New character suggestions

[StormShadows]

I am thinking of rolling up a new character and going for pure cleric. She will not be a real serious character unless some big stuff happens to her. My only IG plans for her is to get 40 cleric levels and take up Artificing. I am not going to pick anything for alignment, deity, or goals, and very little for attitude and personality. All of these will be decided by what happens to her IG.

The one thing I have for personality is that I want her to come across as an innocent, naive, helpless, little girl. If I can manage it...

Race is planned on being either a halfling or a ghostelf.
Starting Ability Scores: I have an idea of what I want her ability scores to be, but I am still looking for suggestions from everyone on them.
Alignment will be chosen by the RP, so I will just start out at dead zero and let her move whatever direction is appropriate
Religion will be decided by the RP in game (Who gets to convert her...)
I am looking for suggestions on where to spend skill points. Heal, SpellCraft, Lore, Persuade? Something else?
I have no idea what to pick up for Feats. Probably Max, Extend, and Empower Spell. Should I get a Start-Only Feat: Luck of Heroes, Silver Palm, Strong Soul, Courteous Magocracy?
What domains I should take. The ones I am considering are Animal (Polymorph Self and Cats Grace), Healing (for extra Heal casts), Knowledge (Identify), Magic (Mage Armor and StoneSkin), Travel (Haste), Trickery (Invis and Divine Trickery ability), and War (Cats Grace and WarMaster ability).

I am just looking to get a feel for what works in the game mechanics, and what direction I should be heading, so any suggestions for what to do will be appreciated

[Lance Goodman]

Frankly, I'd say don't start as a cleric. I could see making a build designed to ultimately be a cleric, but if you don't have a deity in mind, it's hard to suggest RP-relevant domains, skills, class features, etc. I could see starting as a high-level rogue or bard or fighter and, if RP dictates it, starting to train as a cleric in-game.

I don't know. Clerics just don't feel like they're set up for good "blank slate" characters to me. With the playerbase Avlis has, I think "going through the rites" would be a much more rewarding RP experience... and something that would give your PC more mileage in the long run.

[Plethora]

Avlis clerics must have a deity, or they can't cast spells about a certain level.

Also, any DM would make you choose one, for primarily, Avlis is an RP world. Clerics must have Gods.((or goddesses))

[Tel]

If you weren't planning a 40 cleric build I'd say take a few levels to figure it out but have two or three ideas in mind so your early levels fit into who you will become and not be a regret.

That being said feat wise for artificing your going to want spell focus, greater and epic to max out your DCs. You will also want to work on lore and spellcraft to boost your check to make scrolls and wands.

As of right now you chat artifice domain spells so while I would say animal, traval and trickery all have nice additional spells you could cast... make sure you chose something RP appropriate since you can't change them.

Skill points... this are a toss up on how you want to play. Appraise, persuade, intimidate, etc are all great skills but may have you feeling like you missed out if you decide to play more militant and could have used cross class tumble and discipline.

The easiest way not to have regrets, I think, is to set your of goals and plan for those while leaving flexibility for what might happen. Design a PC who hit a peak in the low twenties when things slow down, but has... a plan for how they will get better that you can roleplay their slow advancement. Don't try to rush yourself or you might get a PC who stagnates and you don't enjoy grinding up. Avoid making your critical feats in the late 30's, because you might find that 2+years is too long to wait. It might sound like a lot of forethought but I think a well designed PC will last more than one who is touch and go to his or her environment, although don't be afraid to change just know you may have to carry the baggage of your future that you abandoned with you forever.

[loki70]

Avlis clerics must have a deity, or they can't cast spells about a certain level.

Also, any DM would make you choose one, for primarily, Avlis is an RP world. Clerics must have Gods.((or goddesses))

That being said, clerics can convert, fall, etc. IIRC. I would take the racial deity to start, so Dru'El for an elf or Berryn for a halfling. Just remember to spell everything correctly.

[krackq]

There's a good chance that no matter what you pick to start with, you'll end up changing it as your character is fleshed out into the world and you figure out where he/she truly fits!

[Calzier]

Avlis clerics must have a deity, or they can't cast spells about a certain level.

Also, any DM would make you choose one, for primarily, Avlis is an RP world. Clerics must have Gods.((or goddesses))

That being said, clerics can convert, fall, etc. IIRC. I would take the racial deity to start, so Dru'El for an elf or Berryn for a halfling. Just remember to spell everything correctly.

I'd go with this - start her out as a novice, barely inducted into the ways of the faith (as a priestess), and if events take her to another god, so be it. This would also allow you to play up the naiveté and inexperience.

[loki70]

If you weren't planning a 40 cleric build I'd say take a few levels to figure it out but have two or three ideas in mind so your early levels fit into who you will become and not be a regret.

That being said feat wise for artificing your going to want spell focus, greater and epic to max out your DCs. You will also want to work on lore and spellcraft to boost your check to make scrolls and wands.

As of right now you chat artifice domain spells so while I would say animal, traval and trickery all have nice additional spells you could cast... make sure you chose something RP appropriate since you can't change them.

Skill points... this are a toss up on how you want to play. Appraise, persuade, intimidate, etc are all great skills but may have you feeling like you missed out if you decide to play more militant and could have used cross class tumble and discipline.

The easiest way not to have regrets, I think, is to set your of goals and plan for those while leaving flexibility for what might happen. Design a PC who hit a peak in the low twenties when things slow down, but has... a plan for how they will get better that you can roleplay their slow advancement. Don't try to rush yourself or you might get a PC who stagnates and you don't enjoy grinding up. Avoid making your critical feats in the late 30's, because you might find that 2+years is too long to wait. It might sound like a lot of forethought but I think a well designed PC will last more than one who is touch and go to his or her environment, although don't be afraid to change just know you may have to carry the baggage of your future that you abandoned with you forever.

On skill points, as a non-human you get 2 + int bonus. Cleric is not really a good class for working with skills and feats, because you don't get many. But there are a lot of spells that give huge bonuses to some skills, like true seeing.

[StormShadows]

Ok, here is an update.

Deity: At first glance Mishlekh seems most fitting for a happy-go-lucky character.
---Alternatively, Vorin fits for the Artificing and Alignment.
Skills
---Main focus: Lore & SpellCraft
---Secondary focus: Healing, Persuade, Concentration
Domains: Animal, Healing, Knowledge, Trickery, or War.
Feats: Courteous Magocracy and the MetaMagic Feats and see what happens from there.

[Gorgon]

I went with Senath , human and Trickery + Travel, but the rest is scary close to my plan for my latest working attempt at an alt

An FYI, but clerics (and rangers/druids) also have a version of the AMS thing, and if you can RP your way into becoming a favored cleric, you will be a happy camper (not mentioned much anywhere really, besides a few blurbs on the wiki/forum that don't say much about it).

[Gumble Tinkertumble]

Personally I don't have a problem with a level 1 cleric and no preferred deity. We are forgetting that people on Avlis do worship more than one. If you start out with none listed, then it just represents someone with lots of religious zeal that hasn't settled on a preferred deity yet. However, as was mentioned later earlier on you will HAVE to choose. You won't be able to cast spells above level 3 (I think) otherwise.

If I was an Avlis deity and I saw a cleric with no preferred God/Goddess, I would do my utmost to tempt that character to my side. I am sure all the other deities would do the same. It would be a DM's playground!

[PlasmaJohn]

If I was an Avlis deity and I saw a cleric with no preferred God/Goddess, I would do my utmost to tempt that character to my side. I am sure all the other deities would do the same. It would be a DM's playground!

As noted earlier, we allow characters to play divine casters with no deity specified or with one that you don't meet the casting criteria for with no penalty up to a certain point.

Unlike PnP (dedicated DM for a small group) we simply don't have the cycles to give everybody constant personalized attention. Chasing down "free-agent" clerics is just not something our DM's are going to do "just because". As a DM, I'd much rather interact with somebody young struggling with the precepts of a faith than try to convince somebody to convert because ultimately it's the player that needs to play the belief.

[RCon]

An FYI, but clerics (and rangers/druids) also have a version of the AMS thing, and if you can RP your way into becoming a favored cleric, you will be a happy camper (not mentioned much anywhere really, besides a few blurbs on the wiki/forum that don't say much about it).

What's that now? I don't think I've ever heard about this before.

[loki70]

An FYI, but clerics (and rangers/druids) also have a version of the AMS thing, and if you can RP your way into becoming a favored cleric, you will be a happy camper (not mentioned much anywhere really, besides a few blurbs on the wiki/forum that don't say much about it).

What's that now? I don't think I've ever heard about this before.

I'd be surprised if you had

[Calzier]

An FYI, but clerics (and rangers/druids) also have a version of the AMS thing, and if you can RP your way into becoming a favored cleric, you will be a happy camper (not mentioned much anywhere really, besides a few blurbs on the wiki/forum that don't say much about it).

What's that now? I don't think I've ever heard about this before.

I'd be surprised if you had

http://wiki.avlis.org/Magic_System#SHS_1.8_in_general
- Divine casters may be marked "favored" of their deity to increase the potency of their epic spells.

[RCon]

An FYI, but clerics (and rangers/druids) also have a version of the AMS thing, and if you can RP your way into becoming a favored cleric, you will be a happy camper (not mentioned much anywhere really, besides a few blurbs on the wiki/forum that don't say much about it).

What's that now? I don't think I've ever heard about this before.

I'd be surprised if you had

http://wiki.avlis.org/Magic_System#SHS_1.8_in_general
- Divine casters may be marked "favored" of their deity to increase the potency of their epic spells.

Pretty cool. Guessing the details of that are FOIG?