Proficiency (Scale)
18 Shield Proficiency (Light)
20 Gambler's Word
21 Divine Mastery
22 Supreme Healer
24 Glorious Channeler
26 Shared Healing
28 Beatific Healing
30 Epic Fortitude

POWERS
At wills: Astral Seal, Sacred Flame

Encounter: Denunciation, Pacify, Remorse, Healer's Reproof

Dailies: Blade Barrier, Brilliant Censure, End to strife, Enforced Surrender

Utilities: Bastion of Mental Clarity (racial), Healing Word (3x encounter), Channel Divinity (Arawai's Abundance, Healer's Mercy, Divine Fortune: 2X encounter), Return from the death's door, Stream of life, Reverent Mettle, Peacemaker Pronouncement, Astral Shield, Clarion Call of the Astral Sea, Sanctified Revival

ITEMS (expected gold= 10,000,000 GP) Spent 9.997.000
+6 mace of healing, +6 salubrous titanscale armor, +6 Accurate Symbol of Shared Healing +6 healer's brooch, Healer's shield (paragon tier), Boots of Speed, Gloves of the Healer (Epic tier), Phrenic Crown (Heroic Tier), Ring of Tenacious Will, Alliance Ring, Cord of Divine Favor, Tattoo of the Escape Artist, Solitaire (Citrine), Battle Standard of Healing, Dice of Auspicious Fortune, Silver sand (Paragon) x8, Restful Bedroll

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